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 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92
On October 30, 1887, he married Mary Emma, daughter of John and Rebecca (Burkey) Endy. Mr. and Mrs. Davidheiser have had six children : Harry, (died at the age of three months), Sallie Rebecca, Mary Ella, Charles E., Morris E., Hilary E.
Mr. and Mrs. Davidheiser. are members of Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Pottstown. He belongs also to Stichter Lodge, No. 254, Free and
Accepted Masons ; and Pottstown Chaper, Royal Arch Masons. Politically Mr. Davidheiser is an Independent. He built his present substantial brick residence, No. 518 North Franklin street, in 1893. He owns several business lots.
Mrs. Davidheiser's parents reside at Leesport, Pennsylvania. They lived for some time in Mont- gomery county. They had eight children, of whom six are now living, as follows: Mary Emma, Harry, Cora, wife of Oscar Hiester ; John, Lizzie, wife of Milton Snyder; and Oscar. John Endy follows various pursuits. His father was David Endy. Mrs. Davidheiser's maternal grand- father was Jonathan Burkey.
JOSEPH K. CORSON, M. D., of White- marsh township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania, a physician and surgeon of high repute, and who made an excellent military record in the line and in the medical department of the army during and subsequent to the Civil war, is a rep- resentative of the Corson family whose ancestral history is given on other pages of this work.
He was born at Maple Hill, in the township in which he now resides, November 22, 1836, son of Dr. Hiram and Ann (Foulke) Corson. He began his education under private tutors in the parental home ; studied advanced branches under the preceptorship of Frederick Anspach, of the Lutheran church at Barren Hill, and then finished a course under the Rev. Samuel Aaron, an ac- complished teacher, in the famous Treemount Seminary at Norristown. He then entered the drug store of William and John Savery, in Phil- adelphia, and in 1858, at the age of twenty-two, received his degree in pharmacy. Being offered a situation in St. Paul, Minnesota, then a small but growing town, he accepted, but the failure of his employers soon left him without employment, and he returned home. There he engaged in the lime business with his cousin, Laurence E. Corson, at Norristown. Soon afterward he matriculated in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, but his studies were almost im- mediately suspended on account of the outbreak of the slaveholders' rebellion. Laying aside his text books, he enlisted in a company of the Fourth
45
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
Pennsylvania Regiment, recruited in Norristown, and of which Walter H. Cook was captain. His company was mustered into the service of the United States at Harrisburg, and then proceeded to Perryville. Mr. Corson was honorably dis- charged on July 26, 1861, having completed his three months term of service under President Lin- coln's first call for troops, and retiring with the rank of sergeant. He then resumed his medical studies in Philadelphia, and received an appoint- ment as medical cadet in the army hospital at Broad and Cherry streets, and served in that ca- pacity from June 1, 1861, until March, 1863. In the same month he graduated from his medical school with the degree of doctor of medicine, and was at once commissioned assistant surgeon of the Sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, a position which he filled from March 23, 1863, to June 11, 1864, and he was subsequently acting assistant surgeon at Camp Discharge, in Lower Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania. During his army service he was present at the battles of Gettysburg, Falling Water, Manassas Gap, Bristow Station, Mine Run, Rap- pahannock Station, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna River, and Bethesda Church in Vir- ginia, and acquitted himself so creditably that he received from the President the brevet commis- sion of major, "for faithful and meritorious serv- ice during the Wilderness Campaign in Virginia." He subsequently received the congressional Medal of Honor, conferred "for most distinguished gal- lantry in action near Bristow Station, Virginia, with the Pennsylvania Reserves," and his honor- able discharge from the army, consequent upon the close of the war, he practiced medicine at home in association with his father.
October 9, 1867, Dr. Corson was commis- sioned assistant surgeon with the rank of first lieutenant, in the United States army. From No- vember of that year to. March 1, 1868, he was on duty at Governor's Island, in New York Harbor, and during this time made a sea voyage to Gal- veston, Texas, with recruits, and at New Or- leans cared for forty of their number who were stricken with cholera. From March to Septem- ber of the same year he was on duty at the cav-
alry depot at Carlisle Barracks; to December 6, 1869, was stationed at Fort Fred Steele, in Wy- oming, and while here (July 23, 1869), was pro- moted to a captaincy in the medical corps. His further army service was as follows: Omaha Barracks, to July, 1870; Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, to September, 1870; Fort Bridger, Wyoming, to November, 1872; Mobile Barracks, Alabama, to September, 1873; Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, to May, 1876; Plattsburg Barracks, New York, to May, 1878; Fort Whip- ple, Arizona, to October, 1878; Fort Yuma, Cal- ifornia, to August, 1882; Jefferson Barracks, Mis- souri, to November, 1886; Fort Sherman, Idaho, to September 15, 1890; Washington Barracks, District of Columbia, to October, 1894, during which time he was commissioned surgeon with the rank of major. After a leave of absence for one month, which he spent at home, he was assigned to duty at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. He re- mained in the army until 1897, when he was placed on the retired list, and took up his residence at his elegant home, "Maple Mill," in White- marsh township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania. Dr. Corson is a member of the Patriotic Order of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.
