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 27
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For a number of years Judge Martin has been active in military circles, being at the present time second lieutenant of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, and having served with his command in Porto Rico during the Spanish-American war. He is now acting in- spector of rifle practice, member of the Military Service Institution of the United States, the Society of the Porto Rican Expedition. Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Society. Sons of the Revolution. He is also interested in charitable institutions, as manager of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, the Preston Retreat, and the Gynecean Hospital. Among other societies of note with which he is connected
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are the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Forestry AAssociation. American Academy of Political and Social Science, Historical Society of Penn- sylvania. Genealogical Society, "State in Schuylkill," Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, American and Pennsylvania Bar Associations. the Law Association and Its Board of Censors, and the Lawyers' Club. .As a member of the central committee of the Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, the Houston Club and the Athletic Association, he is still prominently identified with University affairs, and is also a life member of the Society of the Alumni of the Law Department. He is president of the Markham Club, and member of the Philadelphia, Rittenhouse, Penn, Country, Radnor Hunt, Four-in-Hand, University Barge and Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Young Republican Club of Philadelphia, and the New York Yacht Club. In politics Judge Martin is a Republican. Upon the creation by the legislature of Pennsylvania of the new court of common pleas No. 5 for the county of Philadelphia. he was appointed by the governor to be president judge, to serve until the next regular election, in November, 1901, when he was elected by the people to the same office for the full term of ten years.
Ile married, in January, 1886. Elizabeth C. Price; their children are Sergeant Price. Marion Willis and Elizabeth Gwen Martin.
ROWLEY K. ORTT.
Rowley K. Ortt, who is one of Norristown's widely known manu- facturers, has risen by his own exertion to the position which he now occupies, inventive genius and mechanical skill enabling him to perfect a lawn mower on entirely new principles, making it a novelty in its line, a steady demand existing for it in all parts of the world.
Mr. Ortt was born October 25. 1855. at North Ridge, Niagara
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county, New York. His father was a contractor and builder who en- listed at the beginning of the rebellion in the Eighth New York Voltin- teers. He was discharged in October, 1863, at Baltimore, after serving three years. He was a helpless invalid and was brought home by two comrades in an invalid's chair and placed in bed. His wife undertook to lift him and strained herself, causing a rupture, from which she died one week later. The husband's ailment was due to the fact that he was placed in the cook-house, the steam from cooking pork being the cause of his sickness. After his wife's death a nurse was secured to take care of him. There were four children: Hannah M .. John H .. Rowley K. and Cyrus N. Ortt. Hannah died in 1894; John in 1874. his death being caused by a kick from a horse: Cyrus lives in Pekin. New York, where he owns a small farm, and his father, who is now seventy-eight years old and seems to grow stronger with age, lives with him. The father was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, but when he was a mere lad the family removed to New York state.
The Ortts came originally from Germany, but have long been naturalized in this country. Arthusia ( Peterson) Ortt (mother) was a daughter of John Peterson, a farmer living at North Ridge. John Peterson had seven children: John. Nathan, Cyrus, Arthusia, Melinda, Oranda and Jane. Arthusia married Elias Ortt ( father), as has been said. Elias Ortt built many of the prominent buildings in that section of the country prior to the war. He built a church, parsonage and a school-house at Beemsville, in Canada, removing his family to that place while engaged in the work. Having learned that Elias's wife's mother was dying. the family started to return, and when they reached the suspension bridge which was just being built at that time, there being only a walk, consisting of three six-inch boards, for the carpenter to cross it. and the boat known as the "Maid of the Mist" being on the
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opposite side of the river and not likely to return for some time, and Mrs. Elias Ortt (mother) being very anxious to reach her mother's bedside before she passed away, and there being apparently no other way, she said she could walk over on those three narrow boards, and she did so, one of the carpenters going ahead, holding her hand and her husband following. Mrs. Ortt was thus the first woman who ever crossed the suspension bridge. There were three children at that time. Anna, John and Rowley, who were strapped in the basket running on a cable rope used to draw the workmen across, and thus all reached the New York side of the river safely.
