USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 80
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Enoch Clapp, son of Lieutenant-colonel Ebenezer and Mary (Glover ) Clapp, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, August 6, 1790, died in Philadelphia, May 7, 1877. He married, June 11, 1812, Mary Tyson, born September 4, 1785, died March 18, 1858, daughter of Elisha Tyson, and a descendant of the well-known Tyson family of Philadelphia and vicinity.
Elizabeth Howe Clapp, daughter of Enoch and Mary (Tyson) Clapp, born May 17, 1814, died November 13, 1876, married, January 16, 1839, William Jackson, born August 9, 1811, died May 16, 1891, and they were the parents
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of Mary Clapp Jackson, born September 16, 1842, who on September 1, 1864, became the wife of Isaac Hallowell Clothier, above mentioned. Mary Clothier Heyl, is a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in right of her great-great-grandfather Colonel Ebenezer Clapp. She is also a member of the Acorn and Civic Clubs of Philadelphia.
Mr. and Mrs. William Esher Heyl reside at Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. They have three sons :- William Esher Heyl, (2), born August 26, 1893 ; Isaac Clothier Heyl, born January 13, 1897; and Bernard Chapman Heyl, born June 7, 1905.
MAGEE FAMILY
The Magee family, representatives of which became identified with Philadel- phia in the decade following the close of the American Revolution, are of Scotch- Irish origin; belonging to that vast army of Scotch covenanters, the founders of the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland, who in the latter part of the seventeenth century sought refuge from religious persecution in the northern counties of Ire- land, from whence many of them migrated to America, principally to Pennsyl- vania and the Carolinas, during the period between 1720 and 1800. The Magees were among those who remained in Ireland for several generations. In the middle- of the eighteenth century, we find them settled at Rathmullen, in the extreme northernmost part of County Donegal, Ireland, just southwest of Scotland, from whence their forebears had migrated less than a century before.
MICHAEL MAGEE, the founder of the family in Philadelphia, was born in Rath- mullen, County Donegal, Ireland, and received a fair English education in the excellent schools that have always been maintained under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, wherever its loyal supporters established colonies, it being a well-known historical fact that the church and school went hand in hand into the wilderness of America with the sturdy Scotch-Irish pioneers, and this cus- tom had its inception in the first alien home of the Scotch covenanters in the north of Ireland. Michael Magee was married by the Rev. William Gamble, pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, at Letterkenny, Ireland, in 1785, to Frances Mac Adoo, of Rathmelton, County Donegal, and resided at Rath- mullen until 1792, when he came to Philadelphia, and found employment as a book-keeper in the offices of the iron-works of Leedom & Lawrence; his wife Frances, and daughter Lydia, following prior to 1796. The family united with the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where they were regular attend- ants. Three other children, Elizabeth, James and Michael, (2), were born in Philadelphia. Michael Magee died in Philadelphia, December 31, 1804. His wife survived him nineteen years, dying in December, 1823.
MICHAEL MAGEE, (2) youngest son of Michael and Frances (MacAdoo) Magee, was born in Philadelphia, February 27, 1805, nearly two months after the death of his father, and was reared and educated in that city. He early became connected with and was later a partner in the firm established by his elder brother James Magee, and the lives of the two brothers so closely asso- ciated, much of their property and business interests being held in common, that any sketch of Michael Magee and his descendants would be very incomplete without some account of this elder brother.
James Magee, eldest son of Michael and Frances (MacAdoo) Magee, was born in Philadelphia, December 5, 1802, and was therefore but little over two years of age at the death of his father. At an early age he became connected with the firm of Peter Dickson & Company, manufacturers of saddlery, harness, etc., at Market and Decatur streets, and became thoroughly familiar with the business.
