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 4
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Mr. Hobson was married, October 8, 1856, to Miss Lizzie Gotwals, a daughter of Jacob and Esther (Vanderslice) Gotwals, and a sister of Jacob V. Gotwals, a leading lawyer of Potts- town. Of this marriage two children were born : Freeland G. and Mary Matilda. The latter be- came the wife of the Rev. O. P. Smith, D. D., who was for fifteen years pastor of the old his- toric Trappe Lutheran church, and is now pas- tor of the'Lutheran church of the Transfigura- tion of Pottstown.
Lizzie Gotwals was descended from a num- ber of lines prominent in Montgomery county. She was a descendant of Reynier VanDerSluys (Vanderslice). She came to Philadelphia from Friesland, Holland, and settled in Germantown prior to 1739. The son of Reynier VanDerSluys was Anthony, who married Martha Pennepacker, a daughter of Hendrick Pennepacker, a man of great influence in the early colony, who was born in 1674 at Flombon, married in 1699 to Eva Um-
stead and died 1754. Governor Pennypacker of Pennsylvania is descended from this same ancestor, and has published an interesting book concerning his life and times. Through Eva Umstead, this line runs into the large Umstead families.
John Vanderslice, a son of Anthony, mar- ried Elizabeth Custer. Their son was named Anthony, who married Sarah Hunsicker, a daughter of Bishop Heinrich Hunsicker of the Mennonite church. Heinrich Hunsicker was the son of Valentine Hunsicker, born in 1700, and died in 1771, who married Elizabeth Kolb, born in 1716, who was the daughter of Jacob Kolb, born in 1685, and of Sarah VanSintern, who was the daughter of Isaac VanSintern, born in 1660, who was married in Amsterdam to Neeltjee Classen, and who came to America in 1687 with his four daughters.
The daughter of Anthony and Sarah (Hun- sicker) Vanderslice was Esther, who was born December 5, 1810, and died September 3, 1898. She married Jacob Gotwals, and they became the parents of Lizzie Gotwals (Hobson), mother of the subject of this sketch. The mother of Jacob Gotwals was Elizabeth Funk, who was the daughter of Christian Funk and Barbara Cassel, who were married in 1757. Christian Funk was a Mennonite bishop, living in Franconia town- ship. In 1776 at a township meeting he opposed Pennsylvania throwing off allegiance to the king, but after the establishment of independence, while the Mennonites still refused allegiance, Christian Funk advised his brethren to pay their taxes to congress, for which offense he was in 1778 suspended from his church. Afterwards he published a pamphlet, having very wide cir- culation, entitled A Mirror for All Mankind. Christian Funk was the son of Heinrich Funk and Anna Moyer. Barbara Cassel was a daugh- ter of Yellis Cassel, who came to America on the ship Friendship, October 16, 1727, and set- tled in Skippack township. He was a Men- nonite preacher at Skippack for many years.
Freeland G. Hobson, eldest child and only son of Frank M. and Lizzie (Gotwals) Hobson, was born October 13. 1857, in Collegeville,
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Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He began his education in the public schools of Upper Pro- vidence, and completed a full course at Ursinus College, graduating in 1876. He entered the office of his uncle, Jacob V. Gotwals, then Dis- trict Attorney, as a student at law, and was ad- mitted to the bar October 1, 1880. He opened an office in Norristown, and soon acquired a lucrative practice. One of his cases was a ver- itable causa celebre, and excited great and gen- eral interest. Antonio Frederico, in 1890, killed a fellow Italian at Conshohocken. He fled but was captured at San Francisco and brought to trial under an indictment for murder. Mr. Hob- son defended him in a trial lasting for a week, which resulted in acquittal, and Mr. Hobson re- ceived many congratulations for the ability he had displayed in his defense, which was founded upon the theory that there was an inter lack of motive in the shooting, and that the killing was accidental.
