History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 89

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418

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cratic" principles. The odious " Alien and Sedition Laws " had been passed, and the Ger- mans of Pennsylvania were sorely harassed by their provisions, and many able men were en- gaged in opposing their spirit and endeavoring to secure their repeal.

Though but sixteen years of age, he was writing in defense of Jefferson and Mckean, and his pen gave promise of the potent influ- ence which, in after-years, it was destined to wield over the German mind of his native State. According to the wishes of his father, he proceeded to New York to study theology under Rev. Dr. Kunze, and, in 1802, having been duly licensed to preach, took charge of the congregation of German Lutherans in Read- ing, Pa., which he retained for twenty-seven years. During a greater part of this time he was a member of the Synod, and filled the offices of secretary, treasurer and finally, by unanimous election, that of president, to which he was subsequently re-elected as often and as long as the constitution would permit.

As a pulpit orator he was celebrated. His great learning, his complete knowledge of this subject, his splendid rhetoric and profound logic combined to make in him one of the finest preachers of his church. His health be- coming impaired, he resolved to withdraw from ministerial duties and retire to a farm; and no sooner did he signify his intention of so doing, than his fellow-citizens, who had long ad- mired his quiet and consistent support of Dem- ocratic principles, solicited him to represent the district in Congress. In June, 1829, he re- signed liis ministerial office, having during the preceding October been elected a Representa- tive in Congress.

In December, 1829, he took his seat at Washington, and gave his support to the ad- ministration of President Jackson. The latter, as the leader of the Democratic party, was attracted by the position assumed by Henry A. Muhlenberg, who, though he might have been deemed inexperienced in the forms of legisla- tion, was yet so thorough in his understanding of the measures proposed, and so energetic in the manner in which he advocated their adop- tion, that in the very outset of his Congres-

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sional career he established an influence in the party which few men obtain after many years of service.

His views on the tariff question were very moderate. He believed more in the perma- nency of the system than in the amount of pro- tection ; the latter to be purely incidental, and the adjustment of duties to be such as should furnish a revenue to defray the expenses of the government.

He was opposed to the United States Bank, and coincided in all the views hostile to that institution expressed by the President. It was he who, on the 18th of Febru- ary, 1834, after more than two months of daily appeals on behalf of the friends of the banks, moved the previous ques- tion, and, by the vote which was then taken settled forever its des- tiny.

He continued for nine years his position as mem- ber of the House, and was indefati- Beschmahlenburg gable in his duty to his constitu- J. GLANCY JONES was born October 7, 1811, ents and to his country. In 1835 he was a candidate of a portion | in Carnarvon township, Berks County. His of the Democratic party for the Governorship ancestry were of Welsh origin. His great- grand-father, David Jones, settled in 1730 upon the Conestoga Creek, near Morgantown, and there he erected and carried on one of the first forges in that section of the State. His grand- father, Jonathan Jones, was captain of a com- pany of troops belonging to the Continental Line, enlisted by authority of Congress, and of Pennsylvania, but was defeated. In 1836, when it seemed more than probable that each section of the party would nominate an electoral ticket, he induced his friends to give way and support the ticket already chosen. They did so, and Martin Van Buren was elected. In 1837 the latter tendered him a seat in the Cabinet as

Secretary of the Navy, and afterwards the Russian mission, both of which, for private reasons, he was obliged to decline. In 1838 he was named ambassador to Austria, was unani- mously confirmed, and remained at Vienna un- til the close of 1840.

In 1844 he was nominated by the State Con- ventiou for the post of Governor, which he ac- cepted, but died suddenly on August 11, 1844, two months prior to the election.

Mr. Muhlen- berg was married twice: first to Elizabeth Hies- ter, a danghter of Gov. Jos. Hiester with whom he had one daughter Mary Elizabeth, intermarried with E. Jonathan Dei- ninger; and then to Rebecca Hies- ter, also a daugh- ter of Gov. Hies- ter, with whom he had six children, -Emma Eliza- beth, Hiester H., Henry A., Em- ma Elizabeth, Rose Catharine and Henry A. His first wife died in 1806, and the second in 1841.

