This hand-carved Civil War soldier and his faithful dog stands guard at a house on Taxville Road in West Manchester Township in central York County, Pennsylvania. The pair of statues were carved in oak, and replaced an earlier set of statues that had been carved from an old tree that once stood in the yard.
The old farmhouse in 1863 was the Dr. Jacob Eisenhart house. He was related to Dr. Adam Eisenhart, whose Manchester Township farmhouse, raided by Rebel cavalrymen from Virginia, now serves as the offices of the church Debi and I attend, the Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene.
Dr. Jacob Eisenhart, according to oral tradition that is recorded in the History of West Manchester Township, treated sick and injured Confederate soldiers in his office, which was located in his house. As Taxville Road was quite open in 1863, his farm could have been seen from the major roads, and the house appears on period maps. He was one of the few doctors listed in the township on the maps of the day, so it is indeed quite plausible that Rebels sought him to treat their ill comrades.
Eisenhart was elected as an elder of St. Paul's Church in 1873. He was a prominent member of the community and raised a large family. Some of his descendants still live in York County.
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