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 84
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Mr. Godshalk was united in marriage, in 1896, to Drusilla Lukens, a daughter of Enos Lukens, a farmer of Towamencin township, and his wife Annie (DeHaven) Lukens. Their chil- dren are : Ernest, born in 1896; and Ralph, born in 1899. Mr. Godshalk and the members of his family attend the services of the Reformed church.
MRS. EFFIE M. LEWIS, widow of Harry J. Lewis, of Conshohocken, is a native of that place, where she was born May 20, 1866. She has long held a position in the office of the clerk of the orphans' court, and was the first woman deputized to act in an official position, in the court house at Norristown. Mrs. Lewis is the daughter of William Michigan and Mary Elizabeth ( Peter- son) Mahoney.
William M. Mahoney (father) was a native of Maryland. He married Mary Elizabeth Peter- son, April 15, 1862. His wife, who was the third daughter of Tobias and Sarah Peterson, was born near Cherry Hill, Cecil county, Maryland, Feb- ruary 22, 1844. She was educated in private
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schools in that state. The oldest child of William and Mary E. Mahoney was Fannie Edith, born September 25, 1863, in Cecil county. The fol- lowing year the family removed to Conshohocken, in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where was born Effie May, subject of this sketch, the family residing at that time on East Hector street. Mr. Mahoney followed his occupations of carpenter, wheelwright and millwright. In 1870 the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney, Sarah Rebecca, was born. In the course of the following year Mrs. Mahoney's health failed, and she was taken to the residence of her father, Tobias Peterson, at Everett, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, to which place he had removed from Maryland in the hope that the mineral springs in that vicinity might prove beneficial to het health. Mrs. Mahoney died in September, 1871, and was buried in the Lutheran cemetery near Everett. After her death her oldest daughter, Fannie, attended the public schools of Conshohocken and graduated therefrom in 1881. The four following years she taught school in the Eight Square School in Plymouth township, near Conshohocken. She married, September 2, 1885, James M. Morrison, master mechanic at the establishment of the Alan Wood Company, in Conshohocken. She died September 12, 1898, leaving her husband and two daughters-Marion, aged ten years, and Fannie, six years old. She was buried in Brandywine cemetery, at Wilmington, Delaware.
Effie May Mahoney, subject of this sketch, lived with her paternal grandparents, Elisha and Rebecca Weaver Mahoney, on their farm midway between Elkton and Northeast, in Cecil county, Maryland, on the line of the Philadelphia, Bal- timore and Washington Railroad, for three years after the death of her mother. When her father married the second time, he took her to his home in Conshohocken, and she at- tended the public schools there until she gradu- ated in 1884. During 1884 and 1885 she taught as a substitute in the Lower Merion high school at Ardmore, the Mount Pleasant school, in Lower Merion, and in the Conshohocken public schools. In August, 1885, she was elected to the advanced
secondary department in the Conshohocken schools. On April 4, 1886, Miss Mahoney be- came the wife of Harry J. Lewis, eldest son of John Craig and Harriet (Gilbert) Lewis. Harry J. Lewis was born February 11, 1866, at Radnor, Pennsylvania, and when three years of age be- came a resident of Conshohocken, his parents removing to that borough. He attended the pub- lic schools of Conshohocken, graduating from the high school in 1882. He studied telegraphy and secured a position with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company at West Spring Mill. He also held similar positions at West Consho- hocken, West Falls, and Richmond, Philadelphia. He was employed at the last named place when his death occurred, November 15, 1893. Mr. Lewis was a fine musician and was organist of the First Baptist church of Conshohocken for ten years preceding his death. He was also prom- inently connected with the Patriotic Order Sons of America and with Gratitude Lodge, Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows. Besides his widow, three children and his parents survived him. He left also an only brother, Rev. Daniel E. Lewis. His father, John C. Lewis, was for many years bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Con- shohocken. The family of Harry J. and Effie M. Lewis are: Edith May, born May 6, 1887; Her- bert Fisk, born January 26, 1890; Elizabeth Louise, born April 19, 1892. Edith May attended the public schools, graduating in June, 1903. In 1904 she attended and graduated from Schissler's College of Business, Norristown. Herbert is a student at Girard College, Philadelphia. Eliza- beth is a pupil in the Conshohocken high school.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lewis and her three children boarded with her aunt, Mrs. William Steele, on Seventh avenue, Con- shohocken. Mrs. Lewis took a position with the J. Ellwood Lce Surgical Company of Consho- hocken as forelady. Afterward she did Spanish translating for the firm. She was the first to attempt the translation of their large catalogue into the Spanish language, and completed the greater part of that work before leaving the em- ploy of the company. She became a student at the
