History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 99

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 99

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Joseph Doyle was born in the village of Bath, Steuben county, New York, June 4, 1805. He received a common school edu- cation in the crude frontier schools of that vicinity, and was reared to the life of a farmer, which vocation he followed in Steu- ben and Allegheny counties, New York, until 1852, when he engaged in the mercan- tile business at Swainville, New York, and became the first postmaster there. He con- tinued in the mercantile and hotel busi- ness the remainder of his life. In Jan- uary, 1866, he removed to Doylestown, Wis- consin, where he died August 29, 1883. He was a member of the Baptist church,

and in politics gave his allegiance to the Republican party, after its formation. He was three times married, first on January 10, 1832, to Hannah Seager, born in Dry- den, Tompkins county, New York, May 7, 1807, died in North Almond, Allegheny county, New York, October 5, 1839. The children of this marriage were: Lemuel Hasting, the subject of this sketch; Mary Maria, born at Mount Washington, Steuben county, New York, June 26, 1835; and William Nelson, born at Mud Creek, Steu- ben county, August 21, 1837. Joseph Doyle married (second) January 24, 1842, at Burns, Allegheny county, New York, Betsy Starr, who died May 14, 1844, leaving an only child, Vine Starr Doyle, born August, 1843, now residing at Doylestown, Wiscon- sin. Joseph Doyle married (third) on Sep- tember 1, 1844, Phebe Penfield, and six chil- dren were born to this union: Charles Ar- nold, born June 24, 1845. at North Al- mond, now living at Pardeeville, Wiscon- sin, who has been for forty years in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company; Joseph Alonzo, born April 4, 1847, now residing at Hunts- ville, Missouri, who has been for nearly for- ty years in the employ of the Wabash Rail- road Company ; Hannah Melissa, born De- cember 14, 1848, at North Almond, Alle- gheny county ; Delia Elvira, born April 14, 1852, at Whitney's Valley, New York; Henry Albert, born March 17, 1854, at Swainsville, New York; and Julia Ellen, born at the same place, November 20, 1855. William Nelson Doyle, the second son, re- sides at Nile, Allegheny county, New York. He served for three years during the civil war as a member of Company K, 136tn Regiment New York Volunteers.

Lemuel Hastings Doyle, born at Mount Washington, New York, November 26, 1832, was educated at the common schools of Allegheny county, New York, supple- mented by a term at the academy at Nun- da, Livingston county, New York. At the age of twenty years he removed to Column- bia county, Wisconsin, near the present site of Doylestown, Wisconsin. In Novem- ber, 1859, he removed to Waterloo, Iowa, but returned to Columbia county, Wiscon- sin, in June, 1865, and purchased 235 acres of land on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, then just completed, and in August of the same year laid out the vil- lage of Doylestown and was appointed the first postmaster there, holding that position for fifteen years. He was also station agent and express agent for seven years, resign- ing and naming his brother, Charles A. Doyle, his successor. He was also super- visor of the town of Otsego, in which the villages of Doylestown, Rio and Otsego were located ; was secretary and director of the Columbia County Agricultural So- ciety for seven years; postmaster of Rio, August, 1889, to August, 1893; member of the village board, village clerk, justice of the peace and police jus- tice. In 1878 he sold his Doylestown real

