USA > Pennsylvania > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Vol. II > Part 6
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Richard Adams, of Providence township, Phil- adelphia, whose will is dated February 1, 1747-8, and probated March 24, 1747-8, mentions son Abraham's children, Ann and Abigail, then letters were granted to Abraham's daughter Rachel. There at once seems to be some discrepancy which is most difficult to explain.
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James' commission in the provincial service, as above stated, was dated in 1747, which tends to show that he might have been disinherited by his grandfather. Then again there is a possibility that James and John Adams are one and the same man, but this is very doubtful, as their names were mentioned distinctly and separately in the old records.
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(I) John Adams, ensign, Provincial Service, of Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, died in Nockamixon township, May 22, 1807. He married Mary - . He was buried in the old Nockamixon church graveyard. His will dated March 21, 1807, proved June 8, same year, is recorded in Will Book No. 7, p. 278, in the registrar of wills office, Doylestown, Penn- sylvania.
John Adams of Nockamixon, served in the provincial service in 1756. He held a commis- sion as ensign in one of the companies of the As- sociated Companies of Bucks county. (See Pennsylvania Archives, vol. iii, p. 19; also Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. ii, P. 531.) Captain William Ramsey was captain of the company in which John Adams served and held his commission as ensign in 1756, and was John Johnson was the lieutenant of the company. John Adams of Nockamixon and Mary, his wife, had the following children: Mary, Elizabeth, Margaret, George, Henry, John, Jacob.
George and Henry, sons of John Adams of Nockamixon, served in the Nockamixon Company of Associators in 1775. George was sergeant of the company and the son John was a soldier in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
The first record that we have of John Adams of Nockamixon owning any land is a warrant that was granted March 26, 1754, to John Adams, for land in Nockamixon township, Bucks county, upon which a survey was returned for fifty-four acres and 113 perches. A patent for this same land was granted, April 26, 1726, to Abraham Fryling. John Adams had quite some trouble with this land, for on May 19, 1763, he entered a caveat against the acceptance of a survey made for Archibald Merrin, which took in the above
mentioned land and improvements. (See Penn- sylvania Archives, third series, vol. ii, p. 275). The above land was surveyed by J. Hart, for which he gave a receipt, June 26, 1763, which is recorded in Doylestown, Pennsylania, in Deed Book, No. 32, p. 169. This receipt also mentions the date of the warrant, March 26, 1754.
(II) John Adams, private in Captain Samuel Watson's company, of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was a son of John Adams of Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, born in Nockamixon township, Novem- ber 3, 1759, died in Durham township, December 12, 1826. He married Christina Klinker, Decem- ber 15, 1789, at the Tohickon German Reformed church. Some time after the Revolutionary war he moved into Durham township, where he lived until his death. He is buried in the old Durham church graveyard. Christina Klinker, the wife of John Adams of Durham, was born in Nocka- mixon township, August 15, 1770, died in Dur- ham township, October 2, 1847. She is buried in the old Durham Church graveyard. She was the daughter of John and Mary Klinker, of Nock- amixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania.
John Adams, of Durham township, Bucks also from Nockamixon township, Bucks county. . county, Pennsylvania, was a soldier in the Con-
tinental army during the Revolutionary war. He served as a private in Captain Samuel Watson's company of the Second Pennsylvania Battalion, under Colonel Arthur St. Clair. He enlisted Feb- ruary 12, 1776. (See Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. x, p. 98). Several of the mem- bers of his company were from upper Bucks county. Captain Watson died at Three Rivers, and was succeeded by Thomas L. Moore, who was promoted to major of the Ninth Regiment, May 12, 1779, and was succeeded as captain by John Henderson. The company was transferred or became a part of the Third Battalion, Twelfth Regiment, July 1, 1778, and thus became asso- ciated with other companies of Bucks county. For his services he received from the state of Penn- sylvania two hundred acres of "Donation Land" in Robinson township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, which was returned for patent October 9, 1786. (See Pennsylvania Archives,
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third series, vol. vii, p. 723). This land he sold to Hugh Hamill, November 4, 1786, for £37 IOS. The witnesses to this deed were Thomas Delap (Dunlap), John Donnell and Jacob Glassmyer, all residents of Nockamixon township at that date. (Recorder's office, Philadelphia, Pennyslvania, deed book D-17, p. 322). Jolın K., son of John Adams of Durham, was a soldier for some time during the war of 1812-1814, private in Captain John Dornblaser's company (Pennsylvania Arch- ives, second series, vol. xii, p. 105).