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Schissler Business College in April, 1896, grad- uated from this institution and became one of the faculty, having charge of the typewriting depart- ment. In June, 1897, she was offered and ac- cepted a position as typewriter and stenographer in the office of William P. Young, clerk of the court of Montgomery county. She retained this position until January, 1900, when Major Isaac N. Cooke, the newly elected clerk of the courts, appointed Mrs. Lewis his second deputy. Hon. William F. Solly, upon receiving his appointment as president judge of the orphans' court in 1901, approved the appointment of Mrs. Lewis as deputy clerk of the orphans' court, qualifying her as such on June 12th of that year. At the expir- ation of Major Cooke's term as clerk she was re- tained by the register of wills and clerk of the orphans' court, Henry A. Groff, as typewriter. Mrs. Lewis and her daughters are members of Calvary Episcopal church, Conshohocken.
William M. Mahoney, father of Mrs. Lewis, after the death of his first wife, married Virginia Matthews, his first cousin, of Cecil county, Mary- land, December 24, 1875. They had two children, Verna Lee, born December 23, 1878, who is un- married, and Arthur, born June 16, 1880. He is married and living in Chester, Pennsylvania. After the death of his second wife, which oc -. curred December 25, 1885, William M. Mahoney removed from Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, to Maryland. There he married his cousin, Miss Rachel Weaver, in 1892, and the couple reside on a farm near Mechanics' Valley, in Cecil county.
Mrs. Lewis is descended from Swedish and Irish ancestors. On her father's side her progen- itor was Elisha Mahoney, who came from Ireland early in the eighteenth century, settling in Penn- sylvania, but afterwards removing to Cecil county, Maryland, where he purchased a farm near Me- chanics' Valley, and reared a large family of chil-
dren. Numerous descendants are scattered throughout Maryland and Delaware, and are re- markable for their height, nearly every male mem- ber of the family being over six feet tall. The family are Protestants in religious faith. One of the sons of the immigrant was Stephen Mahoney, whose son, Elisha Mahoney, Jr., was the father of
William Mahoney, who is the father of Mrs. Lewis. Elisha Mahoney, grandfather of Mrs. Lewis, was for many years section foreman on the P., B. & W. Railroad. He was prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity. The other children of Elisha Mahoney, Jr., are Alfred, Joseph, Martha, wife of Samuel Miller, and George.
Sarah Rebecca Mahoney, younger sister of Mrs. Lewis, resided after her mother's death with her grandparents, Tobias and Sarah Peterson, on their farm in Cecil county, Maryland, attended the public schools, and at the age of sixteen years became the wife of Jackson Willis. Her husband purchased a farm adjoining that of her grand- father, Tobias Peterson, where the couple reside, having six children: Clifford, Rexley, Daniel, Sarah Emma, Carl and Lillie.
The sisters and brothers of Mary Elizabeth (Peterson) Mahoney, mother of Mrs. Lewis were: Lydia Ann, educated for a teacher, and taught a school in Cecil county, near Poplar Hill, in a school house which was erected on her father's farm. She married William T. Steele, son of Joseph Steele, of that vicinity, and removed to Conshohocken in 1863. Their two children were Frank, who died in infancy, and Lillie M., a teacher in the Conshohocken public schools since 1887. Sarah Jane, married her cousin, George Brown, and removed to Conshohocken in 1863. They had two children, Leola, married to Thomas Ritchie, of Cecil county, and Blanche, who died in childhood. Sarah and George Brown returned to Maryland in 1876, and both died there in 1903. John Thomas, died in infancy. Margaret Emily became a teacher at Everett, Pennsylvania, dur- ing her parents' residence there and returned with them to Cecil county, Maryland. She died in 1879, at the age of thirty-one years, unmarried. Hannah Louisa, died unmarried in Philadelphia in 1894, aged forty-four years. Alice Lucinda, married, May 6, 1886, Andrew Sentman. She has no children. George Tobias, born 1858, mar- ried, in 1877, Miss Belle Willis, resides on her- father's farm near Appleton, in Cecil county, and became the father of a numerous family.
