History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 21

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 21

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administration of the high office to which he has been elevated merits the trust re- posed in him by the large majority of voters who elected him. His calm and even tem- perament, his uniform courtesy, his sterling common sense, his devotion to principle and right, and his unquestioned knowledge of the law, have made his administration popular with all classes.

JOHN C. SWARTLEY was born in Franconia township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1865, and is a son of Jacob S. and Elizabeth (Cassel) Swartley, both of whom are descendants of early German settlers in that locality of the Mennonite faith.

John Schwardley, the pioneer ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was born in Ep- pingen, in Necker, grand duchy of Baden, Germany, in the year 1754. At the age of eighteen years, accompanied by his younger brothers, Jacob and Philip, he emigrated to Pennsylvania, arriving in Philadelphia September 30, 1772, in the ship, "Minerva," Captain James Jolinston, from Rotterdam. He soon after found a home among his compatriots in Franconia township, where he married Magdalena Rosenberger, born December 18, 1759. daughter of the Rev. Henry Rosenberger, Mennonite minister at Franconia, and grand daughter of Henry Rosenberger, the pioncer ancestor of the Rosenberger family, who had taken up a large tract of land in Franconia in 1728. Rev. Henry Rosenberger was born Decem- ber 2. 1725, and died in 1809. He married in 1745 Barbara Oberholtzer, born in 1726, died February 3, 1765, daughter of Jacob and Barbara Oberholtzer, (or Overholt), who were early settlers in Bedminster township, Bucks county, where Jacob pur- chased land in 1749. Rev. Henry and Bar- bara (Oberholtzer) Rosenberger were the parents of eight children, five of whom sur- vived and left descendants, viz: Anna, who married (first) Michael Leatherman and (second) John Loux, both of Bedminster ; Elizabeth, married Mark Fretz; Barbara, married Daniel Rickert; all of Bucks county ; Magdalena, above named ; and Sar- ah, who married Philip Schwardley, the youngest brother of John Schwardley, above named. John and Magdalena Schwardley lived and died on a portion of the Rosen- berger homestead in Franconia, still in the tenure of their descendants, and were the parents of nine children, viz: John, Jacob, Samuel, Abraham, Joseph, Henry, Philip R., Elizabeth and Mary.

Philip R. Swartley, son of John and Magdalena, was born on the old homestead in Franconia, January 2, 1795, and died there July 30, 1880. He married Annie C. Shoemaker, and their son Jacob S. Swart- ley, born in 1821, died 1867, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born and reared on the old homestead in Fran- conia, and followed farming and milling

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

during the brief period of his manhood. His wife, Elizabeth Cassel, was a descend- ant of early German settlers on the Skip- pack, who have left numerous descendants of the name in Bucks and Montgomery counties and elsewhere. She is still living in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

John C. subject of

Swartley, the this sketch, left an orphan at the age of two years, was reared in the family of his maternal uncle, Abraham F. Delp, in the township of New Britain, Bucks county, and acquired his elementary education in the public schools of that township. He entered the First state normal school at Millersville in 1885, and graduated in 1888. For the next two years he was principal of the North Wales high schools, in Mont- gomery county. In 1890 he entered the law department of the University of Pennsyl- vania, from which he graduated in 1893, in the meantime reading law in the office of Henry Lear, Esq., at Doylestown. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in June, 1893, and in August of the same year to the bar of Bucks county, and at once be- gan the practice of his profession at the county seat. Soon after admission to the bar he became active and influential in pol- itical circles, and served for three years as chairman of the Republican county com- mittee. In the fall of 1897 he was elected to the office of district attorney for the term of three years, and filled that position with ability. He has always been active in the councils of his party, and has served as delegate to state and congressional con- ventions. He was appointed January 1, 1903, assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a posi- tion which he still fills. In 1903 he formed a co-partnership at law with Wesley Bunt- ing. Esq., and the firm have a good prac- tice in the several courts of Bucks county.

Mr. Swartley was married on October 24, 1900, to Agnes Darlington, daughter of the late Henry T. and Susan Darlington, of Doylestown, and this union has been blessed with two children-John C. Jr., and Mar- garet Darlington.

