History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 107

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 107


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He continued his religious labors from the time of his arrival in Pensylvania, and on locating in Hilltown united himself and his family with Montgomery Baptist church which had been founded in 1714. This church being, however, over three miles away, he began to minister to the Welsh Baptist settlers in Hilltown, located still farther away from the church, first at his and their houses and in the open air, and later at the little meeting house erected on land donated by him as before stated. He also assisted the Rev. Benjamin Griffith in his pastorate of Montgomery church. The meeting house erected by him in 1737 stood for forty-four years, being demolished in 1771, and a more commodious building erected in its place.


Death closed the earthly career of this pious Welsh pioneer on October 6, 1757, and a large flat marble slab marks his last rest- ing place in the shadow of the church his earnest labors had helped to establish, on which is inscribed the date of his death and age, and the following singularly appro- priate and unique epitaph, composed by himself :


"In yonder Meeting House I spent my breath ;


Now silent mouldering here I lie in death. These silent lips shall wake and yet declare, A dread Amen to truths they published there."


His wife preceded him, dying November 5, 1752, at the age of seventy-two years. By his will dated December II, 1753, he devised to the inhabitants of Hilltown for- ever the meeting house erected by himself, and the graveyard in which to bury their dead, both to be for the use of the people of whatever religious creed, "Papists and those who refuse to take the oath of allegiance


to a Protestant king excepted," and, in reference to the graveyard, "those guilty of self-murder only excepted." The house was also to be used for school purposes. A considerable sum was also devised for the use of the Baptist church. His large real estate holdings were divided among his children, most of whom were already set- tled on the lands then devised to them. Elder William Thomas and Ann his wife, were the parents of seven children ;


I. Thomas, born in Wales in 1711, died in Hilltown, January, 1780.


2. John, born in Radnor, Delaware coun- ty, December, 1713, married Sarah James, and was for many years pastor of the Mont- gomery and Hilltown Baptist churches and has left numerous descendants.


3. Gwently, born 1716, married Morris Morris. She inherited from her father the farm near the meeting house, and she and her husband are the ancestors of the Morris family of that section, and many others scattered all over the country.


4. Anna, born 1719, married Stephen Rowland, some of whose descendants still reside in Hilltown.


5. Manasseh, born 1721, died in Hill- town, February 7, 1802.


6. William, born 1723, married Abigail Day, and died in Hilltown in 1764.


7. Ephraim, a twin of Anna, born 1719, married Eleanor Bates, and died in 1776. All these children left families and spent their lives in or near Hilltown.


Thomas Thomas, the eldest son of Elder William Thomas, was the direct ancestor of the subject of this sketch. He married in 1735, Margaret Bates, and settled in a house erected for him by his father on the tract purchased in 1725, of Rowland Ellis, and this tract and fifty acres of the first purchase of his father was devised to him later. In addition to this he purchased in 1735 seventy-nine acres, and in 1750 he purchased a tract of five hundred acres, but immedi- ately conveyed one hundred acres, each to his brothers Manasseh and John. With the 250 acres received from his father he was therefore the owner of 629 acres. He was a member of the Montgomery Baptist church, but attended the Hilltown Baptist church and became a member there on its acquiring a separate existence. He died in Jannary, 1780. His first wife, Margaret Bates, died prior to 1750, leaving three chil- dren, Morgan, born 1736, removed to New Jersey, where he died unmarried; Ann, who married (first) Jolm Custard, and late in life Jacob Appenzeller ; and Alice, born 1746, married John Mathias, and died in Hilltown, October 25, 1810, leaving a large family. Thomas Thomas married a second time prior to 1750, Mary Williams, who bore him ten children, viz .: Elizabeth, mar- ried Henry Godshalk; Esther, married William Williams; Job, born 1751, married Rebecca Bates, daughter of Thomas and Sarah; Amos, born 1752, married Ruth Bates, sister to Rebecca, removed to Vir- ginia, where he was a captain in the Revo-


