History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 213

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 213

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JONAS W. HALLOWELL.

.Jonas W. Hallowell, son of Israel and Mary Hal- lowell, was born at Pennypaek Mills, Abington town- ship, April 10, 1824. His early life was spent at the old log school-house, on his father's farm, and assisting in the merchant mill owned by his father. In 1838 or 1839 he was employed one year in the dry-goods store of Lippincott & Parry, then one of the old I business-houses of Philadelphia. In the latter part

Israel Hallowell

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MORELAND TOWNSHIP.

of 1840 and early part of 1841 he attended the academy of Benjamin Hallowell, of Alexandria, Va., in all about six months. Upon his return from school he entered into copartnership with his brother, W. Jarrett, in the milling business, in the old Pennypack Mill, where he remained till 1860, when he located on the farm now owned and occupied by him, it being a part of his father's landed estate. The farm is pleasantly located along the creek, in Hunt- ingdon Valley, on either side of the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad, the station being on the farm, and Bethayres Station, on the North Pennsylvania and Bound Brook, being but a half-mile distant.

Positions of honor or trust Mr. Hallowell has never sought, yet his neighbors have entrusted him with the honors of school director continuously since 1871, and the directors and stockholders of the Fox Chase and Huntingdon Turnpike Company have imposed upon him the burdens of treasurer of that corporation since 1871. Religiously, Mr. Hallowell is a Friend, not only in name, but in deed, always practicing the golden rule in all his business transactions.

He was married, April 7, 1859, to Esther L., daughter of James and Ann L. Fenton, of Abington township. Their children are Israel, born March 31, 1863; James F., born January 24, 1865 ; John J., Jr., born March 2, 1868.

James Fenton, father of Mrs. Hallowell, was one of eight brothers, all of whom lived to old age, none of them less than seventy-four years, and none over eighty years of age, and James at the age of seventy- eight years. He was for a number of years one of the directors of the Fox Chase Turnpike Company, and was prominently identified with other enterprises of the vicinity in which he lived, and highly respected and loved by all who came in contact with him in a business capacity, and was a member of Abington Monthly Meeting, Society of Friends. He owned the two farms now occupied by his two sons, Ephraim and William, at what is known as Fenton Station, on the Philadelphia and Newtown Railroad.

Mrs. Hallowell's grandfather, Anthony Livsey, was a resident of the locality known as Fox Chase, and owned the farm now owned and occupied by George Bailey.

Israel Hallowell was a native of Abington township and the son of Israel and Mary Hallowell, and was born Second Month 18, 1819, on the old Hallowell homestead, at Pennypack Mills. His earlier years were spent at home on his father's farm and as an assistant in his father's merchant mill, now owned by W. Jarrett Hallowell. His education was derived from the common schools, or, rather, what was known at that time as "pay-school." After arriving at a snitable age he was sent to Benjamin Hallowell's academy at Alexandria, Va. He then entered into

partnership with his brother, W. Jarrett, in the mill- ing business, at the old Pennypack Mills, where he remained till about 1848, when he sold his interest in the mill to his brother, and devoted his entire time to the management and cultivation of the farm in Moreland township (now occupied by his widow, Rebecca, and son, Henry W.) until 1855, when he became afflicted with the loss of his eyesight, which incapacitated him for the labors of the farm. He died Fourth Month 16, 1862, in the forty-third year of his age. While in active life Mr. Hallowell was, in all his dealings with his fellow-men, strictly honor- able, and was highly respected by all who knew him. In him the poor of the community lost a friend on whom they could always rely in their sorest times of need. He was truly a good man, and suffered his affliction with Christian fortitude and patience, with- out a murmur of complaint. He was a birthright member of the Society of Friends. He was married, Fifth Month 19, 1842, to Rebecca, daughter of An- thony and Elizabeth Williams, of Cheltenham town- ship. Rebecca Hallowell was born Third Month 6, 1822, and is still living on the old homestead. They were the parents of two children, Mary Anna and Henry W. Henry W. married, October 11, 1871, Margaret T., daughter of John and Caroline Thomson. He still resides on and manages the homestead farm, upon which he was born.

SIMON V. LEFFERTS.