(A sketch of the career and ancestry of Mrs. Swartley's distinguished father. Henry T. Darlington, will be found in this volume. )

LEE S. CLYMFER, of Riegelsville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, one of the prominent manufacturers and business men of upper Bucks, was born at Mt. Laurel Furnace, Berks .county, Pennsylvania, ( Temple post .. office ) April 2, 1863, and is a son of Will- iam Hiester and Valeria (Smith) Clymer. His father was for many years proprietor of the Mt. Laurel furnace. Mr. Clymer comes of a distinguished ancestry both in this country and in Europe, only brief men- tion of which can be given in the scope of this brief sketch. Richard Clymer, the pa- ternal ancestor, was a native of Bristol, England, from whence he migrated to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1705, ac- companied by his mother, Catharine Clymer, and a brother William, who died in 1740 without issue. Richard Clymer was a. shipping merchant and shipbuilder ; he died August 18, 1734, leaving several children, of whom only his sons, Christopher and William have left descendants. George. Clymer, the signer of the Declaration of In- dependence, was a son of the former.

William Clymer, son of Richard, was a captain in the English navy, commanding the frigate "Penzance" during the reign of George II, and was lost at sea, leaving a will dated October 16, 1760. He married at Christ Church, Philadelphia, January 19, 1742, Ann Judith Roberdeau, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Conyngham) Roberdeau, and sister to General Daniel Roberdeau, the friend of Franklin, and one of the most distinguished patriots in Pennsylvania dur- ing the Revolution. Ann Judith ( Rober- deau) Clymer was born on the Island of St. Christopher, West Indies, in the year 1725, and died at Morgantown, Berks county, Pennsylvania, April, 1782. Isaac Roberdeau, father of Mrs. Clymer, was a native of Rochelle, France, and fled to the island of St. Christopher, one of the Brit- ish West Indies, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Here he met and married Mary Conyngham, born at Cayou, on that island, April 4, 1699, daughter of Robert Conyngham, born in Scotland, March 24, 1669, and his wife Judith Eliza- beth de Bonneson, a native of Morlais, France, the former of whom traced his des- cent back through a long line of kings and princes royal to William the Conqueror, and in his own direct line to Malcolm, son of Friskine, who assisted Malcolm Can- more, afterwards King of Scotland, to es- cape from MacBeth's tyranny and treason, and was in return made Thane of Conyng- ham, from which his posterity afterwards took their surname. Robert Conyngham, of St. Christopher, left an immense estate in St. Christopher and in Scotland, a portion of which he entailed in the male line, and which was the subject of litigation a cen- tury later on the male line bearing bis sur- name becoming extinct. Isaac and Mary (Conyngham) Roberdeatt were the parents of three children, all born at St. Christo- pher, viz: Elizabeth, born 1724, who died unmarried ; Ann Judith, who married Will- iam Clymer; and Daniel, the eminent mer- chant, statesman and patriot before referred to. Isaac Roberdeau died at St. Christo- pher, and his widow and children removed to Philadelphia while the children were still in their minority, where the widow married a man by name of Keighly, but was again a widow many years prior to her death, which occurred March 13, 1771.

Daniel Conyngham Clymer, only son of William and Ann Judith ( Roberdean) Cly- mer, was born in Philadelphia. April 6. 1748. His father dying when he was a child, he was educated under the care of his distinguished uncle, General Daniel Rober-

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

deau. He graduated at Princeton in 1766, studied law and became eminent in his pro- fession. At the beginning of the Revolu- tion he at once joined the Associators of that city and was commissioned a lieutenant. April 8, 1776, he was commissioned lieu- tenant-colonel and placed in command of a rifle battalion. He was appointed in 1775 and again in 1776 by Congress as a signer of Bills of Credit, and held the offices of deputy commissary-general of prisoners and commissioner of claims of the treasury. During the closing years of the Revolution he removed to Reading, Berks county, and represented that county in the legislature in 1782 and several succeeding terms. He died at Reading, January 25, 1810. He had married in 1782 Mary Weidner, daughter of Peter and Susan Weidner, of Berks county, who died December 5, 1802, in her forty- sixth year. Their children were Ann, born 1782, who died unmarried in 1852; Will- iam, born 1788, died October 10, 1845, an eminent lawyer of Reading; and Edward Tilgham, born August 14, 1790, died March 6, 1831. Edward Tilghman Clymer was born at Reading, Berks county, and was educated at Princeton. He married June II, 1818, Maria Catharine Hiester, daughter of William and Anna Maria (Meyer) Hiester. She was born March 4, 1793, and died March 24, 1845. Edward Tilghman was a man of scholarly attain- ments, and follows

I. Daniel Roberdeau, a merchant and

lawyer of Reading, born March 31, 1819, died May 5, 1889, aged seventy years.

2. William Hiester, the father of the subject of this sketch ; see forward.

3. Edward Myers, born July 16, 1822, died May 25, 1883, in New York City, pro- jector and first president of the East Penn- sylvania railroad, later president of a coal company connected with the N. Y., L. E. & W. Railroad Company, with offices in New York.

