USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Biographical annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, containing genealogical records of representative families, including many of the early settlers and biographical sketches of prominent citizens, Vol. I > Part 16
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In 1879 Mr. Templeton became connected with the Thomas Potter Sons & Co.'s oil cloth works as a general utility man. He remained with this firm until 1891 and by strict attention to his duties was in 1883 made superintendent of the light weight oil cloth department. By strict economy, during the years he was with the Potter firm, he managed to save the means which en- abled him to join with other capitalists in organ-
izing the Western Linoleum Company, whose works are located at Akron, Ohio. Mr. Temple- ton was general superintendent of the company, and the inventor of the new methods which the company introduced in the manufacture of light weight oil cloths of all kinds. Patents were ap- plied for, but all were not granted, and the failure to secure them proved a benefit to manufacturers of other kinds of articles. Mr. Templeton re- mained in the company until 1896, in full charge of the works which, under his supervision, have become the most extensive and successful of the kind in the United States, or in the world.
In 1896 Mr. Templeton severed his connection with the business, and came to Norristown and opened the Keystone Oil Cloth Works, the bus- iness being incorporated in 1898, with Mr. Tem- pleton as president. The establishment did a large and very successful business until July 15, 1901, when the plant was turned over to the Standard Table Oil Cloth Company of New Jer- sey, which had absorbed ninety per cent of the production of light weight oil cloth made in America. In March, 1901, Mr. Templeton was called upon by a majority of the manufacturers in the United States to labor to bring about har- mony of interets among the producers of that line of goods. The result of this was the organ- ization of the Standard Table Oil Cloth Company of New Jersey, and the consolidation as above mentioned. At the formation of this company Mr. Templeton was elected one of the general su- perintendents. He at once made a personal in- spection of the different plants which had been consolidated. This was a work not at all to his liking but was completed satisfactorily. The company's interests in Pennsylvania are looked after by Mr. Templeton, who is now one of the board of directors. The company is doing a suc- cessful and remunerative business and ships goods not only to all parts of the United States but to all foreign countries where such goods are used.
In politics Mr. Templeton is a Republican. While in Philadelphia he took an active interest in politics, and was a worker but not an office seeker. He is a member of Shekinah Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, No. 246, of Philadel-
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phia, and also of Oriental Chapter, No. 183, R. A. M. ; Hutchinson Commandery, No. 32, Knights Templar, of Norristown. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, Red Men and the Elks.
Mr. Templeton married Miss Mary Hodgkin- son, daughter of John S. and Elizabeth (Hooley) Hodgkinson, of Philadelphia. She was born No- vember 19, 1864. Their children are Elizabeth, Sara C., Harry, Marie, Nelson G. and John S.
Mrs. Templeton is of English extraction, all her people having emigrated from Manchester, England, to this country. Her grandfather, A. Hooley, started in the silk manufacturing busi- ness, and was very successful. The firm he estab- lished is still in business, being carried on by his grandchildren. Their father was also a manu- facturer and was very successful, but died in the prime of life.
Mr. Templeton's father was John H. Temple- ton, who was a Chester county man and learned the carpenter trade in Norristown, becoming a large contractor, the firm being Raysor & Tem- pleton. He built the DeKalb street bridge and did the wood work on the courthouse, when it was erected more than a half century ago.
Mr. Templeton is a striking example of what energy and perseverance will accomplish when rightly directed. Mr. Templeton's whole life has been a magnificent success. He enjoys the con- fidence and respect of the business community, illustrating as he does the truth of the maxim, "that every man is the architect of his own for- tune."
SAMUEL N. KULP, a retired farmer of Abington township, is of German descent, al- though his ancestors came to this country more than two centuries ago. His grandfather, Isaac Kulp, was a weaver at Milestown, in what is now the Twenty-second ward of Philadelphia. He married Elizabeth Moore.
Isaac Kulp, (grandfather) and his wife Eliz- abeth had the following children : Joseph, Philip (father), Jacob, Mary Ann (Mrs. George Wentz), Hannah (Mrs. Jacob Wentz), and Eliza (Mrs. John Pierson). Philip (father) was born at Milestown, and also followed the occupation
of a weaver until he purchased a farm on which he afterwards resided, operating it very success- fully. He married Ann, danghter of John and Sallie Nice, of the vicinity of Milestown, also of an old family in that section, the former of Ger- man descent, and highly esteemed for their plain and substantial virtues. The children of Philip and Ann Kulp: Isaac and John (both de- ceased) ; Samuel N., subject of this sketch; Sarah N. (Mrs. Reuben Harper) ; Margaret H. (Mrs. Alfred Buckman) ; Maria L. (Mrs. John Hawkins) ; Eliza A. (Mrs. F. B. Thompson).