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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.


lution. Jonah, born 1754 or 1755, married Sarah Freeman, daughter of Richard; Cath- arine, married Charles Miller, and settled in Northampton county; Asa, born Febru- ary, 1758, married Martha James, daughter of Abel and Mary (Hlowell) James, of New Britain, was a soldier in the Revolu- ton; Sarah, born 1760, married Patrick Maitland, and settled in Buffalo Valley, (Union county, Pennsylvania ) ; Abel, born 1762, married Mary James, another daugh- te: of Abel and Mary ( Howell) James and settled in Shenandoah Valley; Anna, twin 0. Abel, married Joseph Mathias.


Job Thomas, eldest son of Thomas and Mary ( Williams) Thomas, was born on the old homestead in 1751. Though two of his brothers were soldiers in the Revolutionary armny, he held aloof from the patriot cause, and had little faith in its ultimate success. In 1774 his father and mother conveyed to him 150 acres of the 500 acre tract pur- chased in 1750, and he later heired fifty acres additional, and lived thereon until 1793, when he sold it and removed to the Buffalo Valley with a part of his family, and later to Shamokin, where he was killed by a falling tree in June, 1798. His widow and family returned to Hilltown, where the former died June 30, 1819. Job and Re- becca Bates were the parents of eight chii-


dren, as follows : I. Thomas, married Mary Mathias. 2. Abiah, married Sarah Ashton. 3. Ruth, never married ; 4. Adin, married Morgan Custard. 5. Zillah, mar- ried Eber Thomas, son of Manasseh. 6. Sarah, married Richard Heacock. 7. Mary, married Owen Rowland. 8. Ann, married Issachar Thomas, son of Elias and grand- son of Ephraim Thomas, third son of Elder William Thomas. Ephraim had heired from his father a portion of the 300 acres pur- chased by Elder William Thomas in 1723, and upon which his father had erected him a house in 1740, and this tract descended to his son Elias, and through him to Issachar, and from him to his son Levi, who lived thereon until his death in 1886, being then the last survivor of his name as a land- owner in Hilltown. Levi Thomas devised the old plantation for life to Oliver M. Thomas, the subject of this sketch, he be- ing the grandson of his mother's brother Abiah Thomas.


Abiah Thomas, second son of Job and Rebecca ( Bates) Thomas, married Sarah Ashton. He was a farmer for many years in Montgomery township, Montgomery county, and had two sons. Alfred and Hi- ram, the former of whom died in Phila- delphia in 1882.


Hiram Thomas, second son of Abiah, was born in Hilltown, Bucks county, but was reared in Montgomery county. He was for several years a school teacher in Hatfield and other parts of Montgomery county, and later a farmer in Montgomery township. He died in Lower Providence township, Montgomery county. His wife was Pru- dence Roberts, daughter of John Roberts, and of Welsh descent, and they were the


parents. of six children, as follows: Eliza, Kate; Oliver M., Alfred, Sarah J., wife of Nathan R. Wamsher ; and Robert.


OLIVER M. THOMAS, eldest son of Hiram and Prudence (Roberts ) Thomas, was born in Montgomery county, July 25, 1836, and was educated at the public schools of Gwynedd township. Early in life he learned the trade of a blacksmith, which he followed for thirty-two years. In 1886 he was devised the farm on which he now re- sides in Hilltown, for life, by his cousin Levi Thomas, and has since resided thereon. In religious matters he holds to the faith of his ancestors for many generations, and is a member of the Baptist church. In politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Thomas married November 25, 1860, Elizabeth Fens- termacher, of Lower Providence township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and they have been the parents of three children : Samuel, who died at the age of three years ; Hiram Brook, who died at the age of ten months; and Eliza Katharine, who died at the age of nine years.


