History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 13

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 13

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

William Watts Hart Davis was born at at Davisville, July 27, 1820. He was reared on the old homestead and his earliest educational advantages were ob- tamed at a private school kept by Miss Anna Longstreth, at the Longstreth home- stead nearby; later he attended the cele- brated classical school at Southampton Baptist church, and the day school, a mile from Davisville, on the Bucks and Mont- gomery county line road. In 1832 he came to Doylestown and attended the Academy there, boarding at the public house of his father's old captain and friend, William Purdy; a few years later he attended the select school of Samuel Long, near Harts- ville, and the Newtown Academy, finishing his elementary education at the boarding school of Samuel Aaron, Burlington, New Jersey. From the age of ten years the time not spent in school was spent behind the counter in his fathers' store, where lie learned practical business methods and habits of industry from the best of teachers, by both example and precept. In 1841 he entered Captain Alden Partridge's Univer- sity and Military School at Norwich, Ver- mont, and concluded a three years' course in sixteen months, graduating in 1842 with the degrees of A. M. and M. M. S. In the same year he was appointed an instruc- tor of mathematics and commandant of cadets in the military academy at Ports- mouth, Virginia, where he remained three years.

Ile then began the study of law in the office of Judge John Fox, at Doylestown, and in 1846, after his admission to the bar, entered the law department of Harvard University. On December 5, 1846, while a student of Harvard Law School, at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, he enlisted in the

First Massachusetts Infantry for the Mex- ican war ; was commissioned first lieutenant, December 31, 1846, of Captain Crowning- shield's company, Colonel Caleb Cushing's regiment ; adjutant, January 16, 1847 ; aide- de-camp June 1, 1847; acting assistant ad- jutant general, July 18, 1847; acting com- missary of subsistence, October 9, 1847 ; act- ing quartermaster and inspector, October 29, 1847; captain, Company I, First Massa- chusetts Infantry, March 16, 1848, spending the winter of 1847-1848 with Scott's con- quering army in the Valley of Mexico. Hle was one of the officers who participated in the capture of General Valencia, in a night ride of seventy miles. He was mus- tered out July 24, 1848, at the close of the war.

He now returned to Doylestown, where he practiced law until 1853, when he was appointed by President Franklin Pierce (with whom he had served in the Mexican war) to the position of United States dis- trict attorney of the territory of New Mexico, and spent the next four years in that territory, during which time he filled the offices of attorney-general, secretary of the territory, acting governor, superintend- ent of Indian affairs and of public build- ings. While there he also published a newspaper at Santa Fe in Spanish and English, and, with the assistance of an in- terpreter and his clerk he saved the valuable Spanish manuscript in the secretary's office which afterward furnished him the material from which he wrote "The Spanish Con- quest of New Mexico," that was issued from the press of the "Doylestown Dem- ocrat" in 1869. While at Santa Fe he wrote his first work on New Mexico, entitled "El Gringo, or New Mexico and Her People," which Harper & Brothers pub- lished in 1857. While exercising the func- tions of government in our new territory, Mr. Davis met with some unique experi- ences. On one occasion, himself and party, while traveling on the plains, were cap- tured by the Arapahoe Indians, but, by the exercise of a little diplomacy, escaped seri- ous molestation.

Returning to Doylestown in the fall of 1857, he purchased the "Doylestown Dem- ocrat," then as now the organ of the Demo- cratic party in the county, and owned and edited it until 1890, when he sold out to the Doylestown Publishing Company, but continued as its editor until 1900, since which time he has devoted his time to his- torical and literary work.

General Davis raised and took to the front the first arined force in the county for the defense of the country in the civil war, known as the "Doylestown Guards," of which he had been captain since 1858 as a volunteer militia organization. He served with this company through a campaign in the Shenandoah Valley under General Robert Patterson, an account of which cam- paign he later published, and which is con- sidered an authority on that subject. The company was ordered to Washington in

