History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 111

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 111

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In the town in which he lived he was foremost in the advocacy of all that would contribute to the public good, and was always a leader in the practical affairs of the community. He was prominent in the promotion of the water works in 1869, and assisted in the establishment of several local institutions. One of his first concerns after locating in Doylestown was the need of a public library, and he was active in

its establishment, and was its first secre- tary and librarian. He held many positions of trust, though never holding public of- fice other than that of town councilman, which he never sought. He was for sev- eral years a trustee of the State Asylum for the Insane at Harrisburg, and was one of the commissioners appointed to build the Hospital for the Insane at Norristown, holding a responsible position on the board. He was for several years a trustee of the State Normal School at West Chester, was secretary of the Bucks County Agricul- tural Society, trustee of Doylestown Ceme- tery, and an officer in several other local institutions. He was twice out with the militia of the county during the civil war, when our state was threatened with invas- ion. He frequently represented his party 111 state conventions, and was a delegate to the national convention that nominated Hayes for the presidency. His death was due to apoplexy, superinduced by intense mental work. He was stricken while on his way to the office, and died during the night following.

Like his ancestors for many generations, he was a member of the Society of Friends. and a regular attendant at Meeting. He married, 9 mo. 9, 1857, Susan, daughter of Abraham and Susan (Hoopes) Darling- lington, who survives him, living in the old family residence at Doylestown.

They were the parents of seven children, six of whom survive: E. Dilwyn, a florist, residing in Doylestown; Frances, wife of Frank A. Faxon, of Kansas City; Helen, wife of Marshall R. Pugh, of Germantown; Philip, of Doylestown; Walter, on the edi- torial staff of the North American; Zeanetta, the sixth child, died 3 mo. 25, 1893; and Agnes, wife of John C. Swartley, Esq., of Doylestown.

DR. CHARLES B. SMITH, a practic- ing physician of Newtown and vicinity, obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College of Phila- delphia in 1884. He became successor to his father, Elias E. Smith, M. D., who for more than thirty years was a practitioner of the same place-a man of gentle and benevolent character, and signally skillful in his art.

Dr. Charles B. Smith descends from original county families. His father was of Quaker ancestry, being of the Wrights- town Smiths, whose progenitor settled at Windy-Bush Place in 1684. His mother was of the Wynkoop-McNair families, early Bucks county settlers, at or near Holland, they being of Presbyterian line- age, sturdy, patriotic yeomen, actively iden- tified with early colonial history in Penn- sylyania. He married M. Anna Stack- house, daughter of Jacob W. and Maria Palmer Stackhouse, of Fallsington, Penn- sylvania, in 1887.

Dr. Smith comes of a family of physi- cians of this name who for a period of many

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years have been conservators of health in the middle-eastern section of the county, useful citizens, able and progressive prac- titioners. Dr. Smith is and has been iden- tified with the interests of the public schools and health board of his native place, and is affiliated with various local, state and national medical societies.

JOSIAH ERNEST SCOTT, M. D., of New Hope, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, is a native of Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, and belongs to a family that have been prominent in the professional, official and social walks of life for many genera- tions. Hugh Scott, the founder of the family in America, was of Scottish ancestry and was born in the north of Ireland, from whence he emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in Chester county about the year 1670. He was a Presbyterian, a Scotch- Irish Covenanter of the John Knox type, who loved liberty, civil and religious, and feared nothing but God.

Abraham Scott, son of Hugh, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1677, and died in 1760. He was the father of seven children, all of whom were among the earliest settlers on the frontiers in Westmoreland and Washington counties, forming the vanguard of that army of sturdy Scotch-Irish who carried civiliza- tion and Christianity into the wilderness, establishing first the church, second the school, and taking an active part in the organization of a local self-government. The children of Abraham Scott were as follows : I. Ann, born 1699, married Arthur Patterson. 2. Thomas, born 1705, died 1796, was a justice of Westmoreland county, 1774, and a member of supreme executive council in 1777. On the organi- zation of Washington county, out of West- moreland, in 1781, was its first prothonotary, and became a judge of the court of common pleas in 1786. 3. Rebecca, born December 17, 1707, became the second wife of James Agnew, a Scotch-Irish emigrant, and the great-great-grandmother of the famous Dr. David Hayes Agnew. 4. Alexander, set- tled in Lancaster county in 1738, was a captain in the provincial service there in 1756, and is said to have removed later to Virginia. 5. Grace, of whom no authentic history has been preserved. 6. Hugh Scott, born 1726, married Janet Agnew, daughter of James Agnew, before men- tioned, by a former wife, and lived for a time near Gettysburg, removing later to what became Pigeon Creek, Washington county, where he took up large tracts of land. Died there October 11, 1819, aged ninety-three years.