4. Wiedner, born May 12, 1824, died July 16, 1824.

5. Mary Hiester, born July 19, 1825, drowned in the English Channel November 26, 1878, with two of her children; mar- ried August 10, 1852, her cousin, William Bingham Clymer, son of Henry, and grand- son of George Clymer, the Signer, who was born April 18. 1801, at Morrisville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, died May 28, 1873, at Florence, Italy.

6. Hon. Hiester Clymer, born November 3, 1827, died June 12, 1884; lawyer, state senator, congressman, Democratic candidate for governor, president of Union Trust Company, etc.

7. George Edward . Clymer, born Jan- uary 8, 1830, died July 7, 1895, major of Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry in the civil war and prominent in the iron and steel indus- tries.

William Hiester Clymer, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born at the Clymer homestead in the Conestoga Valley, near Morgantown, Berks county, October

9, 1820. His father dying when he was eleven years of age, he was placed with his uncle, William Hiester, at New Holland, Lancaster county, and was educated at Lititz, and assisted his uncle in his store. He later removed to Reading, where he and his brother, Daniel R., conducted a dry goods store until 1846, when he sold out to Daniel, and with his brother Edward M., purchased the Mt. Laurel iron furnace. They built the Temple iron furnace in 1867, and, having seven years previously pur- chased the old Oley furnace, became exten- sive manufacturers of iron, organizing the Temple Iron Company in 1870, and later the Clymer Iron Company, both of which William H. Clymer was president, until September, 1882, when he resigned and re- moved with his family to Reading, where he died July 26, 1883. He was president of the First National Bank of Reading from 1876 to his death. He married, June 12, 1855, Valeria Smith, eldest daughter of Levi B. Smith, who was born March 14, 1828, and died August 17, 1901. They were the parents of six children : Emily Smith; Ed- ward Tilghman; William Hiester; Lee Smith; Valeria Elizabeth; and Frederick Hiester.

The ancestors of Maria Catharine Hies- ter, the grandmother of the subject of this sketch, were of Silesian origin, her first American ancestor being Daniel Hiester, the youngest of three brothers, John, Jo- seph and Daniel, who emigrated from Wit- genstein, in Westphalia, to Pennsylvania, early in the eighteenth century, and took up their residence in Goshenhoppen, now Mont- gomery county. Daniel had several sons, of whom John, born April 9, 1745, was a mem- ber of congress from Chester county 1807-8 and was succeeded by his son Daniel ; Dan- iel, a representative in congress from Mont- gomery county, 1789-97, and from Mary- land 1801-5; Gabriel, for thirty years a member of the state legislature from Berks county ; and William. All four of these. sons of Daniel Hiester were in the conti- nental service during the revolution, the two elder as colonels, the third as a major,. while William, the youngest, born June 10, 1757, being required to look after his aged parents, did not serve but one campaign. Joseph Hiester, governor of Pennsylvania, was the only son of John, and a cousin of the four brothers above named.

Daniel Hiester. the elder, was born in the town of Elsoff, county of Witgenstein, province of Westphalia, in Silesia, Ger- many, January 1. 1713, and died in Bern township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, June 7, 1795. His wife was Catharine Schuler, whom he married September 29, 1742. She was born Seprember 10, 1717, and died August 17, 1789, aged seventy-two years, eleven months and seven days.

William Hiester, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, born at Gosh- enhoppen, Upper Salford township, Mont- gomery county, June 10, 1757, was the youngest son of Daniel and Catharine

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

(Schuler) Hiester. He was seventeen years of age when his parents removed to Reading, and remained with his parents in Reading for ten years. He then removed to Bern township, where he died July 13, 1822. He was a private in Captain George Will's company, in 1777, in the battalion commanded by his brother, Major Gabriel Hiester. He married, March 18, 1784, Anna Maria Meyer, daughter of Isaac Meyer, the founder of Meyerstown, Pennsylvania. She was born December 28, 1758, and died October 4. 1822. They were the parents of eight children, the fifth of whom, Maria Catharine, born March 4. 1793, was the wife of Edward Tilghman Clymer.