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rendered distinguished services in the expedition against Canada in 1776. Afterward he was lieutenant-colonel for a time. His death was occasioned by the hardships of that campaign. Jehu Jones, son of Jonathan and father of the subject of this sketch, was for many years en- gaged in the profession of a teacher, for which he was qualified by a classical education. He died in 1864, at an advanced age.

J. Glancy Jones was educated at Kenyon College, Ohio, and in 1833 was ordained to the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, to which his family had for generations be- longed. His inclinations, however, led him to prefer the profession of the law; and having undergone the necessary course of preparation, he was admitted to the bar in 1839. He com- menced practice in 1842, at Easton, Pennsyl- vania. The judicial district was composed at that time of the counties of Berks, Lehigh and Northampton, and was presided over by the Hon. John Banks. After a residence of three years at Easton he removed to Reading, and was admitted to the bar of Berks County Jan- uary 7, 1845. He was appointed district attor- ney for Berks County, under the administration of Governor Shunk, in March, 1847, and served in that capacity until January, 1849. During that period he was tendered by the Executive the president judgeship of the Chester and Del- aware District.

Though successful in the practice of his pro- fession, he very early inclined to politics. Being a decided Democrat, he became active in the affairs of the dominant party in his native county, as well as in the State at large. He was the warm personal friend and political sup- porter of Morris Longstreth, the unsuccessful competitor of Governor Johnston in 1848, and the following year was chairman of the Demo- cratic State Committee. In 1850 he was elected to Congress from the Berks District. Having declined a renomination, the Hon. Henry A. Muhlenberg, the younger, was chosen as his successor for the term beginning in December, 1853. Mr. Muhlenberg having died shortly after taking his seat, a special election was held in February, 1854, to fill the vacancy, when Mr. Jones was chosen for the nnexpired term.

He was re-elected for two succeeding regular terms, in 1854 and 1856, thus holding the posi- tion of Representative, with but a brief inter- mission, for the period of eight years. As a member of the Committee on Claims, he was the author of the bill establishing the United States Court of Claims. In 1857, he was chair- man of the Committee of Ways and Means, a position of leadership which necessarily secured for its incumbent a national reputation.

After the election of Mr. Buchanau to the Presidency, in 1856, Mr. Jones was selected as a member of his Cabinet. This selection was rati- fied by the Democratic press and party through- out the country with great unanimity, but itawak- ened the bitter hostility of certain political ene- mies of Mr. Jones in Pennsylvania. This local hostility, Mr. Buchanan thought, might endanger the harmony of the party in the State, and the success of his administration ; he therefore wrote to Mr. Jones, nnder date of February 17, 1857: "I have reserved the question of your appoint- ment to a seat in the Cabinet until the latest hour, hoping, as I anxiously wished and desired, that public opinion in Pennsylvania might jus- tify my choice;" but this opposition, he further wrote, "will deprive me of your valuable ser- vices in the cabinet. I have most reluctantly arrived at this conclusion." Two years later Mr. Buchanan wrote that he bitterly regretted this action. In February, 1857, he tendered to Mr. Jones the mission to Berlin. "It is my purpose," he wrote, "to present your name to the Senate for that highly respectable and im- portant mission immediately after my Cabinet shall have been confirmed. And permit me here to add that I think your mind and quali- ties are admirably adapted to that branch of the public service." This position Mr. Jones de- clined. He continued his service in Congress as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and was the zealous advocate and sup- porter of President Buchanan's administration on the floor of the House.

In the year 1858 he was unanimously re- nominated for Congress, his opponent being Major John Schwartz, the candidate of the Anti- Lecompton Democracy, which united with it the strength of the Republican party.

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MGlancy Jones

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Mr. Jones, being the special representative of the policy of the federal administration, the contest in Berks, as elsewhere, was conducted largely upon national issues. One of the most exciting campaigns in the history of the county ensued, which resulted in the election of Major John Schwartz by a majority of nineteen votes. The total vote in the district was upwards of fourteen thousand. Immediately after the result of the contest was known, President Buchanan tendered to Mr. Jones the Austrian mission, which he accepted. Upon his confirmation by the Senate, he resigned his seat in Congress, and left, with his family, for his post in Janu- ary, 1859. Upon the accession of the Repub- lican party to power, in 1861, Mr. Burlingame was appointed by President Lincoln to succeed Mr. Jones at the court of Vienna; but, having been almost immediately recalled, Mr. Jones, at the request of the administration, remained in the embassy nntil the arrival of his successor, Hon. John Lothrop Motley, in the month of December. At the period of the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States the subject of the belligerent relations of the two contend- ing sections devolved duties of a peculiarly delicate and responsible nature upon our diplo- matic representatives abroad, and, so far as Mr. Jones' sphere of service was concerned, he sus- tained his official trust in a manner highly satisfactory to the administration and the gov- ernment of his country.

