USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 63
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Deacon Daniel Thurston, father of Miriam (Thurston) Lathrop, born in Sharon, Connecticut, was for fifty years a deacon of the Presbyterian church in different towns in southeastern New York. He was a son of Daniel and Mi- riam (Allen) Thurston; grandson of Daniel and Experience (Warren) Thurs- ton ; great-grandson of Daniel and Maria Thurston, and great-great-grandson of John Thurston, born in Wrentham, county Suffolk, England, in 1601, who with Margaret his wife (age thirty-two years) came to New England in the "Mary Anne" of Yarmouth, May 10, 1637, and settled at Dedham, Massachu- setts.
Miriam (Allen) Thurston, above mentioned, (born May 27, 1704) was a daughter of Joseph Allen, of Medfield, Massachusetts, born December 19, 1676, died May 25, 1727, and his wife, Miriam (Wight) Allen, born August 22, 1675, died April 15, 1746; granddaughter of Joseph Allen, born June 24, 1652, died 1703, and his wife, Hannah (Sabine) Allen, of Seekunk, daughter of William and Hannah Sabine; and great-granddaughter of James Allen and his wife, Anna (Guild) Allen, who came from England to New England in 1639, and settled at Dedham, Massachusetts, later being among the founders of the town of Medfield in 1649.
Miriam (Wight) Allen was a daughter of Ephraim Wight, born January 27, 1645, died February 20, 1722-23, and his wife, Lydia Morse, baptized at Ded- ham, Massachusetts, August 13, 1645, died July 14, 1722; granddaughter of Thomas Wight, who located in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, and with wife Alice was admitted to the church at Dedham, July 18, 1637. The ances- try of Thomas Wight has been traced several generations in England to John Wight, whose wife, Anna (Bray) Wight, was a granddaughter of Sir John Jenyns, whose ancestry is traced to Geoffrey de Braboeuff.
Salmon Lathrop, father of Lucretia Jeanette (Lathrop) Wurts, paternal grandmother of John S. Wurts, was born in New Concord, Columbia county, New York, January 5, 1781, and was the eldest son of Ezra and Mirian (Thurs- ton) Lathrop. At an early age he removed with his parents to Sherburne, Chenango county, New York, where his youth was spent on his father's farm. He acquired a crude education and taught school during the winter months.
In 1817, when the construction of the Erie Canal was begun, he took con- tracts and constructed several miles of that great water-way. He later built portions of the Pennsylvania and Chenango canals, locating in 1822 in Flori-
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da, Montgomery county, New York, where he resided until 1826. He also as- sisted in building the New York and Erie Railroad. In 1827 he went to Car- bondale, Pennsylvania, at the solicitation of the Wurts brothers, with whom he had become associated through their activity in the building and operation of the Hudson and Delaware Canal. He built the first house in Carbondale, and at once devoted his energies to the development of the coal lands of the Lack- awanna Valley. He resided in Carbondale until his death on November 4, 1868, and was one of the best known and prominent business men of that section.
Salmon Lathrop married, August 28, 1805, Aurelia Noble, born in Benton, Vermont, July 18, 1790, died at Carbondale, Pennsylvania, April 13, 1872. She was the eldest daughter of John Noble, born at Hebron, Connecticut, October 25, 1762, died at Orwell, Vermont, April 29, 1842, a veteran of the Revolution- ary war, and his wife, Lydia (Wilcox) Noble, born at Goshen, Connecticut, December 13, 1770, died January 8, 1801, daughter of Elijah and Silence Wil- cox.
Thomas Noble, the great-grandfather of John Noble above mentioned, born about 1630, was in New England as early as 1653, when he was a resident of Boston, Massachusetts. He located at Westfield in 1668 when it was the ex- treme frontier from which his family was driven back in King Philip's war. He died January 20, 1704. He married, November 1, 1660, Hannah Warringer, of Springfield, Massachusetts, born there August 7, 1642.
James Noble, son of Thomas and Hannah (Warringer) Noble, born at West- field, Massachusetts, October 1, 1677, died there April 22, 1712. He married, as his second wife, on February 4, 1704, Katharine Higley, born at Windsor, Connecticut, August 7, 1677, died March 7, 1740-41. She was a daughter of Captain John Higley, who was born at Frimley, county Surrey, England, July 22, 1649. His father, Jonathan Higley, had married January 3, 1637-38, Kath- arine Brewster, daughter of Rev. John Brewster, pastor of the church at Frim- ley. Jonathan Higley died in 1664, and his son, John, according to the custom of the time, was bound out as an apprentice; but liking neither the trade nor his master, he ran away and secured passage on a vessel sailing for New Eng- land, which on its arrival sailed up the Connecticut river to Windsor, Connecti- cut, where he was sold to pay his passage. After serving his time he engaged in the coast shipping trade, eventually making trading voyages to the West In- dies. He married, about 1677, Hannah, daughter of John Drake, born at Wind- sor, August 5, 1653, and his father-in-law transferred lands to them, and he also purchased land in Windsor in 1677. He bought land at Simsbury, Con- necticut, in 1680, and removed there in 1684; was a selectman in 1685, and an ensign of the train band in 1687. He it was who carried away and secreted the charter of Connecticut to prevent it from being seized and abrogated by Gov- ernor Edmund Andross. His daughter, Hannah Higley, was the mother of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut.
