History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 128

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

born April 25, 1768, resided for many years in Philadelphia, and subsequently removed to Potts- town. Another son, John Henry, became the dis- tinguished bishop of the Episcopal Church and the great champion of American Episcopacy. Robert Enoch married Sarah May, daughter of Samuel Potts, and had children,-Nathaniel P., Robert E., John Henry, Anna P., Sarah P., Rebecca, Mary and Eliza- beth,-of whom the only survivor, John Henry, was born March 15, 1810, in Philadelphia. When a child he removed with his father to Pottstown, where he became a pupil of the village school, and later in

which has since been his place of residence. He was, in 1837, married to Mary J., daughter of William Mintzer, of Pottstown, whose death occurred in 1858. To this union were born children,-Robert Enoch (deceased), William Mintzer, David Potts, John Henry (deceased), and two who died in infancy. Gen. Hobart, as a Democrat, cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson. He was appointed in 1847 deputy attorney-general of the county of Montgomery, and in 1853 was elected district attorney, though during his long period of practice his abilities found an attractive field of labor in the Orphans' Court. He has also filled the positions

mob Arbast

Reading pursued his studies under Rev. John Grier. He then entered a military school near Germantown, and at the expiration of the second year was enrolled among the cadets at West Point, from which institu- tion he resigned at the age of twenty-one, and re- moving to Norristown, entered the office of Daniel H. Mulvany as a student of law. Two years later, at the May term of 1836, he was admitted to the bar, and at once began practice in Norristown, where he continued actively employed until 1856, when Potts- town became his home. Gen. Hobart having, in 1877, after a protracted career at the bar, retired from the active labor of the profession, returned to Norristown,

of burgess, member of the Town Council and member of the school board of Norristown. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and connected with Stichter Lodge, No. 254, of Pottstown, in which he has attained the rank of Past Master. Gen. Hobart is identified with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and a mem- ber of Christ Church of that denomination in Potts- town.

HENRY FREEDLEY, the elder, was born February 4, 1815 ; he studied law in the office of John Freedley, and was admitted to the bar on the 16th day of August, 1836. He began the practice of the law in connection with John Freedley, and on his retirement succeeded to

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THE BENCH AND BAR.

his practice. In 1853, owing to ill health, he retired from practice. Although Mr. Freedley was in active prac- tice but a short period, he rose to deserved prominence at the bar, and enjoyed a large practice at the date of his retirement. Ile was at the time counsel for the Philadelphia and Norristown Railroad Company and also for the company who developed and operated the Ecton copper-mines, on the Perkiomen.

elerk of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and resigned the office April 19, 1875. During his term of office he continued to reside in Norristown, where he has since remained in active practice until the present time. Mr. Fox is remarkably self-possessed, scholarly and courteous in his address, and deservedly enjoys the reputation of being one of the best equity lawyers in the State.

GILBERT RODMAN FOX, now the senior member of the Montgomery bar in active practice, was born at JAMES BOYD in 1836 removed to Montgomery Doylestown, Bucks Co., Pa., March 27, 1817. His ' County, and in August, 1838, began the study of law

James Boydy

father was John Fox, for some years president judge of the Seventh Judicial District. His mother was Mar- gery Rodman, daughter of Gilbert Rodman, of Edington, Bueks Co. He graduated at Princeton College in June, 1835 ; received his diploma as Master of Arts in 1837 ; admitted to the bar of Bucks County in September, 1838 ; removed to Norristown and was admitted in Montgomery County November 19th of the same year. In 1839 he was appointed by the attorney-general, Ovid F. Johnson, deputy for the county of Montgomery, and continued in that office about six years. In January, 1860, he was appointed

with Daniel H. Mulvany, and was admitted to the bar in August, 1842. Mr. Boyd's legal attainments speed- ily enabled him to establish a successful general prac- tice, and caused him to be retained in leading eases in all the courts of the county. He has seldom per- mitted any outside issues to divert him from the labors of his profession, in which he is still actively engaged. He was, in 1846, married to Miss Sarah, i daughter of the late Samuel Jamison, an extensive manufacturer of Norristown. Their children are Robert, who died at the age of five years; Wallace J., who was elected to the Legislature in No-

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

vember, 1881, and died the following month; and ' defenders. Since the close of the war he has not taken

Howard.