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estate and purchased 300 acres three miles . Charles Carrol and Mary ( Robinson) Doyle north of Doylestown, 200 of which he still were the parents of the following chil- dren: Margaret McCaffery, died in 1880; Nancy Power, died in 1887; Susan, wife of James C. Elliot, still living; Maria, widow of Seth Wilmot; Sarah, widow of John Dobson; Joseph Alexander, born in 1820, still living; William Bentley, born 1824. died 1891; and Henry Harrison, born September 24, 1840. owns and upon which he still lives, enjoy- ing the pleasures of a life in the country, though doing business in the town, and al- ways keeping in touch with the outside world by telephone and free rural mail de- livery. He first engaged in newspaper work in 1883. as agricultural editor of "The Prohibitionist," at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in March, 1885, became associated wth Henry Harrison Doyle, of Pittsburgh, is a prominent business man of that city, being engaged in the real estate and insurance busi- ness. He married Susanna Evans, born in Pittsburg, daughter of John and Mary Evans, natives of Wales. Mr. Doyle is a veteran of the civil war, having served first in Company G, 28th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and later in Battery C, Independent Penn- sylvania Light Artillery. The children of Henry H. and Susanna (Evans) Doyle are: Mary Emma, wife of Adam Reden- baugh ; Henry Harrison, Jr., M. D., mar- ried Clara Carey ; John, unmarried ; Anna- bel, wife of Henry Clay McEldowney : Jo- seph Alexander, married Gertrude Stolzen- bach; and Marion Robinson, unmarried. the late Judge G. J. Cox, of Portage, WIS- consin, under the firm name of L. H. Doyle & Co., in the publication of "The Portage Advertiser," which they disposed of in less than a year. In September, 1885, he es- tablished "The Columbia County Reporter," at Rio, and published it until May 1, 1895. In 1902 he established a second paper at Rio, known as "The Badger Blade," which he still publishes and in connection there- with conducts a first-class job office, both ventures proving a success, "The Blade" enjoying a large circulation, and his job of- fice is doing an extensive business. In politics Mr. Doyle is a Republican. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for thirty-five years, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since the lodge was organized in Rio, and has served as its representative in the grand lodge of Wisconsin for several years. He has been twice married; first to Amanda Jane Hall, who was born February 23, 1833, at South Dansville, Steuben county, New York, and died at Whitney's Valley, New York, September 16, 1857, to whom he was married December 3, 1856. He married (second) at Fountain Prairie, Wisconsin, September 27, 1858, Mary Jane Edwards, eldest daughter of David and Mary H. Edwards, and a descendant of Reverend Jonathan Edwards, the eminent divine. She was born at West Troy, Walworth conn- ty. Wisconsin, September 5, 1843, and died at Rio, Wisconsin, January 5, 1902. They were the parents of two sons: Edwards Joseph, born November 16, 1863, at Water- loo, Iowa, now residing at No. 298 Van Buren street, Chicago; and Lemuel Hobart, born June 15, 1868, at Doylestown, Wis- consin, and still residing on the farm there.

CHARLES CARROL DOYLE, named for Charles Carrol of Carrolton, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and son of Samuel and Mary (Arbor) Doyle, born in Bath, Steuben county, New York. in 1793, was the grandfather of Mrs Henry Clay McEldowney. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in a New York regiment for the war of 1812-14, and served until its close, participating in the battle of Lundy's Lane in 1814. After the close of the war he married Mary Robinson, then living near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an orphaned granddaughter of Peter Wile, of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, who was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and settled near Pittsburgh, where he died in July, 1866.

EFFINGHAM B. MORRIS, a promi- nent lawyer of Philadelphia, and who has also long held official position with various important transportation and financial corporations, and whose resi- dence is Ardmore. Montgomery county, is a representative of a family which has been conspicuous is the his- tory of the commonwealth from the time of its earliest colonial existence. He was born August 23, 1856, in the city of Philadelphia, in the famous old Morris Mansion on Eighth street, below Walnut, which at intervals of a genera- tion has three times been occupied by four generations of the family at the same time. His father was Israel W. Morris, one of the most accomplished of the early mining engineers in the anthracite region, and who was presi- dent of the Locust Mountain Coal Com- pany and other coal mining corporations connected with the Lehigh Valley Rail- road. His lineal ancestor in the direct line was Anthony Morris, who was a justice of the supreme court under William Penn in 1696, first proprietary of the province of Pennsylvania, and who was the second mayor of the then little city of Philadelphia. Captain Samuel Morris, great-great-grandfather of Effingham B. Morris, was commander of the First City Troop during the revo- tionary war, and was a trusted friend of Washington and of others of the leaders in the scenes attending the in- auguration of the new government. From the day of the first Anthony Mor- ris in 1696 to the present, tlfe men-

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

bers of the Morris family have been men of standing in the state and com- munity.