The inventive genius of Rowley K. Ortt was manifested at a very tender age. When only nine years old he went to live with a cousin and later with Thomas Parker. While at Mr. Parker's he was re-planting twenty acres of corn which had been partly ruined by the grub worms. While engaged in this laborious task he conceived the idea of the jabber planter. using it next day with fairly good results. The next night he improved on his first idea and made a new planter which worked still better, and was loaned to a neighbor named Fuller. Fuller secured a patent for the machine and started to manufacture it, which he did successfully. Rowley K. Ortt at this time was only seventeen years of age and of course received nothing for his invention.
While hauling logs from the woods the young inventor had an- other opportunity to display his genius. The bob-sled upset and broke the short reach on the hind bob. Ortt went to work and bored a hole through the back bolster, and coupled it by a swivel to the front bolster. and to this day all bob-sleds are made in that way.
In 1878 Thomas Parker took the agency for the Norristown Gleaner and Binder, manufactured by William A. Singerly in what was then known as the agricultural works and is now the Keystone Hosiery
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Company's building, at Astor and Oak streets, Norristown. Mr. Parker could not succeed with them, and Mr. Ortt took hold and succeeded in making them operate very well. The result was that the company in- duced him to come to Norristown in 1879. He made a number of im- provements, including a chain-tightener, a friction tension, etc. He left the company in 1883, going into the shoe business at 125 East Main street. In 1892 he sold out the shoe store and has since been working on patents. Among those he has secured are devices for curtain fixtures for inside shutters for lace curtains : also a double nut tack, a bonnet for vestibule cars, and the Clipper Lawn Mower. The last he is now manu- facturing, being unable to supply the extensive demand for the machine, which is steadily growing in popular favor. Mr. Ortt is now manager of a large establishment in the lower part of Norristown. owned and operated by the Clipper Lawn Mower Company. Incorporated.
Mr. Ortt has been twice married. His first wife was Jane Greavy, of Norristown. The couple were married in 1882. she dying in 1889. and leaving two children. Hannah L. Ortt and Ellwood K. Ortt. He married. in 1893. Rachel P. Flint, of Germantown. They have one child. Horace F. Ortt.
The relationship of the Ortts and Petersons has been mentioned. The Petersons were connected also with the Tanners and the Brownells, both old families, the Brownells being of Rhode Island. Phoebe Tan- ner, daughter of Josias Tanner, by his second wife, Phoebe Brownell, was born May 11. 1775. Phoebe married John Peterson in November, 1793. both being of South Kingston, Rhode Island. The couple re- moved to Bristol. Vermont. and later to Ridgway. in what is now Orleans county, New York. They endured the privations of early fron- tier life, going to western New York when it was still a wilderness.
Josias Tanner was the son of Francis Tanner and his wife Eliza-
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beth ( Sheldon) Tanner. Elizabeth was a daughter of Isaac Sheldon, a respected citizen and freeman in South Kingston. She was born in 1713. Josias was a Revolutionary soldier.
Francis Tanner was the son of William and Elizabeth Tanner, of South Kingston. He was born July 3. 1708. After his marriage he removed to the neighboring town of Hopkinton, where he bought twelve hundred acres of land. He was admitted a "freeman" in South King- ston in 1753. and in 1762-5 held the honorable position in that day of justice of the peace, holding his commission (still in existence) from the governor of the province. He died January 3. 1777, and his widow in 1801.
William Tanner, father of Francis, and founder of that branch of the Rhode Island Tanners in America, first appears in the state in 1682, as witness to a deed of Frances Houlding, wife of Randall Houlding, the leading spirit in the colony that she had lately represented in Eng- land. In 1687 William Tanner paid a tax on one poll. In 1693 he bought land in South Kingston, having somewhat carlier married a daughter of Henry Tibbitts, an influential landholder, who in his will provided an estate for each of his children, and for each grandchild whose parent on the Tibbitt side was dead. William Tanner was prom- inent in founding the old Seventhi-Day Baptist church in Westerly, now Hopkinton, and held an influential position therein. He was living as late as 1735, and his third wife, Elizabeth, as late as 1752. The date of his birth is unknown, but was probably about 1660-3. It is not known from what part of England he came, nor to what branch of the Tanners he belonged. The family has been traced to the time of Ed- ward HI, if not to the Norman Conquest. It is probable that William Tanner, and a brother or two brothers crossed the ocean to escape the rigorous measures against the Baptists in the time of Charles II.