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In 1824, he and George Taber purchased the southern branch of the trade of the firm, at New Orleans, and organizing the firm of Magee & Taber, established their manufacturing establishment on Market street near Fourth, later removed, under the firm name of M. Magee & Company, to 24 and 26 Decatur street. This firm had only been established one year, when it was awarded a medal by the Franklin Institute for the general excellency of the goods manufactured. This was the first medal ever awarded to that branch of industry. The branch estab- lishment, at New Orleans, for the sale of the goods in the south, long in charge of Michael Magee, the younger brother of James, who became a member of the firm soon after coming of age, was most successful, though remotely situated from the base of supplies, and carried on, on a system of long credits and barter. In the early twenties, a trip from Philadelphia to New Orleans, by the sailing vessels in which their goods were shipped consumed thirty-five days. This branch of the business was for a time in charge of George Taber, the junior member of the firm, a member of the Society of Friends, and he has related that a num- ber of their customers were Indians, who like the other customers of the firm frequently received a long credit on the goods purchased, yet a bill was never lost through the dishonesty of the red men. The successful outcome of the south- ern venture led the firm to invest largely in land in the southern states. In 1841 they purchased over 3,000 acres in Scott county, Mississippi, and about 1846, 4,000 acres in Wilburger county, Texas. James Magee retired from the firm in 1847, and became interested in the building of the Pennsylvania railroad and other enterprises. He was one of the committee of seven appointed at a town-meeting held in the Chinese Museum, in April, 1846, to set forth to the public the advantage of building the road and of its early completion, and to secure funds for that purpose. This committee collected from the merchants of Philadelphia the first subscriptions, on which was based the organization, of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. A historian of the corporation writes:
"Old residents who remember those days say that James Magee was the father of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The company formed in 1846 had a hard struggle to get a charter and after it had passed the legislature, Governor Francis Shunk refused, for some time to sign it, and Mr. James Magee, during the later years of his life took great pride in telling how in a personal interview, he prevailed upon Mr. Shunk to sign the act of incorporation."
Mr. Magee was one of the first board of directors, and continued as such for many years. He was also a director of the Harrisburg, Lancaster, Portsmouth & Mount Joy Railroad; and founded the Westmoreland Coal Company, to this day one of the most successful coal companies in Pennsylvania. After the close of the civil war, Mr. Magee gave much time and aid to Dr. Emanuel, of Vicks- burg, Mississippi, president of the Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad Company, in rehabilitating that road. During the later years of his life James Magee was a member of the vestry of St. Stephen's church. He died in Philadelphia, Novem- ber 3, 1878. He married, July 5, 1830, Caroline Axford Kneass, who was a great-great-granddaughter of John Hart, Signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. They had seven children: Caroline Lydia, Elizabeth Jane, Fanny Sarah, James Ronaldson, Horace, Frank Hamilton, Ann Justina.
Michael Magee, as above stated, became associated with his brother in the firm of Magee & Taber, and later, on the retirement of James Magee, was senior
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member of the new firm of M. Magee & Company. He represented the firm in the New Orleans sales department, where the goods manufacturd in Phila- delphia were distributed among the sugar and cotton planters of that section, and spent most of his winters in the South, usually coming North during the summer months, as New Orleans was at this time very unhealthy, fevers pecu- liar to that semi-tropical climate and the low marshy location being prevalent, and he at one time contracted yellow fever there. During the war of the rebel- lion the entire stock of the firm, then Magee & Kneass, was confiscated by the Confederate government, but it was returned when General Butler took command of the city. During the Mexican war, the firm received large orders from the United States government for saddles and other equipment in their line, for the troops sent to Mexico. In 1848, Michael Magee erected his residence, No. 1418 Arch street, said to have been the first dwelling erected on the south side of Arch street between Broad street and the Schuylkill. Here he resided until his death on October 8, 1884.
During 1850 and 1851, Michael and James Magee purchased a three-hundred- acre farm, in what was once known as the Welsh tract, just north of Wynne- wood and Narbeth stations, on the Pennsylvania railroad, part of 612 acres, patented to John Thomas, April 1, 1682. This- three-hundred-acre tract, most of which is still in its primitive condition, is yet owned by the Magee family.
Michael Magee married, March 31, 1831, Catharine Horter, born in Gwynedd township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1807, who died Janu- ary 3, 1899, aged ninety-two years, having at the time of her decease, nine living great-grandchildren. She was of German ancestry, a daughter of George and Catharine (Wise) Horter ; and granddaughter of Jacob and Magdalena (Rausch) Horter, and of John and Catharine Wise, all of Germantown and vicinity, and great-granddaughter of Johan Nicholas Rausch, prominently identified with the affairs of Germantown before the middle of the eighteenth century.
Johan Nicholas Rausch, born in the little province of Hesse, in 1704, emigrated to America at the age of thirty-five years, arriving at Philadelphia in the ship "Glasgow," from Rotterdam, Walter Sterling, master, September 9, 1738, with 348 other passengers from the Palatinate, one of whom bearing the name Johan Bernhard Rausch, aged 24, was probably his brother. Johan Nicholas Rausch, was a spinner of wool, or as it was called in his native country in those days, "blaufärber" i. e. "blue dyer", in the little village of Bettenhousen, just outside of Cassell, of which a modern traveller and historian has written: "The little country of Hesse itself was too poor in fertile land and material wealth to sup- port a large town; forty per cent of its area is covered with woodland; the little mountain villages in whose cottages the loom is heard rattling, are surrounded by wide stretches of meadow and pasture land."
