History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 28

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 28

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J. Wilmer Lundy was born and reared on the farm near Rancocas, and was educated at the Friends' school there and at Moorestown Friends' high school. After teaching school one year he en- tered Trenton Business College, from which he graduated in 1889. From that date until 1893 he filled the position of bookkeeper for his uncle, Ezra Evans, a Trenton grocer. In the latter year he . went to Mt. Holly as bookkeeper in the plumbing establishment of George D. Worrel, where he remained until 1900, when he formed a partnership with Elmer J. Shinn, and bought out the plumbing, heating, tin and stove busi- ness of Franklin Smith, at Newtown, Bucks county, which business he has since conducted, his partner having charge of a branch establishment at Princeton, New Jersey. Mr. Lundy is a member of the Society of Friends, and politically is a Democrat. He is a mem- ber of Mt. Holly Lodge No. 14, F. and A. M., the Junior Order U. A. M., and the Knights of Pythias. He married April 30, 1805. Lizzie Morris Roberts, daughter of Stacy and Harriet Roberts, and they have one child, Elizabeth, born January 5, 1900.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM WYNKOOP, of Newtown, is a representative of a fam- ily that has been prominent in the his- tory of our country for over two cen- turies, many of them at different periods filling high and honorable positions in church and state, in local, state and national affairs.

The American progenitors of the family were Peter and Cornelius Wyn- koop, who migrated from Holland to. New York in 1639 and 1642, respec- tively. Peter was born in 1616 and came to New Amsterdam in 1639, and settled in New York state near the present site of Albany five years later, where he be- came prominent in the Dutch colony. His descendants were prominent in the affairs of that section for many gener- ations. A grandson Evert, son of Cor- nelius, was a captain in the French and Indian war and died of camp fever in 1750. Adrian Wynkoop, another de- scendant. was commissioned major of the First Regiment of Ulster county, New York, May 1, 1776, and in the same year was placed in command of two hundred men to guard the passes of the Hudson. His brother Jacobus was a: captain of the Fourth New York Regi- ment in 1775, and was later transferred to the naval service on recommendation of General Schuyler, to take command' of all the vessels on Lakes George and Champlain. Another Cornelius was a colonel in the Continental service in New York. Cornelius, a son of Peter, married Maria Janse Langedyck, and their third son Gerrit (or Gerardus, as. the name came to be spelled later) inar- ried Hillitje Folkert, and in the year 1717 came to Pennsylvania with his sons Nicholas and Gerritt. He lived for a time in the manor of Moreland, but later removed to Northampton town- ship, Bucks county, where he died in 1747, leaving sons Cornelius, Nicholas,. Gerrit and Philip, and daughters . Jan- netje Van Buskirk and Jacomyntje Van Meter. He purchased in 1727 five hun- dred and twenty acres in Northampton, which he conveyed in equal parts to his two sons Nicholas and Gerrit in 1738, and part of the latter is still the property of the subject of this sketch, having descended from father to son for five generations. Nicholas, the third son, married Ann Kuypers, and their only son was Judge Henry Wynkoop, who was in the opinion of many the most prominent man in the history of Bucks county. He was for many years the leading justice of the courts of Bucks county, and its first president judge. From the time the relations be- tween the colonies and the crown be- came strained, he was the leader of the patriot canse in Bucks county, was one of the delegates to the meeting of the provincial deputies at Carpenter's Half in July, 1774. was appointed to attend

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

the provincial conference in May, 1775, and was again a delegate to the confer- ence that drafted the first constitution in 1776. He was the leading member of the committee of safety in Bucks, and the county's first representative in the congress of the United States, which assembled in New York on March 4, 1789. He died in 1816, after a long car- eer of unexampled usefulness in public life ..

Gerrit Wynkoop, second son of Ger- rit and Lilletje (Folkert) Wynkoop, was born in New York, about 1700, and came to Bucks county with his father in 1717, and died in Northampton town- ship, May 12, 1769, on the 260-acre farm conveyed to him by his father in 1738. He and his wife, Susanna Vliet, were members of the Dutch Reformed church of Northampton and Southampton. They were the parents of several chil- dren. only two of whom survived him, Gerardus and Adrian. The latter was baptized at Southampton, October 4, 1743.