Samuel N. Kulp was born November 29, 1826, and was reared to farm life, attending a neighboring school. At the age of seventeen years he learned the trade of millwright in Ab- ington township, and was employed in that oc- cupation until he was twenty-six years of age. He married, December 16, 1852, Mary Ann, born June 12, 1828, daughter of John and Kittie Ann (Miles) Blake, of Abington township, in Montgomery county. Their children : Margaret B., born October 5, 1853, married, November 2, 1876, Samuel R. Livezey; Joseph K., born Oc- tober 27, 1855, married, November 26, 1884, Voila S. Tomlinson ; Ida Ann, born August 7, 1857, married October 30, 1877, John R. Read- ing; John B., born January 30, 1860, married, September 20, 1885, Mary E. Wiggins ; Emma L., born August 6, 1863, married, March 22, 1892, Thomas McNair; William, born January 21, 1866, married, January 25, 1893, Nellie J. Gen- try. Mr. Kulp, three years after his marriage, purchased a farm within the limits of the city of Philadelphia, on which he resided for a period of eighteen years. He then removed to his pres- ent home in the township of Abington, not far from the city line, on which he has lived since 1873. For the past ten years he has relinquished the cares of farming, leaving them to others. He was also at one time engaged in real estate operations. He is one of the oldest citizens of that section of Montgomery county, and is highly esteemed by all who know him, for his integrity and other sterling qualities. His political asso- ciations were with the Whig party, and with the Republican party since its formation in 1856.
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Samuel & Kulp
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He has, however, never held public office, al- though he might have done so, had he not been too busy with his own affairs to participate in movements of a public character. In recent years he has allied himself to the Democratic party. In religious faith he affiliates with the Baptist denomination, worshipping at the Lower Dublin church. Mr. Kulp's career is an- other exemplification of the power of honest in- dustry to aid in the realization of prosperity and win the respect and esteem of the whole com- munity. He is emphatically a selfmade man, having begun life without aid from any source except his own industry and ambition, and the faithful assistance of his dutiful wife.
CHARLES H. STINSON. The Stinsons are an old family in Montgomery county, being of Scotch-Irish descent. Hon. Robert Stinson was prominent in politics in the early part of the last century, being for many years a justice of the peace, and serving as an anti-masonic member of the legislature in 1836. He married Elizabeth Porter, daughter of Stephen Porter and niece of General Andrew Porter. The Porters were a prominent family of Norriton township, and while none of the name remain in this vicinity, many of the old families are connected with them by descent or intermarriage. Hon. Robert Stin- son (grandfather) had several children, as fol- lows: Margaret, Stephen Porter, Mary H., George W., Charles H., John E., Elizabeth, Fran- cis G., Robert Burns and Jane. All these chil- dren are now deceased except Francis G. Mary H. Stinson left a considerable sum of money to found a home for aged women which is located on Swede street, Norristown.
Charles H. Stinson (father) was born in Nor- riton township, June 28, 1825. After some time spent in the select schools and academies of that day he became a student at Dickinson College, Carlisle, graduating in the class of 1845. In 1846 he entered as a law student with his brother, George W. Stinson, and remained with him until the death of the latter in 1848. He completed his studies under Addison May, then of Norristown, but later of West Chester, and was admitted to
the bar, May 22, 1849. He entered at once upon the practice of law, taking very soon a leading rank in his profession and becoming very suc- cessful therein. During the later years of his life he was counsel for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Montgomery county, during which period the Schuylkill Valley and Trenton Cut-off branches of that line were constructed, each ex- tending through the county and each giving rise to many damage suits which were defended by Mr. Stinson with great ability and shrewdness, his son, C. Henry Stinson, and William F. Solly, then engaged in the active practice of law but now the judge of the orphans' court at Norris- town, being associated with him in the conduct of many of these cases.