Cassell, in the time of the American Revolution, was the capital of the Elec- torate of Hesse, and it was here that Prince Frederick II, built his most costly gardens, fountains and cascades, with money derived from hiring 12,000 of his liege subjects to England, to aid her in subduing the rebellious American colon- ies, struggling for national independence. Quite a number of the Palatine set- tlers in and around Germantown were spinners and weavers in their native country and followed that vocation after their settlement in Pennsylvania. Nich-
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olas Rausch purchased part of Lot No. 14, of the Frankfort Company's land, Feb. 17, 1741, on the north side of the Germantown road, that had been owned in 1714 by Peter Shoemaker. He was a member of the German Reformed Church, and had married in Hesse, Anna Charlotta, maiden name unknown, who with their daughter, Maria Magdalena, born December 18, 1734, and possibly their eldest son Isaac, accompanied him in the "Glasgow," to Pennsylvania. They became members of the Reformed church at Market square, Germantown, and when the synods of the Reformed church in Holland sent inquiries as to the location and condition of the Reformed churches in Pennsylvania, with a view of sending funds to assist in their maintenance, the following reply was received from the congregation at Market Square ;- as translated into English :-
"Owing to dissensions caused by all kinds of sectarian persons the Germantown Church is in a very pitiable condition. However, if the Germantown and Whitemarsh congregations can be united, Ten Pounds, Pennsylvania money can be collected annually for a pastor's salary.
Signed as members of the congregation, by,
JACOB BAUMAN, JOHANN NICKLAUS RAUSCH."
Germantown, 18th March, 1740.
In letters written by the Rev. Michael Schlatter, from Pennsylvania to the Synod of South Holland, dated September 28 and October 3, 1746, he states that he had preached at Germantown and that 82 male members of the church there, whose names are in the Holland archives, had subscribed £34 towards sal- ary, and among the larger subscriptions is that of "Nicol Rausch, £I." "Johan Nicolaes Rausch und Heus frau Scharlotta Rauschin" were sponsers at the baptism of "Schalota Gensel" at St. Michael's Church, Germantown, February 24, 1743. Nicholas Rausch died in Germantown, Philadelphia, October 18, 1757, aged 53 years and 9 months; his will signed October 15, 1757, has attached to the signature, the Rausch family crest, a swan, in a double octagon. The inven- tory of his estate, a horking loom, spinning wheel, shuttles, spools and other weaving tools and stock; 66 pairs of stockings, wool, woolen yarn, and a clock with case valued at fio. His widow Anna Charlotta Rausch, survived him many years, dying May 19, 1794, aged 88 years. Johan Nicholas and Anna Charlotta Rausch had six children :- Maria Magdalena, and Isaac before mentioned; Anne Elizabeth, married Johan Jacob Gerber; John; Matthias; Nicholas; Isaac married Anna Dekhler, July 14, 1768.
George Jacob Horter, the paternal grandfather of Catharine (Horter ) Magee, is believed to have been born in Spiers, on the river Rhine. He arrived in Phil- adelphia in the ship "Phoenix," John Mason, master, from Rotterdam, Septem- ber 15, 1749, and married, at the German Reformed church of Germantown, July 18, 1753, Maria Magdalena Rausch, the eldest child of Johan Nicholas and Anna Charlotta Rausch, above mentioned, who was born in Bettenhousen, Hesse Cas- sell, December 18, 1734. On the records of St. Michael's and Zion Church, Philadelphia we find the baptism of their eldest child, Johannes Horter, on the same day as his birth, December 27, 1755; the sponsors being the grandparents, Niclaus and Charlotta Rausch; the other nine children were all born and baptised in Germantown. Jacob Horter, as his name is signed, was a farmer and either purchased or came into possession of, through his wife, a large tract of land in
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Germantown, on the Main street, where he resided until his death, August 16, 1806. His wife died October 1, 1796.
George Horter, son of George Jacob and Maria Magdalena (Rausch) Horter and the father of Catharine (Horter ) Magee, was born September 14, 1769, on his father's farm on Main street, Germantown, where now stands the house No. 6643, Germantown avenue. January 31, 1793, he married Catharine Wise, and at about that time removed to Gwynedd township, where he engaged in the milling business, purchasing the grist and saw mill owned by Peter Trokel in 1777. He died in Philadelphia about 1840, and his wife Catharine (Wise) Hor- ter, died June 8, 1843, aged 70 years.