Gerardus, eldest son of Gerrit and Su- sannah, was born in Northampton, and was joint heir with his brother Adrian of the paternal homestead, which he pur- chased entire in 1770, and spent his en- tire life thereon. He was first lieuten- ant of the Northampton County Asso- ciators in 1775. He was elected a mem- ber of assembly in 1774, and served con- tinuously in that body until 1794, and was for several years speaker. He died in June, 1812. His wife, whom he mar- ried December 7. 1758, was Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac- Bennett. They were the parents of eight children-six sons: Isaac, John, Garret, Mathew, David, and William; and two daughters, Susannah, wife of David Wylie, and Elizabeth, wife of Stephen Rose.

William, youngest son of Gerardus and Elizabeth, inherited one hundred and twenty-eight acres of the old home- stead in Northampton, and spent his life thereon. He married April 13, 1801, Mary Longstreth, and died in 1833. His widow Mary survived him several years. Their children were: Thomas L., Ger- ardus, Christopher: Elizabeth, wife of Charles McNair; Catharine, wife of Dr. James McNair; Susannah, Margaret, Anna Maria, Susan, Mary Frances and Caroline.

Thomas L. Wynkoop married Eliza- beth Torbert, daughter of James and Margaret (McNair) Torbert, of Scotch- Irish ancestry, a descendant of Samuel Torbert, who came to Newtown. Bucks county, from Carrickfergus, Ireland, in 1726. Thomas and Elizabeth (Torbert) Wynkoop were the parents of five chil- dren, viz .: James, Catharine, William, Samuel. and Thomas Henry. The lat- ter was a member of General W. WV. H. Davis' 104th Pennsylvania Regi- ment, and was killed in action in June,

1862. Thomas L. Wynkoop, the father of the above named children, died in 1879, and devised the old homestead where he had lived all his life to his son William, the subject of this sketch, who still owns it.

The subject of this sketch has lived an eventful life. He served three years during the war of the rebellion in the First New Jersey Cavalry, enlisting as a private and was promoted successively - to sergeant, second lieutenant, first lieu- tenant and captain. He served on the staff of Brigadier General Davis, in Gregg's, Cavalry Division, as provost- marshal, ordnance office and assistant adjutant general; was three times wound and received an honorable testi- monial for meritorious services.

Soon after the war Captain Wynkoop removed to Newtown, where he has since resided. He was engaged in the real estate business for nearly twenty years, and transacted a large amount of public business as assignee, executor, administrator, and agent. He served in the office of justice of the peace for fif- teen years; was three years chief bur- gess of Newtown borough, and borough treasurer for several years. He has been president of the school board for the past ten years, and is an active member of the school directors' association of Bucks county, which he has served as president. He was one of the assign- ees of the Newtown Banking Company on its failure in May, 1878. and was an important factor in winding up its com- plicated affairs.

Captain Wynkoop comes of good old Presbyterian stock, his ancestors for eight generations having been officers of the Presbyterian or Reformed churches in the localities where they re- sided. He has served as ruling elder of the Newtown Presbyterian church since 1872, during which period he has acted as clerk of. the session. In the same year he was chosen superintendent of the Sabbath school connected with the church, and was re-elected to that posi- tion for twenty-eight consecutive years, then declining a re-election. In 1879 he was elected president of the Bucks Coun- ty Sabbath School Association and served in that position for eight years. He has been identified with the Bucks County Historical Society for many years, and has prepared a number of valuable his- torical papers for its sessions. He is now one of the board of trustees of tlie Society. He is an active member of the G. A. R., and commander of T. H. Wyn- koop Post. No. 427, at Newtown. This Post was named in honor of his brother, who died in the service of his country, having enlisted in Colonel Davis' 104th Regiment, when twenty years of age, and was killed in action nine months later. Captain Wynkoop served as aide- de-camp, to General John L. Black,

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commander-in-chief of the G. A. R. of the United States in 1904.

He married Rachel Ann Blaker, who died in January, 1895, leaving four chil- dren, their eldest child having died in her eighteenth year; those who survive are: Elizabeth, wife of George R. Luff, who resides with her father at New- town, with her five children, William, Ruth, Mabel, Katharine and Rachel. Katharine, who married (first) Henry C. Wylie, who died six years later, leav- ing a daughter, Margaret; she after- wards married G. F. Reynolds of Scran- ton, Pennsylvania, and has two sons, William and Arthur. Evelyn, married H. L. Harding, of Scranton. The only son, James .Wynkoop, entered Prince- ton University in 1900, intending on his graduation to study for the ministry but failing health compelled him to re- linquish his studies during his first year at college; he is at present employ- ed in a bank at Scranton, Pennsylvania, with greatly improved health. He is the . only male descendant of the Wynkoops in Bucks county, of the younger genera- tion, that bears their name. He was married in 1904 to Cora B. Gernon, of Scranton.

