USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 39
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Colonel Mann's able administration of the office of prosecuting attorney for eighteen years brought him high honor. He resumed the general practice of his profession in 1868, and was equally successful as a counsellor and had charge of many important cases, notably that of the contested election cases of 1868, when the Republican contestants won their seats largely through able, logical argument and careful preparation of their case by Colonel Mann. The Even- ing Telegraph, of February 16, 1870, in commenting on the decision of Justice Agnew in favor of the contestants, rendered the day previous, gives great credit to Colonel Mann for the successful termination of the case, and concludes, "We doubt very much if there is any lawyer in this country who in cases of this character, possess the genius for concentration and presentation of facts which is the characteristic of Hon. William B. Mann". Colonel Mann continued the practice of law until 1876 when he was elected prothonotary of the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia, a position he continued to fill until his death, Octo- ber 17, 1896.
Colonel William B. Mann married, April 17, 1839, Margaret Knox Ketler, who was born at Norristown, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1821.
WILLIAM CANER WIEDERSEIM
WILLIAM CANER WIEDERSEIM EsQ., is the son of Major William Augustus Wiederseim, who rendered distinguished services in defense of the Union dur- ing the Civil War, and participated in many of the more important engagements. He enlisted in Philadelphia, August 4, 1862, in the One Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was commissioned second lieutenant, being promoted to first lieutenant, May 1, 1863, and to captain of Company D on April 3, 1864, serving in that capacity until mustered out with the regiment, June 19, 1865.
The One Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment was mustered into service and ordered to Washington, September 19, 1862, and a month later joined the Army of the Potomac, and from that time was in the forefront in hard-fought battles of the war. In the "Light Division" under General Russell it led the attack on the enemy at Salem Church, in May, 1863, and lost many men in a heroic struggle against a greatly superior force. During June, 1863, it was engaged on the Rappahannock, and on July I marched in haste to the relief of Gettysburg. Arriving on the field in the afternoon of July 2, it took part in the defence of Little Round Top during the 3rd and 4th, and on the 5th took the advance in pursuit of the retreating enemy. The regiment received the con- gratulations of General Meade, and high praise "for gallantry displayed in the assault on the enemy's intrenched position of Rappahannock Station, which resulted in the capture of four guns, two thousand small arms, eight battle flags, one bridge train and one thousand prisoners", November 7, 1863. It next served with distinction in the Mine Run campaign, in the Wilderness, at Chan- cellorsville, and with special distinction at Spottsylvania Court House, losing two successive commanders in the "Bloody Angle" and "Slaughter Pen", and more than half of its fighting force in the series of engagements from May 5 to May 12, 1864. It passed through the fiery ordeal of Cold Harbor, served under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, General Russell being killed at the battle of Winchester ; unaided dislodged the enemy at Petersburg; and joined in the pursuit that ended with Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Major Wiederseim married Katharine Louise Blanchard, who was of early New England ancestry.
Thomas Blanchard came from Andover, England, in the ship "Jonathan", which sailed from London, April 12, 1639. He was accompanied by his second wife, Agnes (Bent) (Barnes) Blanchard, her mother, Agnes (Gosling) Bent, and four sons by a former marriage. His wife died when fifteen days out from London, and her aged mother died on board the vessel just outside of Boston harbor, her body being brought ashore and buried. Depositions made several years later evidence the loving care and attention bestowed by Thomas Blanch- ard on his venerable mother-in-law, "Goodie" Bent.
Thomas Blanchard settled first in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where he resided until 1646, removing thence to Braintree, and subsequently to Malden, where he
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died May 21, 1654. He married a third wife, Mary, who survived him many years. By his first wife he had four sons who accompanied him to America : George, born 1622, died 1700; Thomas, born 1625, died 1650; Samuel, born 1629, died 1707; and Nathaniel, born 1636, died 1677.
There seems to be a difference of opinion as to which of these four sons was the father of Joshua Blanchard, through whom the subject of this sketch traces his ancestry to Thomas Blanchard, of Andover, the founder of the family in America. The Charlestown Genealogies make him a son of George, the eldest son of Thomas, by his wife, Hannah Hills, but recites a contest over the estate of his father in which the name of Joshua does not appear as one of the contest- ants. The Essex Antiquary makes him second son of Samuel Blanchard, who was born in England, August 6, 1629, lived in Charlestown, Massachusetts, until about 1683, serving as constable of that town in 1657, removed later to Andover, of which town he was a selectman; married (first) 1655, Mary Sweetzer, and (second) June 23, 1673, Hannah Dogget, who died July 20, 1725, aged seventy- nine years. Mary Sweetzer, the first wife, was born in 1637, and was living in 1665, and was therefore the mother of Joshua, baptized January 29, 1661-62. Samuel Blanchard died at Andover, Massachusetts, April 22, 1707, aged seventy- seven years.
