USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 26
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William Churchill and Jane (Smith) Houston had five children, viz: two sons, George Smith Houston, of whom presently, and William Churchill Hous- ton, Jr., who settled in Philadelphia, and was prominently identified with the business interests of that city until his death; and three daughters, Elizabeth, Louisa Ann, and Mary.
GEORGE SMITH HOUSTON, eldest son of William Churchill and Jane (Smith) Houston, was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He moved to Dayton, Ohio, in or about the year 1810, and became associated in business there with his brother- in-law, Horatio Gates Phillips, one of the leading merchants of the West. In 1814, he was elected cashier of the Dayton Manufacturing Company, the first banking institution of that section, afterwards known as the Dayton Bank, holding that position until his death. He was appointed a postmaster of the town on the death of his relative, Benjamin Van Cleve, the first postmaster of Dayton, and held that position for the remainder of his life. In 1820, Mr. Houston was elected recorder of deeds at Dayton, and in December of that year became editor and proprietor of the Dayton Watchman, which continued
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until November, 1826, when he sold his interest in the newspaper on account of ill health. There are few records of public meetings held at Dayton, after George Smith Houston made his home there, of which he was not sec- retary. He was president of the "Bachelor's Society," one of the first societies of a social nature in Dayton, until his marriage, and was also president of the Moral Society. He died in 1831, after a long illness.
George Smith Houston, married, in 1815, Mary Foreman, of a prominent New Jersey family, and they had three children : George Smith Houston, Jr., who died young; William Churchill Houston, (3), of whom presently ; and one daughter, Eliza Houston.
WILLIAM CHURCHILL HOUSTON (3), son of George Smith and Mary (Fore- man) Houston, was born in Dayton, Ohio, September 2, 1816. He came to Philadelphia at an early age, to live with his uncle, William Churchill Houston (2), a prominent and wealthy merchant of that city. He entered the Law- renceville Preparatory School, at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, preparatory to en- tering Princeton College, but his impatience to engage in business outweighed his desire for a college education, and he entered the counting house of his un- cle, where he obtained that knowledge of business which enabled him to estab- lish himself later as a prosperous merchant. Early in the 60's, Mr. Houston re- tired from active business and for the remainder of his life devoted himself to those public and private institutions of which he had become a member.
He was president of the Union League Club; director of the Girard Na- tional Bank; director of the Delaware Mutual Fire Insurance Company ; trus- tee of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company; trustee of the Divinity School; manager of the Protestant Episcopal Hospital; manager of the How- ard Hospital ; manager of the Beneficial Building Association ; manager of Bed- ford Street Mission; an inspector of the Philadelphia County Prison; treasurer of the Evangelical Education Society; manager of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad Company ; manager of the Western Savings Fund; director of the Philadelphia Warehouse Company; and manager of the Mercantile Beneficial Association. He was prominently connected with the Protestant Episcopal church, filling the position of vestryman of the Church of the Atonement, Phila- delphia, and St. James Church, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he made his summer home, and where he died, April 19, 1896.
William Churchill Houston (3) married Mary Bartholomew Solms, daugh- ter of Joseph Solms, who settled in Philadelphia, in 1808, and a descendant of an ancient German family, one branch of which emigrated to France, where Count Frederick Solms, a nephew of Joseph Solms, above mentioned, married the Princess Marie Bonaparte Wyse, granddaughter of Lucian Bonaparte, Prince of Canimo, and grandniece of the Emperor Napoleon. Another nephew, Count Edward Solms, returned to Germany and was for several years Private Secretary to the King of Würtemberg, but afterwards returning to France, and married a daughter of General Count Von Bentzon. Count Frederick Solms visited his relatives in Philadelphia, shortly after his marriage. He died soon after his return to France.