Captain Wynkoop is still in active life and health. He is president of the Ex- celsior Bobbin and Spool Company of Newtown, president of the Mutual Beneficial Insurance Association of Bucks county, and a director in six other Bucks county corporations, and has served as secretary of the Newtown Cemetery Company for the last thirty years. He is widely and favorably known in business and social circles, and has traveled extensively both in this country and Europe.

HON. OLIVER HENRY FRETZ. A. M., M. D., of Quakertown, Bucks coun- ty, Pennsylvania, one of the leading phy- sicians of upper Bucks, was born on his father's farm in Richland township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1858, and is descended from the earliest German settlers in upper Bucks county, whose descendants have been identified with the affairs of that section since it was inhabited by the aborigines, a per- iod of nearly two, centuries. John Fretz, the paternal ancestor of Dr. Fretz, came to Pennsylvania about the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, accompanied by two brothers Christian and Mark, the latter of whom is said to have died at sea. John Fretz located for a time in what is now Montgomery county, where he married Barbara Mey- er, daughter of Hans Meyer, an early German emigrant, who had settled in Salford township, now Montgomery county. About 1737 John Fretz pur- chased a tract of 230 acres in Bedmin- ster township, Bucks county,, and set-

tled thereon. His wife Barbara died about 1740, and he married a second time. He reared a family of eight chil- dren, five of whom were by his first wife, all except one of which were born in Salford. John Fretz died early in the year 1772. According to the historian of the family, Rev. A. J. Fretz, of Milton, New Jersey, he has to-day 5,000 living descendants.

Jacob Fretz, second son of John and Barbara (Meyer) Fretz, was born in Montgomery county, in 1732, came with his parents to Bucks county when a child and was reared in Bedminster township. About 1755 he married Mag- dalena Nash, daughter of William Nash, of Bedminster, and settled in Tinicum township, near Erwinna, but later re- turned to Bedminster township, where he purchased a farm and lived and died there. He and his wife as well as all the earlier generations of the family were Mennonites and worshiped at the his- toric old Deep Run Meeting House erected about 1746, and where many of the family are buried. Jacob and Mag- dalena (Nash) Fretz were the parents of six sons and three daughters, only the eldest of the latter having married, viz : Elizabeth, who became the wife of the Rev. John Kephardt, for many years pastor of the Doylestown Mennonite congregation. Abraham the eldest son, located in Hilltown; he was a teamster in the Revolutionary army and endured many hardships. He married and has numerous descendants in Bucks. John, Jacob, William and Joseph Fretz were farmers in Bedminster, where they rear- ed families.

Isaac Fretz, youngest son of Jacob and Magdalena (Nash) Fretz, was the grandfather of Dr. O. H. Fretz. He was born on the homestead in Bedminster township, June II, 1781, and on arriving at manhood married Mary Moyer, and followed farming in Bedminster until 1822, when they removed to Richland township, where he also followed agri- cultural pursuits until his death on De- cember 27, 1855. His wife, Mary Moyer, was born August 24, 1786, and died March 27. 1855. They were the parents of two children, William and Magdalena, the latter of whom died July 1, 1854, unmarried.

William Fretz, only son of Isaac and Mary (Moyer) Fretz, was born in Bed- minster township, April 9, 1811, and re- moved with his parents to Richland at the age of eleven years. Early in life he learned the trade of a carpenter, which he followed until the death of his parents in 1855, when he returned to the homestead and resided thereon until 1866, when he removed to Quakertown, where he lived retired until his death on December 22, 1869. He took an ac- tive interest in local affairs and served as supervisor of Richland township for

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

several years. He was a member of the German Reformed church. He mar- ried, in 1854, Catharine Hofford, daugh- ter of Daniel and Snsanna (Maugle)' Hofford, and they were the parents of two children, Edwin Penrose, and the subject of this sketch. Edwin Penrose Fretz, born March 3, 1856, on the home- stead in Richland township, attended the public schools there until his fif- teenth year, when he learned the shoe- maker trade with A. B. Walp & Co. Later he entered Washington Hall Col- legiate Institute at Trappe, Montgom- ery county, Pennsylvania, and later Al- lentown Business College, from which he graduated in 1878. He was employed for some time in the shoe factory of A. B. Walp & Co. He is now proprietor of a shoe store at Lansdale, Pennsyl- vania.