Simon V. Lefferts, one of the prominent agricultu- ralists of Moreland township, is a descendant of one of the pioneer families who located on what is now Long Island, N. Y., over two centuries ago, as will be seen by the following brief genealogical sketch :

I. Lefferts Pieterson, a native of the village of Haughwort, located one and a half hours north of Hoorne, in the province of North Holland, emigrated to this country in 1660. With him, came a congrega- tion of about two hundred souls, of whom forty were members of the church of the Reformed religion. Lefferts settled in Midwout, or what is now Flatbush, Long Island, N. Y., where he died December 8, 1704. His wife was Abigail, daughter of Auk Jans Van Nuyse. She bore him thirteen children, and died at

Rhawn. Her grandmother's maiden-name was Esther | the advanced age of ninety-five years. Of the chil- dren, six were sons, and seven daughters. The aggre- ISRAEL HALLOWELL. gate age of five of the sons was four hundred and ninety-six years. One of the brothers married at the good old age of one hundred years, and lived six years after, in perfect health.

II. The third child of Lefferts and Abigail was Pieter Lefferts, from whence sprang the Lefferts family of Moreland township. Pieter was born May 18, 1680, in Flatbush, L. I., and died March 13, 1774. Ilis wife was Ida, daughter of Hendrick Suydam, of Flatbush. She died September 25, 1777. Her six sisters were aged, respectively, seventy-nine, seventy- five, seventy-three, sixty-eight, sixty-four and sixty-

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

three. Pieter was an ekler in the Reformed Church in 1752, and probably to the day of his death.

III. The next in direct line to Simon V. was Lef- ! fert Lefferts, the date of whose birth is not on record, but who died probably soon after October 6, 1773, the date of his will. His wife was Antie, daughter of Art Vanderbilt, of Flatbush, a farmer by occupation. In 1738, Leffert Lefferts, in company with others, visited Bucks County, Pa., on a prospecting tour, and in 1739, Leffert purchased a tract of four hundred acres of land in Northampton township, Bucks Co. This was a part of the six hundred and thirty-one acre tract granted by William Penn to Edmund Pen-

V. John Lefferts (father of Simon V.) was born March 14, 1784, and on December 23, 1804, married llelena, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Du Bois. John purchased forty acres of the old homestcad on the County-Line road in Bucks County, formerly owned by his father, to which he subsequently added one hun- dred acres. In 1843, he purchased the Hoagland farm, in Moreland township, Montgomery Co., con- taining one hundred and forty-seven acres, the prop- erty now owned and occupied by his son Simon V.

Mr. Lefferts was prominently identified with all progressive movements in his township, and especially in church matters, in which he was for many years

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nington, father of William Pennington. Leffert was the father of children,-Peter; Ida; Art, Aares or Arthur, baptized December 11, 1742, in Bucks County, Pa .; Leffert, baptized December 25, 1744; Jane, bap- tized October 15, 1752; Abraham, baptized March 17, 1754; Cynthia or Sytie, baptized July 18, 1756; Jaco- bus or James, baptized August 24, 1760.

IV. Abraham, next in line, was born February 17, 1754, and died January 8, 1819. About 1783, he mar- ried Alice Vanarsdale. He owned and occupied a farm of one hundred and fifteen acres, in Southamp- ton township, Bucks Co., Pa. His children were John, Alice, Simon, Abraham, James and Ann.

one of its office-bearers. He organized, and for seve- ral years superintended, the pioneer Sunday-school of this section. The school was for some time conducted in his carriage-house, there being at the time no other convenient or suitable place for its sessions. He was also interested in the political affairs of the country, and when the dark and threatening clouds of dis- loyalty and secession burst forth in all their hellish fury, he had full confidence in the ability of the then new administration to sustain the laws of the country and the perpetuity of the Union, and for some time breasted the storm of opposition around him, and was the first man in his immediate neighborhood to lend

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MORELAND TOWNSHIP.

a helping hand to the Union cause, by loans of money, and in the darkest days of the slave-holders' abortive attempt at the destruction of this beautiful national fabric, his hopes of its salvation seemed brightest.

Hle was a man of wonderful energy and will-power, fearless to all danger, and never seemed to realize that there was such a word as "failure." An instance or two will show more fully his character. When he was but four years of age, his father was building a new barn, and one day, when nearly completed, the family and workmen being at dinner, young Lefferts found his way to the barn, and climbed up the ladder to the peak of the roof, on which he was quietly sit- tiug when discovered by one of the workmen, and removed from his perilous position.

In the winter of 1845, his barn and a portion of his stock was destroyed by fire. Upon the first alarm, without waiting to dress for such an occasion, he has- tened to the rescue of his horses and cattle, and de- spite the earnest entreaties of neighbors and friends, remained in a semi-nude condition in his fruitless effort to rescue his stock, until the frozen flesh fell from his feet, when for three months after, he was unable to walk.