LEE S. CLYMER, born at the Mt. Laurel Furnace, April 2, 1863, was educated at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, taking a special course in chemistry. On leaving college he accepted a position as chemist for the Minnesota Iron Company, which he filled for one year. In 1885 he opened a general laboratory at Reading, Pennsylvania. In December, 1886, he left Reading and took a position as chemist for the Carnegie Company at the Edgar Thom- as Furnace. Braddock, Pennsylvania, where he remained for one year. In October. 1887, he came to Bucks county as chemist for the Durham Iron Company, and filled that position for two years, when he was made superintendent of the Pequest Tron Fur- nace, near Oxford, New Jersey, where he remained until the furnace was about to be closed in the autumn of 1890. He then accepted a position as superintendent of the Lehigh Iron Company's works near Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he re-' mained for about eight months. During a part of the next two years he was superin- tendent for the Thomas Iron Company's furnaces at Hellertown, Pennsylvania. In 1895 he crected and equipped the Durham Knitting Mills, at Riegelsville, Bucks coun- ty, which he has since sucessfully operated. He also operates several fine farms in Dur- ham township, and is interested in the breeding of standard bred horses and thor- oughbred cattle. He recently became half owner of what was the Lehigh Power Company, located at Raubsville, Pennsyl- vania. It is proposed to operate this plant under the name of the Clymer Power Com- pany.

He married, June II, 1891, Clara Matilda Riegel. daughter of the late John L. and Lydia (Stover) Riegel, by whom he has two children, John Riegel, born April 14, 1892, and Valeria Smith, born January 12, 1896.

JACOB F. CLYMER. The Clymer fam- ily, of which Jacob F. Clymer, a prosperous farmer of New Britain township is a worthy representative, is one of the oldest in the township, and have always been highly es- teemed for the many excellent characteris- tics displayed by them both in public and

private life. Jonas Clymer, grandfather of Jacob F. Clymer, resided on the farm now owned by Jacob F. Clymer. He was a shoemaker by trade, and this occupation he followed in connection with agricultural pursuits during the early years of his life, but as he advanced in years he abandoned the former line of work entirely, devoting his entire attention to the latter. He served as supervisor of his township for seven years, his long term of office attesting to his capability. He adhered to the tenets of the Mennonite church, in which he served as trustee ; he was formerly a Whig in pol- itics, and later a Republican. He married Hannah Clymer, daughter of Henry Cly- mer, and their children were: John, Will- iam C., Henry, Levi, Elizabeth, Sarah, Amanda and Hannah.

William C. Clymer, father of Jacob F. Clymer, was reared on his father's farm in New Britain township, educated in the con- mon schools of the neighborhood, and upon the death of his father succeeded to the homestead. In connection with his exten- sive farming operations he engaged in the produce commission business for thirty years, deriving a goodly income from both enterprises, and thus was enabled to pro- vide a comfortable home for his family. The esteem in which he was held by his fellow- townsmen was evidenced by the fact that he was the incumbent of the office of school director twelve years and supervisor one year. He was a trustee of the Mennonite - church, the doctrines of which he firmly be- lieved in, and his political views were in accord with those of the Republican party. By his marriage to Elizabeth Fretz, only child of Joseph and Mary ( Markley) Fretz, four children were born: Jacob F., Charles who died at the age of twenty years : Jonas, who is engaged in business in Philadelphia ; and Harvey, also engaged in business in Philadelphia. Mary (Fretz) Clymer, moth- er of these children, died in 1884. and Mr. Clymer married for his second wife Lydia A. Swartley, widow of Philip Swartley.

Jacob F. Clymer was born in New Britain township. Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1862. He was reared on the old homestead, and his educational advantages were obtained by attendance at the com- mon schools. His whole life has been spent on the farm where he was born, his occu- pation being that of farming, for which he is eminently qualified, as is clearly shown by the appearance of his broad acres and commodious outbuildings. Mr. Clymer has served as supervisor of the township nine years, his duties during that time being performed in a highly creditable and ef- ficient manner. In religious and political faith he follows in the footsteps of his fore- fathers, being a member and trustee of the Mennonite church and a Republican. In 1887 Mr. Clymer married Anna Mary Swartley, daughter of Philip and Lydia Swartley, and they are the parents of one son, Vincent, born June 30, 1892.

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

THE FOULKE FAMILY that has been prominent in the official, professional and business life of Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties for many generations as well as in that of far distant states and cities, is descended from Edward Foulke, who emigrated from Wales in 1698 and set- tled in Gwynedd, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. An acount of his ancestry, tracing in unbroken line to "John King of England, born December 24, 1166, crowned May 27, 1216," and an account of his com- ing to America, etc., the latter written by himself under date of II-mo. 14, 1702, con- tains among other things the following :