WILLIAM CHURCHILL HOUSTON (4), son of William Churchill and Mary Bartholomew (Solms) Houston, was born in Philadelphia, November 26, 1850. He received his early education and prepared for college at private schools and
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entered the University of Pennsylvania, college department, in 1868, graduating in the class of '72. He early affiliated with important financial and business en- terprises and received a thorough training in the management of large business interests, and has been called upon to fill high official positions in a number of important corporations. He was president of the Produce National Bank of Philadelphia; director of Norfolk & Western Railroad; president and director of the Lynchburg & Durham Railroad Company; and a director of the Citi- zen's Railway Company of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mr. Houston has been for many years president of the Hope Mill Manufac- turing Company, of Philadelphia, which owns and operates a number of cotton mills in the Southern States. On May 1, 1905, he became a member of the prominent banking firm of Charles D. Barney & Company, 122 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia, a firm prominently identified with the financial activities of Philadelphia from its organization in 1873, and was connected with that firm until his retirement, July 1, 1907. He is a director of the American Writ- ing Paper Company and of the International and Mortgage Bank, of Mexico, and identified with a number of other financial and industrial enterprises. His wide experience in business and financial activities has been of an eminently val- uable and practical character, and through his close and intimate connection with various important interests, he enjoys a wide and extended acquaintance in financial and business circles, while his social qualities have secured for him a warm and sincere friendship in the different walks of life.
Mr. Houston is a member of the Rittenhouse, Racquet, Union League, Ger- mantown, Philadelphia Cricket, Country, and St. Elmo Clubs; a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Delti Phi Fraternity; the Society of Colonial Wars; Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution; the Military Order of the Foreign Wars; and the Netherland Society of Pennsylvania.
William Churchill Houston (4) married, June 28, 1875, Helena, daughter of William Hunter Jr., of Philadelphia, and his wife, Rosalie C. Allan, of Balti- more, Maryland, and they have two children : William Churchill Houston (5), born July 14, 1876; and Ethel Houston, born June 29, 1879. The latter mar- ried, February 27, 1904, John Barclay DeCoursey, and has one child, John Bar- clay DeCoursey Jr., from December 17, 1904.
CHARLES MALCOLM McCLOUD
CHARLES MALCOLM McCLOUD, of Philadelphia, is a descendant of one of the most active patriots of Philadelphia in Revolutionary days, and in the maternal line from ancestors, who were among the first settlers in the vicinity of the City of Brotherly Love and active in Colonial affairs. His mother Elizabeth Knight Conard, born in 1830, was a daughter of Charles Conard, by his wife Margaret, born May 31, 1809, died March 23, 1877, and a descendant of Thones Kunders, otherwise Dennis or Tunis Conard, who with his wife and family constituted one of thirteen families from Crefeld on the Rhine who crossed the Atlantic in the ship "Concord," in the autumn of 1683, and founded the first German colony in Pennsylvania, at Germantown, of which town Tunis Cunard was one of the first burgesses as well as one of the most prominent in all matters pertaining to the settlement. From his four sons, Cunard, Matthias, John and Henry, have descended a vast progeny now widely scattered over Pennsylvania and other states, who spell the name variously as Conard, Connard and Conrad. Many of the family have been prominent in the affairs of Philadelphia and adjoining counties.
Giles Knight, the paternal ancestor of Margaret (Knight) Conard, above mentioned, and his wife Mary (English) Knight, came from Nailsworth, Glou- cestershire, England, and were fellow passengers with William Penn, the great founder of Pennsylvania, in the "Welcome", which arrived in the Delaware river in October, 1682. They were accompanied by Mary's father, Joseph Eng- lish, who had purchased of William Penn prior to embarkation from England five hundred acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. This land was laid out in a long, rectangular tract extending northward from Poquessing creek, in what became Byberry township, Philadelphia county, by virtue of warrant of survey dated December 18, 1683. Joseph English, who was a widower on com- ing to America, married, in 1684, Joan, widow of Henry Comly, of Bucks coun- ty, and settled in that county, where he died "ye Ioth of ye 8mo. 1686." One- half of the Byberry tract became the property of his son Henry English and the other half was patented to Giles Knight, for whom it was no doubt origi- nally intended, and his name is marked thereon on Holme's map, "Begun in 1681."
The early meetings of Friends in Byberry were held alternately at the houses of Giles Knight and John Hart, and after the defection of John Hart and many of his neighbors through the Kethian trouble of 1692, the meeting was located permanently on land of Henry English, adjoining that of Giles Knight, and the latter was one of the most prominent members thereof. He later purchased the Tibby tract, lying next to his original plantation on the west, and also the Thom- as Cross plantation, lying next to Tibby's (both marked on Holme's map), mak- ing him the largest landholder in Byberry. He was prominent in public affairs but did not so far as we can learn "serve many years in the Assembly", as asserted by many of his biographers. He was granted a certificate by Abington Month-
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ly Meeting in 1719 to pay a visit to his old home at Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, "outward business requiring his personal appearance there." He died October 20, 1726, aged seventy-three years, and his widow Mary (English) Knight died September 24, 1732, aged seventy-seven years.
