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 34

Author: Roberts, Ellwood, 1846- ed
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : T. S. Benham
Number of Pages: 826


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 34


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Mrs. Fegely's father, who is deceased, was a glassblower by trade, and later worked in the rolling mills as roller for many years. His wife, who is a native of Montgomery county, is still living in Pottstown. The couple had four chil- dren, all of whom are living: John, Jane, Daniel and Lillie (Mrs. Fegely). Jane is the wife of Daniel Weidensaul.


JOHN MITCHELL VANDERSLICE, of Collegeville soldier, author and lawyer, was born in 1846, and spent his early life upon a farm ad- joining Valley Forge Campground. He was edu- cated at Freeland Seminary, now Ursinus College, at Collegeville.


Before he had reached the age of seventeen years he enlisted in the service of his country


during the Rebellion, becoming a member of the famous Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry, a regi- ment which was at one time commanded by Colonel (afterwards General) D. McM. Gregg, and was thoroughly disciplined by that officer. Mr. Vanderslice served with this gallant regi- ment until the close of the war, when he returned to Freeland Seminary to review his studies, re- maining there until 1866. He then entered the office of Theodore Cuyler, Esq., at that time one of the foremost lawyers of the city of Philadel- phia. After three years of study he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1869, since which time he has been in constant, active and successful practice, having been engaged in many important cases. He was at one time counsel for the Bal- timore & Ohio Railroad Company, which posi- tion he resigned in order to be able to give more attention to his other clients. His practice has been mostly in the civil courts, although he has tried two murder cases, being successful in both of them.


As a youthful soldier, John M. Vanderslice won special mention from his superiors on several occasions. He was awarded a congressional medal for distinguished gallantry at the battle of Hatcher's Run, in February, 1864. At the time of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Grant at Appomattox, he was a prisoner of war with the Confederate army, having been captured in a sabre charge under General Gregg, at Farmville, two days previously, after having his horse killed, the third one during a week. Mr. Vanderslice has been for many years. secre- tary of the Survivors' Association of the Eighth Cavalry, by the members of which organization he is held in the highest esteem. He was one of the early members of Post No. 2, Grand Army of the Republic, of Philadelphia, and was for sev- eral years its adjutant. He served for six years as assistant adjutant-general of Pennsylvania, and was one year department commander. Dur- ing these seven years, owing to the organizing and executive ability of Mr. Vanderslice, the membership of the Grand Army in Pennsylvania was increased from 4.500 to 25,000. In 1883 he was appointed adjutant-general of the organiza-


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tion, during which year the total membership was increased a hundred thousand. He was for three years editor of the Grand Army Scout and Mail, and was also one of the commissioners ap- pointed to organize the Soldiers' Home at Erie, Pennsylvania. He was for seventeen years one of the executive committee of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Commission, and he in- augurated the movement for state appropria- tions to erect monuments to mark the positions of the various regiments during that memorable conflict. He was secretary of the committee upon inscriptions, and his familiarity with the official reports and the studious attention which he gave to all the details of the work, caused him to be known as one of the best informed men as to the battle. When the Memorial Association trans- ferred the battlefield of Gettysburg to the United States authority, Mr. Vanderslice was upon mo- tion of General Daniel E. Sickles selected to write a history of the Association, and of the battle. This work was distributed by the Association among the several state libraries, and many thou- sand copies were afterwards published and sold by the author. It is the recognized authority upon the history of that great conflict.


Mr. Vanderslice has always been an ardent Republican in politics, and is considered an elo- quent and forcible speaker, having made speeches in several states during national campaigns. He served for six years as a member of Philadelphia Councils, and, although bitterly opposed because of his independence, he has always been elected by increased majorities, receiving the votes of his fellow citizens without regard to their poli- tics. He successfully advocated many improve- ments for the city, it being through his de- termined efforts that asphalt pavement, now so general in the city, was introduced, and improve- ments made in the water and other departments.


In religious faith Mr. Vanderslice is a Bap- tist. He is a member of Grace church, Philadel- phia, Rev. Russell H. Conwell, pastor. Mr. Vanderslice frequently delivers lectures before lit- crary and other societies. He is a past depart- ment commander of the Grand Army of the Re- public, a past master workman of the Ancient


Order of United Workmen, and past regent of the Royal Arcanum.