The Petersons are of Swedish origin. Tobias,.
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great-grandfather of Mrs. Lewis, married, in 1805, Ann Derrickson, also of an old Swedish family in Delaware. They removed on their mar- riage to Maryland, bought a farm near Scott's Mills, and reared a large family. She died in 1859 and he in 1865. They left ten children, as follows : Ann, Ruth, George, Lydia, Thomas, To- bias, Mary, Peter, John and Sarah. Ruth was the first of these children to die in 1878, the youngest being then over fifty years of age. Tobias, grand- father of Mrs. Lewis, born in 1814, married in 1838, Sarah Mullen, and died in Cecil county, in 1895. Mrs. Peterson died in 1891.
M. ANNA MOORE, formerly of King-of- Prussia, but now a resident of Norristown, is a descendant of an old colonial family long resident in Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. John Moore, described in the con- veyance as a carpenter and supposed to be the im- migrant and to have come from England not much before that time, bought four hundred acres of land from David Powell in 1709. The land was situated near what is now Port Kennedy, in Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. One of his sons, probably born in this country, was John, The last-named had the following children: Catharine, born 2 mo. 20, 1725, married Thomas Mills ; John, born Ist mo. 19, 1726, who married Jane -, and died in 1777, while his wife survived until 1812, when she died at the age of eighty-three years. Reese, born
9th mo. 21, 1727, married Mary - -, and died IIth mo. 23, 1751 ; Sarah, born 7th mo. 9, 1730, married 5th mo. 3. 1748, Enoch Davis ; Richard, born 2d mo. 18, 1731, died Ist mo. 10, 1757 : Mor- decai, born 4th mo. 3. 1735, married, 12th mo. 12, 1758, Elizabeth Davis, who was born 9th mo. 12, 1737, and died 8th mo. 15, 1817. while Mordecai died 4th mo. 22, 1802 ; Anthony, 2d mo. 4, 1737.
The children of John and Jane Moore: Ann, born IIth mo. 14. 1746, married Christopher Rue ; John, born 9th mo. 28, 1752, married De- borah Davis, and died 3d mo. 16, 1822 ; Elizabeth, born 8th mo. 22. 1753, died 1Ith mo. 22, 1756: Hannah, born 7th mo. 3. 1755, died 1Ith mo. 20, 1756: Reese. born 4th mo. 5. 1757 ; Richard, born
10th mo. 2, 1758, died roth mo. 27, 1825, mar- ried, 11th mo. 11, 1807, Abigail Eastburn ; Rachel, born 7th mo. 20, 1760, married Abijah Stephens, son of David Stephens ; Jonathan born 7th mo. 30, 1762, married Kittie :-- , and died 7th mo. 23, 1815 ; Jacob, born 3d mo. 1, 1765, died young ; Isaac, born 3d mo. 1, 1765, died 3d mo. 8, 1765.