Joseph Knight, eldest son of Giles and Mary (English) Knight, was born in Gloucestershire, England, some two years previous to the emigration of his parents to Pennsylvania, about the year 1680. He married, at Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, in 1715, Abigail Antill, who had recently arrived from Nails- worth, Gloucestershire, England, the native place of her husband, bringing a cer- tificate to Philadelphia Meeting from the Monthly Meeting at Nailsworth, dated March II, 1713-14.
Joseph and Abigail Knight removed on their marriage to Gloucester county New Jersey, but on the death of his father returned to Byberry and settled on a part of the old homestead there which he had inherited. He died April 26, 1762, and his widow Abigail (Antill) Knight died November 19, 1764. They left two children, Giles and Mary.
Giles Knight, born in New Jersey, January 17, 1719, married (first), in 1737, Elizabeth, daughter of Abel James. She died in 1766, leaving him ten children, and he married (second) Phebe Thomas, by whom he had six children. On his marriage, in 1737, Giles Knight settled in Bensalem township, Bucks county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a man of high standing in the community and took a prominent part in public affairs. He was elected one of the commissioners for Bucks county in 1754, and served for three years and in 1760 was elected to represent the county in the Provincial Assembly and regularly reelected until 1766, when he retired, but was again elected in 1769. A man of fine appearance and abundant means for his day, he belonged to the aristocratic, office-holding class of Colonial days, and was of well-known integri- ty and sound judgment. He died in 1799, leaving a will dated June 24, and proved August 5, 1799.
Israel Knight, fourth son and youngest child of Giles Knight (2) by his first wife, Elizabeth James, was born in Bensalem, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 4, 1760, and resided there all his life, dying January 31, 1810. He was a prominent member of the Society of Friends and took an active interest in pub- lic affairs. He inherited the homestead in Bensalem and was a man of large means for his day. In 1804, when the new country on Black river, in Oneida and Lewis counties, New York, was attracting the attention of settlers, he vis- ited that section and purchased four hundred and forty acres of land there, on which some of his children settled.
Israel Knight married, November 26, 1782, Sarah Tyson, born September 26, 1758, died April 8, 1824, daughter of Isaac Tyson, of Baltimore, Maryland, born in Abington township, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1718, and removed to Gunpowder, Maryland, 1783, and his wife Esther Shoe- maker, born at Shoemakertown, Cheltenham township, Philadelphia county, April 2, 1732, died at Baltimore, Maryland, September 8, 1796.
Reynier Tyson, grandfather of Isaac Tyson, was one of the original settlers of Germantown, and was connected through the marriage of his sister to Jan Streypers, one of the original purchasers of the land for the settlement of the German colony in Pennsylvania, with a number of the actual settlers; the wife
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of Tunis Kunders, before mentioned, was a sister to Jan Streypers. Reynier Tyson was born in Germany about the year 1659, and became a Friend prior to his emigration to Pennsylvania. He was named as one of the original incorpor- ators of Germantown in the charter granted by William Penn, August 12, 1689, and served as burgess, 1692-96. He purchased two hundred and fifty acres of land in Abington township in 1701 and settled thereon and spent the remainder of his life there, serving as an elder of Abington Monthly Meeting from 1725 until his death, on September 27, 1745, and its representative in the Quarterly Meeting for many years. He and his wife Mary had nine children.
Matthias Tyson, eldest son of Reynier and Mary Tyson, was born in Ger- mantown, August 31, 1686, died in Abington, in 1727. He married, in 1708, Mary, daughter of John Potts, of Llaniloss, Wales, who after his death mar- ried (second) Thomas Fitzwater, a prominent merchant of Philadelphia. Isaac Tyson, above mentioned, the ancestor of the Baltimore branch of the Tyson fam- ily was the seventh of the ten children of Matthias and Mary (Potts) Tyson. He married Esther Shoemaker, on March 26, 1748-9, and until their removal to Maryland in 1783 resided in Upper Dublin township, Philadelphia county, where their children were born.
George Shoemaker, the great-grandfather of Esther (Shoemaker) Tyson, left Kreigsheim, on the Upper Rhine, with his wife Sarah and seven children, and embarked in the ship "Jeffries" for Pennsylvania, but died on the voyage, the family landing at Philadelphia, March 20, 1685-6. His widow, Sarah Shoemak- er, purchased two hundred acres of land in Cheltenham, at the site of the present borough of Ogontz, long known as Shoemakertown, where many gener- ations of the family were reared.
