History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 88

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 88

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He married Hannah Kramer, a descendant of another old family in that locality, and reared a family of five children, viz : Noah ; Catharine, wife of Charles Weikel; Mary, wife of Charles Schwenck; Aaron K., and Edwin.

Ncah Wambold was born on the old homestead and on arriving at manhood became a partner with his father in the management of the tannery, and at his fath- er's death inherited it, with a large portion of the homestead, and lived there all his life, dying July 2, 1890. He was an active business man, and a deacon and elder in the Lutheran church. He married Hannah Hartzell, and they were the parents of eleven children, viz: Abraham H., the sub- ject of this sketch; Amanda, wife of Sam- uel Slotter; Henry; Zachariah; Noah; Jo- siah; Edwin; Hannah; Benjamin Frank- lin, and two who died in infancy. The mother died in December, 1879.

Abraham H. Wambold was born and reared on his father's farm, and always lived on the old homestead, having pur- chased it from his father. He was a dea- con of the Lutheran church for sixteen years. In politics he was a Republican, and always took an active part in local affairs as well as in church work. He married, October 13, 1865, Elizabeth Appenzeller, daughter of David and Mary (Bean) Ap- penzeller, who was born June 28, 1846, and they were the parents of three children : Mary Louise, born June 9, 1866, died May 21, 1879; Benjamin Franklin, born Feb- ruary 15, 1870; and Charles Stahley, born 1875, died 1879. Benjamin Franklin Wam- bold married, December 20, 1893, Carrie Dannehower, daughter of John and Sarah ( Shellenberger) Dannehower, and their only child is deceased. Abraham H. Wam- bold died near Sellersville, February I, 1900, aged fifty-five years.

HARVEY F. HARPEL, merchant and postmaster at South Perkasie, was born in Bedminster township, Bucks county, Janu- ary I, 1864, and is a son of Amos and Mary (Fulmer ) Harpel. His paternal ancestor, Philip Harpel, a native of Germany, born in 1728, was an early settler near Otts- ville, where he purchased a large tract of land partly in Bedminster and partly in Tinicum. He was one of the early mem- bers of Tohickon Lutheran church, and became a large landowner and a prominent man in the community. He died Decem- ber 24, 1802, and his wife. Anna Maria, September 27, 1816, at the age of eighty- two years, eight months and three days. They were the parents of two sons: Philip and Conrad; and three daughters: Eliza- beth, Magdalena and Margaret. The plan- tation of 279 acres was devised to Conrad. Philip the eldest son, settled in Tinicum where he died in 1843, leaving a son Phil- ip R. Harpel, county commissioner in 1844; and daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Peter

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

George, Mary Ann, and Margaret, wife of Jacob Wolfinger and another son, Joseph.

Conrad, the great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch, inherited from his fath- er the 280 acre farm in Bedminster and Tinicum, and lived thereon during his long life, dying in 1837. He was a very prom- nent man, filling the office of justice of the peace for many years, and doing an im- mense amount of public business, acting as agent, administrator and executor in a large number of estates. He married Lydia -, born February 3, 1772, died June 25. 1857, and they left to survive them one son and heir, John Harpel.

John Harpel, like his father, was a promt- inent man in the community, and filled the office of justice of the peace for many years, and was treasurer of Bucks county in 1838. He was born on the old homestead in Bedminster, November 2, 1795, and died there May 20, 1866, and his wife Elizabeth -, was born March 17, 1799, and died January 13, 1854. He married a second time, shortly before his death, Catharine ,who survived him. John and Eliza- beth Harpel were the parents of six chil- children: Amos, the father of the subject of this sketch, who was born. October 25. 1825, and died February 14. 1872; Thomas C., the proprietor of the Ottsville hotel ; Samuel, born August 14, 1831, died Janit- ary 19, 1860; Lydia Ann; Levi, born Sep- tember 15, 1840, died January 3, 1872; and Sarah.

Amos Harpel was born and reared on the plantation in Bedminster, and purchased it of his father in 1865. He, however, sold the greater part of it in 1867, and in 1869 purchased a farm in Hilltown, and removed there and lived there the remainder of life, dying February 14, 1872, in his forty-sev- enth year. He married Mary Fulmer and they were the parents of four children : Emma, wife of Lewis Keller, the well- known merchant of Bedminsterville, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Leidy F., a merchant at Church Hill, Bucks county who married Rachel Yost, and has one child, Maggie; Harvey F., the subject of this sketch; and Margaret, wife of Milton Afflerbach.