THE HENDRICKS FAMILY, of Bucks county, is one of the oldest in Pennsyl- vania, its progenitors forming part of that little colony that emigrated from the dis- trict of the Lower Rhine, in Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia, and founded Ger- mantown in 1684-5. There under the lead- ership of the gifted Pastorius they founded the first Mennonite congregation in __ mer- ica, established schools, and a little later a printing press, and gave a tremendous impetus to the growth of religious freedom.


Gerhard Hendricks, of Kreigsheim, a little village on the Rhine, with wife Sytie, sons Wilhelm and Lendert, daughter Sarah and servant Heinrich Frey, came to Penn- sylvania in the "Frances and Dorothy" Oc- tober 12, 1685, with Peter Shoemaker and a number of others who became prominent in the affairs of not only the German settle- ment on the Schuylkill, but of the province of Pennsylvania. Prior to the organization of the Mennonite congregation many of those who were later Mennonites, affiliated with the Friends and took part in their re- ligious meetings. Among these were Ger- hard Hendricks and the Opden Graf broth- ers from Crefeld, who, with Hendricks, signed the famous protest against human slavery that was presented first to the Ger- mantown Friends Meeting in 1688, and by them forwarded to the monthly quarterly and yearly meetings of the society. Sarah, the daughter of Gerhard Hendricks mar- ried Isaac Shoemaker.


September 28, 1709, the colonial assem- bly passed an "Act for the better Enabling the Divers Inhabitants of the Province of Pennsylvania, to Hold and Enjoy Lands, Tenements and Plantations in the same Province," by which over eighty of the then German residents of Germantown and vicin- ity were naturalized. The list is headed by


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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.


Francis Daniel Pastorius, and contains the names of the Cunrads, Keysers, Luckens, Tysons, Shoemakers, Neuses and many others, whose descendants became later residents of Bucks county. Among these persons then naturalized were William Hen- dricks and his sons Henry and Lawrence Hendricks. Lawrence (or Lourentz) Hen- dricks was one of the first settlers on the Skippack, in what is now Towamencin township, Montgomery county, having pur- chased of Jomes Shattuck, February 30, 1713, 120 acres in that section on which he settled. At the time of his purchase he was a resident of Upper Dublin township, and is denominated in the deed as a "hus- bandman." He later became a tanner. On November 22, 1724, Isaac Pennington, of Bucks county, conveyed to Lawrence Hen- dricks, of Skippack, fifty acres of land "near Skippack" and adjoining his first purchase. In 1748 he purchased 246 acres in Hatfield township, III acres of which he immediately conveyed to his son Henry Hendricks. Towamencin was formed into a township in 1728, and on the tax lists of 1734 appear the names of the following landholders: Paul Hendricks, 100 acres ; Lawrence Hendricks, 150 acres ; Leonard Hendricks, 100 acres; and Henry Hen- dricks, 123 acres. Henry was the brother naturalized with Lawrence, and Paul and Leonard were doubtless also brothers, though born in America. Leonard mar- ried Elizabeth Turner, daughter of Herman Turner, of Germantown, and purchased his land in Towamencin at about the same date as Lawrence's second purchase, December 20, 1720. He died in 1776, leaving children : William, Mathias, Herman, Mary and Eliza- beth. Paul Hendricks died in 1775, leav- ing widow Margaret and sons Paul, Will- ianı, John and Peter; and daughters Catlı- arine; Mary, wife of Henry Fry; Sophia, wife of Nicholas Godschalk; Susanna ; Elizabeth, wife of Herman Hendricks; and Rachel, wife of William Nash.


Lawrence Hendricks' wife was Janneke or Jane Tyson, daughter of Cornelius Ty- sen, of Germantown, who died in 1716, leaving a widow Margaret and two sons, Mathias and Peter ; and daughters; Barba- ra, wife of Mathias Cunrad; Alice, wife of John Cunrad; Williemptie, wife of Pa.il Engle; and Jannicke, wife of Laurentz Hendricks. Paul Engle settled near his brother-in-law, Lawrence Hendricks, on the Skippack, and his tombstone dated 1723 is the oldest in the Skip- pack Mennonite burying ground. Law- rence Hendricks died in Towamencin township in September, 1753, his wife Jan- neke surviving him. Their children were Peter, Benjamin, Cornelius, Margaret, wife of Peter Tyson; Henry; Sedgen (or Seytje), wife of Walter Jansen: William. John and Mathias. Benjamin married Katharine, daughter of William Nash. William died in 1776 leaving an only child Jane, who married Daniel Sampey.