Charles H. Stinson was a prominent Republi- can from the formation of the party in 1856. Hav- ing refused the nomination for state senator in 1864, he accepted it in 1867, and with Dr. Worth- ington of West Chester as his colleague, he was elected to represent the counties of Montgomery, Chester and Delaware, then forming the district. He took an active part in the work of that body in 1868, was elected speaker in 1869 and re-elected in 1870 to that position, in which he presided with that dignity and fairness which always charac- terized his bearing toward those with whom he came in contact. Having declined the appoint- ment of additional law judge of Montgomery and Bucks counties, tendered him by Governor Geary, on the death of Judge Henry C. Ross in 1882, he accepted the appointment of president judge from Governor Hoyt. In the fall of that year he was named by acclamation by his party for the posi- tion but the district being Democratic at that time, his opponent, Hon. B. Markley Boyer was elected, although Mr. Stinson ran considerably ahead of his ticket. Judge Stinson was given an oppor- tunity to exercise that philanthropic spirit which characterizes the family, in the capacity of mem- ber of the board of trustees of the Norristown Hospital for the Insane, a position which he held from the organization of the institution until his death, being its honored president from the time of the death of ex-Governor John F. Hartranft. In this position Judge Stinson was influential in
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the adoption of many improvements on the old hospital system, among them the placing of a woman at the head of the department for females in that institution, which innovation has resulted in great benefit and is being extensively imitated throughout the country. In every relation of life Judge Stinson was faithful in the discharge of duty. He died rather suddenly, March 10, 1899.
HUGH ROBERTS, a rising member of the Philadelphia bar who practiced law a dozen years or more in Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, was born in the twenty-third ward of Philadelphia, Janu- ary 8, 1868. He is of Welsh Quaker stock on his father's side, their ancestor, Edward Roberts, hav- ing come to America in 1699, when he was twelve years old. He settled first in Abington, where in 1714 he married Mary Bolton, daughter of Ed- ward and Elizabeth Bolton. In 1816 he removed to Great Swamp in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and afterward successively to Richland and Quak- ertown. Edward Roberts was a minister of the Friends' Society for forty years. He died in 1768, aged eighty-one years, and his wife in 1784, aged ninety-seven years, six months. He had a large family of children who married into prominent families of eastern Pennsylvania, thus establishing an extensive connection so that Edward Roberts became the founder of a very numerous and in- fluential line of descendants.
His son, David, who was born in 1722, and died in 1804, married in 1754, Phœbe Lancaster, daughter of Thomas and Phœbe (Wardell) Lan- caster, an eminent minister among Friends who died in 1750, while on a religious visit to the island of Barbadoes. Thomas Lancaster had eleven chil- dren, John, Phebe, Job, Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Aaron, Moses, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Thomas, and his descendants are very numerous especially in the west, including, as a matter of course, all the descendants of David and Phebe Roberts.
David and Phebe Roberts' children were : Amos, born Fourth-mo., 19, 1758, married Mar- garet Thomas, daughter of Edward and Alice, Eleventh-mo., 30, 1775 ; Mary, Elizabeth, Nathan, Jane, Abigail, Nathan, David and Ivan.
Amos Roberts (great-great-grandfather), and
Margaret, his wife, had the following children, Mordecai, Mary, Alice Matilda, Hugh, Andrew, George, Phebe, Margaret and Deborah, all na- tives of Richland except Deborah, who was born in Philadelphia county.
Hugh Roberts (great-grandfather), married Sarah Spencer, eldest daughter of Nathan and Rachel Pim Spencer, in 1806. He was a miller and lived near Branchtown, Philadelphia. Their children were as follows: Lydia died in infancy ; Caroline, born in 1809 and died in 1872, married Charles S. Rorer ; Spencer Roberts, born in 1811, died in 1885 ; Margaret, 1813-1891, married Gıd- eon Lloyd; Edmund, born in 1815, died 1866; Alfred, born in 1817, and Maria, in 1819, died in infancy ; Hugh, born Eighth-mo., 5, 1821, died Eighth-mo., 23, 1894.
Hugh Roberts (grandfather), married Alice Anna Gallagher, born Eighth-mo. 5, 1819, and died Fourth-mo. 10, 1902, in Norristown, Penn- sylvania. Their children: Charles H., born Sixth-mo. 18, 1843; Ellwood, born First-mo. 22, 1846, and married Mary L. Carter; Mary, born Tenth-mo. 25, 1847, and married Samuel Live- zey. All of them are residents of Norristown.