Joshua Blanchard, second son of Samuel and Mary Blanchard, baptized at Charlestown, January 29, 1661-62, is mentioned as eldest son of Samuel in 1704, his elder brother Samuel having died of small-pox in 1677-78. He was a "house- wright", and lived for many years in Charlestown, removed later to Malden, Massachusetts, where his tombstone records his death as having occurred on July 15, 1716, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He married (first) Elizabeth who died July 15, 1688, at the age of twenty-one; and (second) Mehetable -, who died January 10, 1742, aged seventy-six.
Joshua (2) Blanchard, son of Joshua (I) and Mehetable Blanchard, was bap- tized at Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 16, 1693. He bought forty-eight acres of land east of the river in 1715, and was later a bricklayer and builder of Bos- ton, where he died in 1748. He married, March 14, 1716-17, in Boston, Sarah Loring. She died March 1, 1773, aged eighty years.
Joshua (3) Blanchard, son of Joshua (2) and Sarah (Loring) Blanchard, married Elizabeth Hewitt, and was the father of,
John Dixwell Blanchard, who married Hannah Williams Mccullough; their son,
Isaac Williams Blanchard, who married Catharine Louisa Freed, and their son,
William I. Blanchard, who married Margaret Koons, was the father of
Katharine Louise Blanchard, who married Major William Augustus Wieder- seim, and was the mother of William C. Wiederseim.
WILLIAM CANER WIEDERSEIM, son of Major William A. and Katharine L. (Blanchard) Wiederseim, was born in Philadelphia, March 8, 1869. He was edu- cated at Rugby Academy and the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the latter institution with the degree of B. S. in 1888. He became a patent solici- tor, and is still in active practice. He is a member of the Colonial Society, of the Union League, University, Racquet, and Philadelphia Country clubs; of the
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Military Order of the Loyal Legion; and of the Zeta Psi fraternity of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Wiederseim married, April 28, 1900, Elizabeth (Elkins) Bruner, daughter of the late Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, who was United States senator from West Virginia, and was born in Perry county, Ohio, September 26, 1841, but who went to Missouri in his childhood and was educated at the University of Missouri, graduating in 1860. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1863, and went to New Mexico the same year, where he was a member of the territorial legislature, 1864-65; later district attorney, attorney-general, and United States district attorney for the territory and delegate in United States Congress, 1873-77. He removed to West Virginia and became largely interested in coal mining and railroads there, becoming an official of a number of large corporations. He was secretary of war in the cabinet of President Harrison, 1891-93 was elected to the United States Senate, 1895, and reelected 1901-07. He died in 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Wiederseim have no children, but by her first marriage, Mrs. Wiederseim had one daughter, Edwina Elkins Bruner.
SAMUEL S. EVELAND
SAMUEL S. EVELAND, of Philadelphia, traces his ancestry to families long prominent in the public affairs of the State and Province of New Jersey. He was born in Philadelphia, April 20, 1869, and is a son of Joseph Eveland, of that city, a native of Bloomfield, New Jersey, and his wife, Ellen Matilda (Loos- by) Eveland, a native of England, and a grandson of Michael Eveland, of Bloomfield, or East Orange, New Jersey.
Mr. Eveland became identified with manufacturing interests in his native city early in life, and has achieved considerable prominence as the head of sev- eral large manufacturing concerns. He is president of the Standard Roller Bearing Company, of the Standard Gas and Electrical Power Company, of the Ball Bearing Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and of the Standard R. E. Company, and a director of the American Automobile Company. He is a member of the Union League Club, the Art Club, the Racquet Club, the Merion Cricket Club, and the Radnor Hunt Club, of Philadelphia, and of the Union League Club, the New York Railroad Club, the Machinery Club, of New York City. He is a life member of the Academy of Fine Arts, of Philadelphia, and prominent in Masonic circles, being affiliated with Lodge No. 368, Free and Accepted Masons.