Cornelius Hendricks, the ancestor of the Bucks county branch of the family, was born in Towamencin township, now Mont- gomery county, about the year 1720. He married prior to the death of his father in 1753, Mary Bean, who bore him two chil- dren, Benjamin and Christiana. He was a farmer in Worcester and' Towamencin townships.


Benjamin Hendricks, son of Cornelius and Mary (Bean) Hendricks, was born and reared in Montgomery county, and married there Esther Clemens, and followed the life of a farmer for some years in Lower Sal- ford township, in connection with his trade of a weaver. In April, 1800, he purchased of Samuel Moyer a farm of 107 acres in Hilltown township, Bucks county, and re- moved thither. He was one of the sub- stantial and prominent agriculturists and business men of the community, and ac- quired a competence. He died on the Hill- town farm in 1831, his widow Esther sur- viving him. Their children were as fol- lows: Catharine, who married Isaac Bech- tel; Abraham, married Barbara Bean, and died in 1820, leaving children, Henry, Ben- jamin, Susan and Jacob; Jacob (the great- grandfather of J. Freeman Hendricks, of Doylestown) married Mary Drissel; John, married Mary Alderfer, see forward; Mary, who married Samuel Moyer; George, died young; Elizabeth, who married Benjamin Bergy; Joseph, who married Elizabeth George; and Susanna, who married Joseph Swartz. Benjamin, the father, having con- veyed sixty-seven acres of his first pur- chase to his son Abraham in 1814, had pur- chased in 1812 of Benjamin Souder 106 acres adjoining. This old homestead has remained in the family ever since, and is now occupied by Joseph G. Hendricks, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (George) Hen- dricks


John C. Hendricks, fourth child of Ben- jamin and Esther (Clemens) Hendricks, was born in Montgomery county, Decem- ber 20, 1794, and was reared and educated in Hilltown township, Bucks county, where his parents settled when he was at the age of five years. He married April 4, 1820, Mary Alderfer, daughter of Frederick Al- derfer, born September 21, 1796. John C. Hendricks was a successful farmer in Hill- town all his life. He died at Blooming Glen, Hilltown township, October 7, 1881, and his wife Mary died February 4, 1861. They, like their ancestors, were Mennonites, and belonged to the Blooming Glen con- gregation. He was a prominent man in the community. The children of John C. and Mary (Alderfer) Hendricks, were seven in number, as follows: Benjamin, married Susanna Leatherman and has six children; Frederick, never married; Jacob. married Anna Moyer and has three children: Jo- seph A., see forward; Abraham, married (first) Lydia Hunsicker (second) her sister Mrs. Fellman, and (third) Eliza Moyer; Elizabeth became the wife of Amos Penny-


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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.


packer, and has three children; Hettie Ann wedded Jacob Landis and has five children.