Hannah (Drake) Higley was a descendant of John Drake, sheriff of Devon- shire in 1561-62, who married Lady Amy Grenville, daughter of Roger de Grenville, whose ancestry is traced, through the de Bohuns, on the one side through Edward I., Henry III., John, Henry II., Henry I. to William I., of England, and from there on two lines to Charlemagne, while on the other
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side it is traced to Malcolm II., King of Scotland, and through him back through an endless line of kings to Adam and Eve.
John Drake, the grandfather of Hannah (Drake) Higley, came from Devon- shire, England, to Massachusetts with Winthrop and located at Dorchester, where he was admitted a freeman, October 19, 1630. He removed to Wind- sor, Connecticut, prior to 1639, and was a member of the General Court, 1643- 46. He was accidentally killed, August 17, 1659. By his wife, Elizabeth (Rod- gers) Drake, born in England in 1581, he had three sons: Jacob, Job, and John Jr. The latter was the father of Hannah (Drake) Higley; he married Hannah Moore in 1648, and later removed to Simsbury, whence his family were driven by the Indians in King Philip's war. He died at Windsor in 1689, never having returned to Simsbury. Thomas Moore, the grandfather of Han- nah (Moore) Drake, came to Windsor, Connecticut, prior to 1639, and died there in 1645. He was accompanied to America by his son, Deacon John Moore, whose house at Windsor was still standing in 1888. Deacon John Moore was a deputy to the General Court from 1643 to his death in 1677.
David Noble, son of James and Katharine (Higley) Noble, was born at Westfield, Massachusetts, March 3, 1709. He married, May 17, 1731, Abigail Loomis, born at Simsbury, Connecticut, April 3, 1711, daughter of Philip and Hannah Loomis.
David Noble and his wife removed to Hebron, Connecticut, in 1732, where he was active in church and local affairs. He died February 18, 1761, and his wife survived until 1802, at the age of ninety-one years.
Captain James Noble, son of David and Abigail (Loomis) Noble, was born at Hebron, Connecticut, July 9, 1736, died at Orwell, Vermont, February 23, 1817. He served under Captain Wells in the Provincial wars in a company from Hebron, Connecticut, in the expedition against Crown Point. He re- moved to Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, about 1762. He was one of the first to take up arms in defense of American liberties, and was cap- tain of a company that marched May 10, 1775, in the expedition against Canada.
His company was part of the garrison of Fort Ticonderoga, July 15, 1775, and continued in the service until December 30, 1775. He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and its sub-committee of correspondence, from Pittsfield, in 1775. On October 17, 1776, he marched to Ticonderoga under Cap- tain William Francis and returned November 16, 1776. On August 13, 1777, he enrolled himself as from Bennington, Vermont, under Lieutenant William Ford, and served until August 20. In May, 1777, he had command of a force that marched to Kinderhook with Captain John Strong to apprehend a band of Tories. He served in the Massachusetts Legislature from Pittsfield in 1779.
In 1785 he removed with his family to Benson, Rutland county, Vermont, and three years later to Orwell, in the same county, where he died February 23, 1817. Captain Noble married, November 29, 1758, Anna Cadwell, born in Westfield, Massachusetts, November 23, 1738, died at Orwell, Vermont, July II, 1803. She was a daughter of Abel Cadwell and his wife, Anna (Dwight) Cadwell, a granddaughter of Captain Timothy Dwight, who came to New Eng- land with his father, John Dwight, in 1634, at the age of five years, and in 1665 married Anna, daughter of Rev. Henry Flynt, who came to New England in 1635.
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John Noble, father of Aurelia (Noble) Lathrop, a son of Captain James and Anna (Cadwell) Noble, was born in Hebron, Connecticut, October 25, 1762, and served with his father in the later years of the Revolution, receiving a pen- sion for services rendered. He also served in the War of 1812-14.
THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN WURTS, son of William and Lucretia Jeanette (Lathrop) Wurts, was born at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1844. His family removed to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in 1848, where his father was attorney for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, of which company his uncle, John Wurts, was president. He received his early education at a pri- vate school at Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, in company with Comegys Paul and the Broadheads, and later completed a course at the Carbondale high school. At the age of sixteen he went into the shops of the Delaware & Hud- son Railroad Company, at Carbondale, Pennsylvania, where he acquired some knowledge of mechanics. From there he went to the Cliff Works, in Scranton, for a short time, where he worked for a time on locomotive No. I, the "C. P. Wurts," owned by the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company, and was engaged on surveys for the first passenger railroad for this company.
He was one of the "Wide Awakes" who contributed to the election of Abra- ham Lincoln in 1860, and on September 12, 1862, he enlisted in "The Wurts Guard", which formed part of the Thirteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia, that went from Carbondale to the front in response to Governor Curtin's call to arms. He was at the battle of Antietam, 1862. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in the Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry and served as colonel's clerk, and assistant adjutant in the Department of Virginia. After leaving the army he had a clerkship in the Carbondale post office, under his uncle, Judge Dwight Noble Lathrop, then postmaster. From there he went to the Washing- ton Navy Yard as clerk to his uncle, Charles E. Lathrop, keeper of naval stores. In 1864 he began the practice of engineering, having studied in Wilkes-Barre with Martin Coryell and Professor R. P. Rothwell, (afterwards editor of the Mining Journal), and had practical experience in the field on various pieces of work, among them the survey for the first location of the Lackawanna Valley Railroad, now the "Jefferson."
In 1873-74, Mr. Wurts was an instructor in the Massachusetts Agricultural College, at Amherst, and while filling that position, discovered the rare forma- tion of coal which he named Sigilaria Vanuxumi, in honor of his wife. He was also an instructor in Amherst College. In 1875, after the Hoosac Tunnel was cut, it being considered unsafe, Mr. Wurts was selected as an expert to survey for the state of Massachusetts, and determine what part and how much of the roof should be arched with brick. He was engineer in charge of the construction of a division of the Connecticut Western Railroad and of sixty miles of the Massachusetts Central. He also superintended the building of the bridges over the Connecticut river at Northampton, Massachusetts. A large part of his work, however, was as mining engineer in the Pennsylvania coal fields, though he was employed in the south and west in ten different states in building bridges, etc.
In 1877 he located the Short Line Railroad, now the Reading, from Camden to Atlantic City, fifty-four miles, completing the work in eighty days, then the most rapid engineering work on record. He was chief engineer and superin-
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tendent of the Atlantic City Railroad for a time, and resided in Atlantic City for ten years. He was the first to report on the drainage of Lake Okeechobee, the Disston Company having sent him to the Florida Everglades for that pur- pose in 1881, entering through the Kissimee river to Lake Okeechobee and go- ing out through Caloossahatchee river to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1892 he was engineer of a railroad from St. John's river to the Suwanee river in Florida. He introduced the system of building beaches by natural forces and reclaiming submerged lands, obtaining United States patents for his invention in 1888. He also laid out and materially assisted in developing the South Jersey sea shore resorts of Avalon, Stone Harbor, Anglesea, Wildwood, Holly Beach, and others.
In 1892 Mr. Wurts removed with his family to Belvidere, New Jersey, where Mrs. Wurts' father, Edward Vanuxem, resided, and in 1896 to Germantown, Philadelphia, where he still resides. The life of this energetic and earnest man has been devoted to those who needed him. His valiant services were the means of establishing many Sunday schools for the American Sunday School Union, among the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky, where he spent several years in voluntary missionary work, when his health compelled him to live an outdoor life. He was a ruling elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1877, and general secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association of that city, 1880-1883. He was for some years city en- gineer of Bridgeton, New Jersey, where he was treasurer of the West Presby- terian Church, and later organizer of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, of which he was made ruling elder in 1890. Always identified with institutions for the development and elevation of mankind and the advancement of Christianity, wherever he lived, his whole life has been an example of the true christian spirit, which is the best safeguard of our civic and national life. Although hold- ing a high standard as regards personal conduct, he always had charity for all men. He has many friends who admire and respect him for his wisdom in counsel and his business integrity. He is a director of various organizations; a member of Conyngham Post, Grand Army of the Republic; of the Masonic fra- ternity; and a charter member of the Union League. He has filled many po- sitions of trust and left behind him the character of a Christian gentleman, re- markable for its purity, uprightness and generosity, without a stain upon its lustre.