Hon. Oliver Henry Fretz, A. M., M. D., second and youngest son of William and Catharine (Hofford) Fretz, was born in Richland township, Bucks county, April 9, 1858. There he lived till he was ten years old, when he removed with his parents to Quakertown, Pennsylvan- ia, where he received the best school advantages the borough afforded. He later attended Oak Grove Academy, a school conducted under the auspices of the Society of Friends. During 1878 and 1879, he was a student of Muhlen- berg College, at Allentown, Pennsyl- vania. He began the study of medicine in 1879, first under that able practitioner, and scientist, Dr. I. S. Moyer, and after- ward in the same year he entered the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and, after pursuing a three years' graded course of study, gradu- ated March 30, 1882, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He began the practice of medicine at Salfordville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, but, owing to ill health, at the end of three years he sold his practice and removed to Quakertown, where he is now suc- cessfully engaged in the drug business, combined with a large and lucrative office and consulting practice. In 1886- 87 he took a post-graduate course of instruction at the Philadelphia Poly- clinic and College for Graduates in Medicine. He also pursued a course of instruction at the eye, ear, nose and throat department of the Philadelphia Dispensary, fitting himself as a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. In 1889 he completed a course in pharmacy at the National Institute of Pharmacy, Chicago, Illinois. Since 1886, when he was elected a school di- rector of Quakertown borough, he has been closely identified with the edu- cational interests of his town and the county. He was re-elected school di- rector in 1889, and served three years as president and one year as treasurer of the board.

In 1890 Dr. Fretz was nominated on the first ballot for assembly by the Bucks county Democratic convention, and was elected by nearly three hun- dred majority. He represented his coun- ty in the legislature of 1891 with marked ability, and to the utmost satisfaction of his constituents. In the fall of 1892 he was renominated by acclamation and re- elected by a largely increased majority.' In the session of 1893 he served on the following important committees: educa- tional, municipal corporations, public health and sanitation, and congressional apportionment. He introduced a num- ber of bills in the legislature, the most important of which was, an act to auth- orize the state superintendent of public instruction to grant

permanent state teachers' certificates to graduate of rec- ognized literary and scientific colleges. He was also elected by the house of rep- resentatives a member of the Pennsyl- vania election commission for 1893-94, whose duty it was to open, compute and publish the vote for state treasurer. On June 21, 1893, Ursinus College recog- nized his ability by conferring the hon- orary degree of Master of Arts (A. M.) upon him. In January, 1894, Dr. Fretz was appointed a clinical assistant in the eye department of the Jefferson Medi- cal College Hospital, Philadelphia, Perin- sylvania. He received the appointment of borough physician of Quakertown in 1888, and has since been reappointed annually. In July 1893, he was appointed by the borough council, a member of the borough board of health, a position he still holds, he being president of the board. November 2, 1898, he was elected president of the Bucks county Medical Society. He is also a member of the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania For- estry Association and the Bucks County School Directors' Association, of which he served as vice president. He is also surgeon for the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Traction Co., and medical ex- aminer for numerous life insurance com- panies. On November 21, 1898, Dr. Fretz was elected by the board of trits- tees a censor of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia. He pursued a course of study at the Chicago School of Psychology, graduating therefrom March 15, 1900, receiving the degree of Doctor of Psychology (Psy. D.). On March 7, 1905, he completed a course of study at the South Bend College of Optics, South Bend, Indiana, graduating therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Optics, (Opt. D.). He is a member of the following organizations: Quaker- town Lodge, No. 512, F. and A. M .; Zin- zendorf Chapter, No. 216, Royal Arch Masons, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania;

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Pennsylvania Commandery. No. 70, Knights Templar of Philadelphia; Qua- kertown Lodge, No. 714. I. O. O. F .; Secona Tribe, No. 263, 1. O. of R. M., and Marion Circle, No. 16, B. U. (H. F.) of Pennsylvania.

On October 26, 1882, Dr. Fretz mar- ried Elmira A. Roeder, daughter of Na- than C. and Lucinda ( Antrim) Roeder, of Spinnerstown, Pennsylvania. Both are members of the Reformed church. Their union was blessed with two children: Roberts Bartholow, born January 19, 1884, and died October 1, 1884, and Ray- mond Lamar, born April 24, 1885. The latter received his primary education in the public schools of Quakertown, Pennsylvania; later he attended Perkio- men Seminary for two years, and the Bethlehem Preparatory School, an ad- junct to Lehigh University for one year. He then entered his father's drug store as a student of medicine and pharmacy, and in May, 1905, he graduated in the Era Course of Pharmacy of New York. He is also a member of Marion Circle, No. 16. B. U. (H. F.) of Pennsylvania, also of the Quakertown Mandolin Club.