Harvey F. Harpel, born on the old home- stead that had been in the family almost a century at the time of his birth, removed with his parents to Hilltown when a child, and was educated at the public schools there. He remained on the farm until six- teen years of age, and then entered the store of his brother-in-law, Lewis Keller, at Bedminsterville, where he filled the po- sition of a clerk for seven and a half years. In 1888 he started in the mercantile busi- ness for himself at South Perkasie, where he still conducts a general marchandise store. He was appointed postmaster in 1889, and is still filling that position. In 1900 he built himself a fine residence at South Perkasie, and in 1901 built a new two and one-half story store building in which he is carrying on a fine business. Like his ancestors, he is a member of the

Lutheran church at Tohickon ( Churcht Hill). He married, in 1888, Lavinia C. Ath- erholt, daughter of Aaron D. and Erma ( Strawn) Atherholt.

JOSIAH L. CRESSMAN, of Silverdale, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born in Rockhill township, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1838, and is a son of Tobias H. and Lydia (Leidy) Cressman. The Cress- man family is one of the oldest in Bucks county, and is descended from George Cressman (or Gressman) as the name was originally spelled), who emigrated front Germany in 1729 and settled in Franconia township, now Montgomery county. John Cressman, son of George, was a landhold- er in Rockhill as early as 1747. Anthony Cressman, the great-great-grandfather of Josiah L., was a farmer in Rockhill town- ship during the Revolutionary war, and was either a son or grandson of George Cress- man, the pioneer. He died 1790, leaving widow Magdalena, and four sons-Jacob, Abraham, John and Adam; and three daughters-Elizabeth, wife of Daniel Sh- ver; Catharine and Sarah. His farm con- sisting of 139 acres in Rockhill was ad- judged to the eldest son of Jacob Cress- man.

Jacob Cressman, eldest son of Anthony and Magdalena, was a lifelong resident of Rockhill, and one of the largest land holders in the township, having purchased land there as early as 1782. He died in 1832, at an advanced age. He married Elizabeth ", and they were the parents of ten children, viz: Daniel; Jacob: Abraham; Henry; Philip; Margaret, who married first Peter Demigh, and ( second) Charles Leidy ; Magdalena, wife of Henry Carr (or Kerr) ; Catharine, wife of Peter Rouden- bush; Maria, wife of Abel Kerr; Hannah, who never married.

Jacob Cressman, son of Jacob and Eliza- beth, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was a blacksmith, and followed that vocation during the active years of his life, in connection with farm- ing. He died in Rockhill in May, 1871. He married Magdalena, daughter of Philip Hartzell, of Rockhill, and they were the parents of ten children: Tobias H., the father of the subject of this sketch; Philip, who married Nancy Gerhart; Jonas, who married Kate Sheip: John, who married Margaret Mann, and lived on the old home- stead; Jacob, who died single; Hannah, wife of Simon Scholl; Lydia, wife of Leidy Gerhart; Elizabeth, wife of William K. Shellenberger. Mary, wife of Abner Ger- hart; and Sarah, wife of Jacob Shellen- berger.

Tobias H. Cressman, eldest son of Jacob and Magdalena ( Hartzell) Cressman, was born in Rockhill township in 1814. He learned the trade of a blacksmith with his father, and followed that trade in Rock- hill until 1848, when he removed to Hill- town, and about 1853 purchased the farm

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

where his son Josiah now lives, and fol- lowed farming and blacksmithing, having been continuously engaged at the latter trade for upward of fifty years. He died on his Hilltown farm March 10, 1901, at the age of. eighty-seven years. He married Lydia Leidy, daughter of George Leidy, and a descendant of Jacob Leidy, the founder of the Lutheran church, known as Leidy's church, near Souderton, where Mr. and Mrs. Cressman were life -long members.

Josiah L. Cressman, only son of Tobias . H. and Lydia (Leidy) Cressman, was reared to the age of twelve years in Rock- hill township, and removed with his par- ents to Hilltown, where he has since re- sided. He acquired his education at the public schools, and was reared to the life of a farmer, and has never followed any other vocation. At the death of his father he inherited the homestead, and still re- sides thereon. He is a member of Leidy's church, and politically is a Democrat. He married, in 1865, Catharine Ann Nace, daughter of Elias Nace, of an old Penn- sylvania German family, who have been residents of Rockhill and vicinity for many generations.