7. Josiah Scott, youngest son of Abra- ham, born 1734, died February 20, 1819, at the age of eighty-four years. He learned the trade of a blacksmith, and settled about 1760 at Peach Bottom. Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, removing thence in 1773 to

that part of Westmoreland county included in the formation of Washington county in 1781, where he took up 800 acres of land near the present site of Washington, then known as Catfish. He married in Lancaster county Violet Fisher, by whom he had six children, as follows: Sarah, who died young; Alexander, who married Rachel McDowell and became a prominent man in Washington county ; Rev. Abraham, a dis- tinguished Presbyterian divine, who married Rebecca McDowell; Mary, who married William Cotton, of a prominent Washing- ton county family; Elizabeth, who mar- ried Robert Stevenson; James; and Jane, who married Hugh Workman. Josiah Scott married (second) Jane Gordon, born 1749, died December 26, 1831, and they were the parents of three sons-Hugh, Robert, and Samuel. Many of the descendants of Josiah Scott have distinguished themselves in professional, civil and official positions. One of them was a judge of the supreme court of Ohio; many of them have been eminent jurists and lawyers; several have achieved distinction as physicians; while a large number have been eminent divines in the Presbyterian church.

General Samuel Scott, youngest son of Josiah and Jane (Gordon) Scott, born near Washington, Pennsylvania, May 30, 1785, was the grandfather of Dr. Josiah Ernest Scott, the subject of this sketch. Born and reared in a newly settled community, where educational facilities were very limited, he was practically a self-educated man, what literary knowledge he possessed being gath- ered in the midst of a life of strenuous activity. He was from early manhood a member of the local militia of Washington county, and rose through successive grades of official position to the rank of brigadier- general. At the outbreak of the second war with the mother country he offered the services of his battalion in defense of his country, but, though it was accepted, his command was held in reserve, and the war ended without it having been called into active service. He died October 16, 1819, in his thirty-fifth year. The Wash- ington Reporter, under date of October 25. 1819, contains an obituary notice of him of which the following is an abstract : "Brigadier-General Samuel Scott died on the 16th instant, beloved and esteemed by all who knew him. His private virtues se- cured the warm friendship of his asso- ciates, and the friends who wept around his tomb will find consolation in the remem- brance of a life which was busy in culti- vating, through the relations of piety, friendships for the advancement of civil liberty and national prosperity. The loss of a man inflexible in virtue and unap- palled by misfortune is a public onc." Gen- eral Scott married in 1809 Mary Ann Wylic, (laughter of William and Ellen (Noble) Wylie, who lived in his immediate neigh- borhood. and they were the parents of four children, as follows: William Wylie, who lived for a time in Newark, Ohio,

yours Very Truly,

TW IV YORK

SHANT

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

and later removed to Europe, where he died : Josiah Noble, see forward; Jane, who married a Mr. Lee; and Samuel Godon, of Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

Josiah Noble Scott, second son of Gen- eral Samuel and Mary Ann (Wylie) Scott, born four miles north of Washington, Penn- sylvania, June 26, 1813, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was but six years of age at the death of his father, and his mother soon after married John D. Lindley, of Lindley's Mills, on Ten- Mile-Run, near the village of Prosperity, where the children of her first husband were reared. On March 8, 1837, Josiah Noble Scott married Rachel Vance, daugh- ter of William and Rachel (Patterson) Vance, of Cross Creek township. Wash- ington county. Pennsylvania, and settled in that township, where they reared a fam- ily of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. Scott were both members of Cross Creek Pres- byterian church, and both lie buried in the graveyard of that church. Their eight children were: Hannah Loretta, married Isaac M. Lavton, who died in 1878. and she later became matron of the boys' board- ing school Saltsburg, Pennsylvania ; Mary Ann, wife of Captain J. B. Hays, of South Bur rettstown, Pennsylvania ; Samuel Clark, wl. served in the Twenty- second Pennsylvania Cavalry during the civil war, now a re. ident of Lyon county, Kansas; Orphalina. vife of James Fyfe. of Kansas; Ella, wife of J. Q. Law. of Harrison county. Ohio; William Vance, of the same place; Melissa Jane, wife of Samuel S. Campbell; and Josiah Ernest, the subject of this sketch.