Mr. Morris received his early educa- tion in the classical school of Dr. J. W. Faires in Philadelphia, and then entered the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1875 at the early age of nineteen years. He then became a student in the law department of the same institution, graduating in 1878, when he was at once admitted to the bar of Philadelphia. He practiced his profession in association with his kins- man, P. Pemberton Morris, LL. D., and during the later years of the life of that eminent lawyer succeeded to his practice. Mr. Morris was early in his career called to important positions requiring industry and tact. He was for some years general attorney for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He served as receiver with Hon. Frederick Fraley, of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and arranged for the settlement of its affairs in the reorganization of the Reading Railroad Company in 1888. He was solicitor for the Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia until 1887, when he was elected to the presidency of that corpora- tion. In 1893 the Pennsylvania Steel Company, with its immense properties, gigantic manufacturing contracts and army of eight thousand operatives, became embarassed, and the Girard Trust Company was appointed its receiver, with Major L. S. Bent. Mr. Morris was called to the chair- manship of the reorganization committee and was primarily instrumental in restor- ing the Pennsylvania Steel Company to ef- ficiency and solvency. For the first year of the period of rehabilitation he was presi- dent, and when the reorganization had been made permanent he remained upon the di- rectorate and is now chairman of the execu- tive committee. He is also chairman of the executive committee of the Cambria Steel Company, also employing about eight thous- and men, and is therefore the chief advis- ory officer of the two largest independent steel companies outside the United States Steel Company in this country. Since his election to the presidency of the Girard Trust Company in 1887 the corporation has prospered beyond comparison with its former self. The company erected its fine office building at Broad and Chestnut streets in 1889, and results have abund- antly vindicated the wisdom of his choice of its site, which was not at the time gen- erally considered available for purposes of such an institution. When he became con- nected with the company its deposits amounted to one million dollars, and dur- ing his administration these have been in- creased to over thirty million dollars, at this date (1905), while the value of its trust estates has expanded to seventy mill- ion dollars, not including many million dollars of corporation mortgages under

which it trustee. Its capital has in- creased from five hundred thousand dol- lars to ten million dollars. Mr. Morris, in addition to his connection with the Girard Trust Company, is a director in the follow- ing named corporations : Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and its allied lines ; Pennsylvania Company ; Philadelphia Sav- ing Fund Society ; Philadelphia National Bank; Franklin National Bank; Fourth Street National Bank; Commercial Trust Company ; Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company; Pennsylvania Steel Company ; Cambria Steel Company, and Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. In his personal capacity he is trustee for many important estates, among others those of William Bingham and Anthony J. Drexel, deceased.

Mr. Morris at one time was a prominent figure in city politics. For two years (in 1880 and 1881) he represented the eighth ward of the city of Philadelphia in the com- mon council, to which he was elected as the candidate of the "committee of one hundred." In 1883 he was elected to the Gas Trust, then the most powerful poli- tical organization in the city, defeating Mr. David H. Lane, one of the "bosses" of Philadelphia. His conduct in the last named body during his four years of service was characterized by entire independence, but through his personal tact he was enabled to accomplish several practical and salutary changes in the methods of that body, at the same time retaining the good will of those who were opposed to him politically. The voucher system of payment of bills and contracts was devised and introduced by him into this department of the city busi- ness and is yet in use. Mr. Morris was a director of the Union League for three years, retiring from that position under the rule which limited length of service to that period. He is also a member of the Phila- dalphia Club, the Rittenhouse Club, the University Club, the Merion Cricket Club, and others. He was a manager for some years of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Wheth- er in business or social circles, Mr. Mor- ris is held in high regard for his ability and equable disposition and absolute fidel- - ity to his friends. He possesses exceptional capacity for work, as well as versatility, making thorough disposition of whatever is in hand at the time, and then at once concentrating all his powers upon what may be next requiring attention. Contact with large concerns and immersion in the rush of modern business have worked no impairment of his heart qualities, and no man is blessed with a greater number of warm personal friends than he. He is a reticent, quiet man and rarely talks of his business. He prefers to do things rath- er than to talk about them. Mr. Morris married in 1879, Miss Ellen Douglass Bur- roughs, daughter of Nelson Burroughs, of Philadelphia. Of this marriage were born three daughters and a son : MIrs. G. Clymer

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

Brooke, Mrs. Stacy B. Lloyd, Caroline M. Morris, and Effingham B. Morris, Jr.

PURDY FAMILY. The founder of the branch of the Purdy family of which this narrative treats was John Purdy, who emigrated from county Antrim, Ireland, about 1740, and settled on a farm on Pennypack creek, Moreland township, Montgomery county, Penn- sylvania. It is a family tradition that his ancestors were French Hugenots, who to escape persecution left their na- tive land and took refuge in the north of Ireland early in the sixteenth century. His education was manifestly far above the average for his day, for he brought with him a library. He was a man of piety and ability, a Covenanter in religion; he was instrumental in get- ting ministers and people of that order to come to America, and he was the first to establish the Covenanters in Penn- sylvania and Maryland. In 1742 he vis- ited Ireland, and on his return to Amer- ica was accompanied by his brother Thomas, who settled in Juniata county, Pennsylvania. John Purdy became a prosperous farmer and a man of influ- ence. In 1752, while attending an elec- tion in Newtown, Bucks county, in cros- sing a street, he was killed by being run over by a horse. He married at the First Presbyterian church, Philadelphia. December 3, 1743, Grace Dunlap, who came from county Antrim, Ireland, with her brother John She survived him, with four children: William, born Janu- ary 13, 1745: Mary, born September 29, 1747, married John Ramsay, May 14, 1765; Martha, born .September 29, 1749, married John Hellens; Elizabeth, born March 31, 1753, married Benjamin Scott.