Mr. Hobson is actively interested in numer- ous financial and commercial companies which engage much of his attention. In September, 1888, with others, he organized the Norristown Trust Company, of which he was made secretary, treasurer and trust officer, positions which he has held to the present time. This corporation, of which he has been the executive head from its founding, has rapidly grown in public favor, and is now the largest and most flourishing financial institution in the county, with assets under its control of over four million dollars. His popu- larity amongst his fellow bankers is best attested by his recent unanimous election as president of Group 2, Pennsylvania Bankers' Association, comprising the banks and trust companies of Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Berks and Schuylkill counties. He is a director of the United Telephone Company, with lines extend- ing all over eastern Pennsylvania; is a director of the Montgomery County Gas Company, a corporation furnishing gas to Norristown ; a di- rector of the Rambo & Regar Company, one of the most successful hosiery manufacturing cor- porations in the Schuylkill valley; president of the Perfect Light Company of Pennsylvania,
and interested in the same; and treasurer of the Iberia Lumber Company, a very successful Montgomery county corporation, operating in the state of Louisiana; secretary of Riverside Cemetery Company, as well as of the Montgom- ery Cemetery Company ; treasurer of Hamilton Apartment Company ; and director in numerous other corporations.
Mr. Hobson is a member of Trinity Reformed church of Collegeville, in which he has been an elder for ten years. Active in church work, he has been a delegate to the classes, synods, and general synod of the Reformed church in the United States, and in all of these bodies he has taken a very active part and on several occasions he has argued important appeals before them. At the general synod in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1902, he was elected vice president of the body and presided at many of the sessions, an honor never before conferred upon a layman, and his prompt dis- patch of business gained him very general com- mendation. He has also served as secretary and treasurer of the Montgomery county Sunday- school Association and as president of the Schuylkill Valley Union of Christian Endeavor, and he has appeared upon the programs at two International Christian Endeavor conventions, one at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1894, and at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1895.
Mr. Hobson has ever been deeply interested in education. For six years he served most use- fully and acceptably as president and director in the Collegeville school board. His principal ef- fort, however, has been to advance the interests of Ursinus College, from the days of his leav- ing it as a graduate in 1876, and since then he has ever lived under its shadow. For many years he served as secretary and treasurer of the Alumni Association, and when ten years ago that body was invited to elect directors from its own numbers, he was the first alumnus so chosen and in 1903 he was elected for the third five-year term. When his father resigned the two-fold position of secretary and treasurer, in 1900, Mr. Hobson was elected treasurer, a position which he yet occupies. He is a member of the execu-
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tive committee and chairman of the finance com- mittee, and he is in constant request for addresses before the students on anniversary and various other occasions. Mr. Hobson is otherwise in- dustrious in the field of literature. He is the founder and editor of Montgomery County Law Reporter a weekly legal periodical now in its twentieth volume, which reports all the de- cisions of the Montgomery county courts. He is author of the History of Providence Town- ship and a contributor to Bean's History of Mont- gomery County, writing much of the township work. In 1884, when the centennial of Mont- gomery county was celebrated, he acted as chair- man of the executive committee of the Montgom- ery County Historical Society, of which he is a charter and a valuable member, and it was in no small degree owing to his energy that the event proved so decided a success. He was also edi- tor-in-chief of a beautiful and well written com- memorative volume.
An ardent American, Mr. Hobson is a prom- inent leader in the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America, holding membership with Camp No. 267, at Ironbridge. In August, 1893, he was elected state president at the state convention held in Chester. At the conclusion of his term of office, at Erie, Pennsylvania, he was made the recipient of a handsome cane fashioned from a piece of the hull of the old flagship "Lawrence" the presentation being made by Hon. John F. Dowling, mayor of Erie.
