History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 103

Author: Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart), 1820-1910; Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley), b. 1855; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III > Part 103

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DR. ANDREW JACKSON HINES, was born and reared on the old homestead, and was educated at a private school at the Hermitage, a well known academy conduct- ed in Doylestown township by Professor T. J. Clarke. He studied medicine under Dr.

O. P. James, who was a first cousin to his mother, and entered Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, from which he graduated i11 1853. After practicing for a little less than a year at Centreville he purchased in the fall of 1853 the property. and practice of Dr. Joseph Moyer, at Leidytown, Hill- town township, where he practiced for eight years with success, and then sold out and located at Jarrettown, Montgomery county, succeeding Dr. Albanus Styre. He remained at Jarrettown until 1874, when he removed to Doylestown, and after a few months' rest resumed the practice of his chosen profession and continued to prac- tice until January 1, 1901, when he was taken seriously ill, and after three weeks of intense suffering died on January 23, 1901. He married, June 5, 1860, Anna Maria Armstrong, daughter of Jesse Armstrong, of Doylestown, who died in 1876. They were the parents of three children: Will- iam P., who died in childhood; Eliza- beth A., and Ella E., who resides at the Doylestown homestead. Dr. Hines and his family were members of the Baptist church, as had been his father and grandmother and his maternal ancestors for many gen- erations. He was a member of the Bucks County Medical Society, and a prominent and successful practitioner. His wife was a descendant of William Armstrong, a :. early Scotch-Irish settler in Bedminster township. Bucks county, whose descend- ants were at one time very numerous in Bucks county, some of them filling posi- tions of eminence in the official, military and professional life of the county and elsewhere.

A. HAYES JORDAN, editor and pub- lisher of the "Republican," Doylestown, was born in Riegelsville, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, July 13, 1868, and is a son of Dr. Alexander S. and Amanda ( Weikel) Jor- dan, the former a native of Lehigh county, and the latter of Springfield township, Bucks county.

The first paternal ancestor of A. Hayes Jordan of whom there is any definite rec- ord was his great-great-grandfather, Fred- erick Jordan, of English ancestry, who was born in 1744, and in 1769 married Cathar- ine Eckel, daughter of Henry and Susanna Eckel, of Bedminster township, and settled in Alexandria township, Hunterdon coun- ty, near Milford, where he operated two mills during the Revolutionary war. Dr. John W. Jordan, librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, (a great-grand- son) has in his possession letters from Col- onel Howell, quartermaster of New Jersey, to Frederick Jordan, arranging to meet the farmers at Mr. Jordan's mill to pay them for grain ground by Mr. Jordan for the use of the Continental troops. Frederick Jor- dan also served for a time as a sergeant in the New Jersey Line during the Revolu- tion. He died in 1784 and his wife Cath- arine in 1786, and both are buried in the

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

grave yard of St. Thomas's Protestant Episcopal church in Alexandria township, near where they lived. Catharine Eckel was born in Bedminster township, Bucks county, December 1, 1750. Her father, Heinrich Eckel, with his wife Susanna and his mother Catharine Eckel, came to Amer- ica from Hannan on the Main, in Hesse, in the ship "Ranier," Captain Henry Brown- ing, arriving in Philadelphia from Rotter- dam, on September 26, 1749. He settled in Bedminster township, on land surveyed to Chief Justice William Allen, which the latter later conveyed to him in fee. He died in Philadelphia on his return from a visit to his relatives in Germany, in the au- tumu of 1764, leaving children, Henry, Catharine and John. The children of Fred- erick and Catharine (Eckel) Jordan were ; John, the grandfather of Dr. John W. Jor- dan, born September 1, 1770; Frederick Jr., born August 27, 1772; Catharine, who died young, and Henry. John and Henry lived and died in Philadelphia.