Mr. Eveland married Ellen, daughter of James C. Miller, of Brooklyn, New York, and they have two children, Ellen Louise, born in 1893, and Lorimer Loosby, born in 1896.
CHARLES E. PLUMLY
The Plumly family was founded in Pennsylvania by Charles Plumly, of the parish of Priddy, County Somerset, England, who married February II, 1665- 6, Margery Page, of Butcomb, in the same county, under the care of the Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends for the Northern District of Som- ersetshire. October 31, 1682, Charles Plumly purchased of Samuel Allen, also a resident of Somersetshire, one hundred acres of land which had been sur- veyed to said Allen, on Neshaminy Creek in Bristol township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and one hundred acres which had not yet been surveyed or lo- cated. Soon after this date, Charles and Margery (Page) Plumly came to Pennsylvania, and presumably located on their Bucks county plantation, where Charles Plumly died in 1683. August 13, 1684, the widow Margery Plumly married Henry Paxson, from Bycot House, County Oxford, who had come to Pennsylvania, in the ship "Samuel" in 1682, and settled in Bucks county, where he became a very large landholder and prominent in county and provincial af- fairs. Two hundred and fifty acres of land on the Neshaminy were patented to the widow Plumly after her husband's death, in right of a purchase by him of which we have no record. Part of this land was later owned by her eldest son William Plumly. She had no children by Henry Paxson, and the latter having no surviving children left some of his large estate to his second wife's children.
James, George, and John Plumly, evidently brothers of Charles, are men- tioned in contemporary English records, as having suffered persecution as mem- bers of the Society of Friends, and a son of George, Thomas Plumly born in the parish of Priddy, Yorkshire, August 22, 1668, also came to Pennsylvania. William Plumly, the eldest son of Charles and Margery, born in Somersetshire, December 7, 1666, died in Bucks county prior to 1699, leaving a daughter Ann, who married Henry Paxson, nephew of his stepfather, and perhaps other chil- dren. James Plumly, the second son of Charles and Margery, born 1669, died in Bucks county in 1702. He married Mary Budd, daughter of Thomas Budd, of New Jersey. Charles Plumly, third son of Charles and Margery, born in the parish of Wells, County Somerset, England, April 29, 1673-4, was a joiner in Philadelphia, and died there in 1708. He married Rose Budd, of New Jer- sey, born March 13, 1680-I, who married (second) - - Williams, and (third). March 4, 1721, Joseph Shippen of Philadelphia. By Charles Plumly she had a son Charles, and a daughter Sarah, born in Philadelphia, November 8, 1706, who on September 20, 1725, became the wife of Edward Shippen, of Lancaster, and their daughter, Sarah Shippen, was the wife of Captain and Colonel James Burd, the distinguished officer of the French and Indian war, and of the Rev- olution. George Plumly, the fifth and youngest son of Charles and Margery, was a cutler in Philadelphia, where he died in 1754.
JOHN PLUMLY, fourth son of Charles and Margery (Page) Plumly, born in the parish of Priddy, County Somerset, England, September 8, 1677, came to
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Pennsylvania with his parents in 1682, and was reared in Bucks county. He purchased 500 acres of land in Middletown in 1698, and later acquired an in- terest in the Milford Mills, now Hulmeville, Bucks county, and an additional 100 acre tract adjoining on the Neshaminy. His plantation was part of the land taken up by his step-father Henry Paxson, and in 1730 he erected a large stone addition to the old Paxson house, which is still standing, having been for many years the home of the Hibbs family.
John Plumly married, in 1707, Mary Bainbridge, daughter of John and Sarah Bainbridge, of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, who survived him and married (second) by New Jersey license, dated July 4, 1732, John Gale. John and Mary (Bainbridge) Plumly, had six children of whom three died in their minority. Those who survived were: Charles, of whom presently ; Sarah, mar- rier (first) William Carter and (second) Jonas Preston; John married Alice Heaton, and lived and died in Northampton township, Bucks county, leaving six sons and five daughters, three of the sons, William, Edmund and Charles married, reared large families and have left numerous descendants, widely scattered over the United States.
CHARLES PLUMLY, eldest son of John and Mary (Bainbridge) Plumly, born in Middletown township, Bucks county, April 26, 1711, succeeded to the home- stead in Middletown on the death of his father in 1732, and lived there all his life. His will, dated March 22, 1747-8, was proved February 27, 1748-9. He married, April 27, 1736, Ann Stackhouse, of a prominent Bucks county family who survived him. They had two sons, John and George, and two daughters, Sarah and Margery, the former of whom married Joseph Allen in 1764. John Plumly the eldest sop inherited the homestead in Middletown, but sold it in 1763 and removed to Bensalem township.