George Shoemaker, eldest son of George and Sarah Shoemaker, was born at Kreigsheim, Germany, in 1663, and accompanied his mother to Pennsylvania in 1686. He married, February 14, 1694-5, Sarah, daughter of Richard Wall Jr. and Rachel his wife, and granddaughter and legatee of Richard Wall Sr. and his wife Joanna (Whell) Wall, who had come from Gloucestershire, England, in 1682, and settled in Cheltenham, where he took up six hundred acres of land. Richard Wall is supposed to have been the elder brother of Nicholas Wall, the prominent Friend, many years a member of Pennsylvania Assembly, first from Bucks county and later from Philadelphia, some account of whom and his de- scendants is given in these volumes. Richard Wall was likewise a prominent man; the earliest meetings of the Friends, later constituting Abington Monthly Meeting, were held for many years at the house of Richard Wall in what is now Ogontz. His whole estate was devised to his granddaughter Sarah Shoe- maker at his death in 1699.
George Shoemaker operated a tannery in Shoemakertown and was one of the largest landowners in Cheltenham township, where he died in 1740. His (first) wife Sarah Wall had died in 171I, and he married (second) Christiana Brown, who survived him. He had by his two wives thirteen children and his descend- ants have been prominently identified with the affairs of Philadelphia and vicin- ity to the present time.
Isaac Shoemaker, the father of Esther (Shoemaker) Tyson, was the second son of George and Sarah (Wall) Shoemaker, and was born at Shoemakertown, October 27, 1700. He inherited that part of the homestead on which stood the
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old house erected by his great-grandfather Richard Wall, in which the early Friends Meetings were held, part of which is still standing near the old York road, at the upper end of the borough of Ogontz, constituting part of the res- idence of Joseph Bosler Esq. Isaac Shoemaker married Dorothy, daughter of Bartholomew Penrose, the first ship-builder of Philadelphia, by his wife Esther Leech, daughter of Toby and Esther (Ashmead) Leech, of Cheltenham; a wo- man of uncommon business ability, who after the death of her husband Isaac Shoemaker, October 23, 1741, erected on the property at Shoemakertown the grist and flour mills long known as Shoemaker's Mills. She died August II, 1764, leaving her estate to her six surviving children, of whom Esther Tyson was the fifth. Her youngest son George, a prominent merchant of Philadelphia, had died a few months before her without issue.
Abel James Knight, eldest son of Israel and Sarah (Tyson) Knight, was the father of Margaret (Knight) Conard, before mentioned, and the great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch. He was born in Bensalem township, Bucks county, August 25, 1783, and died in Philadelphia. He married, January 17, 1806, at the Northern District Friends Meeting House, Philadelphia, Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac and Jane Donaldson, of Philadelphia, and granddaughter of Arthur Donaldson and Elizabeth Kaighn.
Arthur Donaldson, the great-great-grandfather of Charles Malcolm McCloud, was born in Philadelphia, November 24, 1734, and died there, 1797. He was a ship carpenter and naval engineer, and when the Commitee of Safety of Penn- sylvania were considering plans to prevent an attack on Philadelphia by water presented under date of July 11, 1775, an elaborate plan for the obstruction of the channel with chevaux-de-frise, etc., with draughts of his proposed work. This plan was accepted by the committee and they by resolve dated March 12, 1776, employed him to superintend the making and launching of the chevaux- de-frise and authorized him to procure such assistance, funds, provisions, ma- terials, etc., as should be needed and drew an order on their treasury in his fav- or for six hundred pounds. The Navy Board on March 22, 1776, issued fuli instructions to him with reference to sinking the chevaux-de-frise in the river, printed in full in Volume I of the Second Series of the Pennsylvania Archives page 103, which conclude as follows :
"As we consider this service of very great importance to the State, we recommend it to you to pay particular attention to the duties of it, and to lose no time in providing those things that are necessary for the undertaking. Proper Vessels will be provided for you and the Commanding Officer of the Fleet directed to assist you with any reasonable number of men you may want. * * * and whenever any difficulty occurs in the execution of your duty, the Navy Board will always be ready to give you their assistance."