Frederick Jordan, Jr., the great-grand- father of A. Hayes Jordan, was but twelve years of age at the death of his father, and, his mother dying two years later, he was left to the care of his maternal uncle, Henry Eckel, then a farmer and tanner in Bedminster township, Bucks county, re- moving later to Springfield township, where he lived to an advanced age, dying in 1839. Frederick Jordan, Jr., learned the trade of a tanner, and soon after attaining his ma- jority established himself in business in Philadelphia, being senior member of the firm of Jordan & Foering, Third street, near Race, tanners and leather merchants. This firm did an extensive business for several years, shipping their product to Europe and distant ports of the United States, but lost heavily in the trying times preceding the second war with Great Britain and failed financially. Mr. Jordan then removed to near Coopersburg, Lehigh county, where he . soon recupterated his shattered finances and became a considerable landowner and a prominent man in the community. He was one of the commissioners who laid out Le- high county, March 6, 1812, and held for several years the office of justice of, the peace. He was twice married, first on April 4, 1797, to Catharine Hartzell, daughter of Paul and Catharine Hartzell, of Rockhill, Bucks county, and second to Catharine Stet- ler, of Lehigh county. Paul Hartzell was a tanner in Rockhill township, and died there in 1806, leaving a large family, Cath- arine Jordan being his eldest daughter. Paul was a son of Henry Hartzell, the pio- neer ancestor of the Hartzell family of Bucks county, a large landowner and prom- inent citizen. Many of his descendants have become eminent business and profes- sional men. The date of the death of Cath- arine (Hartzell) Jordan and that of the subsequent marriage of Frederick Jordan to Catharine Stettler have not been ascer- tained further than that the first Catharine was living at the death of her father in

1806. Frederick Jordan died in Upper Sau- con, Lehigh county, February 1, 1861, and his wife Catharine died February 18, 1847.

Henry Jordan, eldest son of Frederick and Catharine ( Hartzel) Jordan, and the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Philadelphia in 1800 and died in Lehigh county in 1876. He married El- len Stahr, of an old Bucks county family and German ancestry, and followed the life of a farmer in Lehigh county. His chil- dren were: William, late of Coopersburg, deceased ; Catharine, who married Louis Seiger; and Mary, who married Owen Seiger, both of whom are deceased; James, still living on the old homestead; Frank and Milton, of the firm of Jordan & Bro., carriage manufacturers of Coopersburg; Alexander S., deceased; and Frederick, or Coopersburg.

Dr. Alexander Jordan was the fourth son and sixth child of Henry and Ellen (Stahr) Jordan, and , was born in Lehigh county, April 10, 1839. He was educated at Muh- lenberg College, Allentown, and later stud- ied medicine and graduated from the med- ical department of the University of Penn- sylvania in the class of 1861. He first set- tled at Coopersburg, where he practiced for a short time, locating later at South Beth- lehem, from whence he removed to Riegels- ville, Bucks county, in 1866, practicing his. chosen profession at the latter place with eminent success until his death in Novem- ber, 1900. During the war Dr. Jordan served for two years in the Union army as assistant surgeon in the general hospital. He married, July 4, 1861, Amanda Weikel, daughter of Charles and Annie (Taylor ) Weikel, of Springfield township, where she was born in 1840. Charles Weikel, father of Mrs. Jordan, was also a native of Spring- field township, Bucks county, where he died in 1852 at the age of about forty-five years. He was a son of Samuel Weikel and a grandson of Peter Weikel, who settled in Springfield township in 1772 and died there in 1830 at an advanced age. Samuel Wei- kel, grandfather of Mrs. Jordan, was twice married and had fourteen children, all or whom grew to maturity and left families. His many descendants are now scattered over several states of the Union, though a number of them still reside in Bucks coun- ty. Dr. Alexander S. and Amanda (Wei- kel) Jordan were the parents of three chil- dren : Minerva A., Lillie C. and Alexander Hayes. Dr. Jordan was an active and prom- inent member of the Masonic fraternity, be- ing a past master of Prosperity Lodge, No. 567. He was also a past grand of Peace and Union Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Riegelsville. He was affiliated with the German Reformed church, and politically was a Democrat.

A. HAYES JORDAN was born and reared in Riegelsville, Bucks county, and obtained his elementary education at the Rieglesville public schools and Reiglesville Academy. He later took a classical course at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, graduating in the class of 1890 with the de-

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

gree of Bachelor of Arts, and later receiv- ing the degree of A. M. at the same insti- tution. He taught school for a short time in Bucks county, and in 1891 entered the office of the "Riegelsville News," but soon after connected himself with the editorial . staff of the "Easton Argus," where he re- mained until March 1, 1903, when he pur- chased the "Bucks County ( Weekly and Daily ) Republican," published at Doyles- town, which he has since conducted with success. Mr. Jordan married, in 1892, Dora Snyder, daughter of William H. and Annie E. Snyder, of Easton, Pennsylvania, and they are the parents of two children- Glenn Catharine and Alexander Weikel Jordan.