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

1861, and was the first military force to pass through Baltimore after the riots of April 19, 1861. The company being mus- tered out at the end of their three months' service, Captain Davis, by order of the secretary of war, raised at Doylestown the One Hundred and Fourth Regiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteers, and a battery known at its inception as the "Ringgold Battery," but later as "Durell's Battery," an excel- lent history of which has lately been writ- ten and published by Lieutenant Charles A. Cuffel, of Doylestown. Colonel Davis went to the front with his regiment November 6, 1861, and served 'throughout the war as its colonel, though frequently filling positions and exercising commands commensurate to a much higher rank. His military record during the civil war, as briefly summed up from the records of the War Department, is as follows: Captain Company I, Twenty- fifth Pennsylvania Regiment (Doylestown Guards), April 16, 1861, in the Shenandoah Valley campaign; mustered out July 26, 1861; colonel One Hundred and Fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Sep- tember 5, 1861 ; provisional brigade com- mander, November 1I, 1861; commanding First Brigade, Casey's Division, Fourth Corps, November 30, 1861; wounded at Fair Oaks, May 31, 1862; commanded First Brigade, Second Division, Eighteenth Corps, January II, 1863 ( Second Division, First Corps, March 10, 1863; commanded United States forces at Port Royal Island, South Carolina, May 27, 1862, post of Beau- fort, South Carolina, June 14, 1863; First Brigade, Terry's Division, July 8, 1863, at siege of Charleston, S. C .; commanded U. S. forces at Morris Island, South Carolina, January 19, 1864; District of Hilton Head, Port Pulaski, St. Helena and Tybee Islands, South Carolina, April 18, 1864; First Brigade, Hatch's Division, July 4, 1864; wounded at siege of Charleston, July 6, 1864, losing fingers of right hand; mus- tered out September 30, 1864; brevetted brigadier-general, United States Volun- teers, March 13, 1865, "for meritorious ser- vices during the operations against Charles- ton, South Carolina." In connection with the distinguished services rendered by Gen- eral Davis in the operations before Charles- ton we publish below a letter written by Major General Gilmore, then in command of the forces there, which shows in what light his services were held by his superior officers :

"Headquarters, Department of the South, "Folly Island, S. C., Nov. 26, 1863. "Col. W. W. H. Davis, 104th Pa. Vol. Inf., Commanding Brigade, Morris Island S. C.

"Dear Sir :- Although entirely unsol- icited by you, directly or indirectly, I deem it my duty, as it is certainly a pleasure, on the eve of your departure for a short leave of absence in the North, to express to you, officially, my high appreciation of the zeal, intelligence, and efficiency which have marked your conduct and service during

the operations against the defences of Charleston, still pending. Much of our service here has been trying, indeed, upon both officers and men, but I have been most nobly sustained by all, and by none more zealously than yourself. I wish you a suc- cessful journey and a safe return to us.

Very Respectfully, Your Obt. S'vt., (Signed) Q. A. GILMORE, "Maj. Gen'l. Com'd'g."

The above letter, received on the eve of his departure for a short visit to his family and friends in Bucks county, was an en- tire and gratifying surprise to the general and is much prized by him.

The One Hundred and Fourth passed through the thick of the fight, and rendered valiant service in the defense of the Union, and left many of its numbers in their last sleep under Southern skies. General Davis was largely instrumental in securing the erection of a monument to the memory of his fallen comrades at Doylestown.

At the close of the war General Davis re- turned to the management and editorship of the "Democrat." He was honorary com- missioner of the United States to the Paris Exposition in 1878; was Democratic candi- date for congress from the seventh district in 1882, and for the state at large in 188.4. In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland United States pension agent at Philadelphia, and filled that position for four years. In the midst of a life of busi- ness activity General Davis has devoted much time to literary and historical work. In addition to numerous lectures, addresses and papers on historical and other subjects, he is the author of the following publica- tions, "El Gringo," 1857: "Spanish Con- quest of New Mexico,"* 1869; "History of One Hundred and Fourth Regiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteers," 1866; "History of the Hart Family of Bucks County," 1867; "Life of. General John Lacey," 1868: "History of Bucks County," 1876; "Life of John Davis," 1886; "Doylestown Guards," 1887; "Cam- paign of 1861, in the Shenandoah Valley." 1893; "The Fries Rebellion," 1899; "Doyles- town, Old and New," 1904, and a revised edition of the "History of Bucks County." 1905. All of these publications are consid- ered the best authorities on the subjects treated and most of them now bring in the market double and treble their original subscription price. General Davis has been

*The eminent historian, George Bancroft. read the entire manuscript of the "Spanish Conquest of New Mexico" prior to its publication, and in a letter to General Davis, from Berlin, under date of February 17, 1869, said: "You are the only American I know who had the opportunity and the curiosity to investi- gate the subject, and our new acquisition is rising so rapidly in greatness and value that a new interest attaches to the romantic career of the adventurers who discovered it. and I trust that you will publish your valuable work." Thomas A. Janvier, author of the ' Mexican Guide," and an extensive contributor to Spanish-American literature, in a letter to the General says: "Your history is one of the most scholarly and thoroughly satisfying works in the whole range of Spanish-American literature. It has the charm of style of the old chroniclers, and much of their charm of quaintness, with an exactness that is not, in all cases, an old chronicler's characteristic."