Again in 1784, when the merchants of Philadelphia presented a memorial to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania requesting that the obstructions be removed, the council under date of May I, 1784, entered into articles of agreement with Levi Hollingsworth, merchant, and Arthur Donaldson, both of Philadelphia, to remove the chevaux-de-frise placed by Donaldson in the river in 1776, agreeing to pay them the sum of six thousand pounds in four equal instalments, as the work progressed and was completed, respectively. Their report to the council on October 28, 1784, shows that they had removed the forty-seven chevaux-de-frise contracted for and fourteen others in the eastern channel, for which they received one hundred pounds for each one removed,
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under a resolve of council dated September 24, 1784. The report of the pilot employed to sweep the river and report obstructions discovered shows that the work was entirely under the superintendence of Arthur Donaldson. Holl- ingsworth was doubtless included in the contract to strengthen the financial re- sponsibility under the contract. Documents in possession of his family show that Arthur Donaldson was marked for arrest and punishment for his part in the works of defence when the British secured possession of Philadelphia "an officer and detachment of soldiers are detached to bring him to headquarters, dead or alive" were the instructions of the British officer. He, however, es- caped across the river to New Jersey in a boat that was fired on by the troops sent to arrest him.
Arthur Donaldson married, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, September 15, 1763, Elizabeth Kaighn, granddaughter of John Kaighn, the first settler on Kaighn's Point, now Camden, New Jersey, by his second wife, Elizabeth.
John Kaighn came to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, from "The Isle of Man", when a lad, and in 1687, when he purchased land in Monmouth county, New Jersey, was an apprentice to the trade of carpenter with Thomas Warne. He remained in Monmouth county but a few years after that date, and in 1692 married Ann, widow of Walter Forrest, one of the earliest settlers of Byberry, and for a time resided at Byberry, Philadelphia county, purchasing the four hundred and sixty acres at Kaighn's Point in 1696. He died in 1724, leaving two sons, John and Joseph.
Isaac Donaldson, son of Arthur and Elizabeth (Kaighn) Donaldson, mar- ried, at Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia, November 8, 1784, his cousin Jane Donaldson, and they were the parents of Elizabeth Donaldson, who married Abel James Knight, above mentioned.
MALCOLM McCLOUD, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Philadelphia, 1830, and was the son of John and Rachel (Stacy) McCloud and grandson of John McCloud Sr., who came to Philadelphia in 1793, from Inver- ness, Scotland. Malcolm McCloud married, in 1850, Elizabeth Knight Conard.
CHARLES MALCOLM McCLOUD, son of Malcolm and Elizabeth Knight (Con- ard) McCloud, was born in Philadelphia, April 19, 1859. He was educated at the public schools of the city, graduating from the Central High School in 1875. He engaged in mercantile pursuits, and is senior member of the firm of Charles M. McCloud & Co., manufacturers of and dealers in textile fabrics, yarns, etc., at 229 Chestnut street. Mr. McCloud is also interested in a number of other manufacturing enterprises ; is president of the Huston Manufacturing Company at Chester, Pennsylvania, and of the Malcolm Mills Company, Frankford, Phil- adelphia, the Eden Manufacturing Company, at Langhorne, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and the Providence Mills Manufacturing Company, at 55th street and Girard avenue, Philadelphia. He is a director of the Northern Na- tional Bank, and a member of the following patriotic and social organizations : the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution; the Union League; Philadel- phia Country Club; Corinthian Yacht Club; and St. Andrew's Society.
He married, November 20, 1884, Linda C. Johnston, daughter of Hiram and Eliza (Gautier) Johnston, and they reside at 1705 Spruce street.
Mr. and Mrs. McCloud had issue, two children, Malcolm Johnston McCloud, born July 1, 1888, died March 24, 1908; and Robert Alastair McCloud, born June 20, 1889.
B. FRANK HART
The late B. Frank Hart, of Philadelphia, was a representative of a family prominent in Colonial and Revolutionary times in Philadelphia and vicinity, many members of which filled positions of public trust from the founding of the colony to the present day.
JOHN HART, the founder of the family in America, was a son of Christopher and Mary Hart, of Witney, county Oxford, England, where he was born No- vember 16, 1651. By deed dated July 16, 1681, he purchased of William Penn one thousand acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania, and bringing a cer- tificate from the Monthly Meeting of Friends at Witney, Oxfordshire, dated April 10, 1682, he and his sister Mary migrated to Pennsylvania.
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