Rachel (Vance) Scott, the mother of Dr. Scott, was born December 28. 1816, a daughter of William and Rachel (Patter- son) Vance, and was descended in both paternal and maternal lines from early Scotch-Irish settlers on the frontier of Pennsylvania. Her father. William Vance, was born on the old Vance homestead in Washington county, Pennsylvania, Novem- ber 30, 1775. and was a son of Joseph Vance, and a grandson of William Vance, who was a member of the first committee of observation for Washington county under the committee of safety for that section in 1775. His first wife, Rachel Patterson, was born June 3, 1781. and died January 9. 18I7; and his second wife was Hannah Patterson, her sister, born 1786, died 1878.

James Patterson. the maternal great- grandfather of Rachel (Vance) Scott, was born in county Antrim, Ireland, of Scotch parents, in 1708, and emigrated to Pennsyl- vania in 1728. Landing in New York. he made his way to Little Britain township, Lancaster county, where he took up land, a part of which is still in possession of his descendants. After preparing a home in the wilderness he returned to New York in 1732 and married the wife of his choice. whom he had met on his arrival in Amer- ica, and brought her to his Lancaster county farm, where they reared a family of eleven

children, several of whom became pioneers in York, Westmoreland, Washington and other frontier counties, as well as in Ken- tucky and Ohio. William Patterson, eldest son of James the founder, born March 14, 1733, died June 29, 1818, was the grand- father of Rachel (Vance) Scott. He was twice married, his first wife being Rosanna Scott, of Cecil county, Maryland, by whom he had three sons-Samuel, Thomas and James. She died April 5. 1769, and he married. August 10, 1770, Elizabeth Brown, who died January 30, 1826. She was the mother of seven children: Nathaniel ; Rachel, born June 3. 1781. married William Vance, December 24. 1799, and died Janu- ary 9. 1817; Elizabeth; Josiah: Hannalı, born 1786, married June 12. 1818, William Vance, died in 1878; Nathan, and Elinor. William Patterson was one of the earliest settlers at Cross Creek. Washington county, Pennsylvania, and a prominent man in that community. William Vance was a farmer in Cross Creek township, and reared a family of fourteen children, nine by the first wife and five by the second, Rachel, the mother of Dr. Scott, being the youngest child of the first marriage.

Josiah Ernest Scott was born in Washı- ington county, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1856, and is a worthy descendant of his Scotch-Irish forbears. He early manifested a taste for study and reading, and with the sturdy persistency of his ancestors set about acquiring an education that would qualify him to fill the position he had chosen for himself in professional life. Mainly by his own efforts he worked his way through normal and other schools into and through the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, during the years 1878-1881, repre- senting his literary society on various occa- sions as essayist and orator. On April 26, 1882, he married Elizabeth T. Laizure, of Cadiz. Ohio, in whom he found an efficient aid and spur in realizing his cherished ambition for qualifying himself for the pro- fession of a physician. Returning to his native county of Washington. he devoted his summer months to agricultural pur- suits and the winter to study and teaching, for five years. His wife was a fitting helpmeet for the ambitious student. In addition to her household duties she found time to compete for prizes offered by var- ious journals for essays on various sub- jects, and for a time had charge of the woman's department of the National Stockman, published at Pittsburg. In 1887 Mr. and Mrs. Scott removed to Phila- delphia, and he entered the medical de- partment of the University of Pennsyl- vania. from which he graduated with the highest honors as an M. D. cn May I, 1890. He at once located in New Hope, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he has since practiced his chosen profession with marked success. extending his practice into the adjoining parts of the county and across the river into the state of New Jersey. He has from time to time taken post-

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

graduate courses in various specialties in the line of his profession, and is a member of the D. Hayes Agnew Surgical Society of Philadelphia, and enjoyed the personal friendship of the eminent Dr. Agnew, for whom it is named. though, during the life- time of Dr. Agnew, neither of them were aware of their connection by ties of blood through their common descent from Abra- ham and Hugh Scott. Dr. Scott is also a member of the Bucks County Medical Society, the Medical Society of Pennsyl- vania, and the American Medical Associa- tion. In politics he believes thoroughly in the principles of the Republican party. He has always taken a deep interest in the affairs of the town in which he lives, and has served as chief burgess for three years, and a like term as a member of the local school board. He is an ardent member of the Presbyterian church, the church of his fathers, and has been for many years the superintendent of the Sabbath school connected with that church at New Hope. He and his estimable wife take an active part in philanthropic and church work in that vicinity, as well as in the social, literary and educational institutions, of the com- munity ; both are members of the Solebury Farmers' Club. Their only child, Gail Winters Scott, born in Philadelphia, July 2. 1889, was a graduate of New Hope High School in 1905.