GEORGE PLUMLY, the second son of Charles and Ann (Stackhouse) Plumly, inherited from his father considerable land in Middletown township, most of which he sold about 1771, and followed his brother John to Bensalem township, Bucks county, where both were living during the Revolutionary war, and later. Both George and John Plumly were members of the Second Associated Com- pany, of Bensalem township, Captain Kohn Jarvis, enrolled August 19, 1775. Nathaniel Vansant, who was first lieutenant of this company was, in January, 1776, commissioned captain in the "Flying Camp", and his company incorpor- ated into the battalion commanded by Colonel Robert Magaw, was largely made up of members of the Associated Company of which Captain Vansant was lieu- tenant. The company was almost annihilated at the battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776, when Captain Vansant and most of his company were taken prisoners. John Plumly was a member of this company and passed through the hardships of the Long Island campaign, and it is asserted that his brother George was in the same service in another company, though by reason of the loss of the rolls of most of the companies in the "Flying Camp", no proof of his service other than in the Associated Company has been found. The original roll of Captain Vansant's Company in his own writing, as well as a number of letters written by him to his wife and others while in captivity on Long Island, are in possession of the Bucks County Historical Society.
George Plumly, married, soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Susanna Nickells, and they had four children, viz: John Plumly, born Decem-
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ber 23, 1786, died unmarried ; Ann, born May 10, 1789, married Andrew Enyard ; Absalom Plumly, born April 13, 1793, married and had issue; and-
CHARLES PLUMLY, youngest son of George and Susanna (Nickells) Plumly, born in Bensalem, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1796, removed to Phila- delphia when a young man and was engaged in business there until his death on March 12, 1853. He married Eliza Miller, and they had two sons: John Miller Plumly, and George Washington Plumly.
GEORGE WASHINGTON PLUMLY, second son of Charles and Eliza (Miller) Plumly, born in Philadelphia, October 20, 1824, was a prominent business man of that city, founder of the firm of George W. Plumly Company, manufacturers of paper boxes for the use of druggists, and associated with a number of industrial and financial institutions. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, in right of descent from Private George Plumly, of the Bensalem Associated Company. George W. Plumly married (first) Eliza Cat- lin, who was born June 25, 1830, and died November 26, 1862. He married (second) Emily Catlin, who still survives. By his first wife, George W. Plumley had four children : William H. S. Plumly, born March 29, 1848; George W. Plumly, Jr., born April 7, 1849; Harriet Miller Plumly, born June 28, 1850; and Eugene K. Plumly, born July 25, 1852. By the second wife he had three children : Charles E. Plumly, the subject of this sketch, born February 4, 1874; Emily Catlin Plumly, born March 21, 1878; and Helen V. Plumly, born October 10, 1880.
PHILIPS FAMILY
GEORGE MORRIS PHILIPS, Ph.D., LL.D., Principal of the State Normal School at West Chester, Pennsylvania, comes of Welsh ancestors who were among the early settlers of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and is a descendant of an offi- cer, in the patriot army during the Revolution, who suffered imprisonment and cruelty at the hands of our British oppressors in the loathsome prison ship "Jersey" in New York Harbor.
JOSEPH PHILIPS and Mary his wife, both natives of Pembrokeshire, Wales, came to Pennsylvania in 1755 and settled near Lionville, Uwchlan township, Chester county. He was a weaver by trade and followed that vocation in con- nection with farming. Like many of his nationality who settled in Philadelphia and Chester counties, Joseph Philips was a Baptist in religion, and he was instrumental in founding the Vincent Baptist Church, at Chester Springs, in Pikeland township, Chester county, near his new home, of which he and his family were among the prominent members and supporters. He was born in 1716 and died, May 18, 1792, and his consort, who was born in 1710, died on December 26, 1792. Both are buried in the Vincent burying ground.