Dr. Corson married, November 2, 1874, Miss Mary Ada Carter, daughter of Judge William Alexander Carter, of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, originally from Virginia, where the family is one of the oldest and most honored in the state. Two children were born of this marriage, Mary Car- ter and Edward Foulke Corson. The daughter was born at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, January 4, 1876. For the obtainment of better educational advantages for her, her parents sent her to school in Philadelphia. On her return home after a year's absence, in June, 1890, the train in which she was traveling went over an embankment, and she sustained such injuries that she died within an hour. The remains were in- terred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery. The son, Edward Foulke Corson, was born at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in February, 1883. He at- tended the Friends' School in Washington City while his father was stationed there. In October,
46
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
1895, he entered the Germantown Academy, from which he was graduated in 1901. He has just completed his second year in the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania.
NEWBERRY ALLEN SMITH, who for many years was a highly respected citizen of Ab- ington township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania, was a native of the city of Philadelphia, born April 24, 1807. His paternal ancestors were English, and his maternal ancestors, the Keysers, were of an old German family which located in Germantown during the time of William Penn. The earlier generations of the Keyser family were prominently identified with the Society of Dun- kards. His parents were Newberry and Sarah (Keyser) Smith, who were married in 1804, the former named having been a native of Burlington, New Jersey, and the latter of Germantown, Penn- sylvania.
Newberry A. Smith obtained an excellent ed- ucation in the schools of his native city, and the knowledge thus acquired thoroughly qualified him for a life of usefulness and activity. He was a prominent and successful wholesale merchant of Philadelphia, but retired from active business pur- suits in 1864. From about 1853 until his death, October 25, 1877, a period of almost a quarter of a century, he was a resident of Abington town- ship, and during those years he faithfully and con- scientiously performed all the duties pertaining to good citizenship.
On March 8, 1832, Mr. Smith married Ann A. Gorgas, who was born May 30, 1813, a daugh- ter of George and Rachel (Clemens) Gorgas, and three children were the issue of this marriage: I. Sarah K., born November 29, 1832; she was united in marriage, June 11, 1862, to Edward Au- gustus Turpin, who was born in Powhattan county, Virginia, January 8, 1804, a son of Hor- atio and Mary Ann (Bancroft) Turpin, and a de- scendant of an old and prominent family who were connected in marriage relationship with some of the leading families of Virginia and the south. Mr. Turpin was a graduate of Translyania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, and read law in the office of his cousin, Jolin J. Crittenden,
who was secretary of state, at Washington, D. C. Mr. Turpin, however, did not practice law. Dur- ing the administration of James Buchanan as president of the United States, he was appointed United States minister at Caracas, Venezuela, and served in that capacity during the administration of President Buchanan and part of that of Presi- dent Lincoln. After a long and useful career Mr. Turpin died June 22, 1880. By his marriage with Sarah K. Smith he had born to him one daughter, Emma Smith Turpin, the date of the birth be- ing December 17, 1864. His widow married, secondly, George Cockburn Harvey, who was born in 1815, in Bermuda, and for a number of years was a prominent merchant in Halifax, Nova Scotia. To this union there was no issue. 2. Emma Wayne, born June 13, 1837; she was united in marriage in 1856 to Edward C. Stock- ton, who died in 1863. They were the parents of two children : Newberry Allen Stockton, born Oc- tober 22, 1859, who married Christine S. Hare, daughter of Charles W. and Mary Hare, in June, 1887, and their children are : Mary H., born Sep- tember 3, 1888; Newberry Allen, born December 31, 1890; and Christine H., born June 3, 1897. The second child of Edward C. and Emma W. Stockton was Constance W., born in 1862, and died in 1864. 3. Anna W., born in 1840, died in infancy.