Mr. Hobson is also a prominent member of the Valley Forge Memorial Association, and since 1886 he has been the treasurer and chair- man of its executive committee. He is a Repub- lican in politics, an earnest supporter of the prin- ciples of his party, but he has never sought po- litical preferment. He was one of the three or- ganizers of the Riverside Cemetery Company, a beautiful lawn cemetery, and has been secretary of the corporation from its founding.
Mr. Hobson married, September 15, 1880, Miss Ella M. Hendricks, daughter of the Rev. Joseph H. Hendricks, D. D., and Kate Hen- dricks. Three children have been born of this union : Frank H., a graduate of Ursinus College,
class of 1903, and at present pursuing his law studies in the University of Pennsylvania; Anna. M., a sophomore at Ursinus College; and Cath- erine, who is attending Ursinus Academy. Dur- ing the summer of 1903 Mr. Hobson, with his wife and three children, made an extended voy- age abroad, visiting the principal cities of Great Britian and the continent.
REUBEN F. HOFFECKER was born in North Coventry township, Chester county, Penn- sylvania, near Pottstown, on October 20, 1833. His earlier education was acquired in the com- mon schools of his native township. Afterwards he attended Oakdale Seminary at Pughtown, Chester county, and also Washington Hall Col- legiate Institute at Trappe, Montgomery county. His career as a teacher was begun in the very house which he had attended as a child near his home in Chester county, on December 5, 1851, when he was just past eighteen years of age. He continued to teach in his native county until 1861, when he came into Montgomery county and took charge of the public school at Port Kennedy, where he remained until 1864. In this year he was elected to the principalship of the Con- shohocken schools, and it was at about this time that the picture was taken from which the ac- companying engraving was made. He was then in robust health, strong, energetic and a tireless worker. His work in Conshohocken was inter- esting to him and enlisted his most energetic efforts. Many of his pupils of those days be- came honorable men and women, achieving dis- tinction in the skilled and learned professions.
He continued as principal at Conshohocken until May, 1878, when he was elected superin- tendent of the schools of Montgomery county by a vote of 177 to 18. This office he held con- tinuously until overtaken by death on December 18, 1903, being re-elected the eighth time. He was in the middle of his ninth term, and in the midst of an earnest effort to get township high schools in many more districts, when, after an illness of but nine days, he passed quietly to rest. With an unabated vigor, an unflagging determ- ination, and a spirit that acknowledged no de-
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
feat, he strove to promote school interests dur- ing all the twenty-six years of his superintend- . ency. The best estimate of his life and labors is probably that of Superintendent Charles A. Wag- ner, of Cheltenham township, who for a number of years was closely and intimately associated with Superintendent Hoffecker in the adminis- tration of the school interests of the county. Writing for the public prints Superintendent Charles A. Wagner, of Cheltenham, said: "For nearly twenty-six years Rueben F. Hoffecker discharged the duties of the office of county su- perintendent of schools of Montgomery county. He spared himself no time, avoided no exposure, shunned no labor in the performance of his of- ficial duties. He was always prompt and punctual. He kept every engagement. He was fearlessly honest and always tried to be fair and just. Many school improvements had at first only his force and influence to push them on. Longer terms, better salaries, graded courses, graduation of pupils, school libraries, free text- books and supplies,-these and other advances are universal at his death, though not one was in existence at the commencement of his service. Others helped to accomplish these results, but through wise and inspiring leadership he blazed and led the way.
"He was a clear and logical thinker and a very forceful speaker. He was not eloquent. He had rather a convincing and convicting earn- estness. His standard of scholarship for teachı- ers and pupils aimed at absolute accuracy. A wrong date was an irritation to him, and he sel- dom allowed inaccuracies to pass uncorrected.
"Reuben F. Hoffecker led an immeasurably useful life. Many men and women are to-day what they would not have been had not his life touched theirs. Many of the younger school men in the county to-day who are doing notably successful work have caught his earnestness, his dauntlessness, and, led by his example, are show- ing a like indefatigable energy. Thus the good that this man has done is living after him. The world is better because he lived."
