USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 11
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JOSHUA KIMBER, eighth child of Joshua and Rachel, born December 31, 1835, at Flushing, Long Island ; he was educated at Westtown Boarding School, So- ciety of Friends, Pennsylvania. He married, in Flushing, in May, 1870, Mary Gove Peck. He was ordained deacon in 1869, and priest in 1873, by Bishop Littlejohn of Long Island. He began his ministry as assistant in St. George's Church, Flushing. He was rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Richmond Hill, Long Island, which parish he erected in 1874-76. He occupied the posts of local secretary, assistant treasurer, secretary for Foreign Missions and sec- retary of the board of managers of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary So- ciety of the Protestant Episcopal Church from 1867 to 1885, since which time he has been associate secretary. He served for three years in the Civil War as hospital steward in the 165th New York Volunteers (Second Duryee's Zouaves), and is now a vice-president of the Society of the Nineteenth Army Corps, and chaplain of the Veteran Association of his Regiment, and of Alfred M. Wood Post, No. 398, G. A. R. Before the Civil War he was a chemist and druggist. His only child, Robert Bootman Kimber, is a clergyman, born in 1871, B. A., Columbia College, 1891, B. S., General Theological Seminary, 1894. He married in the same year ( 1894), Genevieve L. Tyler. He was ordained deacon in 1894, by Bishop Littlejohn, and ordained priest in 1895, by Bishop Whitehead, of Pittsburgh, acting for Bishop Williams, of Connecticut. He was rector of Trinity Church, Seymour, Connecticut, for six years, and assistant to his fath- er for two years ( 1900-02), and since that time has been superintendent of the New York City Missions Society of the Episcopal Church. He is a member of the Philadelphia Society and of the City and Columbia Clubs.
In passing, it is to be said that, as the Kimbers were members of the Society of Friends they seemed to have no Revolutionary history. As a matter of fact, however, on the roll of Revolutionary Soldiers, appear the names of two Kim- bers of Newburgh, New York, apparently not of the same family.
It is interesting to note in this narrative that the first Joshua Kimber's cousin,
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Thomas Kimber, of Philadelphia, was also his foster brother-their mothers having died, they were brought up by the same man. Thomas Kimber was for many years a member of the firm of Kimber & Sharpless, of Philadelphia, who brought out a very early American edition of the Bible. It was recorded in the public prints a short while since that a much earlier edition was brought out in America with an English imprint, but, so far as is known, the Kimber and Sharpless edition is the first bearing the city of Philadelphia as a place of publi- cation. Thomas Kimber had eight children, all of whom became well-known, and one of them, Thomas Kimber Jr., born in Philadelphia, in 1825, died at Richmond Hill, Long Island, December 23d, 1890, leaving no issue. He was a minister of the Society of Friends.
In connection with the work of Rev. Joshua Kimber, we here present a state- ment of the development of the missionary work of the Church in the United States of America :
The first steps toward organized missionary work by the Church were taken when the General Convention of 1820, holding its sessions in St. James's Church in the city of Philadelphia, during the month of May, formed a constitution of a Missionary Society for Foreign and Domestic Missions, which constitution was afterwards found to be inefficient from an irregularity in the choice of the trustees. This necessitated the call for a special meeting the following year, 1821, which was held in St. Peter's Church, in the city of Philadelphia, and the error of the previous meeting rectified by the adoption of a constitution of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
There had been prior to that time, however, individual attempts at mission work, but nothing of an organized character. Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, and Bishop Smith, of South Carolina, as far back as 1795 were instrumental in kindling missionary enthusiasm and in establishing missionary societies in their respective spheres of labor . Bishop Griswold gave still greater impetus to the cause by his earnest heartfelt appeals in its behalf. It remained, however, for the General Convention of the Church to seriously take up the matter, and to declare openly her true missionary character. This she did at that memorable meeting held in the city of Philadelphia in October of that year (1821), when the bishops and clerical and lay deputies adopted a constitution for the Domes- tic and Foreign Missionary Society.