The death of Mrs. Boyd occurred in September, 1876. Mr. Boyd is identified, either professionally or in an official capacity, with many corporations. He has been since 1856 counsel for the Reading Railroad, is president of the Stony Creek and Philadelphia Rail- road, and fills the same position in connection with the Perkiomen Railroad and the Newtown and New York Railroad. He is also president of the Norristown Water Company, the Norristown Bridge Company, the Norristown Gas Company and the Montgomery Cemetery Company, and otherwise connected with bank and trust companies. Mr. Boyd was early a Whig in his political predilections, and continued until 1856 to affiliate with that party. The anti-slavery issue of the period caused him to cast his vote with the Democracy. He was elected a member of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1873, and participated ac- tively in its proceedings. He also filled the office of burgess of Norristown during the years of 1844 and 1845, but aside from this has devoted his time exclusively to his profession.

BENJAMIN E. CHAIN, now one of the senior and leading members of the bar of Montgomery County, was a son of John Chain, and was born at Norristown on the 15th of October, 1823. His education was commenced in the public schools of his native town, continued through a course of study in the Norris- town Academy, of which Eliphalet Roberts was then the principal, and afterwards pursued at the seminary of Messrs. Hugh and Samuel Hamill, at Lawrenceville, N. J., where he was prepared for a col- legiate course. In 1839 he entered Jefferson College, at Canonsburg, Washington County, Pa., where he graduated in the year 1842. He then returned to his native county, and commenced the study of law under the preceptorship of G. Rodman Fox, of Norristown. Abont the end of the year 1843 he removed to Easton, Pa., and there continned his law studies in the office of Hon. James M. Porter until the fall of 1844. In November of that year he was admitted to the bar; on the 22d of the same month he was enrolled as a practitioner in the courts of Montgomery County, and immediately afterwards located at Norristown, where he has remained, actively and prominently engaged in the practice of his profession, to the present time.

In 1850, Mr. Chain was elected district attorney, being the first who held that office by election. Prior to the secession of the Southern States, and the com- mencement by them of armed resistance to the laws, he had been a prominent member of the Democratic party. During the great civil war of 1861-65 he was unway- ering in his support of the government in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion, and in the campaign of Gettys- burg, when the Confederate army under General Lee was marching to the invasion of Pennsylvania, he volunteered for service in the ranks of his country's

any prominent part in politics. He is one of the most public spirited men of Montgomery County, and has contributed much to the advancement and prosperity of his native town. He was one of the corporators of the gas company of Norristown, and its president for a number of years. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Norristown, and has been a director in that institution from its establishment to the present time. He is now, and has been for sev- eral years, senior warden of St. John's Episcopal Church at Norristown.

HENRY A. STEVENS, son of John Stevens, was born in 1827 at Pittsburgh, Pa., where his father was then temporarily residing while acting on a government commission appointed for surveying the channel of the Ohio River. The son, Henry A., commenced a preparatory course of study at a very early age, and afterwards entered Rutgers College, where he com- pleted his education. He then studied law in Phila- delphia, where he was duly admitted to the bar and commenced practice. In October, 1848, he was ad- mitted to practice in the Montgomery County conrts, where he then had occasion to act as counsel for some of his Philadelphia clients. Under the admin- istration of President Pierce (while he was yet a resident of Philadelphia) he was offered the appoint- ment of chargé d'affaires at Caracas, Venezuela, upon the strong and flattering recommendation of some of the most prominent public men of Pennsylvania. He, however, declined the appointment, believing that his health would not withstand the severe ordeal of the South American climate. In 1857 he relin- quished practice in Philadelphia and removed to Whitemarsh township, Montgomery Co., whence, in 1868, he removed to Norristown, and has remained there in practice until the present time. In Phila- delphia Mr. Stevens was for about six years solicitor for the Emigrant Association of that city. He was also one of the original members of the Glenwood Ceme- tery Association, and for a long time its solicitor, being succeeded in that position by Hon. William D. Baker.