In politics Mr. Hoffecker was a Democrat, but not a strong partisan. He was married 2
August 28, 1879, to Miss Lemontine L. Stewart, daughter of Enoch H. and Lydia E. Stewart. Miss Stewart was born April 10, 1836, in Nor- `riton township, and had been a teacher in the public schools of the county for nearly twenty- seven years. Immediately after marriage they settled down to plain, simple and unostentatious home life in Norristown.
Reuben Hoffecker was the oldest child of George and Rachel (Smale) Hoffecker, who were married October 28, 1832, by Rev. John C. Guldin. They had five children, Reuben F., who died December 18, 1903; John S., now a farmer in Chester county ; Mary A., who died December 9, 1877; Annie E., of Norristown; and Cyrus H., of Chester county. George Hoffecker was a blacksmith in his younger days and later a farmer in Chester county. He died September 20, 1877, in his seventy-third year. His wife died July 5, 1879, in her sixty-eighth year. She was a member of the Lutheran church. He was a member of the Reformed church. He was a Democrat in politics. He held several official local positions, but was not an office-seeker. Reuben Hoffecker's grandfather, Philip Hof- fecker, was a native and citizen of Chester county. He was a soldlier in the war of 1812. He was married to Elizabeth Hoffecker. They had eight children: John, born August 1, 1803; George (Reuben's father), born March 4, 1805; Maria, January 20, 1807; Magdalena, January 28, 1809; Elizabeth, August 30, 1811: Joshua, August 30, 1813; Philip, February 4, 1816; and Susanna, February 1, 1820, who died in infancy. Reuben Hoffecker's paternal great-grandfather, Philip Hoffecker, was born in Germany. He came to America when about eighteen years of age in Captain Francis Stanfield's ship Sarah, that sailed from Rotterdam, September 20, 1764. He settled in Coventry township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. On April 19, 1774, he married Elizabeth Benner, daughter of Henry Benner, a farmer in Chester county. They had nine chil- dren-John born February 10, 1775; Philip. Jan- uary 10, 1777 ; Henry, September 8, 1779; Mary and Elizabeth (twins), April 23, 1782; Jacob, June 6, 1785 : Barbara, May 4, 1788; Mary, Feb-
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ruary 5, 1791 ; and Susanna, March 16, 1794. gomery county, in October, 1850, and they had Philip's marriage has already been mentioned. ' six children ; Bertha, who married George Evans, Henry located in East Nantmeal township, of Norristown ; Charles, Winfield, Harry, Alonza and Alva. Mr. Donat died March 10, 1888, and his wife died October 17, 1893. Winfield, Harry and Alonza survived their parents. Chester county, and has left a large number of descendants. Elizabeth married Mr. Miller, who died soon after marriage, and then she married John Mauger. She left children by both mar- Enoch H. Stewart and wife had two daugh- ters, Martha, born July 17, 1832, and Lemontine, whose birth and marriage have been already mentioned. Martha was also a teacher. She died September 6, 1856. Mr. Stewart died June 8, 1876. His wife died June 3, 1892, aged nearly ninety-three years. riages. Jacob settled in Luzerne county and died leaving one son and three daughters. The son died leaving no children and the name in that family became extinct. Barbara married Daniel Beary. They had three daughters, Elizabeth, Anna and Maria. Mary died unmarried. Su- sanna married John Benner and they had one son and six daughters.
Reuben Hoffecker's maternal grandfather, John Smale, was a native of Berks county, Penn- sylvania. He started life as a stonemason. Later he turned his attention to farming in Chester county opposite Pottstown, where he owned one of the finest farms in that section. He married . Mary Yocum. They had two sons, George and Jonas, and one daughter, Rachel, who became the wife of George Hoffecker.