At that time (1821), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington were foreign territory. To-day these great areas cov- ering over 1,000,000 square miles are parts of the United States, and are all embraced within recognized and clearly defined episcopal jurisdictions, the Church being represented in them by eight organized dioceses, eight missionary districts, having sixteen bishops, 432 clergy, and 52,958 communicants. Of the twenty-six States that constituted the Union in the year 1821, only nine had organized dioceses. At the present time (1910), the twenty-six States have be- come forty-nine, to say nothing of Alaska and our foreign possessions, with a population passing the 90,000,000 mark. Within these States the Church to-day is represented by sixty-eight fully organized dioceses, each with its own bishop, some having besides its diocesan, a coadjutor bishop or a suffragan bishop, and twenty-one missionary districts presided over by their missionary bishops.
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In 1823 the Society sent out its first domestic missionaries-one to Florida, and the other to Wisconsin. But progress was exceedingly slow during this nas- cent period. The Church lost ground from a lack of episcopal oversight. The territory requiring the ministrations of a bishop was immense. Some idea of the vastness of the field may be obtained from the fact that in 1829, eight years after the organization of the Society, at the request of the Board of Directors, the Bishop of Connecticut (Brownell) made a visitation through the states lying south and west of the Allegheny Mountains-this included Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and the then terri- tories of Florida, Arkansas, Michigan and Missouri. The Bishop was occupied some four months in making this visitation, and found that in all this vast stretch of country only twenty congregations in communion with this church, having only eleven church buildings, and but twenty-three Episcopal clergymen. Compare this situation with the state of the Church today-covering this same area we have twenty bishops, 791 clergy, and 138,152 communicants, together with a great number of school and other parochial institutions.
The year 1835 marked another era in the missionary activity of the Church. The General Convention of that year meeting in the city of Philadelphia, and continuing its sessions for thirteen days, with its fourteen bishops in the House of Bishops and sixty-three clerical and fifty-one lay deputies in the lower house, took a great step forward when it declared that every baptized member of the Church was henceforth to be considered a member of the Missionary Society, and that the field of labor was not confined to parochial or diocesan boundaries, but was the whole world. With this broader vision of the Society's opportunity and responsibility, there came the conviction that the Church itself was the Missionary Society, and that every baptized member of the Church was by virtue of that sac- rament a duly constituted member of that missionary enterprise, and as such pledged to its support and co-operation. This new vision gave impetus also to sending forth of missionary bishops who should be the leaders in these vast fields where our Church was as yet unrepresented. The first to be elected were the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, for the State of Louisiana and territories of Arkan- sas and Florida, and the Rev. Jackson Kemper for the States of Missouri and In- diana. The latter became the great pioneer bishop of the Northwest. From 1844 to 1859 he exercised episcopal functions over Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne- sota, Kansas, and Nebraska-a region that today commands the ministrations of eleven bishops, in nine organized dioceses, and two missionary districts. But a bishop in those days was a prelate for a State, and one cannot but smile when he thinks how the active wide-spread work of Bishop Kemper contributed to demol- ish the idea that the limitations of States have to do with the operations of the Church.
From this time forth, the missionary spirit, thus awakened, grew in power year by year, broadening thought, deepening love, and quickening zeal. From 1835 to 1855 eleven organized dioceses were established, and 33 bishops were con- secrated, of whom eight were missionary bishops, five domestic and three foreign. From 1856 to 1875, fourteen organized dioceses were established, and 52 bishops consecrated, of whom sixteen were missionary bishops, thirteen domestic, and three foreign. Look at the field today, with its sixty-eight dioceses, twenty- three missionary districts, in charge of its 105 bishops, 5,286 clergy, and 928,-
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780 communicants; with its missions in Africa, Brazil, China, Japan, Cuba, Mexico and Haiti, representing nine missionary districts, each with its own bishop, and with combined staff of 82 foreign and 149 native clergy ministering to 12,787 native communicants.
Who would have believed that in the space of seventy-five years this Church would have planted her banners from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the northern boundaries of the United States to the extreme southern boundaries; yes, and stretching far up into Alaska, even into the Arctic circle, and crossing the great oceans, setting up her altars in the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands, in Africa, China and Japan, in Cuba and Porto Rico, in the Republics of Bra- zil and Haiti.
Yet the vision which the Church saw in 1835 contemplated nothing less. State limitations melted away before the burning splendor of a world wide con- quest for Christ and His Church. Narrow parochialism gave place to an ever increasing and significant conviction of the brotherhood of man. And, as hori- zon after horizon faded away before the onward march of the Church, and more money was required to meet the increasing demands which the ever grow- ing work required, the money was forthcoming. In 1835 the church gave to Domestic Missions $18,758, and to Foreign Missions, $24,549; in the year 1910 the Church gave to Domestic Missions $637,699, and to Foreign Missions, $737,- 161. From 1835 to 1910 the Church contributed to Domestic Missions $15,335,- 592, and to Foreign Missions $12,801,494, making a total of $28, 137,087.