GEORGE W. ROGERS .- William Charles Rogers, the grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch, and the son of David Rogers, M.D., of Con- nectient, and his wife, Susan Tenant, was born in the latter State in 1776. He removed, when a young man, to Philadelphia, and there married, in 1796, Mary, daughter of Jacob Hiltzheimer, to whom were born nine children. Mr. Rogers ultimately settled in Warrington, Bucks Co., Pa., as a farmer. He served in the war of 1812 as brigade major, and was for many years a justice of the peace. David Rogers, the third son of William C. and Mary Rogers, was born in Bucks County, Pa., November 5, 1800, and in 1828 married Cynthia Watson, danghter of Benjamin and Hannah Mckinstry Watson, the former of whom achieved a brilliant record in the war of the Revolu-

Geor og e 2 1.

THE BENCH AND BAR.

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tion. The children of David and Cynthia Rogers were George W., William C. and Mary H. The eldest of these, George W., was born June 15, 1829, in Warrington township, Bucks Co., and in 1830 removed with his father to Montgomery County. IIe received instruction at a private school in his na- tive county, and subsequently engaged in teaching. He determined to follow a professional career, and choosing that of the law, in January, 1852, entered the office of Joseph Fornance, of Norristown, whose death occurred in November of the same year, when

sentenced to be hung, and the sentence afterwards: commuted. Mr. Rogers was, as a Democrat, formerly active in the field of politics, and on the year of his ad- mission to the bar was elected burgess of the borough. In 1856 he was made district attorney for the term. of three years. His religious associations are with the First Presbyterian Church of Norristown, of which he is a member and one of the board of trus- tees. He has also been for many years superinten- dent of its Sabbath-school. Mr. Rogers is an active Mason and member of Charity Lodge, No. 190, as

Chatlitter

he became a student of Hon. David Krause. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1854, and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profes- sion in Norristown. Mr. Rogers was married, on the 1st of July, 1858, to Cara C., only daughter of Jesse and Mary Bean, of Norristown. Their children are Cara, David Ogden, Austin (deceased), and Jesse B., of whom David Ogden was admitted to the bar in 1883. and is now engaged in practice with his father. The legal attainments of Mr. Rogers early secured for him an extensive clientage, his most signal success having been won in the defense of Blasius Pistorius, who was, on the conclusion of his trial for murder,

also of the Hutchinson Commandery, of Norris- town.

CHARLES T. MILLER .- Isaac II. Miller, father of Charles T. Miller, resided in Norristown where he was a carriage manufacturer. He married Eliza Rambo, and had children,-Catherine, Charles T. and Jane. Charles T. was born January 22, 1832, in Norristown, the scene of his youthful experiences and later of his business career. His first educational advantages were obtained at the public school, after which he became a pupil of the Treemount Seminary, of which Rev. Samuel Aaron was principal. At the age of nineteen he entered the junior class of 1851

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at Brown University, from which he graduated in 1853. Choosing the law as a profession, he be- gan its study in the office of B. Markley Boyer, of Norristown, and was admitted to the bar on the 22d of August, 1855. Mr. Miller began his profes- sional career in his native town, and has since con- tinued a successful practice of a general character. Mr. Miller was married to Lydia, eklest daughter of John R. and Elizabeth W. Supplee, of Lower Merion township, Montgomery Co. A Republican in poli- ties, he has been devoted to his profession and found little leisure for participation in the political issues of the day. He was, however, elected and served a term as burgess of the borough of Norristown. He is secretary of the Norristown Gas Company and one of the directors of the Norristown Water Com- pany. His religious belief is in harmony with the creed of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