Mr. Vanderslice married, in 1870, Caroline Cecilia Hamer, daughter of Dr. James Hamer, now deceased, of Collegeville. She is a gradu- ate of Pennsylvania Female College, of which the late Dr. J. W. Sunderland was president. She is not only a fine classical scholar, but an ac- complished musician. Her father's people were among the Welsh Quakers who settled that sec- tioin of Montgomery county at an early date. Her grandfather and father were well known physicians in Montgomery county, and her brother is also a physician, practicing in College- ville. Her mother's family, the Downings, were direct descendants of Cotton Mather. The chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Vanderslice are: Miriam, Stanley, Ethel and Edith, all deceased, and Clarence and Mabel, living. Clarence is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1898. He enlisted a few days afterward as a private soldier in the Spanish war, in the Sixth Pennsylvania Regi- ment, the services of which were confined to drill and discipline. He married Florence Live- zey, of an old Pennsylvania colonial family, her ancestor, Jonathan Livezey, having come from England to the province in the time of William Penn. Miss Mabel is an accomplished musician, having had instruction at the Philadelphia Musi- cal Conservatory, and afterwards by Professor Henry Gordon Thunder. It is worthy of note that the Vanderslice family has been represented by some of its members in every war in which the country has been engaged, from the time of the Colonial Indian wars to the late Spanish- American war.


The Vanderslices are one of the oldest fam- ilies in Pennsylvania. Reynier van Der Sluys came from Harlingen, North Friesland. Hol- land, and settled in Germantown, in Philadelphia county, Pennslyvania, about 1700. He and his son Adrien were made citizens September 29, 1709, along with Daniel Pastorius, Dirk Key- ser, and several other aliens. Their petition for citizenship was pending for several years. Rey- nier Van Der Sluys died in Germantown in 1713.


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His will, witnessed by John Cadwallader, his at- torney, and Daniel Sprogel, is on record in Phil- adelphia in the register of wills' office. His wife Anna, also a native of Harlingen, survived him some years and died in Cermantown. Reynier and Anna Van Der Sluys had six children, Ad- rien (Arnold), Henry, John, Anthony, Anna and Elencha. The third son, John, bought a tract of land from John Ruloff Vanderwerf on the Skippack Creek, in Worcester township, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county. The deed was dated May 13, 1726, and recorded in deed book 2 F, page 258, at Philadelphia. John Van Der Sluys died in 1742. He and his wife Frances had five children, Anna, Mary, Reynier, Jacob and John. The will of Frances is on rec- ord in Philadelphia. The vendue bill of the property of John's estate is in the possession of Governor Pennypacker.


The second son of John and Frances Van Der Sluys, Jacob, born in 1731, married Ann Francis. Jacob took title by patent recorded in Philadel- phia, in patent book A, volume II, page 189, to a tract of land upon the west bank of the Perkio- men, on the road from Shannonville (now An- dubon) to Phoenixville. This land is now a part of. the Gumbes estate. Jacob Vanderslice was a school trustee in 1768 and for many years after- wards, of Providence township, then Philadel- phia, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He died in 1793. leaving four children : John, Catherine, Debbie, and Thomas.


Thomas Vanderslice, born in 1736, served as a trooper during the Revolutionary war, and aft- erwards lived at the old homestead, dying there. It is still standing at the entrance to the Gumbes property. He married Tacy, daughter of Cap- tain Joseph Richardson, a great-grandson of Samuel Richardson, who came from Jamaica, in 1684, and was a judge and also a member of the colonial council. Tacy Richardson's great- grandmother was a daughter of Judge John Dean and Catharine Aubrey, born in 1637. Thomas and Tacy Vanderslice had nine children, as fol- lows : Edward, Anne, John, Thomas, Marcus, Augustus, Mary, Jacob, and Joseph. All but two of these, with their parents, are buried in the


graveyard of Lower Providence Presbyterian church at Mount Kirk.


Edward Vanderslice (grandfather) married Elizabeth Pawling, daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca (Lane) Pawling. Benjamin Pawling's father, Joseph, was the son of John and Ephia (DeWitt) Pawling. Jolin Pawling owned two grist mills and a large tract of land upon both sides of the Perkiomen, near Schwenksville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, including Pennypacker's Mill, and what is now the home of Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker. John Pawling died in 1733, and his will is recorded in Philadelphia, in book E, page 243. He was buried in Pawling's private burying ground ou the farm near Gratersford, now owned by Enos Schwenk. He and his brother Henry, who in 1713 settled at Pawling's Bridge, near the junc- tion of the Perkiomen and the Schuylkill river, were the sons of Henry Pawling, an English of- ficer who resigned his commission and, having married Neetje Roosa, settled at Esopus, New York, and afterwards served in the colonial service. He was the sheriff of Ulster county, New York.