JOSEPH A. HENDRICKS, one of the most prominent and successful business men of upper Bucks, and for the last thirty ycars a resident of the thriving borough of Perkasie, which town he helped to lay out, is a son of John C. and Mary (Alder -_ fer) Hendricks, and was born in Ililltown township, May 20, 1827. He was reareu on his father's farm and acquired his edu- cation at the local schools. He learned the carpenter trade at the age of twenty years, and followed that vocation until his mar- riage in 1859, when he embarked in the feed, coal and lumber business at Sellers- ville. After successfully conducting that enterprise for thirteen years he sold out to Abraham S. Cressman, and in partnership with Mahlon H. Moyer purchased the old Nace farm, where the town of Perkasie now stands, and laid it out in building lots. The project was a success from the start, and the town grew rapidly. He erected a large three-story building near the railroad, and engaged in the mercantile business. His old stand is now the thriving establishment of Bissey & Baringer, dealers in clothing and general merchandise. Mr. Hendricks has been interested in various business en- terprises, but now lives retired in his hand- some residence at the corner of Seventh and Market streets, Perkasie. He has been a director of the Lansdale National Bank for thirty-two years; is treasurer of the borough of Perkasie; treasurer of the Per- kasie and Bridgetown Turnpike Company ; was treasurer for several years of the Per- kasie Water Company, and has served sev- eral years as school director. He is a mem- ber of the Mennonite congregation at Blooming Glen, and in politics is a Repub- lican.


He married December 1, 1859, Mary Yeakle, daughter of Samuel Yeakle, and they are the parents of one child, Emma, born February 11, 1865, now the wife of Tobias S. Bissey, senior member of the firm of Bissey & Baringer, before referred to. Mr. and Mrs. Bissey have one child, Stella May.


JOHN AUBREY CREWITT, M. D., of Newtown, was born at Reidsville, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, March 29, 1853, and is a son of Alfred and Jane (Dorland) Crewitt, the former of English and the lat- ter of Holland descent.


Richard Chandler Crewitt, grandfather of Dr. Crewitt, was born in Maryland and married at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1805, Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Berryhill, of Harrisburg, where she was born January 5, 1777. Their children were Fannic, Matilda, Aubrey, and ,Alfred, the father of Dr. Crewitt. Alfred Crewitt was born in 1811. He became a prominent iron master in Huntingdon county, Pennsyl- vania. He was a man of prominence in


that county, where he resided for many years. He and his family were prominent members of the Presbyterian church, as were his ancestors for three hundred years. He died April 5, 1857, while holding the office of county treasurer. His wife was Jane Dorland, daughter of Isaac and Jane (McNamara) Dorland, who died May 8, 1884.


The paternal ancestor of Jane (Dorland) Crewitt, was Jan Gerretse Dorland, who emigrated from Holland in the year 1652, and settled at Brooklyn, Long Island, where he was an elder in the Dutch Reformed church. He was twice married. By his first wife, who was a Jans, he had three children : Maeretje, baptized April II, 1672; Geertje, baptized August 19, 1674; and Gerret. He married (second) An- nettje Remsen, born April 11, 1669, d'ugh- ter of Rem Jansen Vanderbeeck, a native of Drenthe, Holland, who married Dec - ber 21, 1642, Jannetje, daughter of T Rapalie. His descendants dropped t ur- name and were known by the name of Remsen, signifying sons of Rem. John (or Jan) Dorlandt, baptized at. F ooklyn church, March 20, 1681, married (first) Marretje (Mary) and his son John, bap- tized at Brooklyn, July 17, 1701, was the great-great-great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch. The other children were: Cornelia, baptized August 7, 1705; Lambert, George, Jacob, Isaac, Hermina, Eve, and Abraham. John Dorlan it, Sr., married (second) in 1718 Barbar: Aukes Van Nuys, daughter of Auke Ja se Van Nuys, who was baptized April 211 1702. In 1720 he left Brooklyn, and after as tort stay among his relatives on the Rarita in New Jersey, removed to Moreland township, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and purchased in 1726 a farm from William Brittian, near Somerton. Lambert Dorlandt married in September, 1731, Elizabeth Brittian ; George married in 1735 Catharine Whiteman; Jacob married in 1741 Ann Hewitt; Isaac, in 1753, Mar- garet Johnson; Hermina married Charles Hufte; Eve married in 1751 John Brit- tian, all the above having accompanied their father to Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Brittian, who married Lambert Dorlandt, was a granddaughter of Nathaniel Brittian, an early English settler in Kings county, L. I., where he married in 1660 Anna, daughter of Nicholas Stilwell, and later removed to Staten Island, where he died in 1683. Of his ten children several removed to Penn- sylvania at about the same date as the Dorlandt family, and have numerous de- scendants in Bucks county. The children of Lambert and Elizabeth (Brittian) Dor- landt were Nathaniel, John, Lambert, Esther, all born in Moreland.