GEORGE N. CORSON was born March 11, 1833, on his father's farm, at the mouth of the Skippack, on the Perkiomen, in Lower Providence township, Montgomery Co. He was reared on the farm. His education was almost entirely self-attained, his scholastic life being exceedingly brief. A few weeks of one winter were spent under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Aaron, at Treemount Seminary, Norris- town, and subsequently he attended Freeland Semi- nary, in Upper Providence, then in the charge of A. Hunsicker and J. W. Sunderland. His other schooling was obtained at the Level School, a mile from his home. From 1850 to 1853 he taught school at various places in the county. December 5, 1853, he commenced the study of law with Hon. James Boyd at Norristown. August 21, 1856, he was ad- mitted to the bar. His committee of examination consisted of the late Judge Krause, the present Judge Boyer, Thomas P. Potts, Esq., and the then presiding judge, Hon. D. M. Smyser. September 29, 1859, he was married to Maria, daughter of Alfred Hurst, Esq., of Norristown. Until April 1, 1872, he occupied the old law-office formerly used by Hon. John B. Sterigere. April 20, 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier under the very first call made by President Lincoln for troops to subdue the Rebellion. At the expiration of his term of service he returned to his law practice in Norristown. He was always a Re- publican, taking an active part for Fremont in 1856, and for Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield and Blaine, respectively. In 1869 he was the Republican candi- date of Bucks and Montgomery Counties for addi- tional law judge. In 1862 he was appointed notary public by Governor Curtin. At that time there were but two notaries in Norristown. In 1867 he was ap- pointed by Chief Justice Chase register in bank- ruptcy for Montgomery and Lehigh Counties. In that position he adjudged millions of dollars of property, and his decisions as register were in no case reversed. In 1872 he was elected a delegate to the State Consti- tutional Convention, in which body he took prominent

part in debates on many important subjects, notably those of trial by jury and the election of judges.

CHARLES HUNSK'KER. - Mr. Hunsicker's ances- tors first settled on the Perkiomen, in Montgomery County. His grandfather, John Hunsicker, was an extensive land-owner and farmer in Upper Provi- dence township, as also a Mennonite preacher. His children were Joseph, Henry D., Garret and three daughters. Joseph was born May 29, 1798; was a native of Montgomery County, where he pursued his business career both as a farmer and a lumber mer- chant. He married Elizabeth Meyer, of the same county, whose children were John M., Samuel, Joseph W., Anna E. (Mrs. J. A. Henkels), Davis and Charles. Mr. Hunsieker enjoyed the advantages of a thorough English education, and by his intelligence obtained a position of commanding influence in the county, which he represented for a term as associate judge. His death occurred December 1, 1870. His son Charles was born in Upper Providence township on the 26th of October, 1835, and at the age of four- teen became a pupil of Washington Hall, at the Trappe, and later of the Freeland Seminary. Before attaining his sixteenth year he entered the sophomore class of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and grad- uated at the age of nineteen. Choosing the law as a profession, he entered the office of Hon. James Boyd, of Norristown, and was admitted to practice in August, 1857. Choosing Norristown as an advan- tageous field of labor, he rapidly rose to a leading position at the bar, his ability and legal acumen se- curing a successful and lucrative practice, which, from preference rather than any other circumstance, is principally confined within the limits of the county. Mr. Hunsicker was married, on the 13th of June, 1865, to Miss Maggie, daughter of General William Schall, of Norristown, to whom were born two sons-Edwin S., now a student in Union College, and James R., who is pursuing a preparatory course at the Hill School, at Pottstown. Mr. Hunsicker entered the service during the war of the Rebellion as adjutant of the Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served on two occasions with the rank of lieutenant in addition to the emergency period. He was, as a Democrat, in 1865, elected district attorney of the county of Mont- gomery for a term of three years, and chosen as delegate to the Constitutional Convention at Philadel- phia iu 1873, taking a prominent part in the pro- ceedings of that memorable body. He introduced a section providing for the review of criminal trials by the Supreme Court of the State, which, although de- feated in the convention, was subsequently made a law by the Legislature. He is one of the trustees of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and has been honored with various other official positions. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conven- tion held at Chicago in 1884, which nominated Grover Cleveland for the Presidency. Mr. Hunsicker's

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religious affiliations are with the Reformed Church of Norristown, of which he is a member and was a for- mer trustee.

HENRY K. WEAND, who has been in practice in Norristown for almost a quarter of a century, is a native of Montgomery County, born at Pottstown March 29, 1838. He received his education at the public schools of this county and Philadelphia, and at the Hill Seminary at Pottstown. He read law under the preceptorship of the Hon. B. M. Boyer, and was admitted to practice in April, 1860. During his residence and practice at Norristown he held the position of borough solicitor for a number of years, and of solicitor for the county two years. He is now solicitor for the sheriff of Montgomery County, and president of the school board of the Norristown District. He was counsel for the heirs who disputed the will of Letitia McClenachan, and succeeded in having it set aside. He was also attorney for the contestants in the argument before the Legislature, in 1872, of the contestel election for judge of the Seventh Judicial District of Pennsylvania. During the war of the Rebellion he twice enlisted as a soldier, and served in the army until the close of the confliet. Afterwards he was appointed and served as judge advocate-general on the staff of Governor Hartranft, with the rank of brigadier-general.