Mrs. Hoffecker's father, Enoch H. Stewart, was born in Doylestown, April 30, 1800. His father, Charles Stewart, died February, 7, 1804. His widowed mother with her children removed to Montgomery Square, Montgomery county. Mr. Stewart was taught a trade but, disliking it, studied for a teacher. He began teaching in Le- high county in 1827. About 1830 he came to Montgomery county and taught in the school- house near the Old Swedes church in Upper Merion. He afterwards taught in the townships of Plymouth, Norriton, Gwynedd, Montgomery, Upper Dublin, and the borough of Norristown. He closed his labors as a teacher in June, 1869, after having taught about forty years. Mr. Stewart was married in October, 1831, to Lydia E., widow of Lemuel Stebbins, to whom she had been married December 2, 1819. Her maiden name was Lydia E. Speakman. Mr. Stebbins died in April, 1824, and left two children, Ma- tilda, born February 8, 1822, and Lemuel, born January 28, 1824. Lemuel died unmarried. Ma- tilda married John Donat of Jarrettown, Mont-
Mrs. Hoffecker's grandfather, Charles Stew- art, was a native of Pennsylvania, but of Scotch- Irish descent. The Stewarts were among the earliest settlers of Bucks county. Charles Stew- art's second wife was Martha Poland, daughter of George and Elizabeth Poland. They had five children, Elizabeth, born November, 17, 1789; Deborah, born May 8, 1792 ; Charles, Feb- ruary 8, 1795 ; Joseph, June 17, 1797 ; and Enoch H., April 30, 1800. Elizabeth married Charles Green, of Quakertown ; Deborah died unmarried. The only male descendant of this branch of the Stewarts is Crary G. Stewart, son of Charles Stewart.
Mrs. Hoffecker's paternal great-grandfather, George Poland (Boland), was married to Eliza- beth Evans, of Gwynedd, a Quakeress of Welsh descent. They had three daughters, Elizabeth ; Martha, born January 6, 1763, and Tacy. George Poland was noted for his sterling integ- rity. He owned a farm near Montgomery Square (known for the last century as the Sel- sor farm), and when he became involved in debt and the law allowed him to pay in Continental money, which he could have done, he refused to do so, choosing to suffer loss rather than have his creditors lose. As he left no male descend- ants the name of Poland became extinct in Mont- gomery county when his widow died in 1817.
Mrs. Hoffecker's maternal grandfather, Thomas Speakman, was a native and citizen of Chester county, a descendant of an old English Quaker family He married Lydia Evans, oldest daughter of Elisha and Sarah Neide Evans. She
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died August 23, 1799, and left an infant daugh- ter, Lydia E. Speakman, who at twelve years of age was brought to Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, to reside with her grandfather, Elisha Evans.
Mrs. Hoffecker's maternal great-grandfa- ther, Elisha Evans, a Quaker in religion, was a man of more than ordinary enterprise and fore- thought. He was the owner of a large tract of land which now covers the chief part of the present borough of Bridgeport. He was mar- ried four times. He had children by his first wife, Sarah Neide, and also by his second wife, Rebecca Jolly, but not any by Sarah Hays or Bathsheba Cottel. He died in 1830. He was survived by his widow Bathsheba Evans and also by twelve of his children-John, William, Mrs. Elizabeth Patton, Sarah Evans, Mrs. Amelia Worthington, Jolly, Mrs. Catharine Elliott, Charles, Mrs. Sophia Levering, Cadwallader, George, and Jared Evans.
SAMUEL K. ANDERS, President of the People's National Bank of Norristown, is a de- scendant of Balthasar Anders and his wife, Anna Hoffrichter, who came in 1734 to Pennsylvania with one child, George, born in 1733, in Germany. The couple had two more children born in this country ; Anna, born April 8, 1736; Abraham, born April 1, 1739. Balthasar Anders (great- great-grandfather) was by trade a shoemaker, and lived in Towamencin township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, upon the property now owned by George Anders, and there followed his trade until his death, which occurred May 25, 1754, aged fifty-six years. His wife died March 29, 1784, aged eighty-three years and nine months. His mother, who came with him to this country, was buried September 30, 1734, in Philadelphia, eight days after their arrival.