Rebecca (Lane) Pawling, wife of Benjamin Pawling. was the daughter of Samuel Lane. Samuel Lane's father was William, and Wil- liam's father was Edward Lane, who came from Jamaica in 1684 and took up several thousand acres of land on both sides of the Perkiomen from the Skippack creek to the present German- town turnpike, enbracing the present site of Ev- ansburg and Collegeville. The Lanes and Pawl- ings are buried in the churchyard of St. James Episcopal church at Evansburg, of which their families were the founders, and which was par- tially endowed by the Lanes.


Edward and Elizabeth Vanderslice had six children,-Benjamin Pawling, Tacy, Rebecca, Marcus LaFayette, John Van Rensselaer and Samuel Lane.


Marcus Vanderslice (father) was born on the Pickering creek, near Kimberton, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1813. He mar- ried Margaret Mitchell, and had nine children, as follows: Ellen, Thaddeus Lawrence, Ann,


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MONTGOMERY COUNTY.


John Mitchell, subject of this sketch; Theodore Pennypacker, Louisa, Elizabeth, Gertrude and Arabella. He was among those who early and strenuously advocated improved educational fa- cilities in the public schools. He was in his youth an organizer of the Sons of Temperance in Phoenixville, and was an earnest and zealous member of the Abolition Society, aiding in as- sisting many escaped slaves along what was known as the "Underground Railroad" to free- dom. He was in his early life a farmer, but afterwards engaged in business in Philadelphia, where he died in 1876. During Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania he served two months with the emergency troops, although he was then fifty years of age, and his two eldest sons were in the Uinted States service. Margaret Mitchell was the daughter of John and Margaret (Dennison) Mitchell, who came with other Irish Protestants from county Donegal, Ireland, and settled in Chester county in 1790. They are buried in East Vincent Baptist churchyard, in Chester county. Margaret (Mitchell) Vanderslice was from an early age a very active Baptist, aiding in the establishment of three Baptist churches, one of them being the Grace Baptist Temple, Philadel- phia. She died in 1896, aged eighty-one years.


GEORGE BAUER, of 356 South street, Pottstown, was born in Wittenberg, Germany, December 19, 1830, his parents being Johan V. and Rosina (Limbach) Bauer, both natives of Germany. George Bauer was one of five children, four sons and one daughter, all now deceased ex- cept himself.


Johan V. Bauer (father) was a weaver and a farmer in Germany, and died there at the age of seventy-eight years. His wife came to America at the advanced age of eighty-five years and lived with her son, George, until her death, November 12, 1889, at the age of ninety-three years. Both were members of the Lutheran church. Even in her extreme old age Mrs. Baur could read fine print without the aid of glasses, which she never used for any purpose.


The grandfather, John Bauer, was also a weaver and was born and died in Germany. The


maternal grandfather was a farmer in Germany, where he died.


George Bauer was reared in Germany on his father's farm and received a good common-school education. In accordance with the law in Ger- many he served two years in the regular army and in 1857 came to America. He lived in Phila- delphia for more than ten years. He and his brother-in-law, Leonard Schurg, then opened a bakery in Pottstown, the partnership continuing for three years when it was dissolved and Mr. Bauer bought the bakery at No. 267 High street. He remained with this establishment, conducting the business very successfully for sixteen years, since which time he has lived retired at his present home.


August 5, 1859, George Bauer married Miss Barbara Schurg, daughter of John and Clara (Horning) Schurg. They had no children. Mrs. Bauer died at noon, on Friday, July 24, 1896, at the age of sixty-seven years, two months and twenty days. She was a member of Emmanuel Lutheran church of Pottstown, of which Mr. Bauer is also a member, and in which he served as an elder for six years. Politically Mr. Bauer is a Democrat.


George Bauer is the only one remaining to rep- resent the family name in this country. He be- gan life as a poor boy and by hard work and econ- omy, combined with good business management, he has accumulated a competency for old age. He is one of Pottstown's honored citizens and is held in high esteem for his correct life and good quali- ties of head and heart.


HENRY POTTS LEAF, of the firm of Metz & Leaf, dealers in coal, lime, sand and feed, at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was born April 15, 1835, in the borough in which he now resides. He is the only child of William and Mary Ann (Lightcap) Leaf, both natives of Montgomery county.