William (2), only son of John Purdy, obtained a better education than was common at that time. He was bound out to a tailor, and after finishing. his apprenticeship married Mary Roney. Her father, Hercules Roney, was the only child of a surgeon in the army of Queen Anne, who died on the cost of Guinca. Hercules Roney married into the Barnes family. He and his sons John, James, Joseph, Thomas, Robert, Hamilton and William, all served in the revolutionary army

After William Purdy and his wife had made their home in Moreland his mother came to live with theni. She died in 1776, a few days after William had rejoined the Revolutionary army at Amboy, being a member of Captain Hart's Moreland company, at- tached to the fourth battalion of the Philadelphia county militia. The chil- dren of William and Mary (Roncy) Purdy were:

I. John, born April 24, 1767; died in 1808, at Ovid, New York; he married

Mary Wheeler, and they had three chil- dren.

2. William, of whom see forward.

3. Mary, born January 17, 1772, died June, 1821, at Ovid, New York; married Joseph Yerkes, 1793; had eight children.

4. Thomas, born December 13, 1774, died April 3, 1864, at Ovid, New York; married December 31, 1801, Charity Smith ; had four children.

5. Sarah, born October 4, 1777, died June 13, 1850, at Romulus, New York; married in 1801 to John Pinkerton, who died in 1805; married in 1817 to Silas Allen; three children.

6. James, born December 23, 1780, died November 17, 1864, at Plymouth, Michi- gan; married, December 24, 1806, Eliza- beth Hathaway, who died 1840; married (second) Matilda Blauvelt; fourteen children.

7. Elizabeth, born December 23, 1780, died in infancy; a twin with James.

8. Robert, born August 9, 1783, died August 18, 1856, at Northville, Michi- gan; married, December 18, 1810, Han- nah Brockway; nine children.

9. Joseph, born April 17, 1786, died March 3, 1813, at Canandaigua, New York; unmarried; was a soldier in army, in Captain Dox's company, Colonel Christey's (13th) regiment.

In July, 1799, all of the family except the son William removed from Penn- sylvania to Seneca county, New York, which was at that time all but a wilder- ness. All prospered fairly well, and twenty-five years later some of them, in- cluding Robert, went to Michigan, where they again felled forests, tilled the land and aided in the upbuilding of society. James and Robert were active in establishing the Presbyterian church in Ovid, New York, and they aided in founding four churches in Michigan. The father, William Purdy, who re- mained in Ovid, died September 13, 1825, in his eighty-first year, and his wife died September 2, 1823, in her sev- enty-ninth year, and both are buried in the graveyard originally owned by Rob- ert Dunlap, in Seneca county, New York.

William (3), second son of William (2) and Mary (Roney) Purdy, was born in Moreland, Montgomery county, Penn- sylvania, June 4, 1769. He obtained a fair education, and by occupation was a farmer. About 1800 he married Mary, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Fol- well, of Southampton, Bucks county, whither he removed and where l'e passed his life. The Folwells were an old and prominent family whose an- cestors are said to have come out of Normandy with William the Conqueror, Thomas's grandfather Nathan came from England and settled in Burling- ton county, New Jersey, in 1680. Thom- as's father William was born in 1704,

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

married Ann Potts in 1727, and died in 1776. Thomas himself was born in 1737, married in 1764, and died in 1813. During the revolution he was a private in the Moreland company of which his brother John was captain. Thomas Fol- well's wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Arthur Watts, who was a descendant of John Watts, pastor of the Pennypack Baptist church as early as 1699. John Watts was a descendant of the John Watts who was lord mayor of London, 1592-1603.