4-3

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

president of the Bucks County Historical of New Orleans, lending such support as Society almost from its organization, and its success as an organization is largely due to his untiring efforts in its behalf. Nearly his whole time since his retirement from the editorship of the "Democrat," in 1900, as well as a large part of his time prior to that has been spent in its rooms and in its service, and hundreds of books, pamphlets and curios on its shelves are of his con- tribution. At the age of eighty-five years his highest ambition is to live to see the Society successfully installed in its hand- some new building, for which it is largely indebted to his untiring zeal in that behalf.

General Davis was married, June 24, 1856, to Anna Carpenter, daughter of Jacob Carpenter, of Brooklyn, New York, and of their seven children three survive: Jacob C., of Doylestown, now in the employ of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company ; Margaret Sprague, wife of Cap- tain Samuel A. W. Patterson, of the U. S. Marine Corps, son of Rear Admiral Thomas H. Patterson, U. S. N., and grand- son of Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, U. S. N., who commanded the Naval forces at the battle of New Orleans, 1865; and Eleanor Hart, residing with her father.

General Davis is a companion of the mil- itary order of the Loyal Legion, a member of the Aztec Club. Survivors of the Mex- ican War, of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Post No. 1, G. A. R., Philadelphia, the American Historical Association and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a member and one of the founders of Historical So- ciety of New Mexico.

CAPTAIN SAMUEL AUCHMUTY WAINWRIGHT. PATTERSON. U. S. Marine Corps, on board the United States battleship "Kentucky," of the North At- lantic squadron, U. S. N., was born at Washington, D. C., December 3. 1859, and is a son of Rear Admiral Thomas Harman Patterson, U. S. N., by his wife, Maria Montresor Wainwright. daughter of Colonel Richard D. Wainwright, first colonel of the United States Marine corps : and grand- son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson, U. S. N.

Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson was born on Long Island. New York, in 1786. He entered the U. S. navy in 1800, and was a midshipman on board the frigate "Phila- delphia" in the expedition commanded by Captain William Brainbridge, engaged in the blockade of Tripoli. October 31, 1803, when the frigate ran upon the rocks and the vessel and entire crew were captured and held prisoners in Tripoli for three years, until peace was declared. On Janu- ary 24. 1807. he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and on July 24. 1813. to master-commander. As commander of the naval forces he co-operated with General Andrew Jackson in 1814-15 in the defense

to assure the victory over the British, and received the expression of their apprecia- tion from the U. S. congress. He com- manded the expedition sent to capture the defenses of the corsair Lafitte, on the is- land of Grand Terre, in Batavia Bay, hav- ing been made captain February 28, 1815. He commanded the frigate "Constitution," 1826-29, and was appointed navy-commis- sioner in the latter year, holding the posi- tion for four years. In 1832-36 he was in command of the Mediterranean squadron, and on his return was made commandant of the navy yard at Washington, which he held at the time of his death in 1839.

Rear Admiral Thomas Harman Patter- son was born at New Orleans, May 10, 1820, entered the navy from Louisiana as acting midshipman April 5, 1830, was pro- moted midshipman March 3, 1837, passed midshipman July 1, 1842. He spent the

next five years on the frigate "Macedonia," the sloop-of-war "Falmouth," acting mas- ter and lieutenant on the brig "Lawrence," West India squadron, and on the brig "Washington," Coast Survey, from April 17, 1844, to October, 1848, when he was commissioned master. He was commis- sioned lieutenant June 23, 1849, and served on the sloop-of-war "Vandalia," Pacific Squadron, until October 12, 1852.

At the breaking out of the civil war he was serving on the steam sloop "Mohickan," on the coast of Africa; returning home he was put on active duty ; was commissioned commander of sham gunboat "Chocura," July 16, 1862, in Hampton Roads, Vir- ginia; and was present .at the siege of Yorktown, and opened up the Pamunkey river for McClellan's army, co-operating with the Army of the Potomac. In Novem- ber, 1862, he was ordered to the South At- lantic Blockading Squadron in the steamer "James Adger," which he commanded until June. 1865, participating in the capture of a flying battery near Fort Fisher, in Aug- ust, 1863; captured the "Cornubia" and "Robert E. Lec," and the schooner "Ella" off the North Carolina coast. He was senior officer in the outside blockade off Charleston. South Carolina. September 15, 1864; commanded the steam-sloop "Brook- lyn," flagship of the South Atlantic Squad- ron, from September 19, 1865. to Septem- ber 18, 1867, being commissioned captain July 25, 1866; promoted to commodore November 2, 1871, and commanded Wash- ington Navy Yard 1873-6; was commis- sioned rear admiral March 28. 1877. and commanded the Asiatic Squadron until 1880, which completed his twenty-five years of active sea duty. He retired May 10, 1882. He was clected January 2. 1868. a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He died at Washington, D. C., after a. long and painful illness, April 9. 1889. He mar- ried Maria Montresor Wainwright, daugh- ter of Colonel Richard Wainwright, of the United States Marine Corps, who died in

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY'.