William Leaf (father) was a miller in early life and later had charge and was part owner of an omnibus line on Fifth street, in Philadelphia. He followed this latter occupation for many years. He sold out this business to the first city pass-


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enger railroad company, of Philadelphia and be- came its superintendent. After some years he went to Washington as superintendent of the Georgetown and Washington Railroad. He was afterward superintendent of the Union Line, Phil- adelphia. He left Philadelphia to accept a posi- tion in Newark, New Jersey. He had charge of the Orange & Newark Railway, of the Pennsyl- vania System, for many years, or until within a few years of his death, when he retired to a farm two miles west of Pottstown. He removed to that farm in 1876, and died there at the age of seventy-one years. His wife died one year prev- ious to his death, at the age of seventy-three years.


George Leaf (grandfather) was a native of Montgomery county. He was a general mer- chant and owned property in the county. Both he and his wife, whose maiden name was Leonard, died in the prime of life, leaving a family of ten children. The children were reared and cared for by their aunt, Anna Leonard, whose parents were Quakers.


John Lightcap (maternal grandfather) was also born in Montgomery county. His wife was Sarah Lightcap and they had several children. He died when he was about seventy years of age.


Henry P. Leaf was two years and six months old when his parents removed to Indiana. They resided six miles west of Indianapolis until Henry was ten years of age, when they removed to Phil- adelphia. As the family lived in that city for several years, until 1859, Henry P. Leaf received the greater part of his schooling there, attending the Hancock grammar school. He learned the art of wood engraving and followed that occupation for several years.


In 1859 he took up his residence on a farm two miles west of Pottstown and remained on that place for thirty-one years. In 1890 he went to Pottstown and lived retired for a few years. Since 1894 he has been engaged in the coal, lime and feed business in partnership with Samuel Metz, the firm name being Metz & Leaf. He is a stock- holder in the Citizens' Bank of Pottstown, and also in the Glasgow Iron Works.


In February, 1858, Henry Potts Leaf married Miss Esther A. Weber, daughter of William H.


and Ann (Bean) Weber. They had five children : Mary, who died at the age of three years ; Annie, who died at the age of eight years; William; Sarah W .; and Leonard. William Leaf is em- ployed in the machine department of the Stetson Hat Works in Philadelphia. He married Annie Kerlin. They have two children living: Esther and Ruth. Sarah W. resides at home and Leon- ard is a clerk in the Pottstown National Bank.


Mr. and Mrs. Leaf are members of the Pres- byterian church. Mr. Leaf is an elder in the church and has been for a number of years. He is also a church trustee. During the Civil war he enlisted at the emergency call and went to Cham- bersburg. He saw no active service. In politics Mr. Leaf is a Republican. He resides at No. 171 Hanover street.


REV. IRWIN BISHOP KURTZ, pastor of the Emmanuel Lutheran church of Pottstown, was born in East Greenville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, July 19, 1867. He is the son of Augustus E. and Elizabeth (Bishop) Kurtz, both natives of Montgomery county. Augustus E. and Elizabeth Kurtz had eight children, five of whom are living: Rev. Irwin B .; Calvin B., of East Greenville ; Lillian E., wife of Charles Dim- mig, of East Greenville; Alvin, of East Green- ville; and Melvin, who entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Mt. Airy, from which he expects to graduate in 1906.


Augustus E. Kurtz was a tinsmith by trade and followed this occuupation all his life. He was the first burgess of East Greenville. He died in April, 1901, aged sixty-five years, and his wife survives him. In religious faith they were Lutherans. Augustus Kurtz was succeeded in business by his son Calvin, who still carries it on.'


Michael Kurtz (grandfather) was born in Falkner's Swamp, New Hanover township, Mont- gomery county, and was a farmer. He died at the age of seventy-five years.


Michael Kurtz (great-grandfather) was born in Germany and became a resident of Falkner's Swamp, Montgomery county, where he died.


William Bishop (maternal grandfather) was a native of Montgomery county and died there at


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the age of thirty-five years. He was a farmer. He married Mary Samsel and they had two chil- dren, a daughter and a son.


Rev. Irwin B. Kurtz has lived all of his life in Montgomery county. He attended the public schools of East Greenville, the Perkiomen Sem- inary, the West Chester State Normal School, the Keystone State Normal School, of Kutztown, and Muhlenberg College, from which he was graduated in 1890 as valedictorian of his class, which was the largest class graduated from the institution up to that time. He afterward engaged in teaching for some time and then entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mount Airy, Philadelphia, graduating in 1893.