EDWARD Y. TOWNSEND, whose death occurred at his country home at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, November 5, 1891, in the fullness of a well-spent life, was for eighteen years the president of the Cambria Iron Company, and one of the most useful, representative business men of Philadelphia. During his entire lifetime he worthily upheld the name of a family that has been held in esteem since the days of William Penn. His ancestors in direct line were John W., William, Jolın, and Joseph, and he was the fifth in lineal descent from the latter named, who was a younger brother of Richard Townsend, who was prominently connected with William Penn in the early history of the province of Pennsylvania. Joseph Townsend came to America in 1712, soon after the arrival here of William Penn, and pur-
47
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
chased a large tract of land, including a part of the site of the present town or borough of West Chester, and extending westward to the Brandy- wine. In 1746 he built a dwelling near West Chester, which is still standing and in a fair state of preservation. Herein they lived, and they wor- shipped according to the tenets of the Society of Friends or Quakers.
Edward Y. Townsend was born in West Ches- ter, Pennsylvania, October 4, 1824, a son of John W. and Sybilla K. (Price) Townsend, the latter named having been a daughter of Philip Price. His early education was acquired in Anthony Bolmar's school at West Chester, which he left when eighteen years old to enter the wholesale dry goods house of Wood, Abbott & Co., of Phil- adelphia. This firm was composed of Richard D. Wood, James Abbott, Josiah Bacon, John Yarrow and others, and transacted a large and profitable business with the south and west. During his ap- prenticeship he made many business trips on horseback through the then unsettled wilderness of the frontiers, extending as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico. These journeys were made alone, and some of them consumed weeks and months. Wood, Abbott & Co. having subsequently dis- solved, about the time Mr. Townsend became of age, he was taken into partnership in the new firm of Wood, Bacon & Co., where he continued until the acquisition of a large interest in the Cambria Iron Company by Richard D. Wood and his brother, Charles S. Wood, when in 1855 the firm of Wood, Morrell & Co. was organized and he became an active partner in it. The Cambria Iron Works were situated at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and this concern was organized to lease the works and carry on the business of making iron rails, and to purchase the stock with the idea of ulti- mately reorganizing the company. Of the six part- ners that composed the firm, three took the active management of the business, namely : Charles S. Wood, Edward Y. Townsend, and Daniel J. Mor- rell. In 1857 the rolling mill was destroyed by fire, but the firm immediately rebuilt it and con- tinued the business until 1861, when, one of the purposes of the partnership being carried out by the purchase or control of all the stock of the old
Cambria Iron Company, that corporation was re- organized, Charles S. Wood becoming president, Edward Y. Townsend vice-president, and Daniel J. Morrell general manager. The company was one of the earliest to become interested in the Bessemer patent for making steel, and gradually increased the capacity of the works until it became one of the largest producers of steel rails in this country. Upon the death of Charles S. Wood, in May, 1873, Mr. Townsend was elected to the presidency of the company, which he held up to the time of his decease. In this wide field of use- fulness his remarkable business qualities had ample scope, and they were eminently successful. With the assistance of an able board of directors, and by careful, conservative management, he was enabled to reduce the floating debt and to place the establishment on a sound financial basis, and in this way it was able to withstand and recover from the destructive flood of 1889 without em- barrassment. That great disaster was an especial shock to Mr. Townsend's kindly and sympathetic nature, and one from which he never fully recov- ered, as so many of his workmen and their fami- lies were swept away. When the news of the dis- aster reached him he hurried from his home, ac- companied by a personal friend, Mr. J. Lowber Welsh, to the residence of Mayor Fitler, where he met in consultation several members of the Citizens' Permanent Relief Committee of Phila- delphia. Day after day his entire time and atten- tion were absorbed by the company affairs, and his energy in getting the works started again helped to restore confidence in the future, which was almost as much needed as food, clothing or shel- ter. He donated generously to various worthy charities, and was ever ready and willing to counsel and help those who came to him for ad- vice and assistance, and thus his death was sin- cerely mourned by all classes of men.