FRANKLIN MARCH, now an attorney of nearly twenty-five years' practice in the courts of Mont- gomery County, was born at Lawrenceville, Chester Co., July 14, 1837. He was educated at Wash- ington Hall, at Freeland Seminary (now Ursinus College), at Pughtown Academy under Professor Phillips, and at Millersville Normal School, gradu- ating from the latter in 1857. He was then em- ployed in teaching and in the office of the collector of the Schuylkill Navigation Company until 1859, when he commenced the study of law at the State and National Law School, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he remained one year, and finished his course of study in the office of A. B. Longaker, at Norris- town. In August, 1860, he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Norristown. He was elected burgess of the borough in 1862. Having an interest in the Limerick Iron Foundry, at Lawrence- ville, Chester Co., he removed in 1867 to that place, which has since been his residence, though still practicing continuously at Norristown until the present time.

JACOB R. HUNSICKER was born in Lower Salford . township, Montgomery Co., April 18, 1836. His youth was passed on a farm in the township of Upper Providence. He was educated at Freeland Seminary, Collegeville, and at Washington HIall, in the village of the Trappe. For a period of about five years after reaching the age of seventeen he taught school at Greenville and various other places in Montgomery County, and also at Roxborough, in Philadelphia. In April, 1858, he commencel the study of law with

Charles Hunsicker, Esq., and was admitted to the bar in May, 1861, locating in the business of his pro- fession at Norristown, where he is now in practice. He has always taken an active interest in the im- provement of Norristown and has been instrumental in the organization of three building associations, as also of the Western Market Company, the Norris City Cemetery Association and the First National Bank of Conshohocken.

GEORGE W. BUSH is a native of Bridgeport, Mont- gomery Co., born June 11, 1840. In his youth he was a student at Treemount Seminary (then under charge of the Rev. Samuel Aaron), where he remained until 1858. He then commenced reading law in the office of John R. Breitenbach, at Norristown, where he continued two years, and afterwards studied in the office of Daniel Dougherty, in Philadelphia, until his admission to the bar of that county, in June, 1861. In the following August he was admitted in Montgomery County. The great civil war had commenced in that year, and he entered the military service : first in the Fourth (three months') Pennsylvania Regiment, and afterwards in the Anderson Troop, under the command of Captain William J. Palmer, serving under General Buell at headquarters Army of the Cumberland until he received an injury which temporarily disabled him for duty. Later he served in the quartermaster's department at Washington, D. C., and at Nashville, Tenn. In 1866 he located at Norristown in the prac- tice of his profession. In that and the following year he was solicitor for the borough of Norristown, and he held the office of district attorney for the term succeeding his election to that position in 1868.

HENRY B. DICKINSON, now a lawyer of more than twenty years' practice in Norristown, was a law stu- dent in the office of G. Rodman Fox, Esq., and was admitted to practice in Montgomery County in Novem- ber, 1863, soon after which time he commeneed busi- ness as an attorney at the county-seat. Mr. Dickin- sou is a native of Whitemarsh township, born April 14, 1836. He was educated at Treemount Seminary, Norristown, under charge of the Rev. Samuel Aaron, and afterwards taught school in Gwynedd and Spring- field townships until the commencement of his law study, in 1861, On the 1st of July 1863, he enlisted in a military company under command of Captain B. M. Boyer (now president judge), which was a part of the emergency troops, called out to repel the inva- sion of the Confederate army then marching to the field of Gettysburg. This military service continued thirty-six days, when the emergency was past and the troops disbanded. Immediately after his admis- sion to the bar Mr. Diekinson commeneed the busi- ness of his profession at Norristown, where he has remained in practice continuously to the present time. In the year 1880-81 he was solicitor for the board of commissioners of Montgomery County. One of the most important eivil eases in his practice was that of A. S. Achtl' vs. Oliver Wampole upon a parole con-

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 128

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534