USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume II > Part 20
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On February 7. 1872, Colonel Brooke Rawle married Elizabeth Norris Pepper, the eldest daughter of Henry Pepper, Esq., of Phila- delphia, and Sally, daughter of Joseph Parker Norris, of "Fair Hill." Philadelphia. Ever since his admission to the bar he has been largely engaged in the practice of the law, and especially in the management of extensive trust interests. His home is in Philadelphia.
ABRAHAM H. MARCH.
Abraham 11. March, head of the .A. H. March Packing Company of Bridgeport, his residence being at 618 Swede street, Norristown. is a native of the last named borough, where he was born March 18.
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1858. He is the son of Reinhart and Caroline ( Hallinan) March, also natives of this county. The couple had ten children in all, seven sons and three daughters, only six of whom are now living, as follows: Elmira, wife of Enos Getman, of Norristown; Reinhart P., of 1803 Berks street, Philadelphia; George W. March, a well known builder and business man of Norristown : Professor Jerry March, widely known as a musical instructor, now residing at 704 North Sixteenth street, Philadelphia: Abraham H .; and Alice, wife of Louis Martin, of 2223 St. Albans Place, Philadelphia.
Reinhart March ( father ) was a wheelwright by occupation, living in Norristown for many years. He also conducted a hotel at various times. During the rebellion he enlisted in the Fifty-first Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and served three years, lacking two weeks. He was wounded at the battle of the Wilderness, during General Grant's mem- orable campaign near the close of the war, from which he afterwards died. He was a private and participated in most of the battles in which the Army of the Potomac was engaged. He was about forty-five years of age at the time of his death. His widow died in 1875, at an ad- vanced age. Both were members of the Lutheran church.
The paternal grandfather of Abraham H. March was a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and was of German descent. He died in middle age.
William Hallman (maternal grandfather) was born in Limerick, where he spent most of his life and died at the age of ninety-two years. He was a farmer and had a large family of children.
.Abraham H. March, at the age of nine years, was placed with a farmer, remaining there and performing the ordinary duties of farm life until he was seventeen years of age, attending at intervals the dis- frict schools of the neighborhood. He then engaged as a clerk in the
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 539
grocery store of his brother Reinhart, in Norristown for about two years, withdrawing from that occupation to conduct a butchering busi- ness for fifteen months. Relinquishing that business, he purchased a grocery business on Marshall street, which he conducted for seven years and a half. His next change was to operate his brother-in-law's pork- packing business at Bridgeport, which he purchased on July 18. 1888. . and has conducted ever since. The establishment was incorporated July 1, 1902, under the name of the A. H. March Packing Company, of which Mr. March is president. The plant is one of the most ex- tensive and thoroughly equipped in eastern Pennsylvania, twenty-five or more men being employed, and its product having a high reputation among dealers and consumers wherever it is known. Mr. March is an active and progressive business man, achieving success through his energy, attention to business, and judicious methods of operation.
On June 1, 1879. he married Miss Louise Charbonnier, daughter of Mames and Laura Charbonnier. The couple have had six children. as follows : Leon, Abraham, Paul, Frank, Earl and George. Leon died at the age of six months, Abraham in his eighth year, and Frank at the age of two years. Mr. and Mrs. March are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Trinity, Norristown, in which he is also a deacon.
Mr. March is connected with several philanthropic and benevolent institutions, inchkling the following: Charity Lodge No. 190, F. & A. M .: Norristown Chapter. R. A. M .: Hutchinson Commandery No. 32. Knights Templar of Norristown: Philadelphia Consistory, Masonic Temple, Broad and Filbert streets: and Lulu Temple, Spring Garden street, Philadelphia. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. lle is senior warden of the blue lodge, F. & A. M .; past high priest of Norristown Chapter, and past commander of Hutchinson Commandery.
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Ile is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics Mr. March is a Republican, but he has never sought or held office.
WILLIAM A. STONE.
William Alexis Stone, governor of the commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania from 1898 to 1902, and fitted by his life of service to the state and nation to be ranked among the most prominent men who have ever adorned the gubernatorial chair of the state, was born in Delmar town- ship. Tioga county, Pennsylvania. April 18, 1846, being a son of Israel Stone, a small farmer of that community.