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William Tanner was the father of fifteen children. Francis had seven children. At his death he gave his slave Quom his freedom. The boy, Quom, was a Revolutionary soldier.
Josias Tanner was the father of thirteen children, was admitted "freeman" in 1757. He was ensign of the Second Continental Com- pany, 1762, and a private of the First Battalion, Rhode Island troops, Colonel Green commanding, from June I to July 1, 1778, Colonel Ar- nold's detachment. He died March 14, 1810, and his remains rest on the old homestead in Rhode Island.
ELLWOOD ROBERTS.
Ellwood Roberts, teacher, author, journalist and builder, has ex- hibited in his career a versatility which is seldom met with in ordinary experience. Combining a good physical constitution with an enormous capacity for labor, he has never found lacking all the employment he needed to occupy his time and attention. Born in Wilmington, Dela- ware, January 22, 1846, he has been a citizen of Pennsylvania, the native state of both his parents, since 1861, and few native-born Pennsylva- nians have a greater share of pride in the grand old commonwealth founded by William Penn than himself.
Educated in the common schools, and supplementing the slender knowledge gained in this way by home study, he is emphatically a self-made man, having taught school fourteen years, mostly in public schools and in Friends' Central School, Philadelphia. before taking a position as associate editor of the Norristown Herald in 1883, which he still holds. In the meantime, he has been actively engaged in other pursuits, having published in 1895 a volume of poems entitled "Lyrics of Quakerism"; a volume of genealogy in 1898, "Old Richland Fami-
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lies," containing the history of his own and connected families of Quakertown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where his first ancestor in this country, Edward Roberts, settled in 1716; a third volume, also his- torical and genealogical, "Plymouth Meeting", in 1900. All these pub- lications were well received. He has several more well under way, including the " Dewees Family," now in press, and others.
On his father's side Ellwood Roberts is of Welsh-Quaker an- cestry. On his mother's side, he is of Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania German extraction.
Hugh Roberts ( father) was born in the old Roberts mansion, recently torn down, near Branchtown, August 5. 1821. Ilis father, also Hugh Roberts a miller by occupation, had died several months pre- viously, and his widow married a second time. The infant Hugh became an object of the most tender care and solicitude to his maiden aunt, Mary Roberts, who reared him until he was placed at the age of eight years with a maternal uncle, Thomas P. Spencer, on a farm in Lower Makefield township. Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Here he grew to manhood, or nearly so, and. learning the trade of a miller, became employed at Brandywine Mills. Wilmington, where he remained a dozen years, marrying. August 8, 1842, Alice Anna Gallagher, born August 28, 1819. The couple had seven children, of whom four died in in- fancy, the survivors being Charles 11., now a resident of Norristown like the others, Ellwood, and Mary, wife of Samual Livezey. Hugh Roberts in 1852 became a farmer, following that occupation with varying success in Delaware, and in Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania, until his removal to Norristown in 1882, where he was occupied with his son Ellwood in building until his death on August 23, 1894. His widow made her home with her son, surviving nearly eight years. She died April 10, 1902. The family ancestors in regular order
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were Hugh ( 1821-1894) ; Hugh ( 1782-1821 ) ; \mos ( 1758-1835) ; David ( 1722-1804) : Edward, the immigrant, ( 1687-1768) ; all were members of the Society of Friends, and Edward was an earnest minister therein for the last forty years of his life. Edward's son David married the daughter of another well known minister, Thomas Lancaster, who (lied while on a religious mission to Barbadoes island in the West Indies.
Ellwood Roberts married, September 12. 1878, Mary Long Carter, daughter of Job and Rachel ( Owen) Carter, of Upper Greenwich, New Jersey, both members of the Society of Friends, and interested in the maintenance of its principles. Their children are: Howard C., born July 6. 1879: Charles A .. born May 30, 1881, died March 14, 1888: Alice R., born June 15. 1886; William H., born February 12, 1888: Mary C., born January 31. 1892.