John Adams of Durham, and Christina, his wife, had the following children : Elizabeth, Mary Margaret, John K., Henry, Jacob, Samuel, Susan, married Joseph Retschlin, and Daniel.
John Adams of Durham was quite a large land owner. In 1796 he owned one hundred acres of land and a grist and a saw mill in Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. April 20, 1799, he bought of Solomon Lightcap 263 acres of land. (Bucks county deed book, 30, p. 310). April II, 1808, he bought two tracts, one of 155 acres and the other of twelve acres. (Bucks county deed book, 39, p. 135). John Adams of Durham died without making a will. It is im- possible to give the date when John. Adams was mustered out of the service, for the muster rolls of the Twelfth Regiment have practically never been found.
In going over the tax lists of Nockamixon township, showing the holdings of John Adams, the father of the above John Adams, and his sons George and Henry, elder brothers of John, John Adams appears as a "single man" first in the year 1785, notwithstanding that he was of age in 1780. He therefore served, in all probability, up to about that date (1784-1785) in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Regiment. Captain Samuel Wat- son's company records date to November 25, 1776, only.
(III) Henry Adams, of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, son of John Adams, was born in Durham township, June 17, 1806, and died there December 15, 1838. He married Elizabeth Bitz, August 25, 1828, at her home in Springfield township, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania. He is buried in the old Durham church
graveyard. Elizabeth Bitz, the wife of Henry Adams, of Durham, was born September 18, 1811, in Springfield township, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, and died March 28, 1878, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of John Bitz and Susan Riegel, his wife, of Springfield, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Henry Adams's will is recorded in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It is dated April 28, 1838, and is proved December 22, 1838. Henry Adams of Durham and Eliza- beth, his wife, had the following children : John, Hannah, Catherine, and Samuel. After the death of Henry Adams in 1840, Elizabeth Bitz was mar- ried a second time, to Christian Nicholas. She had no children by this union. Christian K. Nicholas was born in Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1817, and died in Upper Saucon township, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, November 3, 1893, and was buried in Friedensville, November 7, 1893, and body removed to Niskey Hill Cemetery, Bethle- hem, December 16, 1899.
(IV) Samuel Adams, of South Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, son of Henry Adams, of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born in Durham township, July 25, 1837, and died in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1902. He married Susie Weaver, September 14, 1865, at her home in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is buried at Nisky Hill cemetery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Susie Weaver, wife of Samuel Adams, was born in Al- lentown, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1847. She was a daughter of Joseph Weaver, and Salome, his wife, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Samuel Adams and Susie Weaver his wife, had the following chil- dren : John, Joseph W., Henry, and Susie.
Samuel Adams when quite a young man started out in farming, and then in iron ore min- ing. He went to the Thomas Iron Company of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, and was given charge of their mining interests. Mr. John Fitz induced him to come to Betlilehem and accept the position as his assistant in the Bethlehem Iron Company. Here he remained for nearly thirty years, and then had to resign on account of his health. He then organized the Ponupo Mining and Transporta-
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HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS.
tion Company, Limited, and went to Santiago de Cuba as general manager of the company. Here he bought a railroad for the company, the Ferro- Carril de Santiago de Cuba, and became its pres- ident, and also built an extension to the railroad to connect with the company's manganese mines. He remained in Cuba with his family for over two years, when he resigned and returned north. He was in Cuba part of the year 1892, all of 1893, and part of 1894. After returning from Cuba he assisted in forming the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company of Sheffield, Alabama. He stayed in Sheffield with his family one year, then sold out his interest and came north. While with the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company he held the positions of general superintendent and as- sistant treasurer, and also director of the com- pany. He then retired from active business and devoted himself to farming, having a tract of one hundred acres near Friedensville, Pennsylvania, about 130 acres above Bingen, Pennsylvania, and a tract of woodland along the P. & R. of forty acres, above Bingen, Pennsylvania. He was also interested and a director of the following com- panies at the time of his death : Ponupo Mining and Transportation Company, Cuban Mining Company, Jones & Bixler Manufacturing Com- pany, South Bethlehem National Bank.