He was immediately called to be assistant pas- tor to the late Rev. Daniel K. Kepner, pastor of Emmanuel church, and after being in that posi- tion two years he was called, in 1895, to the Au- gustus Lutheran church at Trappe as pastor. He served that congregation more than two years, and at the death of Rev. Daniel K. Kepner, in May, 1897, he was called to succeed him as pas- tor of Emmanuel church in Pottstown, where he has since remained. The church at present has a membership of more than sixteen hundred per- sons.


October 9, 1894, Rev. Irwin B. Kurtz married Miss Mary E. Faust, of Allentown, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, daughter of J. Tihlman and Ellen (Druckenmiller) Faust, the former now deceased. They have had three children : Luther Augustus, who was born and died at Trappe; Irwin Faust Kurtz; and Ellen Elizabeth Kurtz.


Rev. Mr. Kurtz is a member of the Royal Ar- canum and also the Alpha Tau Omega, a college fraternity. Politically he is a Democrat. Mrs. Kurtz is a descendant of the Jaegers, who were noted theologians in the Lutheran church, both in Germany and America. Rev. Mr. Kurtz preaches in both the German and the English languages, alternating the two.


GEORGE C. HOLLENBACH, of 428 High street, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was born in Lower Pottsgrove township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1849. He is the son


of Bernard and Margaret (Saylor) Hollenbach, natives of Wittenberg, Germany. Bernard came to America at the age of eighteen years and his wife at the age of four years. They had one child, George C. Hollenbach.


Bernard Hollenbach ( father) was a machinist and an engineer on the Reading Railroad. He was fatally injured by the explosion of a boiler and died about six months later, in 1851, at the age of twenty-seven years, nine months, and some days. His wife is still living. She married (second husband) John G. Miller and they now reside in Pottstown, having recently moved from their farm in Lower Pottsgrove. John G. Miller and Mar- garet Saylor Miller had three children : Catharine, wife of John S. Umstead, of Pottstown; Eliza- beth, deceased ; and Rosa, wife of John Benner, of Kansas. Bernard Hollenbach was a Lutheran and his wife belonged to the same church. She afterwards united with the Methodist church. She died December 31, 1903.


The paternal grandfather of George C. Hol- lenbach died in Germany, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. He had two sons, Bernard and George. The latter was drowned at sea in 1861.


The maternal grandfather of George C. Hol- lenbach was George Conrad Saylor. He was born in Wittenberg, Germany, and came to America with his family, locating in Pottsgrove township where he engaged in farming. He resided in the same place until six months before his death when he went to live at the home of his son, John, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he died at the age of sixty-six years. His wife was Catha- rine (Scholl) Saylor, a native of Germany. She died in Pottsgrove township and was more than seventy years of age at the time of her death. They had three children. George Conrad Saylor was a soldier in Germany.


George Hollenbach was reared in Pottsgrove township and had charge of sheep from the time he was nine years old until he was thirteen years of age. He then worked four years on the canal and at boating for the United States government for three more years. He returned to his home and worked in a paper mill several months, and


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then on the telegraph line for two years and also followed various occupations. He lived in Sana- toga from 1872 to 1900 and was postmaster there for eighteen years. He also engaged in the gen- eral merchandise business in 1876, bought and sold horses, and fattened horses on the farm. In 1890 he leased the Mill Park Hotel farm and stock-yard and lived there until 1893, when he re- tired and moved to his present hime. He owns property in Pottstown and in Pottsgrove town- ship.


Mr. Hollenbach is a director in the Citizens' Bank, and a director in the State Mine in North- hampton county. He is also interested in and a director of the copper mines at Ringing Rocks, two miles from the center of Pottstown, where a syndicate has control of seventy acres of rich cop- per mines.


George C. Hollenbach was superintendent and general manager of the Ringing Rocks Rail- way Company. He is still interested in farming, owning two farms in Lower Pottsgrove township, one of thirty-seven acres and one of forty acres,. he superintending the conduct of the same. He is the owner of nine separate residences properties in Pottstown ; two in Sanatoga ; also a small farm of five acres at Sanatoga; and a farm of forty- five acres in Upper Pottsgrove township. He was one of the organizers of the United States Graph- ite Company, of which he is a director.




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