Colonel Stone is a self-made man, and his youth was spent in the hard work of the farm and in attendance during the winter at the dis- trict school. where he was an eager seeker after the rudiments of an education. He was a lad of fifteen when the Civil war came on, and for two years only could his patriotic fervor be kept in curb. He ran away in August. 1863, and enlisted. but his father. owing to the fact that the three older sons had already gone to the front, needed his help on the farm so much that he secured his discharge and brought him home. In the following February, however, he again enlisted, and with- out further paternal interference was enrolled in Company A. One Hun- dred and Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry. He participated in the battle at Yellow House, or Six Mile Run. August 18, 1864, and in the siege of Petersburg from August 19 to September 22. He was ad- vanced through the grades of petty officers to second lieutenant, which rank he received March 10, 1865. He was mustered out on August 3. 1865. After the war Governor Hartranft appointed him assistant ad-
William A Stone
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jutant general of the Thirteenth Division, National Guards, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
After the war he went back to his father's farm and besides assist- ing in its cultivation endeavored to continue his education. He attended the Wellsboro Academy during the fall term of 1865. and taught a dis- trict school during the winter. In 1866 he attended the Mansfield State Normal School, from which, after hard labor both for acquiring knowledge and gaining his own livelihood, he graduated in 1868. He then taught in the Wellsboro Academy and at the same time studied law. being admitted to the bar in 1870. His first practice was in Wellsborn. and later in Pittsburg. He was appointed in 1880 United States attor- ney for the western district of Pennsylvania, which position he held until Cleveland's administration. after which he resumed private prac- tice. In June, 1890. he was nominated for congressman, but refused to take a clouded nomination. He had practically no opposition to his following nominations, and served with a good record in the fifty- second. fifty-third, fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth Congresses. On June 9. 1898. he was made the candidate of the Republican party for governor of Pennsylvania, and was elected by a large majority on the following November 8. His career as governor was characterized! by strict ad- herence to the lines of duty as he saw them, and to absolute honesty and incorruptibility in public service. His integrity has never been impugned, and he is not a man whom any interests could buy or divert from the path of official rectitude. His private life and character are likewise above reproach. and his family, his church, his home community. and all his friends and associates honor and respect him for his power and eminence in political life and his pure and honest actions in all ac- tivities of a busy and useful career.
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BENJAMIN RUSH FIELD.
Benjamin Rush Field, of Easton, Pennsylvania, physician and author, comes of a long line of honorable ancestry whose history is interwoven with that of England and the United States, and it is a note- worthy fact that among his ancestors in both lines were a number of his own profession.
The ancient history of the Field family was exhaustively written by one of its members, the Rev. Henry M. Field, D. D., of New York city (a brother of Cyrus W. Field, the projector of the first Atlantic telegraph cable), in a volume which he wrote and distributed privately. In this the author quoted Osgood Fiekl, Esq., an American gentleman long resident in London, England, as follows :
"Hubertus de la Feld was in England within a year or two of the Conquest, and in all probability came over with the Conqueror. Ile was one of the family of the Counts de la Feld of Colmar, in Alsatia, on the German border of France, who trace back to the darkest period of the middle ages, about the sixth century. Probably not a dozen families in Europe can prove so high an antiquity. The ancestors of the English de la Felds had been seated at the Chateau de la Feld for centuries before, and so early as the gloomiest times that followed the fall of the Roman empire. They held lands ( according to the feudal system) probably granted to them for military services by William the Conqueror-the original spelling of the family name 'Fell' being derived from the verb to fell, field land being opposed to wood land. and meaning land where the trees have been felled."
According to the authority above quoted, a branch of the family probably went from Saxony through France to England. The first appearance of the Field family without the prefix "de la" was in that
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part of the West Riding of Yorkshire which borders upon Lancashire. John Field, paternal great-grandfather of Dr. B. Rush Field, said to have been a centenarian, went from Saxony to Yorkshire, England. tak- ing with him his infant son. Richard. Richard Field was brought up at Dudley Hill, Bradford, Yorkshire, and after graduating from the Uni- versity of London became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He spent the later years of his life in America. His wife, Phoebe Crid- land, was born in Leicestershire, England ; her father was an extensive woolen manufacturer. The Cridland family have held positions of trust in England, and several British consuls in America were of that stock.