He was married at Belvidere, New Jersey, April 8, 1868, by his brother-in- law, Rev. Franklin Chappel Jones, assisted by Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D., to Anna Vanuxem, born at Lambertville, New Jersey, January 7, 1846, only daughter of the late Edward and Elizabeth (Krusen) Vanuxem.
The Van Uxem family took its name from the village of Uxem or Uxham, in the north of France, six miles from Dunkerque, where the family has been traced back to the tenth century.
James Vanuxem, or Jacques Van Uxem, as the name appears in French rec- ords, the first paternal ancestor of Anna (Vanuxem) Wurts, in America, was born in Dunkerque, France, July 15, 1745. He was the eldest of six children of Jean Baptiste Van Uxem, born in Dunkerque in 1705, and his wife, Jeanne (Rombout) Van Uxem, born there in 1716, whom he married June 26, 1742. Jean Baptiste Van Uxem was a son of Andreas Van Uxem, born 1655, and his wife, Jeanne (Nahieuw) Van Uxem, and grandson of Alexander Van Ux-
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em, a landholder of Wametown, who used the fleur de lis arms, and his wife, Marie (de Scilder) Van Uxem.
James Vanuxem was born and reared a Roman Catholic, and never entirely forsook that faith. When a boy he suffered a compound fracture of his leg in an accident, and his mother, in order to propitiate the Virgin Mary, had a silver leg made and enshrined in her chapel at Dunkerque. He was a student of the College of Jesuits at Dunkerque, and was destined by his parents for the priesthood. To avoid taking orders, he left home when twenty-nine years old and came to America, first landing at Martinique. He had sailed from France as supercargo of a vessel bound for Martinique in 1775 or 1776, and on arriv- ing at that port was ordered off in consequence of war being either already ap- prehended or declared between England and the American Colonies. He there- fore sailed for the American coast and landed at Egg Harbor, from whence he soon made his way to Philadelphia. He commenced keeping a small grocery, which he soon discontinued and engaged in the shipping trade with his broth- ers of vessels to which were granted Letters Marque as privateers in 1779 and 1780. James Vanuxem & Company were granted Letters Marque for the schooner "Hunter", 70 tons, 60 men, 12 carriage guns, January 1, 1779, and 1780. James Vanuxem & Company, were granted Letters Marque for the Schooner "Hunter", 70 tons, 60 men 12 carriage guns, January 1, 1779; and Vanuxem & Clark, for the schooner "Enterprise," 60 tons, 70 men, 12 guns, August 28, 1779, and also for the brig "Rebecca," 60 tons, 20 men, 6 guns, Sep- tember 17, 1779, and James Vanuxem & Company, for the sloop "Ranger," 12 men and four guns, Captain William Watson, May 3, 1780. Their place of business was old number 75 Water street. James Vanuxem was a member of the "Silk Stocking Company", Captain John Cadwallader, composed of 70 men, of the aristocratic class in Philadelphia in the early part of the Revolution, and the accounts of county lieutenants for Philadelphia and Liberties show that he contributed to the cost of equipping and maintaining Captain Rush's company of Philadelphia Militia. He seems to have prospered in his business undertak- ings in the early part of his career in Philadelphia, and society notes in con- temporary publications make frequent mention of society functions at his house. His farm contributed forty pounds for two shares in the Dancing Assembly in 1791. On November 15, 1785, he was granted warrant of survey for 230 acres of land in Northampton county.
James Vanuxem was one of the founders of the French Benevolent Society of Philadelphia, and was one of the banquet committee at a dinner given at Cel- ler's Hotel, January I, 1793, in celebration of the success of the French army. He was intimately associated with Stephen Girard, James Raguet, and other prominent French-Americans. He was a director of the Bank of Pennsylvania, one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Improve- ment Company in 1802, and with Stephen Girard one of the incor- porators and directors of the Union Mutual Insurance Company in 1804. In 1810 he was one of the organizers of the American Fire Insurance Company, the first mutual fire insurance company in America On January 4, 1802, he signed a memorial to the United States Senate and House of Repre- sentatives for redress for spoliation of American commerce during the French war. He was elected a member of Select Council of Philadelphia in 1809, and
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was chairman of the water committee. In this connection he chose William Rush, the foremost sculptor of the day, to design a fountain for the city square, and Rush chose Vanuxem's daughter Louisa as the model for the first foun- tain erected, she being one of the handsomest and most popular women of her day. The fountain stood in city square where the city hall now stands. On the removal of the waterworks to Fairmount in 1888, this first fountain was removed to the park, where it remained until recently taken down by John S. Wurts Esq., the subject of this sketch. A bronze cast of the "Leda and the Swan," as it was called, was made and placed near Callowhill bridge where it may yet be seen. Louisa Vanuxem married Nathan Smith, of Philadelphia, later of Dunmore, near Carbondale.