Mr. Townsend first became a resident of Montgomery county in 1868 when, with his wife and two sons, he came to spend the summer at Haverford. Five summers were thus spent by the family until Bryn Mawr was formed, when they passed two summers at the hotel erected there by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In
48
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
1874 Mr. Townsend purchased a few acres on Merion Avenue, where he enjoyed his summers, and five years later he purchased the adjoining property owned by the Tilghmans and extending along Montgomery Avenue, making about thir- teen acres in all, in the middle of the new settle- ment of Bryn Mawr, on the north side of the rail- road. The property was mostly unimproved farm land, and Mr. Townsend spent considerable time and money in grading it and having it cultivated and planted with rare trees, which now, after thirty years of growth, are monuments to his memory. There was an unsightly dam in the middle of the place on Montgomery Avenue, and he arranged with the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany when widening the cut at Bryn Mawr to have the earth hauled in to fill up the low places, thus greatly improving the appearance of the place, and the creek which before flowed through the land was placed in a deep culvert. The only positions held by Mr. Townsend were director- ships in the boards of the Philadelphia National Bank and the Philadelphia Trust and Safe De- posit Company. His political affiliations were with the Republican party. He was brought up in the Society of Friends, but of late years at- tended the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Nineteenth and Walnut streets, Philadelphia.
Edward Y. Townsend married Henrietta M. Troth, daughter of Henry and Henrietta Troth, the former named having been an honored and public-spirited citizen of Philadelphia. Their chil- dren are Henry T., and John W. Townsend.
HENRY TROTH TOWNSEND, of Lower Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania, eldest son of Edward Y. and Henrietta M. (Troth) Townsend, was born October 1, 1851.
He was educated at private schools in the city of Philadelphia, and in 1870 he graduated from the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, taking the degree of Mechanical Engineer. In 1872 he was elected treasurer of the Logan Iron and Steel Company, which position he held for ten years, when he was elected president of the company. After a continuous service in that capacity for
twenty-two years and a service of thirty-two years in all with the same company, he declined a re-election as president in January, 1903, al- though continuing to serve as a director. For a number of years he has served as a director in the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company, in the Bryn Mawr Hotel Company, and in the Phila- delphia National Bank. Mr. Townsend is a mem- ber of the council of the Philadelphia Board of Trade. He also holds membership in the Merion Cricket Club, the Art Club of Philadelphia, the Engineers' Club, the Church Club, and the Amer- ican Institute of Mining Engineers.
Mr. Townsend was married, in 1874, to Maria Potts, daughter of Robert S. Potts, a member of an old Montgomery county family, residents of Pottstown, and they immediately settled at Bryn Mawr, where they have since continued to reside. They are the parents of one son-Edward Y. Townsend-and three daughters.
JOHN W. TOWNSEND, vice-president of the Cambria Steel Company, whose works are lo- cated at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 29, 1855. He is a son of the late Edward Y. and Henrietta M. (Troth) Townsend.
John W. Townsend graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1875, and three years later was given the degree of Master of Arts. He entered the office of the Cambria Iron Com- pany after leaving college, and is now in his thir- tieth year of continuous service in that company, and of the lessee company-the Cambria Steel Company-serving now in the capacity of vice- president and a member of the boards of both companies. Mr. Townsend became a voter in Montgomery county shortly after attaining his majority, residing at Bryn Mawr eight months of the year, and the remainder of the time he re- sides at No. 2103 Walnut street, Philadelphia. Upon his marriage, which occurred in 1881, his father built for him the stone house on the north side of Montgomery Avenue, near Merion Ave- nue, Bryn Mawr, in which he resided until 1902, when the needs of a growing family necessitated his building the larger house in which he now
James K. Thomson
49
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
lives. It is west of his old house, both houses being on the old Tilghman property purchased by his father in the year 1879. In the early days of the history of Bryn Mawr, Mr. Townsend took a deep interest in its development and welfare, col- lecting the subscriptions and arranging for the macadamizing of a portion of Montgomery Ave- nue, which was then only covered with gravel. He also devoted considerable time to the societies which in the early days were formed to attend to the general care and needs of the neighborhood. The deep interest he has always taken in literary and scientific matters is evidenced by the fact of his holding membership in a number of societies and clubs, among which are the following : Frank- lin Institute, Engineers' Club, Historical Society, Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, Horticul- tural Society, Foresters Association, Genealogi- cal Society, Philobiblon Club, University Arch- aeological Society, Archaeological Institute of America, Academy of Fine Arts, Contemporary Club, University Club, Rittenhouse Club, Penn Club, Church Club, and the Merion Cricket Club. He is a member of the Board of College Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, of the Church Club, a director of the Young Men's Christian As- sociation of Philadelphia, and has been for many years a vestryman of the Church of the Holy Trinity, at Nineteenth and Walnut streets, Phila- delphia.