1881. They were the parents of three sons and one daughter.

Captain Samuel A. W. Patterson entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1876, and graduated in 1882, after making sev- eral cruises as a student. After gradua- tion he was attached to the flagship "Hart- ford," of the Pacific Squadron, where he served two years. He left the navy in 1884, and in 1885 was appointed as a clerk in the United States Pension Office at Phila- delphia under General W. W. H. Davis, pension agent, and filled that position for four years and six months. From 1886 to 1896 he resided in Doylestown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. In May, 1896, he entered the U. S. Revenue Cutter service, where he served until January 17, 1900. He was in the blockading squadron at Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He re- entered the U. S. navy in January 1900, and was stationed at the Boston Navy Yard until ordered to China, June, 1900, as second lieutenant of the U. S. Marine Corps, and was promoted to first lieuten- ant, July, 1900, during the Boxer troubles in China, where he participated in the famous march to Pekin to relieve the im- prisoned legations. At the close of the Chinese imbroglio he was ordered to the Philippines, and served on the U. S. S. "New Orleans." at China and Japan, and at Cavite and Olongapo, Philippine Islands. After two years and eight months' service abroad he was stationed for a time at the New York Navy Yard, from whence he was ordered to the Isthmus of Panama, where he served for six months. Return- ing to the New York Navy Yard he was promoted captain in November, 1903, and is now (1905) cruising on board the U. S. battleship "Kentucky," of the North At- lantic Fleet.

Captain Patterson, February 18, 1886, married Margaret Sprague Davis, daugh- ter of General W. W. H. Davis, of Doyles- town, Bucks county. Pennsylvania, a sketch of whose distinguished career and ancestry is given in this volume. Captain and Margaret (Sprague) Davis Patterson have been the parents of three children, Anna Davis, born December 27, 1886, died December 1, 1894; Thomas Harman, born April 15, 1889, died August 12, 1889; and Daniel Walter, born April , 14, 1891, who survives.

CORNELL FAMILY. Gulliame Cor- neille, (variously spelled, Cornele, Cor- nale, Cornelise, in the Dutch records of New Netherlands ) was of 1111- doubted French origin, probably a Hue- guenot, and possibly of the same family as Pierre and Thomas Corneille, the noted dramatists and poets of Rouen, a stipposition strengthened by the fact that he named his eldest son Peter, the French of which would have been ""Pierre." He settled on Long Island .early in the seventeenth century, and

died at Flatbush prior to July 17. 1666, at which date his son Pieter Guilliamse paid for the burial of both his father and mother, as shown by the town rec- ords. On August 9, - 1658, he procured from Director Stuyvesant, a patent for a large plantation at Flatbush, and in 1661 he and his son Pieter purchased a "bouwery" and several building lots in Flatbush. He left five children Pieter, Gulliam or Gelyam, Cornelis, Jacob and Maria, who have left numerous descen- dants in Kings county, Long Island, New York, New Jersey, and in Bucks county and other parts of Pennsylvania. The name for nearly a century was spelled Cornele, with the accent on the e.

Pieter Wuellemsen, as he wrote his name, the eldest son of Guilliam Cornele, was a prominent man in the early history of Flatbush and Kings county. As above stated he was joint purchaser with his father of a large plantation in Flatbush, and later was alloted other building lots in the town. He was commissioned as "Pierre Guilleaum" on October 8, 1686, a lieutenant of the Flatbush company of Kings county militia. His will is dated May 23, 1689. He married in 1675 Mar- gueritie Vercheur, or Vernelle, as the marriage record gives it, and they were the parents of at least five children: Gulliame, born 1679; Cornelis, 1681; Ja- cob, 1683; Maria, 1686, and Pieter. Cornelis, the second son, married Jan- netje-and had children: Johannes, bap- tised September 21, 1718; Adrien, bap- tised November 19, 1721; Cornelis, mar- ried Anne Williams in Philadelphia in 1746, and probably several others, some of whom are said to have settled in Bucks county. Pieter, the youngest son of Pieter and Margaret, married Catharine Lanning and settled in New Jersey. Adrien, son of Cornelis, is erroneously confounded with Adrien, son of Guilliam. who settled in Bucks county; the former probably never lived in Pennsylvania.