The children of Mordecai and Elizabeth (Davis) Moore : Hannah born 12th mo. 24, 1759, married, 10th mo. 12, 1795, Moses Coats, and had one child Eliza, born in 5th mo., 1797, who married William Cowgill and had two children, Catharine, who married Isaac B. Stokes, having one son, William C. Stokes, of Norristown, and. Hannah, who married David Walker, her chil- dren being Eliza C., Winfield H. (deceased), Ella V., married Edward B. Conard, and Lewis ; Will- iam, born 3d mo. 21, 1761 ; Reese, born Ist mo: 14, 1763, died about 1834, married, between 1795 and 1798, Sarah Roberts, who died 4th mo. 2, 1805; Jesse, born 7th mo. 21, 1765, who became a judge and married Widow Leitch, they having. no children; Isaac, born 3d mo. 26, 1768, died 5th mo. 23, 1841, married, 4th mo. 1, 1799, Mi- riam Wells ; Elizabeth, born 4th mo. 4, 1771, died 8th mo. 24, 1836, married, in 1797, Abijah Stephens, son of David Stephens, who died 10th mo. 23. 1825, she being disowned by Friends, 7th mo. 13, 1797, for marrying out of meeting; Mordecai, born 5th mo. 9, 1774. Abijah and Eliza- beth (Moore) Stephens had several children of whom Eleanor, a first cousin of Robert Moore, father of the subject of this sketch, born Septem- ber 13, 1802, married, March 22, 1821, David Zook, father of General Samuel K. Zook, who was killed at Gettysburg. Eleanor (Stephens ) Zook survived her husband many years, dying May 17, 1901, being in her ninety-ninth year.
Dr. John Moore, born 4th mo. 18, 1778, mar- ried 4th mo. 24, 1804, Catharine Robeson. He died 5th mo. 22, 1836. Dr. John Moore was a minister of Race street meeting, Philadelphia. Fre wore in the early part of his ministry, a blue coat with brass buttons, buff vest, buckskin knee- breeches, and fair top-leather boots. It is related that when he first spoke in meeting. Nicholas Waln, an eminent minister, arose as soon as he
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took his seat, saying, "Well done, lappel," and sat down.
Reese Moore (grandfather) and Sarah (Rob- erts) Moore had the following children : Roberts, (father) born 8th mo. 18, 1798; Mordecai R., born 12th mo. 26, 1800; Anna Maria, born mo. 21, 1802, married Dr. John Charles Merillat, and died 8th mo. 22, 1853.
Mordecai R. Moore, named above, married Mary Thomas, who died 2d mo. 27, 1899. They had one child, Hannah, born 3d mo. 9, 1839, died 7th mo. 4, 1840. Mordecai R. Moore was asso- siated about 1846 with James Hooven, of Norris- town, in the iron foundry business. He was for many years a well-known citizen of Norristown. He died Ist mo. II, 1866.
Dr. John Charles and Anna Maria Merillat had two children, William C., born IIth mo. 9, 1839, married 9th mo. 5, 1901 (second wife) Mary H. Foreman ; Roberts Moore, born 5th mo. 5, 1841, died 12th mo. 5, 1845.
Roberts Moore (father) married, 2d mo. 15, 1838, Mary S. Bisbing. He was a farmer of Upper Merion township. He died 9th mo. 27, 1874. His widow died 5th mo. II, 1875, aged sixty-eight years. Their children: Sarah, born 6th mo. 28, 1841, died HIth mo. 22, 1845; M. Anna, born 5th mo. 9, 1846; Mordecai R., born 5th mo. 16, 1848, died 8th mo. 21, 1848.
M. Anna Moore is descended from John Rob- erts, who emigrated from Wales in 1683, when he was sixty years of age, being a millwright by trade. He erected in Lower Merion township the third mill in Pennsylvania. He married, at Hav- erford meeting, 11th m0. 2, 1690, Elizabeth Owen, daughter of Owen Humphrey. She had emigrated with her brother John from Merionethshire, in Wales, in 1683, bringing with her a certificate of removal. She was married at sixteen years of age. John Roberts died in 1703. Their children were: Rebecca, born in 1691 ; John, born 6th mo. 17, 1695.
John Roberts married Hannah, daughter of Robert Lloyd, who was born in Wales, in 1669, . and died in Merion in 1716. The daughter of Rob- ert Lloyd, Hannah Lloyd Roberts, was born in 1699. She had one son, John Roberts. She mar-
ried, second, William Paschall, and had several children, and (third) Peter Osborne, and had several children.