William Purdy, like all his family, was a Presbyterian, but after he married and settled in Southampton he became a Baptist. In politics he was, like all the Pennsylvania Purdys at that time and since, a Democrat. He was a man of good abilities and excellent charac- ter, one of the most public-spirited men of his time, and stood high in the esteem of his fellows. In 1794, when Washing- ton called for troops to quell the "whiskey insurrection," he was one of the first to volunteer and went to Pitts- burgh, where he remained until the trou- ble was over. In 1805 he was elected captain of the rifle company attached to the Bucks and Montgomery counties Forty-eighth regiment, which position he held for several years. During the second war with Great Britain, after the capture and burning of the capitol at Washington by the British, although beyond the military service age, he was chiefly instrumental in forming a com- pany of independent riflemen. By unanimous vote he was made captain, and he remained in that position for the sake of his men, although solicited to ac- cept command of the regiment. After the war he resumed farming in South- ampton until elected to the state legis- lature, where he continued four years. Shortly after his retirement from his seat in that body the governor appointed him prothonotary of the courts of Bucks county, in which office he continued un- til his death, May 30, 1834. He was buried in the graveyard of the Baptist church at Southampton, and upon his tombstone is the inscription, "An honest man, the noblest work of God." He was survived by his widow, who died June 9, 1846, in the sixty-seventh year of her age. Their children were: I. John, born 1801. died May 29, 1838; he was a wheel- wright, and resided first at Davisville, Bucks county, and then in Philadelphia; he married Amy H., daughter of William and Sarah Shelmire, who was born in 1806 and died in 1878; they had two children.

2. Thomas. (see forward).

3. William Watts, born 1805, died Sep- tember 5. 1827.

4. Elizabeth Anne, born 1809, died May 5, 1832.

5. Joseph Hart, born August 6, 1813, died June 12, 1842. All these, with one

exception, are buried near their parents in Southampton. Joseph is buried in Ewing, New Jersey.

Thomas (4) second son of William (3) and Mary (Folwell) Purdy, was born in 1802 and died October 10, 1844. He was educated in the common schools, and began life as a farmer. Later he engaged in the hotel business, purchas- ing the Green Tree Hotel at Doyles- town, about 1832. He next embarked in the mercantile business at Richboro, Pennsylvania, but soon took up farming again, having purchased about 1836 the old Folwell homestead at Southampton, the house upon which was built by his maternal ancestors in 1719. He was a staunch Democrat, and took an active interest in politics. He was elected sheriff in 1842. Like his father he was prominent in military affairs; in 1828 he- was elected captain of the Liberty Guards, and in 1835 and again in 1842 he was elected colonel of the First Regiment of Bucks County Volunteers. He was a member of the Baptist Church at Southampton, and a trustee for many years. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John S. and Mary (Krusen) Cornell, the former of English and the latter of Dutch origin. She was born March 18, 18II, and died May 29, 1884. Of this marriage were born six children:

I. Mary Jane, born July 7, 1830; un -. married, and residing in Germantown.

2. John Mann, to be further men- tioned below.

3. Elizabeth Ann, born July 7, 1835; married Peter Rittenhouse; four chil- dren; resides in Willow Grove, Penn- sylvania.

4. Matilda, born February 12, 1838; married Charles (brother of Peter) Rit- tenhouse; six children; resides in Ger- mantown.

5. Amanda. born June 8, 1841; married William B. Weiss, of Philadelphia; six children.

6. Katherine Hart, born 1843, died May 8, 1867; married James Lingerman, of Somerton; no issue.

John Mann Purdy (5), only son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Cornell) Purdy, but for whom this particular branch of the Purdy family would have become ex- tinet, was born in Doylestown, Bucks county, January 17, 1833. He was reared in Davisville, in the same county, and attended the common schools of that vicinity, and spent one year in the China Hall Military School in Bristol township. Upon the death of his father in 1844 he went to live with Mercy Warner, of Warminster, same county, with whom he remained until 1849, when he was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade and followed the same at Somerton, Philadelphia county for about ten years. He then began farming on the old Van- sant farm at Somerton, remaining there until 1867, when he bought the Delaware

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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

House at New Hope, and conducted the same until 1873. In that year he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the sheriffalty of Bucks county-the only instance in the history of the county where father and son held the same office. At the expiration of his term in 1876 he engaged in the coal and lumber business at Doylestown. In 1878 he bought the old Cowell House in that place, which he sold five years later, and took pos- session of the Fountain House, where he remained ten years. In 1893 he was appointed by President Cleveland to the postmastership of Doylestown, the county seat. At the expiration of his term in 1897 he took possession of the historic Red Lion Inn in Bensalem, Bucks county, where he remained until May 1, 1904, when he became proprietor of the General Wayne Hotel in Holmes- burg, Philadelphia. Nature endowed him with a genial disposition which fitted him in a remarkable degree for a suc- cessful hotel man, and it can be truth- fully said that he has always kept an or- derly and highly respectable house, against which there has never been a breath of suspicion, and by so doing has gained for himself hosts of friends among all classes of society. Mr. Purdy is a member of the Masonic order, affil- iated with Frankford Lodge, No. 292, and he is a member of the Improved Or- der of Red Men at Doylestown.

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 99

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