HON. GEORGE FRANKLIN HUFF
HON. GEORGE FRANKLIN HUFF, the present member of Congress from the twenty-first district of Pennsylvania, whose home is in Greensburg, is the son of George Huff (III), and was born July 16th, 1842, at Norristown, Pennsylvania. The history of the Huff (originally von Hoof) family, is closely identified with that of Berks county as to its settlement in America. Their ancestry is traced in the following from the European List of Heraldry and Genealogy in the Vienna Library, as translated by Gottleib Hausser, of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
"ORIGIN OF THE GENEALOGY OF THE VON HOOF FAMILY,
its first historical notoriety, and further circulation from authentic sources."
The generation of von Hoof is originally traced to have resided in Bavaria, where it did in olden times belong to the Knighthood, free from duties to the Empire. It had its permanent estates near the City of Passau. It is noted in the Vienna tables of genealogy as a generation which was famous amongst the Bavarian Knighthood and nobility and the first ancestor was Baldwin von Hoof, who dwelled in his own castle, so called from the ancient Knights, and he lived in the castle and estate Hoof, situate near Passau. The emblem in his shield consisted of a cross-log, signifying that his ancestors were princes. At his hel- met he wore an emblem resembling a flower pot, a lily reaching out from it, which denoted that he was of French extraction. This is the origin of the heraldic emblem of this generation, and the emblem yet existing can be traced to these tokens on shield and helmet. The maiden name of Baldwin's wife was Isabelle von Stolberg. Baldwin came to his death in the first crusade in the month of July, A. D., 1099, whilst taking part in the storming of Jerusalem. He only left one son, whose name was Waldemar, who also took part in the crusade, but escaped with his life and safely arrived in Germany. After fighting for several years as a brave Knight in the Orient, he united himself in the bonds of matrimony with Julia von Helmhorst, and the Duke of Bavaria appointed him governor of the City of Augsburg. Waldemar died A. D. 1154, and left their sons, Julius, Ernst and Wolfgang von Hoof. Julius took possession of the family castle, but his generation died out and ceased to exist already in the fourteenth century. Wolfgang preferred the divine profession, and died as Bishop of Ortia in Italy.
Ernst was a warrior, and served for a long time in the army of the German Emperor, Fredericus Barbarossa, who, in consideration of his services, endowed him with an estate in the Valley of the Rheims, Lower Suavia, and who also re- newed the old title of nobility and emblematical heraldry, confirmed by letter and approved, as can be seen in the record of Heraldry in the City of Vienna, and this document, which has been issued in Mayence in the year 1172, is re- newing the above title of privileges. Ernst flourished in Lower Suavia, and his posterity is found up to the year A. D. 1348, but in that year they fell vic- tims of an epidemic disease which had come from Asia, and was like a pestilence,
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commonly called the "black death," and only one, Rudolph von Hoof, remained alive, but the original estate was already in other hands, and Count Eberhard der Greiner, of Würtemberg, employed him as woodranger. He was stationed at Aichelberg, and his wife's maiden name was Mechtilde von Stadion. He died in Schorndorf at a very old age in 1394, and left four sons, but only one of them, Elias von Hoof, married, a Christine Junginger. He purchased an estate in the vicinity of Schorndorf, and lived there with his wife a very peaceable life. He did not regard his old title of nobility, and his descendants followed the culture of grapes and husbandry.
In the Peasants' War all the sons of Hoof lost their lives in the battle at Boebelingen, except Claudius, who was subsequently magistrate at Pleidelsheim. He was married to Anna Maria Gessler of Besigheim, and died, well advanced in years, A. D. 1567. His two sons' names were Johann Anton and Jacob Fried- rich von Hoof. Johann Anton's descendants removed to Graubuendten during the Thirty Years' War, and from that time no account could be had of them.
Jacob Frederick settled down in Besigheim as merchant and innkeeper, and married Elizabeth Dieterich. He died in the year 1602. His son Justus von Hoof served in the Spanish Army for a long time and also took an active part in the campaigns in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, and finally settled down in the City of Lauffen, on the Neckar, where he married Gertrude Loeffler. He died in the year 1652, and left three sons, whose names were Conrad, Wil- helm and George von Hoof. The descendants of these sons have spread over Wurtemberg and Baden and one of them, Wilhelm, owing to a great famine which was prevailing in Wurtemberg in 1771, moved away and emigrated, no doubt to America, but no certain accounts of the further fate of the family could be obtained.