Another child of John and Elizabeth Owen Roberts was Matthew, born 4th mo. 13, 1693. He married Sarah Waters. Of their children, Jon- athan, born in 1732, married Anna, second child of David and Anna Noble Thomas, the parents having been married at Abington Meeting in 1731. Jonathan was a member of the colonial assembly and otherwise prominent. The couple had a family of seven children, of whom the fifth in order was Jonathan Roberts, of Upper Merion, who became a United States senator from Penn- sylvania, and was one of the best known citizens of Montgomery county. His sister Anna, the sixth child of Jonathan Roberts, Sr., died unmar- ried. The seventh child, John, was born 10th mo. 16, 1776. He married, 12th mo. 24, 1807, Sarah Bartolomew, of an old Upper Merion family. He died 8th mo. 14, 1846, and his widow died 9th mo. 12, 1847.
Sarah Roberts, daughter of Jonathan and Anna Roberts, eldest child of the couple, born 2d mo. 1761, married, between 1795 and 1798, Reese, son of Mordecai and Elizabeth (Davis) Moore. She was the grandmother of M. Anna Moore, subject of this sketch. (See biographical sketch of Sarah H. Tyson, elsewhere in this work, for further particulars of the Roberts an- cestry of M. Anna Moore.)
Elizabeth (Davis) Moore, wife of Mordecai Moore (great-grandfather), was the daughter of William Davis. Their children: Tacy, born April 13, 1732; Isaac, born January 7, 1735; Jesse, born March 13, 1736; Elizabeth (great-grandmother), born September 12, 1737, married, in 1758, Mordecai Moore ; William, born November 19, 1739; James, 1741; Asa, 1743; Hannah, 1747.
The Davis family were descendants of Lewis David (or Davis as it afterward became), who came to America from Standwin, in the county of Pembroke, and dominion of Wales. He probably arrived about 1691 at Philadelphia, and settled in Haverford. He died in 1708. He had a son, James Lewis. Asa Lewis, born 8th mo. 8, 1743,
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son of William Davis, and grandson of Lewis, above, and his wife Florence; married, in 1769, Elizabeth Humphreys, and removed from Haver- ford to East Bradford, in Delaware county, Penn- sylvania, in 1784. Their children were Elizabeth, William, Jane, James. Elizabeth married Jesse Reese. William married, in 1802, Mary Hibberd.
HENRY J. SOMMER, M. D., for several years one of the medical staff of the Norristown Hospital for the Insane, but now engaged in priv- ate practice in Norristown, having formed a co- partnership with Dr. J. K. Weaver, with his office at No. 617 DeKalb street, is, as the name indi- cates, of German descent. He was born near Quakertown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1870.
Henry J. Sommer (father) was born in Baden, Germany, January 6, 1837, his parents being Henry and Eve (Ohl) Sommer. He came to this country to take charge of a factory for L. Bam- berger & Company, at the age of twenty-two years. He enlisted May 15, 1861, in the Twenty- ninth Regiment, New York Volunteers, from which he was honorably discharged. He then served in the United States navy in the marine corps until the end of the war. He started the manufacture of cigars in Bucks county for L. Bamberger & Company, and later bought out their entire stock and fixtures, giving work to about 450 employees.
He married Mary, daughter of J. A. and Anna C. Rhuel, of Philadelphia, May 16, 1866. The couple had five children, three sons and two daughters. Ferdinand and Edward are in charge of the business named above ; Martha married E. C. Jones, of Conshohocken ; and Mary, unmar- ried, resides with her parents.
Dr. Henry J. Sommer, Jr., bears the family name of Henry, which has been handed down for centuries, there having been a "Henry" in every generation of the family. He received an educa- tion in the common schools of the vicinity, and at the age of nineteen years entered Jefferson Medi- cal College, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated with first honors, taking the gold medal for surgery, May 2, 1893. Two days later he
was appointed assistant quarantine physician at the port of Philadelphia, but, the legislature hav- ing passed a new quarantine bill requiring the as- sistant physician to be of five years standing, he left, on appointment of a new assistant physician on June 29, 1893, and went direct to the Munici- pal Hospital for Contagious Diseases of Phila- delphia, having received an appointment to the position of resident physician over the telephone. There Dr. Sommer had charge of the small-pox camp during the epidemic of the summer of 1893, and later of the scarlet fever and diphtheria wards. On November 4, 1893, lie was appointed United States Consul to Bombay, India, which position he sought for the purpose of making a special study of cholera and leprosy. Owing to loss of health, Dr. Sommer was compelled to see all his cultures of germs, the work of over a year, die helplessly.