Upon his return home, where he arrived in January, 1862, the period of Mr. Jones' pub- lic life practically terminated, though he did not cease to participate in the counsels of his party for many years afterward. He resumed the practice of the law, and carried it on for about ten years, when declining health com- pelled him to retire from all employments of a public nature.

Mr. Jones was, for a long period, a promi- nent person in the councils of the Protestant Episcopal Church, having been frequently a delegate to diocesan conventions, and having taken a leading part in the measures which led to the establishment of the new diocese of Cen- tral Pennsylvania in 1871. During his entire political and professional career he preserved a

character of unblemished integrity, and in bis private relations to his fellow-men was equally above reproach. He had many warm and zealous friends, and succeeded, as few public men succeed, in preserving the personal esteem of his political opponents, against whom he never cherished animosity or resentment. He was well fitted to be a leader of men, and those who differed most radically with him in politi- cal opinion did not hesitate to acknowledge the winning power of his personal influence. He was a very social man. His domestic life was especially happy and attractive. His wife, Anna Rodman, a daughter of the Hon. Wil- liam Rodman, of Bucks County, formerly a representative of that district in Congress, was a lady of superior refinement and most estima- ble Christian character, and her decease, in 1871, severed the ties of a peculiarly united and affectionate household.

Mr. Jones died at Reading March 24, 1878, in his sixty-seventh year, and upon that occa- sion the bar of the county united in a testimo- nial of marked respect to his memory and appreciation of his public services.

Two of his sons, Charles Henry and Rich- mond L. Jones, were adınitted to the Berks County bar in 1863, having studied law in their father's office. The latter was a representative from the county in the Legislature from 1867 to 1869, and the former became a resident and practitioner at the bar of Philadelphia. Mr. Jones' eldest daughter, Anna Rodman, married Farrelly Alden, of Pittsburgh, and died there in December, 1885. His youngest daughter, Catharine, married. William Thomas Wallace, of Pittsburgh, Pa.

JOHN ENDLICH was born March 30, 1819, near Darmstadt, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse- Darmstadt, Germany. He received the usual German common-school education, together with thorough musical instruction, from his fifth year, under some of the most famous mas- ters. In his sixteenth year he applied himself to the study of forestry, and when twenty years of age entered the government service of his native state in the department of forestry. Political affiliations rendering his continuance in that position irksome, he handed in his resig-

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nation in 1840, and immediately came to this country. He settled in Reading as a teacher of music, spent several years in Richmond, Va., in the same capacity, and returning to Reading, continued his profession with great success. In 1845 he married Miss Emma N. Miller, daughter of Rev. Jacob Miller, D.D., of Read- ing. In 1852 he relinquished his musical pro- fession, and removed to a farm he had pur- chased in Alsace township, where he now re- sides.

In politics, Mr. Endlich has always been a consistent Democrat, serving repeatedly as delegate to local and State Conventions of that party. In 1857 President Buchanan appointed him United States consul to Bâle, Switzerland, whence he returned in 1861. In 1866 he took his family to Germany for the purpose of giving his sons the benefits of an education at German institutions. He returned in 1872 and was in- duced to employ his musical attainments, es- pecially in the line of sacred music, in the ill- terest of the Lutheran Church, of which he is a member. During the course of the following year he published a choral book for services in the Lutheran Church, a collection for use in Sunday-schools, and a Liturgy, the musical work in all of which, including many original compositions, has received most flattering rec- ognition in this country and in Germany. Of his children, three are living,-Emma A. End- lich, anthoress of several religious publica- tions ; Dr. F. M. Endlich, geologist and min- ing engineer ; and G. A. Endlich, attorney-at- law.