OLIVER A. FULMER, teller of the Perkasie National Bank, was born in Hay- cock township, Bucks county, October 4, 1862, a descendant of one of the oldest Pennsylvania German families of Upper Bucks. Daniel Fulmer was one of the first settlers in Bedminster and a large landhold- er there. Noah Fulmer, the father of Oliver A., was a farmer in Haycock township. He married Mary Elizabeth Ahlum. daughter of Jacob Ahlum, and they were the parents of seven children, the eldest of whom died in infancy. Those who survive are : Oliver A .; Wilson A., married Della Baltz, and has two children-Roy and Renie; Hannah. wife of Henry Stover; Carrie, the wife of Thomas Brunner; Jacob, married Alice Hartman, and has two children-Horace and Florence; and Jennie, wife of Preston S. Detweiler.

Oliver A. Fulmer was born and reared in Haycock, and received his primary education in the schools of that township. He later took a course in the State Normal School at Kutztown, graduating in 1885. He taught school for fourteen years, making a record of high efficiency as an instructor. He then took a special course at the University of Pennsylvania, and then filled the position of principal of the high school at Fox Chase, Philadelphia county, for one year, after which he returned to his home at Perkasie and was made principal of the Perkasie schools. He organized the high school there and was the principal for seven years. In February, 1901, he was appointed teller of the Perkasie National Bank, and still holds that position. He has always taken an active interest in the cause of edu- cation, and on his retirement from the posi- tion of principal of the high school was

clected a member of the school board. He and his family are members of the Method- ist Episcopal church, and politically he is a Republican. He is affiliated with the fol- lowing lodges: Sellersville Lodge, No. 596, F. and A. M .; Telford Lodge, Knights. of the Golden Eagle; and Perkasie Lodge, No. 246, Knights of Pythias." He married, September, 1885, Bertha Hoffmeister, and they are the parents of seven children : Verda, born February 26, 1890; Earl Leon,. born November 18, 1891, died December 18, 1903; Mildred, born March 7, 1893, died March 8, 1893; Russell and Irma, twins, born May 19, 1895, died the same month ; Hazel Grace, born March 30, 1897; and Dorothy Ethel, born February 16, 1899.

CHARLES F. BEAUMONT, of Dyers- town, Bucks county, is a representative of a family that have been prominent resi- dents of middle Bucks county for many generations. The earlier members of the family were members of the Society of Friends at Buckingham and Wrightstown. Andrew Jackson Beaumont, father of Charles F., was born at Brownsburg, Up- per Makefield township, in the year 1809,. and was reared in Solebury township. In early life he was engaged for some time in selling patent rights on some novel and useful inventions, and in that capacity traveled through nineteen different states. He later settled on a large farm in Sole- bury, near New Hope, which he con- ducted in connection with

a paper mill located on

the samme premises, and also engaged in the burning and sale of lime on an extensive scale, often marketing over 300,000 bushels in a year. He was the original promoter of the Beau- mont Deer Park, which was laid out on his Solebury farm, and was for many years. a popular resort. He died on his tarm m Solebury in 1890. His wife was Anna Maria Stuckert, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Bennet) Stuckert, or Warring- ton, and they were the parents of nine chil- dren, viz .: Horatio Nelson, a prominent surgeon in the United States navy for many years; John Henry, who died young ; Andrew, also deceased; Adelaide, wife of Dr. Huffnagle, of Vineland, New Jersey ; Charles Foulke, the subject of this sketch; George, a farmer in Delaware county, Penn- sylvania; Sarah A., wife of Williard P. Miller, of Arizona; and two who died in infancy.

CHARLES FOULKE BEAUMONT, was born in New Hope, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1851, and acquired his- education at the common schools, the Pen- nington, (New Jersey) Seminary, and the Trenton Business College. He began his personal career as a clerk in the large car- pet house of Arnold, Constable & Co., at Nineteenth and Broadway, New York city, where he was employed for two years. He- then returned to his old Solebury home and operated the paper mill and farm for a few

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

years. In 1883 he removed to the Mill property at Dyerstown, which he has since operated. He has devoted considerable at- tention to the breeding of fancy stock. Of late years his specialty has been the rais- ing of the celebrated Brazilian ducks, of which he raises in a single year from 17,000 to 18,000, for which he finds a ready market. supplying most of the leading cafes in Phila- delphia and Atlantic City.