Mr. Townsend married Mary S. Sharpe, daughter of Charles A. and Marianna S. Sharpe, and their children are: Charles S., a graduate in the class of 1904, University of Pennsylvania ; Edith, a graduate of the Ingleside School, at New Milford, Connecticut ; John W., Jr., a member of the class of 1907, University of Pennsylvania ; Stockton, a member of the class of 1905, Episco- pal Academy ; Roger R .; and Richard L. Town- send.
JAMES K. THOMSON. The Thomsons are an old1 family in Norriton township. Hannah Thomson kept the Jeffersonville Hotel in 1784 when Montgomery county was created. The dlate stone in the western wall shows the in- scription, "A. T., 1765," the initials being those
of the builder, Archibald Thomson, who was a colonel in the Revolutionary war. Colonel Thomson's grandfather, also Archibald, on March 23, 1742, purchased of the Isaac Norris estate one hundred twenty-six and one-half acres of land, and in 1743, of Samuel Norris, ninety acres. He died September 17, 1746, in his sixty-eighth year, leaving a widow, Rebecca, and the following children : Robert, James, Sam- uel, Archibald, Moses, Martha and John. Re- becca died in 1748.
Robert Thomson, the eldest son, had pur- chased land five years before his father, as well as two other tracts later. These tracts are all located in Norriton, Jeffersonville Hotel stand- ing in their center. He died August 6, 1747, in his fortieth year. His wife's name was Mary, and his children were: Archibald (Colonel), Mark, James, Martha, Agnes, and Rebecca. Robert Thomson's widow afterwards married Robert Curry, a neighbor. She died April 9, 1804, aged ninety-seven years, her husband hav- ing died ten years previously. Of the children of Robert Thomson, Mark settled in Sussex county, New Jersey ; James married Sarah Falconer and settled in Chester county ; Martha married James Sheppard and settled in Plymouth ; Agnes mar- ried Thomas Darrah and settled in Bucks county ; Rebecca married William Darrah and settled in Bucks county. Archibald Thomson married Hannah Bartholomew. - Having built the hotel, he secured a license as an innkeeper in 1766. He took a very active part in the Revolutionary war, but like other members of his family he died early,-on November 19, 1779, in the thirty- ninth year of his age. His wife and seven chil- dren survived him, as follows: Sarah, Robert, Joseph, Mark, Benjamin, Archibald and Mary. His widow conducted the inn after his death. She died November 4, 1789.
Benjamin Thomson (grandfather) married Elizabeth Stroud, and they had a large family of children. She lived to a great age, and was known as Aunt Betsy Thomson, dying in 1878, at the age of one hundred and two years. Among the children of Benjamin and Elizabeth Thomson was James, who married Susan Keel.
1
50
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
Their children were: John A., deceased, Mark, a well-known resident of Norristown; Archibald D., who died in 1880; Samuel, who died young ; James K .; Emma Margaret, who died young ; and Charles H., who lives in Roxboro.
James K. Thomson was born January 27, 1844, at Laurel Hill, Philadelphia, where his parents were residing at that time. His father died in May of the same year, from the accidental running of a hemlock sliver under his finger nail while he was unloading a barrel of flour from a wagon. His wife had died a month previous.
The earlier years of James K. Thomson were spent on a farm, he attending the schools of Ply- mouth township, in which he resided. From 1871-75 he was engaged in mercantile business at 128 East Main street, Norristown, being most of the time with Ambrose Dettre. He was mar- ried March 9, 1875, to Annie Ramsey, they com- mencing married life on the Herberner farm, near Hickorytown, now occupied by Orlando Rex. Later he occupied the Vail farm, and for a time served milk in Norristown. Another farm he occupied was that of James Loeser, the farm which he now owns. From 1883-1886 he occupied the Harley farm and for the next three years the Sylvester Zimmerman farm in Whit- pain. In 1890 he returned to the Rhoads farm where he now lives, purchasing it in March, 1903, after having occupied it thirteen years. It con- tains seventy-seven acres of good land and a house which was erected in 1775 and is still in good condition, having been very substantially built. The couple have one child, Mary R. Thomson, born May 18, 1877. Mrs. Thomson is a daughter of Michael S. and Mary Holgate (Rodenboh) Ramsey. She has a brother, Wil- liam H. Ramsey, who lives in Norristown, and a sister, Mary J., in Upper Providence. Her father died in 1857, and her mother in January, 1899, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.