Henry, son of Samuel Adams, was a soldier during the Spanish-American war of 1898. He organized the first volunteer company in the state. He and his company were taken into the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment to help make up the Third Battalion of that regiment. He was commissioned as captain of Company K. Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, United State's Volun- teer Infantry. The regiment was in the Third Brigade, Third Division, First Army Corps.
(V). Joseph W. Adams, of South Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, son of Sam- tel Adams, was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, January 19, 1872. He married Reba Thomas, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, daughter of David J. Thomas and Susannah Edwards, of Pittsburgh, June 14, 1899, at her home. Reba Thomas, the wife of Joseph W. Adams, was born in Pitts- burgh, November II, 1877.
Joseph W. Adams was educated at the Mora- vian parochial school of Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, the Hill school of Pottstown, Pennsyl- vania, and the Lehigh University of South Beth- lehem, Pennsylvania, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He started to work in the drawing rooms of the Bethlehem Iron Company. He went to Cuba with his father and was treas- urer of the Ferro-Carril de Santiago de Cuba, 1892-93. He went to Alabama as assistant to the general superintendent of the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company in 1895, and part of 1896. He returned home and took up his studies again at the Lehigh University in metallurgy and mineralogy, and then read law for over a year. In 1899 he and his brother Henry formed the Cuban Mining Company, and he was elected sec- retary and treasurer of the company and also a director. He is connected with the following companies : Director and vice-president of South Bethlehem National Bank : director and president of LaPaz Mining Company ; director, secretary and treasurer of Cuban Mining Company; direc- tor and executive committee of Delaware Forge and Steel Company ; director and committee of Guerber Engineering Company ; director of Le- high Valley Cold Storage Company ; director, sec- retary and treasurer of the Roepper Mining Com- pany ; director of Valentine Fiber Ware Company ; acting trustee of the estate of Samuel Adams. He is a member of the following clubs and societies : Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, Empire State Society, Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution, Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, Pennsylvania German Society, and the local town and country clubs; and of Masonic bodies-Bethlehem Lodge, Zinzendorf Chapter, Bethlehem Council, Allen Commandery, Caldwell Consistory, and Rajah Temple. He is captain of commissary, Fourth Regiment Infan- try, N. G. P.
His children were: John, born January 23, 1901 ; David Samuel, born March 15, 1903.
Henry Adams, captain of Company K, Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, U. S. V. I .. son of Sam- uel Adams, of South Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, was born in Bethlehem,
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GENEALOGICAL AND
Pennsylvania, November 2, 1873. He married Annette Talbot Belcher, of New London, Connec- ticut, July 9, 1902.
Henry Adams, mining engineer, was educated at the Moravian Parochial Day School of Beth- lehem, Pennsylvania, the Hill School of Potts- town, Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh University of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He started to work with Thomas Edison at Edison, New Jersey. He went to Cuba and was assistant superintendent and then superintendent of the Ferro-Carril de Santiago de Cuba. He went south to Alabama and was in charge of the coal and coke department of the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company at Jasper, Alabama. He went to Mexico and erected an electric light plant for the Mexican National Railroad, and then was supervisor of a division of that road. He resigned and was made con- structing engineer for Tumer Nunn & Company of Mexico, Mexico, with headquarters in Pueblo. In December of 1897 and January of 1898 he was in Cuba in the city of Santiago and the sur- rounding country, and visited the insurgents sev- eral times.
When war broke out with Spain in 1898 he raised the first company of volunteers in the state, with the assistance of Colonel Wilson and Captain Juett of Bethlehem. He and his company were mustered into the United States service, and he received his commission as captain of volunteers on July 6, 1898. His company was attached to the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment United States Volunteer Infantry as Company K to help com- plete the Third Battalion. The regiment was in the Third Division, Third Brigade, First Army Corps. Company K of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment of United States Volunteer Infantry, is thus mentioned in the "Record of Events which may be necessary or Useful for Future Reference at the War Department."
"This company was organized in July, at South Bethlehem, and mustered in at South Bethlehem, July 6, 1898, when company left by rail for Chickamauga Park, July 7, 1898, arriving in Camp July 19. 1898. Remained in camp until August 26, 1898, when company left by rail for
PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
Camp Hamilton, Lexington, Kentucky, arriving in camp August 28, 1898. Left Camp Hamilton for regimental headquarters at Wilkes-Barre, September 17, 1898, arriving there September 19, 1898. Company left by rail for Home Station, September 20, 1898, arriving same day, when company was verbally furloughed for thirty days."