Mr. Beaumont married Flora A. Snyder, daughter of Jacob B. and Frances Snyder, of Plumsteadville, and to them have been born four children: Mabel Frances, grad- uate of West Chester State Normal School, who is now a teacher in the public schools of the county; Horatio N., a graduate of Brown Preparatory School of Philadelphia, now a student at Lehigh University ; Flor- ence R .; and A. Evelyn. Mr. Beaumont and family are members of the Lutheran church of Doylestown.

GARRET HARLOW LAMPEN, the distinguished educator, author and lecturer on American History, Ethnology, Arch- aeology and kindred subjects, comes of Bucks county ancestry and is a son of the late Michael Lampen.

Simon Lampen, so far as is known to his descendants, was the pioneer ancestor of his family in America. At the time the Colonists were beginning to arm in defense of their liberties in 1775, he was a resi- dent of New Hampshire, and of about the age of twenty-five years. He was descend- ed according to family tradition from one of two brothers who emigrated from An- halt, Prussia, to England, and were granted coats-of-arms by the King of England in 1565 for conspicuous services to the crown. Simon Lampen rendered valuable services to the patriot cause, assisting in the or- ganization of the militia of New Hamp- shire, and participating in a number of battles and skirmishes. In 1778 he re- moved to Haycock township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he spent his remain- ing days. He was survived by two sons, at least-Michael, mentioned later in this narrative, and Nicholas. The latter mar- ried but left no sons. One daughter re- moved to Philadelphia, and the other three, to New Jersey, two of the latter never marrying.

Michael Lampen, son of Simon Lampen, was born in Haycock township, Bucks county, in 1779. As a boy he was a close student, and he became a man of scholarly habits, easily ranking as one of the best edu- cated and most widely read men of his county. He was an unusual Greek and Lat- in scholar, conversing as fluently in these languages as he did in German and Eng- lish. He was also deeply interested in sev- eral of the sciences, and he gave much of his time to literature. His library of much- thumbed books, nearly all of them being along intellectual lines, evidenced a man of high intellectual endowment and deep thought. It was therefore a great surprise

to his neighbors and friends that he chose the humble trade of a weaver as his life work. He intensely patriotic and served for a number of years as an officer in and was prominently identified with the volunteer militia of Bucks county. Mi- chael Lampen married in 1827 Marie Anne Byers, a widow, with one son Joseph. Mrs. Byers had come from Switzerland to Bucks county in 1817 at the age of fourteen years. Michael Lampen died in 1863, his wife hav- ing died two years before. Both are bur- ied at the Brick church, Tinicum, Bucks county. They were survived by three chil- dren: Rebecca, born July 18, 1828, mar- ried Henry Clemens, died May 21, 1882, leaving one son and one daughter, one son having died in infancy; Michael, born 1831, mentioned later in this narrative; John, born March 14, 1834, married Elizabeth Thomas, died June 14, 1895, leaving one son and four daughters, one daughter hav- ing died in infancy.

Michael Lampen, Jr., son of Michael and Marie Anne (.Byers) Lampen, was born in Bucks county, April 10, 1831. In- heriting his father's intellectual abilities and love of study, he worked his way through the lower schools and then through the old Pennsylvania Medical College, at Philadelphia, taking a full three years' course and graduating with high honors, and then taking a post-graduate course of one year at the same institution. The expenses of his college course were paid with money earned by farm labor, teaching in the public schools and in surveying a road across the state of Ohio. He served throughout the civil war as assistant sur- geon in the Union army, being part of the time with the army in South Carolina, but during the greater part of the time being detailed to service in the Satterlee Military Hospital at Philadelphia. At the close of the war he settled in Philadelphia and re- sumed the practice of medicine. He ac- quired an enviable reputation as a special- ist in diseases of the heart and lungs, and became one of the greatest obstetricians of his day. In 1858 he married Rachel Ann Vandegrift, of Newportville, Bucks coun- ty, a member of one of the oldest Dutch families in the country, an account of which is given elsewhere in this work. Dr. Lam- pen died June 18, 1890, and is survived by his widow and five children, four others having died in infancy. Those who sur- vive are: Louis Peale, who is also a dis- tinguished obstetrician, and who married Elizabeth Horbert; Howard Rand, who married Eleanor Thompson Piper, and is a business man of Philadelphia; Minnie Roe, who married Rev. William Allen, Jr., of the Presbyterian church, and has two sons; Garret Harlow, mentioned at length hereinafter, and Maud, who married Joseph Guild Muirheid, a member of one of the old families of New Jersey.