On his return to the United States, Dr. Som- mer engaged in private practice at Tremont, in Schuylkill county, this state, in November, 1895, where he remained until January 17, 1897, at which time he received the appointment of as- sistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown, which position he filled very successfully until September 1, 1903, when he resigned his position at that institution and re- moved to Norristown, to take up private prac- tice in partnership with Dr. J. K. Weaver. Dr. Sommer is an able physician, whose skill, learning and industry are certain to make him one of the most successful physicians of his day.
Dr. Sommer was married June 27, 1901, to Emily E., daughter of Samuel K. and Elizabeth Hergesheimer, of Germantown, Pennsylvania, whose ancestors on the father's side built and owned Strawberry Mansion, and what is now known as Laurel Hill Cemetery. Her mother is a descendant of Lord Burdett. They reside at No. 617 DeKalb street, Norristown.
REV. WILLIAM S. ANDERS, pastor of the Worcester Schwenkfelder church, is a son of Abraham and Rebecca (Schultz) Anders. He was born in Worcester township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, August 30, 1840. His
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great-great-grandfather, Balthasar Anders, was one of the little band of Schwenkfelder immi- grants, who came from Silesia to Pennsylvania, and landed in Philadelphia, September 12, (old style) 1734. They nearly all located in what is now Montgomery county, where many of. their descendants remain to the present day.
Abraham Anders (father) was a farmer by occupation. He served for many years as a school director in Worcester township, being a friend of educational progress and a public-spirited citizen. He was a director of the Bank of Montgomery County at Norristown, later the Montgomery National Bank, for twenty-five years, and held important positions in several other corporations. He was active in business affairs but never as- pired to public office, although political positions were frequently tendered him and invariably de- clined. In politics he was a Republican. In his religious belief he was a Schwenkfelder, like his ancestors. He was a member of that church for more than fifty years prior to his death, and for a number of years served as secretary. He was a man of sound judgment and in every respect a valuable citizen. He died December 28, 1887, at the age of eighty-one years. He married Re- becca Schultz, daughter of George Schultz, the ceremony being performed May 14, 1839. George Schultz died October 29, 1851. Abraham and Re- becca Anders had the following children, seven in all, being five sons and two daughters: Rev. William S., subject of this sketch ; Joseph S., died July, 1895 ; Susan, wife of Josiah D. Heebner, of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania ; Charles S .; Abraham S., who died November 23, 1862; Mary S., who married Jeremiah K. Anders, and Amos S.
Rev. William S. Anders received his educa- tion in the public schools of Worcester, spending also two years as a student at Mount Kirk Sem- inary, in Lower Providence township, Montgom- ery county, Pennsylvania, which was conducted for many years by Rev, Henry S. Rodenbough. Rev. William S. Anders taught school in early manhood for eight terms, one year in Towamencin township, three years in Worcester, and four in Norriton township. At the end of that time he
removed to the farm previously bought by his father in Worcester township and engaged in farming. On June 3, 1871, he was called as a probationer to the ministry in the Schwenk- felder church. In October, 1873, he was installed as one of the pastors of the Worcester, Towamen- cin and Salford churches. He married, Febru- ary 1, 1868, Susan H. Krause, who was a daugh- ter of Aaron and Lydia (Heebner) Krause, of Worcester township.
In politics, Mr. Anders is a Republican. He served for some years as a school director, being well qualified for that position by his previous experience as a teacher. Since 1889 he has been a director of Ursinus College. He is also a di- rector of the Montgomery National Bank at Nor- ristown. He is identified with the management ot several industrial companies. From 1871 to 1893 he farmed extensively, but since the latter year has given his time entirely to his pastoral labors. Although serving in an official capacity in sev- eral business enterprises he allows nothing in con- nection with them to interfere with his church work. During the last year he has suffered much from illness, greatly affecting his usefulness in his ministerial calling. In this affliction, due to heart trouble, he has the sincere sympathy of all who know him. Rev. William S. Anders has been a very faithful worker, not only in the church but also in the Sunday school. For forty- two years he has been a worker in the latter, either as superintendent or as teacher.
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