Ellwood Roberts is an active worker in the Montgomery County Historical Society, of which he is a life member, and has rendered much assistance in editing the two volumes of Historical Sketches which it has published. He purchased for it the building which it occupies on Penn street. Norristown, when many of its members feared that the undertaking was too great. He and his sister. Mary R. Livezey, have labored steadily to diminish the debt. many hundreds of dollars being realized through their exertions, aided by their many friends. He is strongly attached to the principles of the Society of Friends, and has written and spoken in behalf of them for many years. He is and has been deeply interested in the growth and prosperity of Norristown. . A Republican in politics, he has cast his influence on the side of good gov- ernment without regard to mere partisanship. In everything relating to the welfare of the community, he is active and earnest and ever ready to lend a hand in righting any wrong that exists.
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Mr. Roberts is one of the most extensive real estate owners in Norristown, having been engaged in several enterprises of note, first, in conjunction with his father, and, more recently, with his son Howard. All his properties are kept in the best repair, nothing being allowed to depreciate because of neglect. He believes thoroughly in Norris- town as the place to make investment, and prefers real estate to stocks or bonds, regarding it as having a permanent value, especially in a good location.
Few men at his age are so active and so capable of continued ex- ertion in anything which enlists his interest. He is satisfied with having impressed his personality on the community with which he has been so long and so honorably identified, and he has no other desire than to serve the interests of those around him by contributing his share to the general progress of Norristown.
DR. JESSE COPE GREEN.
Dr. Jesse Cope Green, of West Chester. Pennsylvania, widely known by his scientific and antiquarian attainments, is the oldest living representative of a large family of Friends whose ancestors were among the earliest of that society in Pennsylvania, and most of whose descendants yet adhere to the faith of the fathers.
Thomas Green ( 1), the ancestor of the family in America, came from England and settled in Concord township. Delaware county, Penn- sylvania, in May, 1686, and died about 1691. He married Margaret (maiden name unknown), who died in October. 1708. Their son.
Thomas (2) was born in England. and died in Concord town- ship about 1713. He married Sarah (maiden name unknown). Their son.
Cette le Greeno
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Robert (3), a farmer, located in Birmingham, where he built a house. He married, November 18, 1724, at Concord Meeting, Rachel Vernon, daughter of John and Sarah (Pyle) Vernon. She was born September 27, 1704, and died February 17, 1751. Her husband died March 20, 1779, at eighty-five. Their son,
Robert (4), was born in Birmingham, December 19, 1731, and died in 1790. He was a farmer, and he set up a saw mill upon his farm. He was a leader in public affairs, and gave material assistance in the upbuilding of the community. In politics he was a Federalist. He married, at Bradford Meeting, June 10. 1756. Hannah Clayton, daughter of Edward and Ann ( Whitaker) Clayton, and she died in 1803. Their son,
Jesse (5) was born April 23. 1757. in Birmingham township, and died March 12, 1844. He was a man of very large stature and strong traits of character, and became one of the leading men in the neighborhood. He conducted his farm and also operated the saw mill which had been set up by his father. He was a Federalist and after- wards a Whig. He was married at Concord Meeting, January 14. 1789, to Edith Thatcher, born August 4, 1765, and died December 20, 1791, a daughter of William and Sarah (Dickinson) Thatcher. Their son,
William (6), was born December 18, 1791. He received a com- mon school education. He lived for some years in Birmingham, where he conducted a farm and saw mill, afterwards removing to West Ches- ter, where he died April 19, 1881. He was a man of marked indi- viduality and progressiveness, and aided in educational and other com- munity affairs, and was called to various township offices in Birming- ham. He was married at Concord Meeting. March 5. 1817, to Phebe Hatton, born June 25. 1797, in Birmingham township, a daughter of
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Peter and Phebe (Malin) Hatton. The last named was a daughter of Gideon and Phebe ( Bowman) Malin. Peter Hatton was a son of Peter and Hannah Yearsley ( Hatton) and he came from Chester, England. The children of William and Phebe ( Hatton) Green were (1) Jesse Cope, to be written of hereinafter; (2) Edith Hatton, born March 10, 1822, and (3) Annie, born December 10, 1835, who became the wife of M. W. Foster. D. D. S., M. D., of Baltimore and to whom were born three children-Matthew: Dr. William G., who married Emma Hopper; and Isabel.