The above is taken from the muster-out roll of the company. The company was mustered into service on the 6th day of July, 1898, and was mus- tered out of the service on the 29th day of Oc- tober, 1898. It was the first volunteer company formed in the state of Pennsylvania, and was taken to help fill out the Third Battalion of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. The other com- panies taken were Captain Green's company of Reading, Captain Mercer's company of Summit Hill, above Mauch Chunk, and Captain Moor's company, of Towanda.
On Friday evening April 22, 1898, there was a meeting held in the Fountain Hill Opera House, and a call for volunteers was made. These met in Dixon's Hall afterward and elected Henry Adams captain ; Leighton N. D. Mixsell, first lieutenant, and Dick Enright, second lieutenant. Mr. En- right failed to pass his physical examination and was rejected. A. Alison Mitchell, of Wilkes- Barre, was appointed in his place. The South Bethlehem Market Hall was used as an Armory by the company.
Henry Adams is a member of the Pennsyl- vania-German Society, 1899 ; a member of the So- ciety of Foreign Wars, Pennsylvania Comman- dery, 1899 ; general manager of the Cuban Mining Company at Nuevitas, Cuba, 1899-1902, and the mines of this company were discovered by him ; a member of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and was presented a medal of honor by the society for service in the Spanish-American war, and of Masonic bodies- Fernwood Lodge, No. 543, Philadelphia, and the Caldwell Consistory, 32d degree. . He was vice- president and general manager of the San Do- mingo Exploration Company and San Domingo. Southern Railway Company. San Domingo, R .. D., West Indies, 1902.
3 X
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HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS.
CHARLES KECK, deceased, for many years numbered among the public-spirited and influen- tial citizens of Lehigh county, was a descendant of Henry Geck, a native of Upper Pfalz, Ba- varia, who left his native country with his wife (F'eterson), of Holland, on board the English ship "Pink John and William," of Sunderland, Constable Tymperton, master, from Rotterdam, last from Dover, and arrived in Philadelphia Oc- tober 17, 1732. When he reached there he and his wife were sold as redemptioners for their passage money to a man in Chester county, and served the time agreed upon, about three or four years.
From the early settlement of Pennsylvania a considerable business was carried on, chiefly by ship owners and captains of vessels, in importing from Europe persons who were desirous of emi- grating to this country and were too poor to pay their passage or have a competency for an outfit for so long a journey. With this class, who gen- erally came from England, Ireland and Ger- many, arrangements would be made through agents to contract and bring them over, furnish them with food during the voyage, and perhaps some other necessaries, on condition that on their arrival in an American port they have the right to sell their time for a certain number of years to repay the cost thus necessarily incurred, and be of some profit to those engaged in such ventures. With the growth and settlement of the country this business greatly increased through the de- mand for laborers, and, perhaps, just before the Revolution attained its greatest height. How- ever, on the return of peace it did not slacken much, even to the commencement of the last cen- tury. Such a matter, of course, would also re- ceive some attention from the government and we give the special legislation thereon, upon which as yet but little has been written.