WILLIAM CHAFFEE RYAN, lawyer and referee in bankruptcy, Doylestown, was born in New Hope, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, June 15, 1860, and is the son of John and Lydia ( Moore) Ryan, both na- tives of Hunterdon county, New Jersey. He spent his, boyhood days in his native town, and attended the high school there until 1878, when he accepted a position as clerk in the office of the Lambertville Spoke Manufacturing Company, which he filled until August, 1882. In September, 1882, he entered the office of Hugh B. Eastburn, Esq., at Doylestown, as a student at law, and was admitted to the bar, of Bucks county September 15, 1884, and located at Doylestown. In 1887 he formed a law- partnership wtih the late Hon. Robert M. Yardley, member of congress from the Bucks-Montgomery district, which was con- tinued until 1890. In 1891 Mr. Yardley was made receiver of the Keystone National Bank, Philadephia, and Mr. Ryan became assistant receiver; and in 1894, Mr. Yard- ley having also been made receiver of the Spring Garden Bank, Mr. Ryan became assistant receiver of that institution and continued in the work of closing out the affairs of both banks until 1898. Return- ing to the active practice of law at Doyles- town, he was appointed referee in bank- ruptcy by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in July, 1898, a position he still fills ( 1904). He has been admitted to practice in the state and federal courts, including the su- preme court of the United States; is a member of the County and State Bar Asso- ciations and of the National Association of Referees in Bankruptcy. Mr. Ryan stands high in the practice of his profession, and has acted as counsel in many important cases. As chief counsel he conducted the defence of Wallace Burt, the half-breed murderer of the Rightlys, in 1894, in connec- tion with Howard 1. James, Esq. He represented the borough of New Hope in the important contest against the Western Union and Postal Cable Telegraph Com- panies over an ordinance imposing license fees on the telegraph companies for the maintenance of poles and wires within the

borough limits, and carried the case through the state and United States supreme courts. The latter court sustained the contention of the borough, in 1903, in the case of the Western Union Company, ( 187, U. S. 419), but to some extent modified its decision in the case of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company, in 1904 (192, U. S. 55), though it sustained the contention of the plaintiff, viz .: the right of the borough to enact and enforce such an ordinance if the rates imposed be reasonable. The cases were therefore important, involving a con- stitutional question of great interest. Mr. Ryan argued both cases in the several courts.

In politics Mr. Ryan is a Republican and has often taken the stump in political cam- paigns. He has also been frequently called upon to deliver addresses upon formal oc- casions. In the practice of his chosen pro- fession, to which he is thoroughly devoted, he is active, earnest and successful, both as a counselor and advocate, frequently ap- pearing before the courts in the trial of civil and other causes. Mr. Ryan was mar- ried April 18, 1889, to Katherine Grimes, and has one daughter, Helen Lydia Ryan.

E. WESLEY KEELER, of Doylestown, attorney and counselor at law, was born in Buckingham township, Bucks county, Feb- ruary 13, 1853, son of Eli K. and Anna F. (Reeder) Keeler. His grandfather, John Keeler, was born in Tinicum township, Bucks county, and was a son of Baltzer Keeler, an early settler in that township, who lies buried in the old graveyard near Lower Tinicum church. John Keeler mar- ried Ann Heaney, a granddaughter of Peter De Roche, a Frenchman, supposed to have come to America with the French troops during the Revolution, and settled in Tini- cum. John Keeler died a comparatively young man, but his widow, "Nancy" Keeler, lived to be over one hundred years old.

Eli K. Keeler was born in Tinicum town- ship in 1820, and died in Plumstead town- ship, March 10, 1897. He married in 1850 Anna F., daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Fell Reeder, of Buckingham (see Reeder family' in this work ), and settled first on the Stavely farm in Solebury township, where was born his eldest child, a daughter, who died in infancy. Two years later he re- moved to Buckingham township near the Doylestown township line, where Emmor Tomlinson lately lived. where the subject of this sketch was born. On April 1, 1857, he removed to a farm in Plumstead, north- east of Danboro, where the remaining years of his life were spent. His wife, Anna F., died December 29, 1901. Their children were: Louisa, died in infancy ; E. Wesley, the subject of this sketch; Anna Mary, living in Plumstead. unmarried ; Sarah Jane, widow of Edmund M. Price, of Lahaska, now living in Philadelphia : Caroline, unmarried; Lizzie R., wife of Joseph H. Meyers, of Plumstead; Charles

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THENEW YORK

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

E., a druggist of Philadelphia : Edward H., died in Buckingham in 1895; Emma, wife of Daniel S. Klipple, of Plumstead; and Joseph C., a physician in Philadelphia.