YARDLEY FAMILY. John Yardley, treasurer of the Doylestown Trust Com- pany, is a son of Mahlon and Elizabeth (Brock) Yardley, and was born in Doy- lestown, 6 mo. 15, 1852, and belongs to the fourteenth generation of the descen- dants of John Yardley, of county Staf- ford, England, who married a daughter of Marbury of Dadesbury, in 1402. The family of Yardley (formerly spelled Yeardley) is an ancient one with resi- dence in Staffordshire, where the heads of the family were known as the "Lords of Yeardley." Their coat-of-arms is: "Argent on a chevron azure, three garbs or, on a canton gules, a fret or:" Crest : "A buck courant, gu. attired or."

The pioneer emigrant of the family was William Yeardley, who with wife Jane and three sons, Enoch, William and Thomas and Andrew Heath, emigrated

from Ransclough, near Leake, in the county of Stafford, and arrived in the river Delaware in the good ship "Friends' Adventure," 7 mo. 29. 1682. They located on five hun- dred acres of land purchased of William Penn 3 mo. 30, 1681, (just sixteen days after Penn received the grant of Penn- sylvania from Charles 11). This tract was located on the Delaware river, near the present site of the borough of Yard- ley, and was called "Prospect Farm." William Yardley was fifty years of age on his arrival in Bucks county. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and had been called to the ministry among them in his twenty-third year. He had traveled through different parts of Eng- land preaching the Gospel, and had suf-

fered imprisonment and fines for his. faith. He became at once and contin- ud to his death one of the most promi- ennt men of the province. He was a member of the first Colonial Assembly in 1682, and again in 1683; member of Provincial Council in 1688-9; justice of the peace and of the courts of Bucks county, April 6, 1685, to January 2, 1689; sheriff, February II, 1690, to April 29, 1693. He died 5 mo. 6, 1693, aged sixty- one years.

Enoch Yardley, eldest son of William and Jane, was a member of Colonial Assembly in 1699. He married 10 mo. 1697, Mary, daughter of Robert Fletch- er, of Abington, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, and had by her three daughters, Jane, Mary and Sarah, all of whom died in infancy. He died II mo. 23. 1702-3. His brother William died unmarried 12 mo. 12, 1792-3. Thomas, the other brother, married 9 mo. 6, 1700, Hester Blaker, and had two children, William and Hester, both of whom died in infancy. He died on the same day as his brother, II mo. 23, 1702-3. Mary, the widow of Enoch Yardley, married (second) Joseph Kirkbridge, one of the most prominent men of the Province, who had emigrated from the parish of Kirkbride, in Cumberland, England. She- was his third wife, and bore him seven children-John, Robert, Mary, Sarah (married Israel Pemberton), Thomas, and Jane, who married Samuel Smith, the historian of New Jersey. Hester,. the widow of Thomas Yardley, married 8 mo. 1704, William Browne, of Chiches- ter, Chester county, Pennsylvania.

William Yardley, his wife, children and grandchildren all being dead, his real estate in Bucks county descended to his brother Thomas, of "The Beech- es." in the parish of Rushton, Stafford- shire. In the year 1704 Thomas Yard- ley, Jr., son of Thomas of Rushton, came to Bucks county with a power of attorney from his father and his brother Samuel to claim the real estate. "Pros- pect Farm" was sold under this power of attorney, 5 mn0. 25, 1710, to Joseph Janney, who as "straw man" conveyed it back to Thomas Yeardley, Jr., 6 mo. 14. 1710. This Thomas Yeardley (as he always wrote his name) was the ances- tor of all the Yardleys of Bucks county. He married 12 mo .. 1706-7, Ann, the youngest daughter of William and Joan- na Biles, who had emigrated from Dor- chester, in the county of Dorset. Eng- land, and arrived in the river Delaware 4 mo. 4. 1670. The children of Thomas and Ann (Biles) Yardley were ten in number:

I. Mary, born 8 mo. 4. 1707, married, 12 mno. 30, 1728-9. Amos Janney of Lou- doun county, Virginia.

2. Jane. born 11 mo. 20. 1708-9. married Francis Hague, of Loudoun county, Vir- ginia.

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 28

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