Cridland Crocker Field, son of Richard and Phoebe (Cridland) Field, was born February 18, 1819, on board the American ship Ann. upon which his parents came to this country. The birth occurred just as the vessel had come into Long Island waters, within the bounds of Queens county, and the captain wrapped a United States flag about the infant, who received from him his middle name. Crocker. The parents went to Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and thence to Philadelphia, where the father practiced medicine in association with Dr. Physick. Dr. McClellan and others. He also held close personal and professional relations with Professors William E. Horner, Will- iam Gibson, D. Hayes Agnew and Samuel Gross. These gentlemen exercised a potent influence over young Field, who entered upon the study of medicine with all of them as his friends, and some of the number as his instructors, notably Professor Horner, an accomplished anatomist, and author of a standard work upon his particular subject. Cridland C. Field graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at the carly age of eighteen, and entered upon a professional career which
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covered the long period of fifty years, and was marked by conspicnous usefulness in both the fields of medicine and surgery.
His surgical operations were frequently referred to in lectures in the university, and were favorably commented upon by the Lon- don Lancet, which made him the subject of a highly appreciative obitu- ary notice. His name became widely known for the successful per- formance of many of the most difficult operations in surgery. (New York Herald. December 4. 1886.) Those which made him most famous were the removal of a cervical tumor with ligation and excision of a considerable part of the jugular vein ; excision of the entire femur, an operation unique in the annals of surgery; excision of the entire radius: and extirpation of the parotid gland, which difficult operation he performed several times. These operations placed him in the front rank of modern surgeons. His favorite region for operations was the neck, from which he removed tumors that encompassed the carotid artery. ".As a teacher. Dr. Field has not been surpassed, he having sent more students to his favorite institution, the University of Penn- sylvania, than any physician in the Lehigh valley." His death occurred in 1886. In 1837. the year of his graduation, he married Susannah Freeman, who was educated in the Moravian schools of Bethlehem. She was a woman of most amiable disposition, and was held in affection by all who knew her for her open-handed benevolences. She was a native of Freemansburg. Northampton county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Jacob and Susannah ( Butz) Freeman. The village which witnessed her birth was named for her father, who was a man of ability and means, the owner of most of the land in the vicinity, and he was elected to various public offices. He was a descendant of Richard Freeman, who came from England about 1660, settling in Maryland. whence he removed to Northampton, Pennsylvania. In the maternal
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line Mrs. Field (mother of Dr. B. Rush Field) was descended from Michael and Elizabeth Messinger, and Michael Messinger was a mem- ber of the "committee of observation" of Northampton county, formed at Easton, December 21. 1774, with the view of furthering the cause of American independence.
Cridland and Susannah ( Freeman) Field were the parents of seven children, among whom were two-William Gibson Field and Benjamin Rush Field-who attained distinction in letters as well as in their respective professions. The former named, residing in Enfield, Connec- ticut, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. October 25. 1841. He gradu- ated from the Easton high school in 1858, from Lafayette College in 1862, and from Harvard in 1863. He at once entered the Harvard Law School. from which he graduated in 1865. In the same year he entered upon practice at Easton, and was so occupied until 1887, when he removed to Brooklyn, New York, and ten years later to his present home. While a resident of Easton he .was active in public and educa- tional affairs. He was founder and editor of the Easton Daily Dispatch. for five terms secretary of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Institute of Northampton county, for several years a member of the board of edu- cation, and for a time its president. He was a frequent contributor to leading newspapers and magazines upon educational and literary topics, and he often delivered addresses upon these subjects before various societies and public assemblages. Another brother. Dr. George B. Wood Field, graduated from the Easton high school in 1876, and from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1881. He practices medicine and surgery in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Benjamin Rush Field was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, November 3. 1861. lle began his education in the public schools, and completed his literary studies in Lafayette College. He studied for his profession
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in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received his degree in 1883. just after attaining his ma- jority. He at once entered upon practice in his native city. in which he has been actively and successfully engaged to the present time. In 1886-87 he was the official physician of the Northampton county prison. and he served for ten years as physician for the coroner. He is fre- quently called upon to give expert evidence in important law cases.