E. Wesley Keeler was reared on the Plumstead farm and attended Valley Park public school, and later took a course at the Doylestown Seminary, and attended West Chester Normal School for one term. He taught school in Bucks county for five years, during the last two of which he was studying the rudiments of law, and entered the office of George and Henry Lear, at Doylestown, as a student, March II, 1874, and was admitted to the bar of his natiye county March 13, 1876. Being a careful and diligent student and an indefatigable worker, he acquired a reputation as a safe counselor, and has built up a lucrative practice, being considered one of the ablest lawyers at the home bar. He has been admitted to practice in the Supreme and Superior courts of the commonwealth, and in the United States District court for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Keeler is a Republican in politics, and has always taken a prominent part in the councils of his party. He was for several years chairman of the county committee. and was again chosen for that position in 1903, and is still filling it with eminent ability. He was county solicitor for six years, 1885-1891, and was a notary public for many years. The only elective office he has filled was that of register of wills for the year 1895, by appointment to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Chas. H. Weaver, the elected register. He has been a delegate to many district and state con- ventions and was the representative of Bucks county in the national convention of 1892. Mr. Keeler was married to Laura W. Jones, on October 6, 1881. They have no children.

DR. JAMES E. GROFF, a popular and successful physician, of Doylestown, was born near Sellersville, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, August 3, 1856. He is a son of Isaac S. and Mary A. (Fellman) Groff, both of German descent.

Hans Jacob Groff emigrated from the Palatinate, Germany, with his wife Verona, and arrived in Philadelphia in the ship "Pa- tience," August II, 1750, and located in Rockhill township, Bucks county, on land surveyed to him in September, 1761. In 1770 he purchased two tracts of 186 acres and forty-seven acres respectively, near the present borough of Perkasie, adjoining the land of Jacob Stout, with whose family the Groffs later intermarried. He was a biack- smith by trade. He died April 1, 1782, leaving a widow Verona, and children ; Jacob, Peter, John, Henry, and Mary, who married Isaac Souder. John married Chris- tina Fulmer. Peter Groff, brother of Jacob, accompanied him to America in the "Pa- tience," and both were doubtless sons of Peter, who arrived in the "Crown" in 1749.

Peter Groff, son of Jacob, settled in East Nantmeal township, Chester county. Henry Groff, fourth son of Jacob and Verona, was born in Rockhill township, and at the death of his father in 1782 was living on the home- stead, and three years later purchased in partnership with his brother John one hun- dred acres thereof, and purchased John's interest therein in 1794. He married Esther , and had two sons Jacob and Abra- ham.

Jacob Groff, born on the Perkasie home- stead about 1800, acquired title to a part of it from his father, Henry Groff, in 1826, on condition of providing for his father and mother during the remainder of their lives. He also purchased two hundred acres ad- joining, and other tracts in Rockhill, be- coming an extensive landowner and prom- inent man in the community. In religion he was a Mennonite, and in politics a stanch Whig. He died April, 1855. He was twice married, his first wife being Mary Magda- len, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Barndt) Stout, of Rockhill, born August 29. 1804, died February 7, 1848. (See Stout family in this work). The children of Jacob and Mary Magdalen Groff were: Owen, Isaac, Charles, Abraham, Mary and Jacob. Mary, the only daughter, married Jacob Shearer. Jacob Groff married (second) Hannah Moore, but had no issue by her.

Isaac Stout Groff, second son of Jacob and Magdalen, was born in Rockhill town- ship, August 13, 1834, and there grew to manhood. He was a merchant tailor, and carried on business at Benjamin, now a part of Perkasie borough, for many years. He later conducted a general store at Chal- font, but returned to merchant tailoring steveral years prior to his death, locating at Line Lexington, New Britain township, where he died in 1890. He was a member of the Reformed church. He married Mary Ann Fellman, daughter of Jacob Fellman, of Richland, of the well known family of that vicinity, Charles Fellman, who was shreriff of Bucks county, 1854-6, being a brother of Jacob.

Dr. James E. Groff, the subject of this sketch, was the only child of Isaac S. and Mary Ann Groff, and was born at Ben- jamin, August 3, 1856. He attended the public schools of that neighborhood until fifteen years of age, and then taught school for two years. He then entered Ursinus College at Collegeville, and remained two and a half years. In his sophomore year the serious illness of his father necessitated his leaving school, and he returned home and conducted his father's business for two and a half years, and expected to follow the business of a merchant for life, but, his fa- ther selling out his business in the spring of 1877, James E. began the study of medi- cine with Dr. A. J. Mathews, at Chalfont. In the fall of the same year he entered Jeff- erson Medical College, and graduated in 1880. He first located for practice of his profession at Tradesville, Warrington town- ship, Bucks county, and remained there un-