ISAAC M. HUNSICKER was born in Hilltown township, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, January 17, 1848, and is a son of Abraham and Catharine (Moyer) Hunsicker. Valentine Hunsicker, the pionee: ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was an early disciple of Menno, and found a temporary asylum from re- ligious persecution in Switzerland, from whence he emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1717. and was one of the earliest settlers in Perkiomen and Skippack township. Montgomery, (then Philadelphia) county. He was one of the founders of the Men- nonite congregation at Skippack, and is buried in the old burying ground ad- joining the ancient meeting house at Skippack. His son, Ilenry Hunsicker, was a minister for fifty-four years, and- also a bishop of the Mennonite church, and was succeeded by his son John, who was a bishop and minister for over forty years. Several of the descendants of Valentine Hunsicker have become em- inent in the legal profession, and others as ministers of the gospel in different denominations. A great-grandson was lately president of Girard College.

Jacob Hunsicker, son of Valentine and Elizabeth Hunsicker, located in Hill- town township in 1757 on a farm pur- chased for him by his father, and con- veved to him by his parents in 1768. The original farm contained 100 acres, and he later prichased 250 acres, partly in

Hilltown and part in Rockhill township. lle was a successful and prominent farmer. Strictly adhering to the tenets of the Mennonite faith, he took no part in affairs of state, either military or civil, but was an important factor in the establishment and development of local institutions, and reared a family in whom were instilled the best elements of citi- zenship. He and his wife Elizabeth were the parents of nine children: Jacob; Isaac; Elizabeth, who married Jacob Detweiler: Catharine, who married John Bergey: Sarah, who married Abraham Kolb: Barbara, who married John Bech- tel; Anna, who married Henry Kolb; Mary; and Esther, who married Isaac Hunsberger. Jacob, the father, died in December, 1812, his wife Elizabeth sur- viving him.

Isaac Hunsicker, second son of Jacob and Elizabeth, was born in Hilltown and resided there all his life. He inherited from his father 130 acres of the home- stead, upon which he lived until his death in 1860. He was one of the orig- inal trustees of Perkasie Mennonite meeting to whom the deed for the land was made on which the meeting house and graveyard were located. He mar- ried Anna Overholt, and they were the parets of nine children, eight of whom married Moyers: Jacob. born in 1809, died 1880, married Barbara Moyer; Abra- ham, born December 8, 1811, married Catharine Moyer: Elizabeth, married Samuel Moyer; Hannah, married Isaac . Moyer; Anna. married John Moyer; Lydia, married Joseph Moyer; Leah, married Enos Moyer; Mary, never mar- ried : and Catharine, married Martin

Moyer.

Abraham Hunsicker, second son of Isaac and Anna Hunsicker, born on the old homestead in Hilltown, December 8. ISII, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He inherited from his father one-half of the homestead, and followed the life of an agriculturist there during the active years of his life, carrying the produce of his farm to the Philadelphia markets by wagon, prior to the opening of the N. P. R. R. He was a well-to-do and intelligent farmer. He married in 1835. Catharine Moyer, born in Bed- minster in 1818. daughter of Christian and Anna ( Landis) Moyer, granddaugh- ter of Christian and Mary (Landis) Moyer. and great-granddaughter of Rev. Samuel and Catharine (Kolb) Moyer of Hilltown. Abraham Hunsicker died De- cember 18. 1888. His children were as follows: Lydia. deceased. first wife of Abraham Hendricks, of Perkasie: Nancy, who married (first) Benjamin Fellman, and (second) Abraham Hendricks; Elizabeth, wife of Ezra Moore, of Per- kasie: Sarah, wife of William Renner, of Perkasie: Isaac M .. the subject of this sketch; and Abraham, who married Anna Overholt.

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

Isaac M. Hunsicker was born and reared on the old homestead in Hilltown, and acquired his education at the public schools of that district. He has always followed farming, and is one of the prominent and successful men of the community. Like his ancestors for many generations he is a member of the Men- nonite church, and politically is a Re- publican. He married, April 13, 1872, Mary Detweiler, daughter of John and Annie (Detweiler) Detweiler, and they are the parents of three children: Sallie, born July 5, 1876, died August II, 1877; Leidy, born August 5, 1878, married De- cember 6, 1902, Della Moyer, daughter of William C. Moyer; Emma, born June 5, 1883, married March 20, 1904, Henry Shaddinger, son of Edward Shaddinger.