While yet at the age of ninety-five years, he enjoyed good health, labored with his men, and attended to his financial affairs as in years gone by. He was loved and revered in life and mourned in death. Ile lied December 21, 1879, aged ninety-five years, nine months and eight days.

VI. Simon V. Lefferts, son of John of the fifth generation, was born September 28, 1818. He was married, February 16, 1843, to Miss Susanna D., daughter of Abraham and Mary States (sometimes written Staats or Staates). She was born December 23, 1823. In 1844, Mr. Lefferts moved on to the old Hoagland farm, in Moreland township, where he now (1885) resides. He has always been actively engaged in church matters, especially in the church of which he is a member. He organized the Poplar Grove Sunday-school, and for twenty years was its superin- tendent. He has taken an active part in several in- corporated companies, and at one time was president of four companies, and for twenty-five years an offi- cer in the Somerton and Bustleton Turnpike Cou- pany. Politically, he is an enthusiastic Republican, and when the hydra-headed serpent of secession vomited forth its slimy and filthy pretensions to a place among the nations of the earth, his voice, pen and purse championed the cause of the Union, and many of the lyceums throughout this section of coun- try resounded from 1861 to the laying down of the last rebel musket, with his voice for the suppression of one of the greatest curses of the nineteenth cen- tury,-secession. Although an ardent Republican, he is just as strong a temperance man, and has never tasted anything that would intoxicate. He was the first farmer in the township to gather large harvests

without the use of intoxicants. His views on the tobacco question are equally as strong, he having never used it in any form.

In his younger days, he was fond of the sports of the season, among which was that of catching wild pigeons with a net, and it is to his credit that he sprang the net on the last flock of pigeons ever caught in Montgomery County.

VII. Ilis children are John, born May 21, 1844; Mary Ann, born July 8, 1850. John studied law with John Goforth, of Philadelphia, and graduated April 14, 1867, and is now (1885) in practice in Phila- delphia. He is also an elder in the Presbyterian Church, corner of Seventh and Brown Streets. He married Miss Helen C., daughter of Dr. Samuel and Helen C. Rich. Their children are Walter and Helen Lefferts.

Mary Ann was married, December 28, 1876, to Heury L. Search, who was born September 18, 1846. Their children are Susanna L., born February 26, 1878; Theodore C., born October 3, 1884.

Abraham States, the father of Mrs. Simon V. Lef- ferts, was born in 1791, and died in 1854. His wife was Mary, daughter of Joseph and Mary Franklin. Mrs. Lefferts' grandfather was James States, of Bucks County, Pa., who owned a farm of one hundred acres. This farm was in the States family for over one hun- dred years. Jacob Rhodes, her maternal great- grandfather, was a native of Germany, emigrated to America, and located near Somerton.

JOHN LLOYD.

John Lloyd, son of Benjamin Lloyd, was for many years one of the prominent citizens of Moreland town- ship, near what is now the borough of Hatboro'. He was born, and lived all his life upon the farm now occu- pied by John Lloyd, Jr., and died in July, 1877, in the eighty-second year of his age. He was an earnest and persistent friend of education and all its varied interests, and upon the adoption of the present school law by the people, he was made one of the school di- rectors of the township, a position he held for many years. He was a friend of the friendless, kind to the poor, honorable in all his business transactions with his fellow-men, honored and respected while he lived, and his loss severely felt when gone to his eternal rest, to receive the reward awaiting the righteous. His was truly a life of purity and love, and he died as he had lived, firm in the faith of his fathers, as ex- pressed in the doctrines laid down by the Society of Friends, of which he was a member, his name being enrolled on the books of the Horsham Monthly Meet- ing.

His wife was Sidnea, daughter of Joshua Paul. Their children were Lydia Ann, deceased, whose hus- band was Jarrett W. Hallowell; Hannah S., married Joseph W. Hallowell; Ellen, married Charles H. Lu-

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

kens; Joshua P., name changed by Act of State Legislature to Joseph Paul; Sarah C., deceased, whose husband was Israel H. Mather; Emma, deceased, whose husband was Jonathan P. Iredell ; John, mar- ried Anna Williams, and now lives on the old home- stead.

the latter formerly a tilt-mill. A rugged eleva- tion extends across the entire width of the northeast portion, ealled Deep Creek Hill.