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til 1886, when he removed to Doylestown, where he has lived and practiced ever since. He has been eminently successful in his chosen profession, and has built up a large and lucrative practice. He is a member of the Bucks County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society and the American Medical Association; the local representative of the State Board of Health and a member of the board of United States Pension Examining Surgeons. He is now serving his second term as a member of the borough council of Doylestown. He is an active worker in the German Reformed church of Doylestown ; a member of Doyles- town Lodge, No. 245, F. and A. M .; Aque- tong Lodge, No. 193, I. O. O. F .; and Len- ape Council No. 1117, Royal Arcanum.' He has always taken an interest in all that per- tains to the improvement and development of his town and county. In politics he is a Republican. He was married November 16, 1876, to Adelaide, daughter of Charles R. Grove, of New Britain, by whom he has one son, Howard R., born November 26, 1877, who is a clerk in the Doylestown Trust Company. He was married in 1902 to Miss Nellie Wolf, and resides in Doyles- town.

CLARENCE DECKER HOTCHKISS, of the editorial staff of the "Intelligencer," Doylestown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia, August 4, 1857, and is a son of George W. and Williamina (Bittenbender) Hotchkiss, of English and German ancestry, respectively.

He is a lineal descendant of Samuel and Elizabeth Hotchkiss, who were married at what is now New Haven, Connecticut, in 1632, from which date the ancestors of the subject of this sketch were residents of that locality and of New York. Samuel Hotchkiss, the great-grandfather of Clar- ence D., was commissioned a master in the United States Navy, July 18, 1788, but re- signed his commission March 16, 1799, and settled in the Wyoming Valley, Pennsyl- vania. He married Sarah Decker of Fort Ticonderoga, New York. His son George, reared 111 the Wyoming Valley, had three children, Jeremiah, Eme- line and George W. Hotchkiss. George W. Hotchkiss, the father of Clar- ence D., married Williamina Bittenbender, sixth daughter of William Bittenbender, of Easton. Pennsylvania, and removed to Philadelphia and later to Doylestown. Bucks county, Pennsylvania. George W. and Williamina ( Bittenbender) Hotchkiss, were the parents of five children, all of whom are deceased except the subject of this sketch.

Clarence D. Hotchkiss attended the pub- lic schools of Philadelphia and the Wyoming Seminary, and subsequently took the studies of a college course under private tutors. Upon leaving school he entered the drug business in Philadelphia, but relinquished that business on the re-

moval of the family to Doylestown, and entered the office of the Doylestown Demo- crat. He subsequently served on various papers in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and subsequently founded the Apprentices' Journal, a me- chanical monthly journal, which he pub- lished in Philadelphia for a number of years, but sold his interest therein and re- turned to Doylestown in 1885, and again took a position on the staff of the Demo- crat, which he retained until 1890, when General W. W. H. Davis, the then editor and proprietor, sold the plant to a syndi- cate, who organized the Doylestown Pub- lishing Company. Mr. Hotchkiss then took a position on the reportorial staff of the Intelligencer, daily and weekly. In 1892 he was promoted to local and news editor, a position which he has since filled with eminent ability. At the incorporation of the Intelligencer Company in 1898 he be- came a stockholder, and later a director of the corporation, and takes a deep interest in the conduct and success of this old and reliable newspaper.

Mr. Hotehkiss and his family are mem- bers of the Doylestown Presbyterian church, and he was the first president of the Bucks County Christian Endeavor Union, and has always been one of the active workers of the organization. He is one of the directors of the Intelligencer Company, secretary of the Press League of Bucks and Montgomery counties, trustee of Doylestown Fire Company, No. 1, and has been secretary of the Doylestown Board of Health since its organization in 1894. He is a member of Doylestown Lodge, No. 193, and Doylestown Encampment, No. 35, I. O. O. F., being one of the most active members of both organizations, filling im- portant positions on their respective degree staffs, and serving for many years as one of the trustees of both. He is a member of the Bucks County Historical Society, and was for several years a member of the Doylestown Glee Club. Mr. Hotchkiss enjoys considerable local celebrity as an amateur photographer, and is a member of the Columbia Photographic Society of Philadelphia. He married, June 19. 1878, Albertine Walton, daughter of Dr. Thomas H. Walton, for many years a druggist of Doylestown, now deceased. Two children of Clarence D. and Albertine (Walton) Hotchkiss, survive: George S., of the reportorial staff of the Intelligencer, and Sarah W.

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 103

Author: Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart), 1820-1910; Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley), b. 1855; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart), 1820-1910; Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley), b. 1855; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1040