C. WATSON BETTS, postmaster, of New Hope borough, was born in Solebury township, Bucks county, October 23, 1864, is the youngest son of William and Emily ( Walton) Betts, lifelong residents of Sole- bury township. The paternal ancestor of the Betts family of Bucks county was Richard Betts, who came from England and settled at Ipswich, Essex county, Mas- sachusetts, in 1648, and soon after removed to Newton, Long Island, where he died November 18, 1713, aged one hundred years. He was a member of colonial assembly in 1665, and sheriff 1678-1681. By his wife Joanna he had eight children,-two sons, Richard and Thomas; and five daughters : Joanna, who married John Scudder; Mary, married Joseph Swezey; Martha, married Philip Ketcham: Elizabeth, married Joseph Sackett; and Sarah, who married Edward Hunt.

Thomas, the second son of Richard and Joanna Betts, married in 1683 Mercy White- head, daughter of Major Daniel and Abi- gail (Stevenson) Whitehead, and grand- daughter of Daniel Whitehead, one of the Smithtown purchasers of 1650. Thomas Betts died in 1709, and his widow married in 1711 Colonel Joseph Sackett. Thomas and Mercy (Whitehead) Betts were the par- ents of nine children,

viz : Richard : Thomas; Daniel; Mercy, married Thomas Hazard; Abigail, married Abraham Spring- stein; Joanna; Mary; Elizabeth, married Robert Comfort; and Deborah, who mar- ried Gershom Moore.

Thomas, second son of Thomas and Mercy was born at Newton, Long Island. August 14, 1689, and died at Newtown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, April, 1747. He married, May 5, 1713, Susannah Steven- son, daughter of Thomas, by whom he had six children; Ann, born December 14. 1714; Thomas, born November 1, 1716, died young; John, born September 15, 1718; Stephen, born March 26, 1720; Thomas, born February 18, 1723; and Susannah, born February 18. 1723. After the death of his wife he removed to Chesterfield, Burlington county, New Jersey, where he

married Susannah Field, and soon after re- moved Bucks county, Pennsylvania. The children of his second marriage were Patience, Richard, Mercy, Zachariah, Mir- iam, and William.

Thomas Betts, fifth child of Thomas and Susannah (Stevenson) Betts, was born on Long Island, February 18, 1723, and came with his father to Bucks county. He mar- ried 4 mo. 21, 1744, Sarah Smith, daughter of William and Rebecca ( Wilson) Smith, and settled in Buckingham township, one mile north of Pineville, where he died in June, 1783. His wife died in 1804. They were the parents of eleven children, viz : Thomas, born 8 mo. 3, 1745, died 1777; Sarah, born 4 mo. 14, 1747, married An- thony Hartley; Ann, born 5 mo. I, 1749, married Robert Sample; Rebecca, born 5 mo. 18, 1751, married Thomas Rose; Will- iam, born 12 mo. 3, 1752; John, born 5 mo. 8, 1755; Susannah, born 12, mo. 20, 1756, married George Mitchell; Stephen, born 5 mo. 31, 1758; Mary, born 10 mo. 2, 1760, married Isaac Van Horn; Isaac, born I mo. 2, 1763: Zacariah, born 10 mo. 21, 1764.

Stephen Betts, son of Thomas and Sarah (Smith) Betts, was born in Buckingham, 5 1110. 31, 1758. He learned the black- smith trade, and settled in Solebury town- ship, where he followed his trade for a unmber of years, but after middle life de- voted his attention principally to farming. He married, 4 mo. 19, 1786, Hannah Black- fan, daughter of Crispin and Martha (Davis) Blackfan, and in 1795 purchased of his brother-in-law, Edward Blackfan, a portion of the old Blackfan homestead, adjoining a tract of land granted to Will- iam Blackfan, father of Crispin, in 1718, by his cousin, William Penn, William being a son of Edward Blackfan, who married Rebecca Crispin, a sister to the mother of William Penn. This property remained in the Betts family for three generations, a period of over a century. Stephen Betts died on the homestead in 1834, and his widow in 1843. They were the parents of nine children, viz: William, born 1787; Sarah, born 1788, married Samuel Beans ; Martha, born 1790, married Jacob B. Smith ; Stephen, born 1792: Hannah, born 1.794, married Daniel Smith; Esther, born 1797, married Jacob Janney ; Anna, born 1799, married Joseph Taylor; Letitia, born 1801, married Joseph E. Reeder; John, born 1804, married Sarah C. Malone; and (sec- ond ) Beulah Walker.

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 111

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