John Dorland. the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born at Somerton in 1754. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and an active man in the community. He married Ann Robin- son and had children, Joseph, Rebecca,


S


S. alovewith m.d.


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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.


Isaac, Sarah, Eve, Elizabeth, Jacob, John, Jr., Mary, Ann. Isaac Dorland, the grand- father of Dr. Crewitt, was born at Somer- ton, December 8, 1782, and married Feb- ruary 25, 18II, Jane McNamara, of Scotch- Irish descent, who bore him eight children, of whom the third was Jane, who married Alfred Crewitt, and became the mother of the subject of this sketch. The children of Alfred and Jane (Dorland) Crewitt were: Isaac, Elizabeth, Howard, Andrew, Jane, Edward, William; John Aubrey, the subject of this sketch, born March 29, 1853; Thomas. Isaac and Howard Crewitt were both in the service of their country during the Civil war, the former holding the rank of lieutenant and the latter that of sergeant.


Dr. Crewitt was reared at Huntingdon and attended the public school there. He filled the position of mail agent for three years, and in the meantime studied medicine with Dr. D. P. Miller, of Huntingdon. In 1874 he entered the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland, from which he graduated in 1876. In the year of his graduation he lo- cated at Robertsdale, Pa., where he was in active practice for eight years. In 1884 he came to Newtown, Bucks county, where he has since practiced his chosen profes- sion with success, having built up a large practice. He is a member of and was presi- dent in 1905 of the Bucks County Medi- cal Society, and is a member of the Lehigh Valley Medical Association, the Pennsyl- vania State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He served five years in Bucks county as school di- rector. He has been a member of the Presbyterian church for thirty-seven years, and a trustee of the Newtown Presbyterian church for eighteen years.


Dr. Crewitt married, December 18, 1878. Joanna Bayard Stewart. daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Bayard) Stewart, of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and they are the parents of three children : Alfred Bayard Crewitt, B. 'S., is a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania ; Lillian, at home; and John Aubrey, Jr., who is a student at the George School. Alfred Bay- ard Crewitt became an active worker in the temperance cause before he was sixteen years of age, and was one of the organizers of the Young People's Temperance Asso- ciation of Bucks county in 1899. and presi- dent of the Association until the fall of 1904. when he resigned and his brother, John Aubrey Crewitt, Jr., was elected president.


DR. NERI BARNDT WILLIAMS, of Perkasie, physician and druggist, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1863. and is a son of Dr. Cyrenius and Margaret (Barndt) Williams, of Easton, both of whom are natives of Bucks county. On the paternal side he is of Welsh descent, the earliest ancestor of whom he have any 32-3


definite record being John Williams, who in 1737 purchased two hundred acres of land in New Britain township, near Grier's corner, on the Hilltown township line, and in 1747 purchased one hundred and fifty acres additional in Hilltown, and one hun- dred and thirty-five acres adjoining in New Britain. Both he and his wife died prior to 1787, leaving five children : John, an in- valid; Isaac ; William; Sarah, wile of John Parker; and Rebecca, wife of William Janies, of New Britain, William being a Baptist minister. The last three children in 1787 conveyed their interest in their father's real estate to their brother Isaac on condition that he care for their elder brother, John. Isaac Williams, married Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Thomas and Mary ( Williams) Thomas,* and lived all his life on the part of the homestead lying in Hilltown. In 1800 he conveyed the land in New Britain to his sons, Thomas and Benjamin. Elizabeth Thomas was a grand- daughter of Elder William Thomas, who came from Wales in 1712 and settled in Hilltown in 1724. (See Thomas Family ) .




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