Abraham Anders (great-grandfather), son of Balthasar Anders, married Susanna, daughter of Melchior Kriebel, November 25, 1765. Their children were: Benjamin, born November 30, 1766; Rosanna, born July 19, 1769, died Decem- ber 24, 1853 ; Abraham, born June 2, 1774; Anna, born April 13, 1780. Susanna, wife of Abraham Anders, died March 28, 1813, aged seventy-three
years, five months. Abraham Anders died April 19, 1819, aged eighty years, six days.
Abraham Anders (grandfather), son of Abraham Anders, married Susanna, daughter of Abraham Dresher, November 25, 1802. Their children were: George, born November 19, 1803; Lydia, born July 6, 1805; Abraham, born September 2, 1807; Anna, born October 24, 1809; Samuel, born March 18, 1812; Susanna, born October 2, 1815; and Sarah, born August 8, 1820. Susanna, wife of Abraham Anders, died October 26, 1831, aged fifty years, three months. Abraham Anders died August 2, 1852, aged sev- enty-eight years, two months. He lived in Worcester township on a farm which he owned.
George Anders (father), son of Abraham Anders, married Susanna, daughter of Samuel Kriebel, October 27, 1825. Their children were: Sarah, born June 3, 1828, died September 3, 1828; Elizabeth, born May 15, 1830; Abraham K., born October 5, 1833 ; Rosanna, born October 16, 1836, died same day ; Samuel K., born October 10, 1838; William K., born June 12, 1841 ; Daniel K., born September 19, 1846. Susanna, wife of George Anders, died May 21, 1857. George Anders died January 23, 1876.
Balthasar Anders and his wife and the suc- cessive generations of the family which have been mentioned were members of the religious body known as Schwenkfelders, who were so called from Caspar Schwenkfelder, a Silesian no- bleman, born in 1490, who, having become im- bued with the principles and doctrines proclaimed by John Huss, renounced the Catholic church to become an evangelist, and for thirty-six years, with voice and pen, exhorted men to repentance and godliness. He denied that the external word -that is, the scriptures-is endowed with the power of healing, renewing and illuminating the mind, but ascribed this power to the internal or eternal word, that is Christ himself. He dif- fered with Luther and, cut off from fellowship with the Lutherans, he and his followers were persecuted by the Catholics. He died at Ulm, December 10, 1562. The Schwenkfelders after his death increased and maintained their faith and worship in the Fatherland for nearly two hundred
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years. About 1725 persecution which had almost ceased for a time, was renewed with great fury, and this unhappy people were given the choice of apostasy, continued endurance or flight from the country. The exodus commenced in February, 1726. One hundred and seventy families fled to Saxony, where they were hospitably received and treated with much consideration by Count Zinzendorf and others. They remained eight years, but in 1733 they were informed that they would be tolerated no longer in Lusatia, where they had settled, an application having been made for their return to Silesia. Two families emi- grated to Pennsylvania, arriving at Philadelphia September 18, 1733, and sent such a good report of the country that the whole band determined to follow them. They set out for Altona in Den- mark in April, 1734, where they arrived May 17, and on the 28th embarked on three small ves- sels for Harlem, arriving there June 6, thence proceeded June 19 to Rotterdam, embarking for Pennsylvania on an English ship, the "St. An- drew," touching at Plymouth, England, and arriv- ing at Philadelphia on September 22, 1734. They spent the 24th in thanksgiving to God for deliver- ing them out of the hands of their persecutors, for raising up friends in the time of greatest need, and for leading them into a land of freedom where they might worship without being molested by civil or ecclesiastical power. That day, Septem- ber 24, has been so observed ever since. They settled in the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill, and in Burks, Lehigh and Montgomery counties, the greater number in what is now Montgomery.
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