John Wise, the father of Catharine, wife of George Horter, was a resident of Roxboro, Philadelphia county, now city, in 1774, purchasing on March 12, of that year, of George Hocker, a grist and saw-mill on the Wissahickon creek, with a plantation of 821/2 acres of land in Whitpain and Upper Dublin townships, now Montgomery county. In the deed for these properties he is named as "John Wise of Roxboro, Miller". The mills purchased in 1774 were in the present town of Ambler, and were conveyed to George Hocker, April 22, 1768, by Lewis Reynear. After the death of John Wise, in 1803, they were purchased by his son Joseph, who operated them until September 9, 1813, when they were sold to Jacob Reiff. April 1, 1796, John Wise and his son-in-law George Hor- ter, purchased from Jacob Gorgas, son of John Gorgas, the original owner, a grisť mill and 25 acres of land in Roxboro, on the Wissahickon, where Oil Mill Run flows into the Wissahickon at Gorgas Lane. This mill, it is said, was burned down twelve times in a period of one hundred and fifty years. It was in this mill that John Wise was killed, July 21, 1803. An account of the accident was published in Poulson's American Advertiser, for July 27 is in part as follows :
"MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT .- On Thursday last Mr. John Wise, a reputable miller on the Wissahickon Creek 8 miles from the City, in examining the spindle of the trammel wheel in the mill when in motion, his head was caught between the great cog-wheel and wollowers, which after closing, upon it gave sufficient space for his body to pass below. His son who was near the mill observed the works to be deranged and closed the water- gate and on searching for the cause found his father's body."
The son mentioned in the above account, was John Wise, (2), who was a part- ner with his father in the operation of the mills, the firm name being John Wise & Son. John Wise (2), to whom letters of administration were granted on his father's estate, purchased in 1806, a merchant and a grist mill with 80 acres of land, on both sides of the Wissahickon, one mill being in Germantown and the other on the Roxboro side, just above Green Valley Inn. The Wise Mill road connecting them with Chestnut Hill and Roxboro. These two mills were success- fully operated by John Wise, Jr., until about 1830. He sold the old Gorgas Mill to Peter Adams, April 1, 1812.
John Wise, married in 1772, Catharine - - -, and they had three sons and two daughters, Catharine, married George Horter and Ann, married William Streeper. Jacob Wise, the youngest son, purchased the Stony Creek mill in Nor- ristown, in 1813. John Wise (1), was, in 1777, a member of Fourth Batallion, Philadelphia militia, commanded by Col. William Dean.
JAMES FRANCIS MAGEE, son of Michael and Catharine (Horter) Magee, was
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born in Philadelphia, June 5, 1834. He graduated from the Central High School. in 1850, and in 1855 received the degree of Master of Arts from that institution. In 1852 and 1853, he was a surveyor in an engineering corps in the employ of the Subury & Erie Railroad Company. In 1853-4, he studied chemistry in the. Booth Laboratory, Philadelphia. April 20, 1855 he sailed from New York im the "Washington," a side-wheel steamer, for Bremen, and entered the Univer- sity Georgia Augusta, at Gottingen, to study chemistry, under Professor Wöhler, and in 1856, continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg, where there was, at the time, quite a colony of American students. He returned to Phila-
delphia, and in 1858, engaged in the manufacture of photographic chemicals, at 108 South Fifth street, with S. S. Garrigues, under the firm name of Garrigues & Magee. In 1861, the firm became James F. Magee & Co., which continued to 1877, when Mr. Magee sold out to Phillips & Jacobs, and retired from active business. James F. Magee was an elder in the Arch Street Presbyterian Church from 1870 until his death in 1903; treasurer of the Presbyterian Home for Single Women, and Trustee of the Presbyterian Hospital. In 1901, he was a delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church held in New York city. He was also a member of the St. Andrew's Society. James F. Magee married December 1, 1859, Cynthia Ann Jarden, at the home of the bride's parents, 1907 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, the ceremony being per- formed by the Rev. Albert Barnes, LL.D. She was a daughter of Samuel and Cynthia Eunice (Whiting) Jarden, and was born in Philadelphia, June 19, 1837. Up to the time of her marriage she had attended the First Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, with which the Jarden's had been connected for many years. After her marriage she took an active interest in the charities and missions of the Arch Street church. She died March 30, 1904. Her husband, James F. Magee, died October 4, 1903. The James F. Magee Memorial chapel at 60th and Wal- nut streets, dedicated June 14, 1904, as well as a free bed in the Presbyterian hospital, were endowed in memory of James F. Magee, and his wife Cynthia Ann (Jarden) Magee.