A man of marked public spirit, Dr. Field has been chosen to various important public positions in which his excellent executive ability and talent for organization proved most advantageous in the promotion of community interests. In 1890-93. as a Democrat. he sat as member and president of the civic council. and discharged his duties with such signal ability and high integrity that his conduct was unstintingly com- mended even by his political opponents. In the last year of his term he was elected to the mayoralty for a term of three years, and his admin- istration was entirely beneficial to the city. In February, 1899, he was again elected to the same position by an increased vote, in face of an adverse political majority. His official term expired in 1902.
Since the opening of the Spanish-American war. Dr. Field has been prominently identified with military affairs. At the outset of the struggle he assisted actively in recruiting and organizing Company E. Eleventh Regiment Pennsylvania National Guard, of which he was commissioned captain by Governor Hastings, July 12. 1898. At the regimental election at Harrisburg, he was elected (August 20) major of the second battalion. After the close of the war, the Eleventh and Thirteenth Regiments were consolidated under the latter number, and he was again elected major of the regiment and so commissioned by Governor Stone. He commands the First Battalion, with companies in Scranton, Easton. Honesdale and Montrose.
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Dr. Field occupies a unique position in the field of authorship, his works exhibiting a curiously interesting study of Shakespeare from the standpoint of medico. Ilis "Medical Thoughts of Shakespeare," pub- lished in 1884. reached a second edition in 1885. and a third edition is now ( 1903) in preparation. This was followed by "Shakespeare and Byron on Man, Woman and Love" ( 1887), "Medico-Shakespearian Fanaticism" (1888), and "An Argument Refuting the Claim that Shakespeare possessed Knowledge of the Circulation of the Blood Prior to Harvey's Discovery" ( London Lancet. November 17, 1888). In 1892 he published "Fielding's Unconscious Use of Shakespeare." In 1889 the Shakespeare Society of New York requested him to edit volume five of its papers ("Romeo and Juliet"), which was published in the "Bankside Edition of Shakespeare" under the auspices of the society. Besides these numerous works, necessitating persistent and industrious research, Dr. Field has contributed numerous critical articles on his favorite subject to "Shakespeariana," and for ten years he was dra- matic critic for newspapers of his city. Dr. Field's excellent attain- ments as a Shakespearian scholar have found recognition in his election as honorary librarian of the New York Shakespeare Society of New York city, a position which he has occupied for the past seventeen years, and he is a member of numerous other literary and social bodies.
He is a member of the board of trustees of the Easton Free Pub- lic Library : a member of the finance committee of the Organized Char- ities of Easton : a member of the executive committee of the Municipal League of Easton : a member of the Military Service Institution, New York city: a member of the Pennsylvania German Society: a member of the Chi Phi fraternity (Rho Chapter of Lafayette College and Nu Chapter of University of Pennsylvania) ; and a member of the Order of the Sons of the American Revolution, in descent from his illustrious
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maternal ancester, Michael Messinger. He is also a foremost member of the Easton Medical Society, of which he was the founder. in 1890; a member of the Country Club of Northampton county, and of the Pomfret Club of Easton. In the prime of bis physical manhood, his intellectual powers have not reached their zenith, and his career thus far affords high promise of even greater usefulness in his profession and in literature in the future.
Dr. Field was married. April 9. 1902. in New York city, to Miss Nan Edna Rounsavell, a daughter of John Davis Rounsavell. of Wash- ington, New Jersey.
JOHN EYERMAN.
John Eyerman, of Easton, represents families of the first promi- nence in Germany and Pennsylvania. He is a descendant of Captain Jean Jacques Everman, a grandson of Jean Eyerman, who was born in 1531.