Jesse Cope Green (7). eldest child and only son of William (6) and Phebe ( Hatton) Green, was born December 13, 1817, in Birming- ham township. Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He. began his educa- tion in the common neighborhood schools, and subsequently attended thie boarding schools of Joshua Hoopes, in West Chester, and of Samuel Smith, of Wilmington, Delaware. Immediately after leaving school he became a teacher, and he was among the first teachers under the common school law of Pennsylvania. He taught in Concord, Delaware county, from 1836 to 1841, and afterwards for several months in the Friends' School in West Chester. While instructing others, he was also acquiring instruction himself. . \n indefatigable student, he devoted every spare hour to the acquisition of knowledge. and this became the prevailing habit of his life.
In 1842 he began the study of dentistry, and he subsequently re- ceived the doctorate degree from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery of Philadelphia. He began practice in 1843, in West Chester, and has energetically devoted himself to his professon without retire- ment. He early developed a remarkable aptitude for the arts of den- tistry and his fine mechanical skill enabled him from time to time to construct various original instruments and appliances previously un-
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known to the profession. His quick insight and superior handicraft gained for him an acknowledged pre-eminence. It has been his con- stant endeavor to advance dentistry along scientific and ethical lines, and he has been in the front rank in movements to these ends. In 1855 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania AAssociation of Dental Surgeons; he took an active part in the organization of the Pennsylvania State Dental Society, in 1868, and he was treasurer of the body in 1880 and president in 1883. He signed the call that resulted in the formation of the first National Convention of Dentists, in Philadelphia, in 1855. He also signed the call out of which grew the American Dental Association in 1859. In 1876, immediately after the passage of the law establishing the Pennsylvania State Dental Ex- amining Board, he was made one of its members and its secretary, and he served in that position continuously for more than twenty-three years, without compensation, solely in the interests of the profession and of the public whom it served.
An ardent student of meteorology. Dr. Green has been a volunteer observer for the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Weather Bureau since 1855, and for the Pennsylvania State Weather Service Bureau from its organization. His rare mechanical acquirement has been of great advantage to him in these important and uncompensated tasks, and he produced from his own laboratory a fine electrical regis- tering anemometer, the first of its kind ever made, and an excellent mercurial barometer. He also constructed a number of microscopes of various patterns, which were highly praised by the famous Zent- mayer; and experts have pronounced his slide mounts as singularly beautiful in finish. He was one of the founders of the West Chester Microscopical Society, of which he was at times president and treasurer.
In various ways Dr. Green has been an inspiration in educational
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concerns. He was for many years a member of the West Chester School Board, and he gave most intelligent and zealous aid to the im- provement of the school system. In 1857 he originated a movement for the establishment of district school libraries to supply wants for which the state made no provision. To this cause he devoted enthusi- astic effort, and for three years he expended a liberal portion of his compensation as district school treasurer for the purchase of books for the school library. His literary tastes are evidenced by his library cov- ering a broad field of science, philosophy, history and general litera- ture. Among his volumes are many large-paper and de luxe editions, and a curious collection of almanacs, some of them of such remote date as the beginning of the sixteenth century. Dr. Green's antiquarian spirit is exhibited in what is presumably the largest and most varied collection of colonial, continental, confederate. and governmental and other rare paper money in Chester county, as well as in a collection of walking sticks, nearly two hundred in number, some made out of his- toric timber, others from rare woods from all lands. and some of various woods exquisitely fitted together and finely finished, of his own mas- terly handiwork.
Dr. Green has been a lifelong member of the Society of Friends, and since 1884 has served as overseer and since 1896 as elder of the meeting, and as treasurer since 1864. He has long been president of the Trust and Relief Society of West Chester, has been a manager of the Oakland Cemetery Company since its organization in 1852 and he has been many years its president. For over fifty years he has been an active member and treasurer of the First West Chester Fire Com- pany. He was originally a Whig in politics. His abhorrence of human bondage led him to take an active part in the anti-slavery move-
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