Robert Jarden, great-grandfather of Cynthia Ann (Jarden) Magee, was a resi- dent of the District of the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia and married, Jan- uary 15, 1763, Christiana McCammon, or McCalmont as the name was usually spelled later. She was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and supposed to have been a daughter of Alexander McCammon, an early Scotch-Irish settler in Bucks County. They were members of the First Presbyterian church and are buried in the sec- tion reserved for that church in the Old Pine street church-yard at Fourth and Pine streets, where their tombstones record that Robert Jarden died, December 10, 1803, aged 74 years and 4 months; and Christiana, April 21, 1811, in her 76th year. In deeds recorded in Philadelphia, his name is sometimes written as "Jordan." Robert and Christiana (McCammon) Jarden, had at least five chil- dren, viz :- Margaret, born 1769, married, August 1I, 1788, Solomon Maag; Samuel Jarden, of whom presently; Mary, married James Killigan; Alexander Jarden, born May 25, 1773, married Rachel and had three children, Julia married Joseph S. Kite, Elizabeth married Daniel Leinau, Alexander (2), died without issue; William, born 1777, died November 14, 1823, leaving a widow Mary.
Samuel, son of Robert and Christiana (McCammon) Jarden, and
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grandfather of Cynthia Ann (Jarden) Magee, was born June 9, 1770. He was a builder and plasterer, and owned considerable real estate in Philadelphia, includ- ing houses on Arch, Race and Spruce streets. He resided near Eleventh and Race streets, in the Northern Liberties, and died, July 17, 1817, leaving a goodly estate for that time. He married, as shown by the records of Old Swedes Church, September 1, 1791, Catharine, daughter of Jacob and Maria (Peltz) Maag. She was born in 1774 and died December 7, 1855, surviving her husband over thirty-eight years. They were members of the First Presbyterian church, where their children were baptised, and are both buried in the Old Pine street graveyard at Fourth and Pine streets.
Samuel, son of Samuel and Catharine (Maag) Jarden and father of Cynthia Ann (Jarden) Magee, was born in Philadelphia, July 7, 1802. In early life he established a stone-yard on Race street, below Tenth, later he was associated with his brother Jacob Jarden in the establishment of the successful business long carried on by the Jarden Brick Company. After 1845, Samuel Jarden was a real estate agent and built in 1856, the house No. 1907 Chestnut street, where he resided until his death, July 6, 1864. He married, December 27, 1827, Cyn- thia Eunice, daughter of Nathaniel and Cynthia (Richardson) Whiting, of whom later. She was born in Philadelphia February 18, 1803, and died there November 23, 1882.
Henry Maag, grandfather of Catharine Maag who married Robert Jarden, above mentioned, was born in Zurich, Switzerland, July, 1722, and came to Phil- adelphia with his parents as a child. There were at least twelve male adults bearing the name of Maag, who arrived in Philadelphia, between September II, 1732, and October 20, 1752. He was doubtless a minor son, under 16 years of age, of one of the earliest of these arrivals. He is known to have had a brother Conrad Maag, born 1731, and a sister Barbara, who married Samuel Sivert, January 17, 1764.
There is a very interesting account of the migration of a large company of prospective emigrants to the Carolinas, from Zurich to Rotterdam, under the leadership of the Rev. Mauritus Goetschy. Among these was Hans Maag, of Hochfelden, with five in his family, and Johannes Maag of Hochfelden, with three in the family. They left Zurich, October 5, 1734, and after many hard- ships reached Rotterdam, where they were stranded for some time, while Goet- schy negotiated with the Holland synods for his own betterment in America. Some of them returned to Switzerland, some crossed over to England and the residue eventually came to Philadelphia in the ship "Mercury", which arrived May 29, 1735. The Maags were among those, who according to a circumstantial account of the expedition and the emigrants, went to England, and they probably came from there to Philadelphia some years later.
It is very probable that Heinrich Maag was a relative, if not one of this fam- ily. The first record we have of him is a purchase of 50 acres of land, August 18, 1749, from Thomas Livezly, in Oxford township, Philadelphia county, near Frankford, and, October 8, 1760, land adjoining Trinity church. His daughter Anna Elizabeth was baptised at the First Reformed church, October 16, 1759; and his brother Conrad's daughter, Barbara, was baptised at the same church, December 7, 1762, at the age of three weeks, the record of the latter baptism stating that Conrad Maag was of Zurich, and that the sponsors, or god-parents
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