Captain Jean Jacques Eyerman, styled in the old family records "le Sieur Jean Jacques Eyerman, was born in 1590, at Preuschdorf, near Worth, AAlsace, and there died September 1, 1660. He was cap- tain-lieutenant ( officier superieur) at his native place during the Thirty Years' war. His son, Jean Georges Eyerman, was born there February 2. 1645. and died May 10. 1708. He married, November 29. 1664. Marguerite Oster, daughter of Matthias Oster, a native of the same village with himself, and they were the parents of seven children.
Matthias, second son and child of Jean Georges Eyerman, was born August 26, 1666, at Preuschdorf, and died there October 8, 1728. He married, June 29, 1691, Anne Catherine Schaeffer, of Lamperts- loch, and they were the parents of five children. 4
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Jean Henri, eldest child of Matthias Everman, was born July 10, 1692, and died there December 3. 1755. He married. May 3. 1718. Catherine, daughter of Judge Jean Martin Roessel, of Preuschdorf, and Catherine Pfeiffer, his wife: the latter named was of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Alsace. Of that marriage were born six children.
Jean Georges, eldest child of Jean Henri Eyerman, was born at Lampertsloch, May 24. 1719. and died at Preuschdorf, February 4. 1794. February 12, 1745, he married Anne Marie, daughter of Jean Martin Eyer, of Feldbach, and to them were born nine children.
Jean Matthias, fourth child and third son of Jean Georges Ever- man, was born February 24. 1753. at Lampertsloch, and his baptismal certificate of date February 26, is now in the possession of Mr. John Eyerman. He was the founder of the American family of Eyerman. He came to America and settled in New Hanover. Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. Shortly after the Revolution he removed to Easton. where he died. November 18, 1816. He married Johanna Sneider, who was born in 1749, and died in 1843. daughter of Henry and Catherine Sneider, of New Hanover, and to them were born four children : Anna Maria. Henry. Hannah and Elizabeth.
Henry, second child and only son of Jean Matthias and Johanna (Sneider ) Eyerman, born January 29, 1784, was baptized in New Hanover church, and died at Easton, February 22, 1814. He married Elizabeth Herster, born November 25. 1786, and died May 12, 1861. Her grandfather. Andrew Harster, born in 1726, at the age of twenty- three embarked at Rotterdam on the ship Speedwell. and qualified at Philadelphia. September 25. 1749. He settled at Long (or Faulkner ) Swamp, near Pottstown. In 1766 he removed to Easton. He died on board the British prison-ship Jersey, December 25. 1776. His wife was
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Anna Maria Marstellar*, and to them were born three children, the eldest of whom was John, born at Long Swamp, October 16. 1758, and died at Easton. February 25. 1856. He was ensign of the Second Battalion of the Worthington Militia in 1782. He married Margaret Shnyder, born 1762, died January 11, 1811, who was mother of Eliza- beth.
The children of Henry and Elizabeth ( Herster ) Eyerman were: John (see below) : Edward, born April 10, 1810, died August 19. 1833: Margaret, born December 25, 1812, died December 21, 1856.
The eldest. Captain John Eyerman, was born in Easton, Penn- sylvania, July 6, 1808, was baptized in St. John's church, and died January 6. 1883. "He took an active part in the organization of many local stock companies. In this respect his life is a plain proof that an extended business may be diligently and successfully conducted without neglecting the higher duties of life. Throughout his entire career he strictly adhered to what he believed to be duty, and in every position he relied for success upon principle and unremitting industry. In official position he manifested the same regard for the interest of others as for his own." (Captain Ellis.) He was one of the incorpo- rators of the Warren Foundry and Machine Company, 1856; the Lehigh Water Company, 1860: the Delaware Rolling Mills, 1866; the North Penn Iron Company. 1873. In 1868 he was elected president of the Delaware Bridge Company and Easton Water Company, both of which offices he held until his death in 1883. He was at various times a director of the Easton National Bank, the North Penn Iron Company and the Phillipsburg Stove Works Company. At different times he
*The Marstellar family arrived at Philadelphia on the ship Bilander Townshend, October 5, 1737, and settled in Providence township. Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania. Peter Marstellar owned land in New Hanover and Providence townships, and in 1745 had eighty-six acres in Lehigh county.
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