In 1816 James Vanuxem and J. B. Sartori purchased the old Robert Morris house at Morrisville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, which had been owned and occupied by General Jean Victor Moreau from 1805 to 1811, the mansion house had, however, been destroyed by fire on Christmas eve, 1811, and James Vanuxem took up his residence in the smaller house on the same property, where he died February 28, 1824. He was buried near Morrisville, but his remains later were removed to St. Andrew's church-yard at Mount Holly, where the tombstone erected to his memory and that of his wife may still be seen. A church window has been erected to their memory in the Second Presbyterian Church, Phila- delphia, at Twenty-first and Walnut streets.
James Vanuxem was married, April 6, 1779, at her father's residence in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, by the Rev. James Sproat, to Rebecca, daughter of Col- onel Elijah Clark, of the Second Battalion, Gloucester county, New Jersey, Militia, with whom Mr. Vanuxem became acquainted on his arrival on the Jersey coast in 1776, Colonel Clark having formed an extensive settlement at Egg Harbor.
Colonel Elijah Clark was born in Connecticut, February, 1732, and was a great-grandson of Thomas Clark, who came to Guilford, Connecticut, in 1639. The latter was a son of George and Sarah Clark, of Great Mundon, Hertford- shire, to whom were granted arms: "Gules, two bars, argent, in chief three es- callops or"; crest : An escallop quarterly gules or. Thomas Clark married, at New Haven, Connecticut, May 1, 1652, Mrs. Ann (Bishop) Jordan, widow of John Jordan and daughter of John and Anne Bishop. Daniel Clark, of Kill- ingworth, Connecticut, eldest son of Thomas Clark, married and had three chil- dren, the eldest of whom, Thomas Clark, born February II, 1686-87, settled near Egg Harbor, New Jersey. By his first wife, Hannah, he had four sons, of whom Colonel Elijah was the youngest. The father died at Clark's Landing, New Jersey, May 17, 1752. He was a man of considerable property and a Col- onial office holder.
Colonel Elijah Clark was a student at Yale College. On April 29, 1756, he married Jane Lardner, a beautiful woman, born in Ireland in 1738, though of English parentage, and they settled at Egg Harbor, where Elijah Clark had purchased a large tract of land. He was a man of scholarly tastes and attain- ments, possessed a fine library, and exerted a wide influence in the commun- ity in which he lived. He erected a log meeting house near Batso, on his plan- tation, where services were held as regular as the services of an ordained min- ister could be secured. The following extract from the journal of Rev. Phil-
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ip Fithian, licensed by the Philadelphia Presbytery, November 6, 1774, gives a glimpse of the home life of the family :
"Monday, 6th, I rode to the Forks at Little Egg Harbor, and put up, according to direc- tion, at Elijah Clark's, Esq. Mr. Clark is a man of fortune and taste; he appears also to be a man of integrity and piety, an Israelite indeed; and O, Religion, thou hast one warm and unfeigned advocate in good and useful Mrs. Clark. I had rather have her spirit with the condition of a starving beggar, than destitute of it to have the wealth of worlds; she had more than the form, she has the spirit, of religion. This peaceful, friendly, heaven-like spirit is breathing from her in every sentence. Wednesday, 8th. I preached in Mr. Clark's little log Meeting House, present about forty."
Elijah Clark was one of the deputies from Gloucester county to the first Provincial Congress at Trenton, May 23, 1775, and at the reconvened session of the same called August 5, 1775. He was also a delegate to the Third Pro- vincial Congress held at Burlington, June II, 1776. He was commissioned lieu- tenant colonel of the Second Battalion, Gloucester county militia, under Briga- dier General Joseph Ellis, and with Major Richard Westcott, of the same bat- talion, erected a fort to defend the port of little Egg Harbor, purchasing cannon and military supplies therefor at his own cost. Here, at the Fox Burrows, on Chestnut Neck, gathered one thousand five hundred shoremen when the British attempted to land at that point, and only abandoned the fort after the enemy had ascended the river in great numbers. In September, 1777, the New Jersey Legislature in session at Haddonfield passed a resolution to pay Westcott and Clark four hundred and thirty pounds for the fort. A monument is now (1911) being erected at the site, to be dedicated on October 6, 1911, the anniversary of the battle of Chestnut Neck. The Hon. Champ Clark, speaker of the National House of Representatives, a descendant of Thomas Clark, brother of Elijah, will make the principal oration. Two brothers of Colonel Elijah, David and Thomas Clark, were also soldiers in the Second Battalion, and the latter was delegate to the Second Provincial Congress.
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