(I) JOHN FREDERICK VON HOOF, son of Paul von Hoof, was born in Berlin, Germany, July 8, 1734, and when a young man emigrated to America. On Oc- tober 25, 1757, he was married to Susanna, a daughter of John and Mary Eliza- beth Keim. He was a farmer by occupation and a Lutheran in religion. Not regarding the family title he dropped the von and since 1840 the name in Amer- ica has been spelled "Huff." John Frederick Hoof died April 26, 1816, and was buried in the old graveyard on Rauch's farm on the road leading from Seisholtz- ville to Huff's Church, the latter being in Herford township, Berks county. His wife, Susanna, died May 12, 1809, aged 69 years, and was buried in the same place. By their marriage the following children were born: Frederick, George, Henry, Susanna, with other sons and daughters. Susanna was married to Abra- ham Mensch, of Herford township.
(II) GEORGE HUFF, son of John Frederick, and the grandfather of the Hon- orable George F. Huff, of Greensburg, was born August 1, 1779, at Huff's Church. He was a farmer and a hotel keeper and of the Lutheran religious faith as had been his father. He was married to Anna Mull, by whom the following named children were born: Lydia, married James Bartram; Hettie, married Charles McNulty ; Maria, married David Sassman ; and George. George Huff (II), was liberal in his donations to the Church, and gave the premises upon which was built Huff's Church and also the land used for burial purposes. He died February 24th, 1845.
(III) George Huff (II), son of George Huff (III), was born at Huff's Church
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in 1813. He was married to Caroline Boyer and they were the parents of George Franklin Huff. He was a merchant and first lived at Huff's Church, and in 1840 moved to Norristown, and from there to Middletown, in Dauphin County, and five years later removed to Altoona, Pennsylvania. He died in 1858.
The maternal genealogy of Hon. George F. Huff is as follows:
(I) Michael George Kuhns (Kunzen-Koons) left Germany and arrived in Philadelphia on September 27, 1727, and purchased a tract of land adjoining that owned by Ludwig Englehart in Montgomery county. On April Ist, 1732, he was married to Eva Englehart. The last will of Ludwig Englehart sets forth among other things, the following: "Also the seven children of my sister, Eva, wife of George M. Kuhns, namely, Frederick; Mary, wife of John Stelles; Margaret, wife of Johannes Reimer; Susanna, wife of John Ludwig Reimer ; Catharine Kuntz, wife of Michael Kreps; and Elizabeth, wife of Jacob Seaber (Zeiber)." George M. Kuhns died in Montgomery county August 10th, 1759, and Eva, his wife, died at the same place June 27, 1772.
(II) Catharine Kuhns, daughter of George M. and Eva Kuhns (I) was born February 9, 1750, at "The Old Tavern," in Montgomery county. She was married to Michael Kreps and they were the parents of eight children. Michael Kreps was born January 23, 1744, and died April 20, 1791. After his death his widow married James Reichard (Richard) and died January 6, 1814, and was buried at Swamp Church in Montgomery county. The chil- dren born to them were: Catharine, Henry, Eliza, John, Jacob, Sarah, Hannah and Philip.
(III) Sarah Kreps, daughter of Michael and Catharine Kuhns-Kreps (II) was born February 28, 1784, at New Hanover Square, Montgomery county, in a house that was erected in 1754 and is still standing. On March 3, 1800, she was married to Henry Boyer, by whom she bore the following children : Michael Boyer, born July 10, 1801, and died December 21, 1886; Catharine, born Janu- ary 23, 1803, married to John Rhoads and died in September, 1883; Elizabeth, born September 29, 1804, married first to John Gressmer, on whose death she was married to J. Weidner. She died November 23, 1850. Sarah, born Feb- ruary 3, 1807, married Jacob Allebach, and died October 13, 1859; Henry, born June II, 1809, married Nettie Shilling, and died November 17, 1858; Jacob, born December 21, 1811, and married Lucy Ludwig, and died March 17, 1858; Hannah, born December 5, 1813, married Dr. Charles F. Sellers, and died March 20, 1882; Maria, born June 13, 1816, married Marshall B. Campbell, died October 12, 1862; Caroline, born September 5, 1817, married George Huff, III, and died February 3, 1876; Philip, born October 27, 1820; Angeline, born February 12, 1822, married Rev. Frederick W. Dechant, and died February 4, 1890.