HENRY M. KEIM, son of Hon. George M. Keim and Julia Mayer, his wife, was born at Reading, August 16, 1842. He attended the Pennsylvania Military Institute at Reading during its flourishing days, and then spent four years in the Reading High School, from which he was graduated in 1858, at the age of fifteen years, at the head of his class ; subsequently he took a regular course of study at the Union College, Schenectady, and was graduated in 1862. He then studied law in the office of Jacob S. Livingood, Esq., at Reading, and was admitted to the bar August 7, 1865.

In the fall of 1862 he enlisted as a private

in Company I, Eleventh Regiment Pennsyl- vania Militia, and was with the Pennsyl- vania division under Major-General Rey- nolds, who held the road to Hagers- town during the battle of Antietam. . During the invasion of Pennsylvania by the rebels in July, 1863, he enlisted in Company A, Fifty-third Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, and was commissioned first lieutenant. Shortly after, having been mus- tered into service, he was detailed with certain other first lieutenants to pass an examination for the purpose of relieving Lieutenant Petriken, of the regular army, as ordnance officer of the Lehigh District, and being successful, he was appointed to this responsible office by Major- General Franz Sigel. His company was mus- tered out of service in the latter part of August, 1863, but he was retained in this posi- tion. At the end of three months an applica- tion was made by him for his discharge, but General Sigel issued an order prohibiting him to be mustered out at that time; and in a letter explanatory of his action in the matter, he said,-

"It was absolutely necessary and in the interest of the service to retain Lieutenant Keim. No officer could be found at that time to act in the aforesaid capacity, and it would have been injurious to the service to discharge him after he had made himself acquainted with the duties involved in his office."

His duties required much labor, and a great responsibility was connected with the office. Ordnance stores valued at over a million and a quarter of dollars were in his possession at one time, and he aided in arming and equipping twenty-seven thousand men for the military service.

Mr. Keim was one of the last three city auditors of Reading, having served for the year 1874-75, when that office was abolished by the new city charter of 1874, and the office of controller substituted. In 1875 he received the nomination of the Democratic party for mayor of the city, but he was defeated. The city was then still Republican, the Republican party having elected this officer from 1873 to 1879. And in 1876 he served as chairman of the Democratic County Committee during the

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Tilden campaign, and was chairman of the committee of arrangements during the great Jubilee Festival of the party, at Reading, when a great parade was held, followed by the roast- ing of two buffaloes.

Mr. Keim is at present holding a number of prominent positions of trust and responsibility. He was one of the managers of the Reading Iron- Works; is a trustee of the Charles Evans Cemetery, a manager of the Reading Library and of the St. Luke's Hospital at Bethlehem, Pa. He has been a vestryman of Christ Epis- copal Church, Reading, for a number of years, his grandfather, George DeB. Keim, having been its first senior warden, when the parish was organized, in 1822, from old St. Mary's. He was a member of the committee who raised the endowment of the new diocese of Central Pennsylvania, was a delegate to the primary convention of the diocese, held at Harrisburg, in 1871, and served for five years on its stand- ing committee.

In June, 1885, Mr. Keim was honored by the administration of President Cleveland with the appointment of consul to Prince Edward Island. He is now filling this appointment. He is the fourth person in the history of our county who has received a foreign appoint- ment from the national government.

Mr. Keim was married, in 1867, to Emma E. Trexler, a daughter of Mr. Horatio Trexler, for many years prominently identified with the iron industry of Berks County.

DELEGATES AT CONVENTION OF 1776.

JACOB MORGAN was born in the northern part of Wales in 1716, emigrating thence with his father, Thomas Morgan, to Caernarvon town- ship about 1730. Near the head-waters of the Conestoga, in the vicinity where Morgantown is situated, his father took up a large tract of land. He and David Jones were the most prominent settlers of that section of the county, they lo- cating there about the time that the Indians moved northwardly towards and beyond the Blue Mountain. During the French and In- dian War, Jacob Morgan served as a captain in the provincial service, having been commission- ed December 5, 1755 ; and four years afterward he held the same commission in the regiment

of Pennsylvania troops. He was one of the justices of the county for many years, 1768 to 1769, and 1772 to and beyond 1784, possibly till 1791. He represented the county at the Provincial Conference of 1776, and the Constitu- tional Convention of the same year. For a time he was colonel of a battalion of Associators, and afterward held the command of all the troops raised in the county.