Charles Henry Roberts (father), was educated in common schools in the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware, where he was born, and in 1862 he be- gan teaching. After following that profession for a number of years in Pennsylvania and Da- kota, where he removed in 1877, he studied law, and has practiced that profession continuously since, in Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and other states, residing successively in Yankton, Sioux City and Kansas City, and removing in 1903 to Norristown. He married Third-mo. 20, 1865, Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Louisa (Blakey) Stradling, both of old Bucks county families. Their children : Alice Anna, born Fourth-mo. 16, 1866, followed the profession of teaching for fifteen years and accepted a position in the United States census bureau at Washing- ton in 1900; Hugh ; Samuel, born Eighth-mo. 5, 1871, has followed the occupation of a druggist and traveling salesman for a number of years; he resides in Chicago, married Third-mo., 1902, Edith Lillian Storey ; and Louisa Elizabeth, born
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September 23, 1886, graduated at the Kansas City high school, Fifth-mo. 27, 1902, with high honors.
Hugh Roberts was educated in the Friends' Schools taught.by his father at Salem, New Jersey, and elsewhere, and followed the profession of teaching in Iowa for several years. He entered his father's office as a student-at-law and was admitted to the bar in 1889, passing the best examination ever recorded up to that time in the state of Iowa. He has since practiced law contin- uously in the civil and criminal courts of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, including the supreme courts of each state. In the fall of 1901, he left Kansas City and came to Norristown, was ad- mitted to the Philadelphia bar in February, 1902, and has practiced law in the courts of that city ever since, his office being at No. 17 North Juni- per street, opposite the City Hall. He has re- ceived many encomiums from members of the bench and bar and from others for the ability he has displayed in trying cases, winning them in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles in many instances. He has also been interested in building operations and real-estate enterprises in Norris- town. During his practice in Kansas City, he achieved many successes and was recognized as a leading member of the Kansas City bar.
B. PERCY CHAIN. The Chain family was established in America by John Chain, who set- tled on the west bank of Stony Creek in what is now Norristown. On September 5, 1770, he pur- chased of Mary Norris, for fifty pounds sterling, a farm of one hundred and seventy-six acres, on which a large part of West Norristown is now situated. A portion of the property, at Main and George streets, was in the possession of his de- scendant, James MI. Chain ( unc1) and his widow until her death a few years ago. The mansion, built in 1859 by Mr. Chain, and the grounds are now owned and occupied by Ellwood Roberts. The residence of Congressman Wanger at Main and Stanbridge streets, was the original Chain homestead. John Chain married Ann, a daughter of Edward Lane and Ann Richardson, the latter a daughter of Judge Samuel Richard- son, of Philadelphia. He died September 9, 1800,
in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and lies buried at Norriton and Lower Providence Pres- byterian church cemetery.
Matthew Chain (great-grandfather ) suc- ceeded his father by will to the ownership of the farm. He died August 23, 1827, in his eightieth year. He married twice, and reared two children, one of whom, John Chain (grandfather), born December 16, 1781, lived on the homestead all his life. John Chain devoted his life to agricul- tural pursuits, and died April 9, 1829. He mar- ried October 24, 1808, Ann Evans, a sister of Benjamin Evans, one of the early eminent lawyers of the county, and a descendant of the founder of Evansburg in Lower Providence. They had a family of five children : Eleanor, who died un- married; Hannah, who married John S. McFar- land, of the Montgomery county bar: James, Mark, and Benjamin E., all now deceased.
Benjamin E. Chain (father ) was born at Nor- ristown, Pennsylvania, October 15, 1823, and was educated at Norristown Academy, Lawrenceville (New Jersey) Seminary, and Washington and Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in 1842. He read law one year with the late Gilbert Rodman Fox, of Norristown, and completed his prepara- tion for the bar under Hon. James M. Porter, of Easton. He was admitted in November, 1844, and began practice at Norristown. In 1850 he was elected district attorney, being the first to fill that office by the vote of the people under the constitution adopted in that year. He was con- nected with many noted cases, as counselor on one side or the other, and had a large practice in the orphan's court. He died March 28, 1893, in the seventieth year of his age. In politics he was a Democrat, and took an active part in political affairs, though in later life his time was monopo- lized by business. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Norristown, and was a director in it. He was vice-president and solicitor of the Montgomery Insurance Trust & Safe De- posit Company, was the first president of the Nor- ristown Gas Company, and was interested in other Norristown enterprises. During Lee's in- vasion of Pennsylvania he served in the emer-
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gency corps. He was a lifelong friend and the legal adviser of General Winfield Scott Hancock, who was frequently a guest at his home. Mr. Chain was devoted to Hancock's interests, and did considerable campaign work for the Democratic ticket during the General's candidacy for presi- dent of the United States in 1880. At General Hancock's death in 1886, Mr. Chain attended to the details of his burial at Norristown.