(IV) Caroline Boyer, daughter of Henry and Sarah Kreps-Boyer, born Sep- tember 5, 1817, was married to George Huff and became the mother of Hon. George F. Huff. At the date of her marriage her father was Steward of the County House of Berks county, at Shillington Post Office. Politically he was a Democrat. His father, Jacob Boyer, was born in 1754 and resided in Perkio- menville, Montgomery county. He had eleven children, including Henry. Ja- cob Boyer died February II, 1796.
Henry Boyer, born October 19, 1778, was married to Sarah Kreps, March
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13, 1800, and died March 18, 1857. He was buried in Boyertown cemetery. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, representing Berks county in the years 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, and again in 1831. He was the early founder of Boyertown, laid out lots there in 1835, and was instrumental in having it in- corporated in 1851.
Michael K. Boyer, brother of Caroline Boyer-Huff, was born in 1801 and was also a member of the Legislature from Berks county in 1836. He was Prothonotary of the same county in 1848, and was again in the Legislature from Jefferson county in 1855. He held a position in the Land Department in Washington, D. C., and died December 21, 1886.
(IV) GEORGE FRANKLIN HUFF, son of George and Caroline Boyer-Huff, is widely known as one of the most enterprising and public spirited men in West- moreland county, and is closely identified with nearly all of its many industrial and financial enterprises. When four years of age he accompanied his parents to Middletown, where he attended the public schools until 1851, when his par- ents moved to Altoona. There he attended the public schools until seventeen years of age, when he entered the car shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany at Altoona and learned the car finisher's trade. So faithful and true to every duty was he that three years later he was, without solicitation on his part, highly recommended by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to a banking house in Altoona, that of William M. Lloyd and Company. He accepted the position and in 1865 his employer sent him to Ebensburg to establish a bank there. He succeeded remarkably well and a year later was re-called to Altoona.
In 1867 he removed to Greensburg, where he established the banking house of Lloyd, Huff and Company, known as the Greensburg Deposit Bank, and having branches at Latrobe, Irwin, Mount Pleasant and Ligonier. The panic of 1873 caused these several institutions to go out of business, but their proper- ty paid their full indebtedness with interest.
In 1871 Mr. Huff established the Farmers' National Bank of Greensburg with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. He was its first president and remained as such until 1874, when he became the active manager of the house as its cashier under General Richard Coulter as president. By Act of Congress the bank was reorganized as the Fifth National Bank of Pittsburgh, Mr. Huff being elected its vice-president, which position he held until 1876, when he re- signed. In 1874 he, with others, organized the Greensburg Banking Company, which soon became a leader in the rural banking business of Western Pennsyl- vania. He was cashier of this bank until 1887, during which time through his untiring efforts and business sagacity, a very large volume of business was se- cured.
In 1881 the First National Bank of Greensburg was chartered, and Mr. Huff became one of its most potent directors, which position he still retains. Since then the First National Bank has absorbed the Greensburg Banking Company, and has now a larger deposit and surplus than any other institution in the county.
Mr. Huff also became largely interested in the coal and coke industry of Westmoreland county. He was the prime mover in organizing the Greensburg Coal Company, the Alexandria Coal Company, Mountain Coal Company, the Argyle Coal Company, the United Coal and Coke Company, the Mutual Mining
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and Manufacturing Company, the Manor Gas Coal Company, the Madison Coal Company, the Salem Coal Company, the Latrobe Coal Company, Carbon Coal Company, and several others. Most of these companies were since consolidated in the Keystone Coal and Coke Company, of which Mr. Huff is president. It and the companies with which he is connected, employ about 7,500 men and produce now in the neighborhood of six millions of tons of coal per year, or twenty thousand tons per day. He was also one of the organizers of the South- west Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the main line of which passes through the Connellsville coking coal region, he being its treasurer until the offices were removed to Philadelphia. He was one of the founders of the Greensburg Elec- tric Street Railway Company, the Greensburg Fuel (artificial and natural gas) Company, and the Greensburg Steel Company. He was formerly president of the Greensburg Electric Light and the Westmoreland Water Companies.
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