"When arrived at mature age, I married Eleanor, the daughter of Hugh, ap (son of) Cadwallader, ap Rhys of the parish of Spytu in Denbighshire. Her mother's name was Gwen the daughter of Ellis ap William, ap Hugh, ap Thomas, ap David, ap Madoc, ap Evan, ap Cott, ap Evan, ap Griffith, ap Madoc, ap Einion, ap Meredith of Cai-Fadog: she was born in the same parish and shire with her husband. I had by my said wife nine children, whose names are as follows: Thomas, Hugli, Cadwall- ader, and Evan; Gracc, Gwen, Jane, Cath- arine, and Margaret. We lived at a place called Coedy-foel, a beautiful farm belong- ing to Roger Price, Esq., of Rhiwlas, of Merionethshire, aforesaid. But in progress of time I had an inclination to remove with my family to the Province of Pennsylvania ; and in order thereto we set out on the 3d day of the 2d-month, A. D. 1698, and came in two days to Liverpool, where with divers others, who intended to go the voyage, we took shipping, the 17th of the same month, on board the "Robert and Elizabeth." and the next day set sail for Ireland, where we arrived, and stayed until the Ist of the 3d month, May, and then sailed again for Pennsylvania, and were about eleven weeks at sea. And the sore distemper of the bloody flux broke out in the vessel, of which died five and forty persons in our passage. The distemper was so mortal that two or three corpses were cast over- board every day while it lasted. But through the favor and mercy of Divine Providence, I, with my wife and nine chil- dren, escaped that sore mortality and ar- rived safe at Philadelphia, the 17th day of the 5th-month, July, where we were kindly received and hospitably entertained by our friends and old acquaintances. I soon purchased a fine tract of land of about sev- en hundred acres, sixteen miles from Phila- delphia, on a part of which I settled, and divers others of our company, who came over sea with us, settled near me at the same time. This was the beginning of November, 1698, aforesaid, and the town- ship was called Gwynedd or North Wales."

According to his own narrative Edward Foulke was born 5th mo. 14th, 1651, and taking the age given by the Meeting Rec- ords at time of his death would place the date of his death in 1739. All of his nine children lived to mature age, married and

reared families. The only two in whom Bucks countians have any especial interest were his eldest son Thomas, and second son Hugh. Gwen, the eldest daughter, married Alexander Edwards, Jr., who was a land owner in Bucks county and has descendants here. Grace mar- ried John Griffith, of Merion, Chester county. Jane married Ellis Hugh, and set- tled at Exeter, Berks county, and left nu- merous descendants of the name of Hughes. Catharine married Theophilus Williams, of Montgomery. Margaret married Nicholas Roberts. Thomas Foulke, eldest son of Ed- ward and Eleanor, born in Merionethshire, Wales, immigrant to Gwynedd, 1698, with his parents, married at Gwynedd, 4 mo. 27, 1706, Gwen Evans, daughter of David, of Radnor, and settled at Gwynedd on part of the Edward Foulke tract. He died in 1762, and his wife in 1760. They were the par- ents of eight children, of whom the two oldest Edward (1707-1770) and William (1708-1775) had descendants in Bucks. Dr. Joseph Foulke, for many years a practicing physician of Buckingham, was a great grandson of Edward, through his son Hugh (1752-1831). noted minister among Friends, who married Ann Roberts. their son Joseph ( 1786-1863), who married Eliza- beth Shoemaker, being the father of the Buckingham physician. Dr. Charles Foulke, born December 14, 1815, died December 30, 1871, for many years a practicing phy- sician at New Hope. Bucks county, and the father of Dr. Richard C. Foulke, still practicing there, was also a great-great- grandson of Thomas Foulke and Gwen Evans. His father, Edward Foulke, of Gwynedd ( 1784-1851), married Tacy Jones, and his grandfather, Amos Foulke, (1740- 1791) one of the firm of Caleb and Amos Foulke, merchants of Philadelphia, was the son of William, second son of Thomas and Gwen, who married Hannah Jones, of Montgomery.

Hugh Foulke, second son of Edward and Eleanor, born in Merionethshire, in 1685, married, in 1713, Ann Williams, born II mo. 8, 1693, died gmo. 10, 1773, daughter of John Williams, of Montgomery, and settled in Richland, Bucks county, soon after his marriage, and died there 5mo. 21, 1760. He was a minister of the Society of Friends for forty years. He is the ancestor of many present residents of Bucks county, through comparatively few of the name now reside in the county. The children of Hugh and Ann (Wil- liams) Foulke were ;- Mary, born 1714, died 2mo. 29, 1756, married James Boone, of Exeter, Berks county, son of George the elder, and brother of Squire Boone, the father of Daniel, the pioneer of Kentucky. Their eldest daughter, Ann, married Abra- ham Lincoln, of the family of the martyred president. Martha, born 5mio. 22. 1716, died 4mo. 17, 1781, married (first), October 4, 1738, William Edwards, of Milford, Bucks county, and (second) John Roberts. Samuel, born 1718, died 1797, married Ann

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 21

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