During the years 1777 aud 1778 he was a member of the Executive Council of the State, and of the Council of Safety from October 17, 1777, to December 4th following. In April, 1780, he received the appointment of assistant forage- master, whichi he held for some time. He died at Morgantown on Nov. 11, 1792, aged seventy- six years, and his body was buried in the grave- yard of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, adjoining the village. He laid out the town-plan of Morgantown abont the year 1770 and named the place after his family.

GABRIEL HIESTER, a son of Daniel Hiester and Catharine Shueler (natives of Witzenstein, Westphalia), was born in Bern township June 17, 1749. He was brought up as a farmer, re- ceiving such an education as the neighborhood afforded at the Bern church school. During the Revolutionary excitement he was selected as one of the representatives from Berks County to the Provincial Convention for the formation of a State Constitution. This was in July, 1776. In 1778 he received the appointment of justice of the Common Pleas Court of the county, which he held for four years. Then he was elected to the Assembly, and represented the county in this legislative body for eight years, at dif- ferent times-1782, 1787-89, 1791 and 1802 -04. During this time (in 1789) he was in the Assembly when the question of framing a new Constitution was discussed, but he voted against the propriety of calling a convention for this purpose. He was Senator from the district which comprised Berks and Dauphin Counties for ten years-1795-96 and 1805-12.

This continued selection by his fellow-citizens indicated their confidence in him as a man of ability and integrity. He died on his farm, in Bern township, on September 1, 1824, aged over seventy-five years. He was a brother of Colonel

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Daniel Hiester (of Montgomery County), Col- onel John Hiester (of Chester County) and a cousin of Governor Joseph Hiester (of this county). His wife was Elizabeth Bausman, who survived him eight years, dying in the eighty-first year of her age.

JOHN LESHER was a native of Germany. He was born January 5, 1711. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1734, and was naturalized in 1743. He first settled in the upper section of Bucks County, but subsequently removed to Oley township. Along the Manatawny Creek, near tlie Oley churches, he, with two other men (John Yoder and John Ross), erected a forge in 1744. This was known as the " Oley Forge." From that time, for a period of fifty years, he was prominently iden- tified with the iron industry of Berks County. He represented the county in the Constitutional Convention of 1776, and served in the General Assembly from 1776 till 1782, a period of six years. Whilst in the convention he was one of the important committee who prepared and re- ported the "Declaration of Rights." During the Revolution he acted as one of the commis- sioners for purchasing army supplies, having re- ceived his appointment on January 20, 1778. He died in Oley township April 5, 1794, aged eighty-three years.

BENJAMIN SPYKER was born in the Palati- nate about the year 1723. His father, John Peter Spyker, emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1738, landing at the port of Philadelphia and proceeding thence shortly afterward to Tulpe- hocken township, where a large tract of land was taken up and a permanent residence ef- fected. In 1744 he was licensed to carry on the business of an Indian trader ; and subse- quently he enlisted in the " French and Indian War"-his business having been destroyed by the rupture between the settlers and the Indians. During this trying period he wrote a number of important letters in reference to the cruelties of the Indians and the suffering of the people. He was a neighbor and intimate associate of Conrad Weiser. At the beginning of the Revolution he assisted in organizing the Asso- ciators of the county and preparing them for active military service. In 1776 he represent-

ed the county in the Provincial Conference and in the Constitutional Convention. He also served the office of justice of the peace for many years in Tulpehocken township, his dis- trict comprising the western section of the county, and there he commanded a strong social and political influence. He died in September, 1802, aged nearly eighty years.

DANIEL HUNTER .- The parents of Daniel Hunter were emigrants from Germany who were amongst the early settlers of Oley town- ship. Their name was Yaeger; but it was changed to English by requirement of a provin- cial law. He was born in this township about the year 1729. At the breaking out of the Revo- lution he manifested an earnest interest in pub- lic affairs. His prominence and boldness led to his selection as a representative man from the county to the Provincial Conference in June, 1776, and to the convention in July fol- lowing. In the next year the War Office of Pennsylvania appointed him to act as one of the commissioners to procure blankets for the Con- tinental army, and also as a paymaster of the militia. He represented the county in the General Assembly for the year 1782. Whilst serving this office he was taken ill, and from this illness he died at home in February, 1783, aged fifty-four years.

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History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 89

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards Number of Pages: 1418

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418