LIEUTENANT JOHN PHILIPS, the great-grandfather of George Morris Philips, was the second son of Joseph and Mary Philips, and was born in Pembrokeshire Wales, in 1745, and came to Pennsylvania with his parents at the age of ten years. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the Philips family were among the most ardent of the patriots of Chester county. The father, Joseph Philips, then seventy years old, had passed the age for active military service, but three of his sons entered the service, becoming the chief commissioned offi- cers of a company, first incorporated into the Seventh Battalion of the Chester County Militia, under Colonel William Gibbons, David Philips, being captain, John Philips, first lieutenant, and Josiah Philips, second lieutenant. John Philips was however selected for special service, and was commissioned sec- ond lieutenant, June 21, 1777, of Captain William Scott's company in the First Battalion of Chester County Troops in the service of the United States, commanded by Colonel John Hannum. He was captured by the British, proba- bly in the New Jersey campaign and confined in the prison ship Jersey, where he almost died from disease. Tradition says that his wife was permitted to come and nurse him and thus saved his life. Lieutenant John Philips mar- ried Margaret Davis, and after the close of the Revolutionary War lived at and kept the "Black Bear Tavern", near Paoli, Chester county, where he died May 22, 1790, and was buried beside his parents. His widow died January 31. 1818.
GEORGE PHILIPS, eldest son of Lieutenant John and Margaret (Davis) Phil- ips, born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 29, 1774, was the grand- father of the subject of this sketch. He removed in early manhood to West Fallowfield township, Chester county, where he was a farmer and the owner and proprietor of a tavern on the Gap and Newport pike, about half a mile
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south of Atglen, Pennsylvania. Here he spent the remainder of his life, dy- ing April 20, 1859. He was a deacon of Glen Run Baptist Church, and a man of wealth and influence in the community in which he lived. He married, in 18II, Elizabeth Morris, who was born July 30, 1782, and died November 25, 1853. Both are buried in the grave-yard of the old Glen Run Baptist Church, near Atglen. Elizabeth Morris was the descendant in the fourth generation of Thomas Morris, immigrant, who settled at Hilltown, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1721.
JOHN MORRIS PHILIPS, son of George and Elizabeth (Morris) Philips, and father of George Morris Philips, was born on his father's farm in West Fal- lowfield township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1812. He was a farmer throughout his life, and died on his farm adjoining the village of Atglen, Ches- ter county, July 21, 1879. He was a man of intelligence and strong individuality, influential in the community in which he lived, and held various local offices. He was a trustee and deacon of the Baptist Church and well known for his pious and upright life. He married Sarah (b. East Whiteland township, Chester county, July 28, 1819, d. Christiana, Lancaster county, Pa., July 19, 1902), daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Todd) Jones, of Chester county. Her father was a farmer and merchant, and was for two terms associate judge of the courts of Chester county. He commanded the troop of militia cavalry which escorted Lafayette from the Brandywine battlefield to West Chester in 1825, and later became inspec- tor-general of the state militia. He was a great-great-grandson of Griffith John of Chester county, the emigrant from Wales in 1712, who settled, lived and died near the Great Valley Baptist church, about a mile north of Devon, in whose burial ground he is buried, as are also six successive generations of his descend- ants. His son Samuel married Martha, daughter of Thomas Jones, who emi- grated from Wales in 1737, and was for many years pastor of Tulpehocken Bap- tist Church, Berks county, Pennsylvania. He died in 1788, and is buried at the Great Valley Baptist Church. Eliza Todd, the mother of Sarah (Jones) Philips, was born, December 20, 1793, and died, January 14, 1862. She was a great- granddaughter of Robert Todd, an early Scotch-Irish settler on the Perkiomen, in what is now Montgomery county, about 1737, a niece of Colonel Andrew Por- ter, of the American Revolution, being a member of the same Todd family to which belonged the wife of President Lincoln.
GEORGE MORRIS PHILIPS, PH.D., LL.D., is a son of John Morris and Sarah (Jones) Philips and was born at Atglen, Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 28, 1851. He prepared for college at the Atglen High School, an academy con- ducted by Professor William E. Buck, and entered Bucknell University, Lewis- burg, Pennsylvania, in 1867, and graduated in 1871, with the degree of A. B. In 1884 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, from the same institu- tion, and in 1906 that of Doctor of Laws from Temple University of Phila- delphia. On his graduation in 1871, Dr. Philips was called to the professorship of mathematics in Monongahela College, Jefferson, Pennsylvania, a position he filled for two years. In 1873 he was appointed professor of higher mathematics in the West Chester State Normal School, where he remained until 1878, when he became professor of mathematics and astronomy in his alma mater, Bucknell University, where he remained until 1881, when he was called to the principalship of the West Chester Normal School to succeed Professor George L. Maris. He
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