Garret Harlow Lampen, the youngest son of Dr. Michael and Rachel Ann (Van- degrift) Lampen, was born in Philadelphia, January 26, 1867. He received his elemen-

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

tary education at the public schools of his native city, after which he took the Arts course in the Philadelphia High School, and later took a special course at Frank- lin College, Ohio, where he received the degree of Master of Arts. Devoting his attention to educational work he for sev- eral years specialized in American History and Politics, and made extensive original researches in American Ethnology and Archaeology, and is considered an author- ity on these latter subjects. Professor Lampen has always aimed for a high plane of work in his chosen profession. Enter- ing educational work in 1894 he remarked to an associate that he expected to reach a college presidency "in ten years"; he realized that goal in one week less than the time set, being called to the presidency of Bellevue College, Bellevue, Nebraska. He has been honored with several degrees by various educational institutions.

Professor Lampen has a national repu- tation as an educational and historical writer, and he is also the author of a number of poems which have received fa- vorable mention and criticism. He has at- tained his high rank in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties, among them the total loss of sight for a time, and four years under the constant care of an oculist. From the time he left Philadelphia High School he paid his own way as his father had done before him, never receiving any out- .side assistance. In 1895 Professor Lampen, while superintendent of the Indian School at Philadelphia, was sent of a special mis- sion by the United States government to the Chippewa Indian reservation. He served with the Second Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry for four years ( 1894-7, inclusive ), and joined the Nineteenth Regiment in 1898, with the hope that it would take him to the front in the Spanish-American war, the Second Regiment having refused him admission by reason of the condition of his eyes. He volunteered for service in the war against Spain eight times, and he is said to have suggested and planned the trip across Cuba taken by Lieutenant Row- an of the regulars to connect the armies of the United States with the Cuban forces. Professor Lampen has always kept up å lively interest in Bucks county, the birth- place of his parents, and during the great- er part of his life has spent a portion of each year within her borders, and has al- ways considered himself as belonging to the county. Religiously he has always been actively associated with the Presbyterian church. He has never married.

SAMUEL BASSETT, one of the pres- ent board of county commissioners of Bucks county, was born at Prospectville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Jann- ary 24, 1850, and is a son of Samuel T. and Sarah (Daniels) Bassett. Samuel T. Bassett, the father, was born in Phila- delphia, and resided in that city during his

youth, learning the trade of a tailor, which he followed during life. In 1848 he re- moved to Prospectville, and resided there two years, and then removed to Camden, New Jersey, where he lived until his death, in April, 1875. He married Sarah Daniels, a native of Philadelphia, and they were the parents of nine children; Annie, residing in Philadelphia ; William, a painter in Phila- delphia ; Samuel, the subject of this sketch ; Andrew, a machinist in Camden, New Jer- sey ; Hartley, died in infancy : Edward, a prominent merchant and shipper in Cam- den, New Jersey ; Harvey and Frank, who died young ; and Jennie, now living in New York City. Sarah, the mother, died in 1871.

Samuel Bassett was educated in the high school of Camden, New Jersey. He served an apprenticeship of three years at the machinist trade in Camden, and then re- moved to Upper Makefield township, Bucks county, where he has since resided, with the exception of two years during which he was proprietor of a restaurant at Car- versville. Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He has since been engaged in farming in Up- per Makefield, where he has a farm of thirty-seven acres, and for several years has run a commission wagon to Philadel- phia markets. He is also agent for com- mercial fertilizers. In politics he is a Dem- ocrat, and has for several years taken an active part in the councils of his party in the county. He was elected to the office of county commissioner in the fall of 1902. He is a member of Tuscarora Tribe, I. O. R. M., of Lambertville, New Jersey. Mr. Bassett married, January 28, 1875, Lizzie Wesner, born June 9, 1853, daughter of Stephen and Emma (White) Wesner, of Upper Makefield, and they are the parents of two children: Frank, born January 6, 1876: and Howard Eldridge, born January 11, 1879. Mrs. Bassett is an active member of Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church, of Lower Solebury, Bucks county.

STEPHEN B. TWINING, deceased. was born at Dolington, in Upper Make- field township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 19, 1844, and was the oldest son of Charles and Elizabeth (West) Twining. The pioneer ancestor of the Twining family was William Twining, who came from England to Massachusetts about 1640, and in 1643 settled at Yarmouth, removing later to Eastham, Massachusetts, where he died in 1659. He took an active part in the affairs of the Puritan colony, and held many offices of public trust. He married Anne Doane, who died February 27, 1680. They were the parents of two children, William, Jr., and Isabel, who married Francis Baker.

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 88

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