Mr. Chain was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and for a period of twenty-five years occupied the position of vestryman and senior warden in St. John's at Norristown. In 1845 he married Louisa Bean, of Norristown. The couple had four children. Two died in in- fancy and two survive: a daughter, Mary Ham- ilton, widow of Francis D. Farnum, who was a prominent cotton manufacturer of Norristown ; and a son, Benjamin Percy Chain, the last of the surname Chain of this branch of the family.
B. Percy Chain of the Norristown bar is the only son of Benjamin E. and Louisa B. Chain. He was born at Norristown, December 22, 1858. B. Percy Chain grew to manhood in Norristown. He graduated at Treemount Seminary and La- fayette College. He studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar of the county in 1884. He has successfully practiced his profes- sion ever since. Mr. Chain, like his father, is in- terested in business enterprises in and about Nor- ristown. He is a director in the Montgomery In- surance Trust & Safe Deposit Company.
On August 30, 1893, Mr. Chain married Miss Bessie Brooke, youngest daughter of Lewis T. Brooke, of the firm of Lewis T. Brooke & Son, real estate dealers of Philadelphia. Mr. Chain is a Democrat, although taking little part in poli- tics. He is a vestryman and the treasurer of St. John's Episcopal church, Norristown. He is also a member of the Ersine Tennis Club, of which he was an incorporator in 1892, and is the president. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Chain is at the south corner of Jacoby and Arch streets. They have these children : Adelaide B., Harriet B. and Jolin Chain.
On Benjamin E. Chain, during the latter part of his life time, and on B. Percy Chain, since the
death of his father, has devolved the custody of the tomb of General Hancock in Montgomery county, it having been erected originally under General Hancock's own supervision. On sev- eral occasions efforts have been made to have the remains of General Hancock removed to Arling- ton cemetery near Washington, but in deference to the wishes of the people of Norristown, and in accordance with the advice of Messrs. Chain. father and son, there has been no change in that respect.
GENERAL JOHN W. SCHALL, com-, mander of the First Brigade, National Guard of Pennsylvania, is one of the best-known military men of the state. He made a distinguished record in the war for the Union forty years ago, and has also participated actively in later movements, in- cluding the Spanish-American war.
General John W. Schall, who served with dis- tinction in the Civil war, and now holds the rank of brigadier general in the National Guard of Pennsylvania, is a son of Hon. David and Cath- erine (Andy) Schall. He was born June 22. 1834, in Berks county, Pennsylvania. The Schalls are descended from a prominent French Hugue- not family, who were driven from France by the religious persecutions following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Members of the family made their way to the new world about 1748, and settled in Pennsylvania, where their descendants have become numerous. Hon. George Schall, paternal grandfather of General Schall, was a resident of Berks county during the greater part of his life, and was there largely engaged in the manufacture of iron. He was a Democrat, be- came prominent in politics, served in various of- ficial positions, and was a member of the state senate at the time of his death in 1831. He mar- ried Miss Catherine Oyster and reared a family of eight children, one of whom was Hon. David Schall (father), who was born at Oley, May 25, 1801.
David Schall received a superior education, and succeeding to his father's interests, became a wealthy iron manufacturer, and maintained his connection with that important industry all his
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life. He was honored by his party with election to the office of associate judge of Berks county, which position he held for two terms. He was connected with the local militia, serving as major of his battalion. In religion he was a member of the Reformed church, with which he was officially connected for many years. He died at Dale, Berks county, January 22, 1877, at the age of seventy-six years, and his remains rest in the cemetery adjoining his church at that place. He married Catherine Andy, a native of Berks county, and a daughter of Jacob Andy. They had a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, all of whom grew to maturity and be- came active and useful citizens.
General John W. Schall was reared in Berks county and educated in private schools at Trappe and Norristown, after which he pursued an ex- tended course of advanced study in the military academy at Norwich, Vermont. After graduating he was connected for several years with an en- gineering corps under John C. Trautwine, and later engaged in the dry goods business at York, Pennsylvania, where he subsequently became a member and first lieutenant of the York Rifles, a military organization. Immediately upon the call of President Lincoln for volunteers in 1861, the York Rifles proffered their services in a body, and were one of the first companies to enter the service fully armed and equipped. For this promptness in time of danger they were after- wards awarded medals by the state. They were commanded by Captain George Hay and were mustered into service April 19, 1861, as Company K, Second Pennsylvania Infantry, only four days after the President's proclamation had been signed, and just one week after the first gun was fired on Fort Sumter.
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