Gilliam Cornell, eldest son of Peter and Margaret, was born at Flatbush, Long Island, in 1679, married November 4, 1714, Cornelia Van Nortwyck, daugh- ter of Simon and Folkertje Van Nort- wyck, of Blanckenburg, in the Nether- lands, and remained until 1723 at Flat- bush, removing from there to New Utrecht, and is said to have accompan- ied some of his children to Bucks county prior to 1750, of which latter fact we have no proof. unless a tombstone, be- side those of his sons Gilliam and Wil- helmus, in the old Dutch Reformed burying ground near Feasterville, marked "Ģ x C," may. be considered as such. He purchased a honse and lot in Flatbush as early as 1708. His children as shown by the records of the Dutch Reformed churches of Flatbush and New Utrecht and from the Bucks county records, were: Adrien: Jacobus, baptised October 2, 1720; Wilhelmus, baptised July 29,

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

1722; Gilliam, baptised October 23, 1724; Johannes, baptised June 16, 1727, married May 23, 1750, Maria Lott, and remained in Flatbush; Simon, baptised July 13, 1729; and Abraham, baptised October 10, 1731. Margaretta Cornell, who married Rem Vanderbelt, of Southampton, and had a son Gilliam baptised at South- ampton in 1742, is also supposed to have been a daughter of Gilliam. Of the above named sons of Gilliam and Cornelia Cor- nell, four (Adrien, Wilhelmus, Gilliam and Simon) came to Bucks county, and settled in Northampton and Southamp- ton, and where the first three left nu- merous descendants. Adrien was the an- cestor of most of the Cornells who now reside in Bucks, and a more detailed ac- count of him will be given below.

WILHELMUS CORNELL, born at Flatbush, Long Island, July 13, 1722. probably came to Bucks county, with his elder brother Adrien and their pa- rents prior to 1740. He was married at the Southampton church, April 14, 1744. to Elshe (or Alice) Kroesen. His first purchase of land was in connection with his younger brother Gilliam in 1755, and consisted of three tracts of land near Churchville, eighty-two acres on the Northampton side of the Bristol road, and 115 acres opposite in Southampton, including the present site of the church. In 1762 he conveyed his interest in these tracts to Gilliam, and purchased of Jacob Duffield 2331/2 acres in South- ampton, and subsequently acquired con- siderable other land there. He died Oc- tober 14, 1783, and his wife Elshe died October 8, 1802, at the age of seventy- seven years; they are buried side by side in the old grave yard at Feasterville. They were the parents of seven children: Gilliam, born January 2, 1745, died Au- gust 17, 1755; John, born January, 1750, died January 24, 1811, leaving sons Gil- liam, Wilhelmus, Jacob, John and Isaac. and daughters Elizabeth, wife of Henry Feaster, and Cornelia, wife of Gillian Cornell: Cornelia, baptised February II, 1753, married William Craven; Margaret, baptised December 14, 1755, married Henry Courson; Elizabeth, baptised June 7, 1761; and Gilliam, baptised September 17, 1758, married Jane Craven. The lat- ter was known locally as "Yompey Cor- nell." He was buried on his farm at Southampton Station.

Gilliam Cornel, born on Long Island in 1724, married there May 23, 1750, Mar- garet Schench, and removed to Bucks county. He purchased land as above recited in 1755 in connection with his brother Wilhelmus, and purchased the latter's interest therein six years later. He died in Northampton, July 17. 1785. and his wife Margaret died September 5, 1805. They had seven children: I. Phebe, who married her cousin Cor- nelius Cornell, the son of Simon. 2.

Cornelia, baptised April II, 1757, mar- ried William Bennett. 3. John, baptised December 31, 1758, married Catharine Sleght. 4. Abraham, baptised January 28, 1760, died August 31, 1801, married Agnes Bennett. 5. Gilliam, baptised August 27, 1764, married Rachel and left Bucks county. 6. Margaret, baptised 1767. 7. John, baptised June 12, 1774, died young. 8. Maria, baptised August 24, 1778.

Simon Cornell, born on Long Island in 1729, married Adrienne Kroesen and settled in the neighborhood of South- ampton, though probably in Philadelphia county ; his sons Cornelius and John were baptised at Southampton church in 1761 and 1772 respectively. The former mar- ried Phebe, daughter of his uncle Gil- liam, and had children Gilliam, John, Cornelius, Isaac, Jane, who married Peter Bailey, and Margaret.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 13

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