In the Charter of Laws agreed upon in Eng- land and confirmed April 25, 1682, by Penn, we find this mention in the twenty-third article : "That there shall be a register for all servants, where their name, time, wages and days of pay- ment shall be registered." In the laws prepared on the fifth of the following month the proprietary
wisely remarks: "That all children within this province of the age of twelve years shall be taught some useful trade or skill, to the end tlfat none may be idle, but the poor may work to live, and the rich, if they have become poor, may not want. That servants be not kept longer than their time, and such as are careful be both justly and kindly used in their service, and put in fitting equipage at the expiration thereof, according to custom." Penn, for the justice here displayed, certainly de- serves credit. "The Great Law," passed at Ches- ter, December 7, contains this clause: "That no master or mistress or freeman of this province or territories thereunto belonging, shall presume to sell or dispose of any servant or servants into any other province, that is or are bound to serve his or her time in the province of Pennsylvania or territories thereof, under the penalty that every person so offending shall for every such servant so sold forfeit ten pounds, to be levied by way of distress and sale of their goods." Strange to say, the aforesaid excellent enactments, on Will- iam and Mary reaching the throne, were abro- gated in 1793. In the beginning of 1683 "A bill to hinder the selling of servants into other prov- inces and to prevent runaways" was passed by the council. On August 29, the governor, Will- iam Penn, "put ye question whether a proclama- tion were not convenient to be put forth to em- power masters to chastise their servants, and to punish any that shall inveigle any servant to go from his master." They unanimously agreed and ordered it accordingly. The assembly passed an "act for the better regulation of servants in this province and territories" in 1700 which provided :
"That no servant shall be sold or disposed of to any person residing in any other province or government without the consent of the said ser- vant and two justices of the peace of the county wherein he lives or is sold, under the penalty of ten pounds to be forfeited by the seller. That no servant shall be assigned over to another person by any in this province or territories but in pres- ence of one justice of the peace under penalty of ten pounds. And whoever shall apprehend or take up any runaway servant and shall bring him or her to the sheriff of the county, such person
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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
shall, for every such servant, if taken up within ten miles of the servant's, abode, receive ten shill- ings, and if ten miles or upwards, twenty shill- ings reward of the said sheriff, who is hereby re- quired to pay the same and forthwith to send notice to the master or owner, of whom he shall receive five shillings, prison fees, upon delivery of the said servant, together with all disbursements and reasonable charges for and upon the same. Whoever shall conceal any servant of this prov- ince or territories, or entertain him or her twenty- four hours without his or her master's or owner's knowledge and consent, and shall not within the said time give an account to some justice of the peace of the county, everv such person shall for- feit twenty shillings for every day's concealment. That every servant who shall faithfully serve four years or more shall, at the expiration of their servitude, have a discharge, and shall be duly clothed with two complete suits of apparel, whereof one shall be new, and shall also be fur- nished with one new axe, one grubbing hoe and one weeding hoe, at the charge of their master or mistress."
This latter clause was abolished in 1791. The object of this undoubtedly was to encourage the removal of timber, that the land might sooner come into cultivation. An act was passed May 10, 1729, "laying a duty on foreigners and Irish servants imported into this province." Masters of servants were regarded for the time being as hold- ing property subject to taxation. The rate in 1776 was fixed at one and a half pounds each, which was increased in 1786 to ten pounds. The state passed an act March 12, 1778, making com- pensation to those masters whose servants or apprentices had enlisted in the army. "The labor ·of the plantations," says the "Historical Review" (attributed to Franklin, 1759), "is performed chiefly by indented servants brought from Great Britain, Ireland and Germany, because of the high price it bears, can it be performed any other way? These servants are purchased of the cap- tains who bring them; the purchaser, by a posi- tive law, has a legal property in them, and like other chattels, they are liable to be seized for debts." Servants from the Palatinate were dis- posed of in 1722 at ten pounds each for five years servitude. Prior to 1727 most of the Germans who emigrated were persons of means. In the
years 1728, 1729, 1738, 1741, 1751, great num- bers were brought hither. A shipper advertises in 1729: "Lately imported, and to be sold cheap, a parcel of likely men and women servants." They brought but little property with them, says Dr. Rush, in his account of the "Manners of the German Inhabitants in Pennsylvania," written in 1789. A few pieces of silver coin, a chest with clothes, a Bible, a prayer or hymn book, consti- tuted the chief property of most of them. Many bound themselves, or one or more of their children to masters after their arrival for four, five or seven years to pay their passage acoss the ocean. The usual terms of sale depended somewhat on the age, strength, health and ability of the persons sold. Boys and girls had to serve from five to ten years, or until they attained the age of twenty- one. Many parents were necessitated, as they had been wont to do at home with their cattle, to sell their own children. Children under five years of age could not be sold. They were disposed of gratuitously to such persons as agreed to raise them, to be free on attaining the age of twenty- one. It was an humble position that redemption- ers occupied, "yet from this class," says Gordon in his "History of Pennsylvania," "have sprung some of the most respectable and wealthy inhabi- tants of the state." A law was passed February 8, 1819, "that no female shall be arrested or im- prisoned for or by reason of any debt contracted after the passage of this act." With the final abolition of imprisonment for debt the institution had necessarily to die out without any special en- actment or repeal, so slow has ever been the ad- vancement and regard for popular rights, even in this great comonwealth and enlightened age.
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