The name of this township has been derived from Hanover, a capital and kingdom in Germany, which in 1692 was raised to an electorate and in 1814 to a

John Lloyd

CHAPTER LXV.

NEW HANOVER TOWNSHIP.

THE township of New Hanover is bounded on the northeast by Upper Hanover, south by Limerick, east by Frederick, north and northwest by Douglas and southwest by Pottsgrove. It is six and three- fourths miles long, its greatest breadth three and one- half miles, with an area of twelve thousand nine hun- dred and sixty acres, or twenty and one-quarter square miles, being the fourth in size in the county. The surface is rolling and the soil is tolerably productive, being composed of loam and red shale. Swamp Creek flows nearly through its central part, having several branches, and Deep Creek through its eastern corner. The former propels four grist and three saw-mills, and

kingdom. Many of the early Lutheran settlers were natives of this kingdom, which largely accounts for the name given. Another name also applied to this locality is " Falkner's Swamp," it is supposed after Daniel Falkner, one of the agents or attorneys of the Frankfort Land Company. In the purchase made by George MeCall, in 1735, of the present Donglas town- ship and nearly one half of Pottsgrove, mention is made that it was bounded on the south by " The Ger- mans' Tract of Land," meaning at least all of the present territory of New Hanover. In 1734 we know that Hanover township comprised all of the pres- ent townships of New Hanover, Upper Hanover, Douglas and Pottsgrove and borough of Pottstown. In 1741 it was divided into the first three townships, which then contained together two hundred and forty-

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NEW HANOVER TOWNSHIP.

two taxables and one hundred and thirteen land- holders.

The following is a list of the earliest land-holders : John Benner, 100 acres; Daniel Shaner, 100; Mathias Bender, 100; Frederick Richard, 150; An- drew Kepler, 100; John Eshbaugh, 100; Nicholas Brown, 100; Jacob High, 100; Malachi High, 100; Samuel Musselman, 50; Jacob Bechtal, 200; Mathias Christman, 100; John Linderman, 100; Garret De- wees, 100; Cornelius Dewees, 24; John Lewis, 95; llenry Coulston, 100; John Henry Sprogle, 556; George Custer, 100; Peter Lower, 100; Ludwich Bit- ting, 150; Balsar Hutt, 100; Jacob Wisler, 150; Henry Reader, 150; Robert Thomas, 300; George Roudebush, 150; Frederick Hillegas, 150; Daniel Borleman, 100; Michael Shell, 150; Conrad Culp, 150; Jacob Myer, Jr., 100; Jacob Heistand, 150; Rudolph Mourer, 100; Jacob Fisher, 100; Jacob Mourer, 150; George Geiger, 50; Valentine Geiger, 100 ; Philip Knecht, 50; Adam Harman, 100; Mathias Harman, 100; Adam Spangler, 50; Peter Conrad, 100; Michael Smith, 50; Jacob Switzer, 10; Philip Brant, 100 ; Henry Antes, 150 ; Adam Ox, 140 ; Henry Bitting, 100; Jacob Myor, 100; Simon Kreps, 100; Henry Kreps, 100; Yost Fryer, 100; Barnabas Fut- tero, 100; Jacob Fry, 100; Sebastian Reifsnyder, 100 ; John Snyder, 150; John George, 100; Anthony Hinkle, 100; Henry Acker, 50. Jacob and John Heistand arrived in 1727, and Henry, Philip and Jacob Acker in 1732. Jacob Heistand purchased here, some time before 1733, one hundred and fifty acres, and Henry Acker, fifty acres.

Henry Antes came from Germany to this country prior to 1726, and first settled in Philadelphia, and a few years after removed to New Hanover. He was a very useful and ingenious man, and built the first grist-mill at Bethlehem in 1743, and between 1745 and 1750 had the direction of the public improvements there. He died in this township in 1755. Frederick Antes, his son, was born in 1730. He was an iron- founder, and east the first four-pound guns for the Revolutionary army. He was one of the members elected in the county to frame the new Constitution of Pennsylvania, which was adopted September 28, 1776. It is said a sense of danger from the British induced him to leave New Hanover and to remove to Northumberland. In 1781 he became the presiding judge of that county, and in 1784 a member of As- sembly. He followed the business of gunsmithing, and Dr. Priestly, in his " Memoirs," speaks of the great aid he received from him in making his philosophical instruments. He died at Lancaster September 20, 1801. His daughter Catharine was the second wife of Governor Simon Snyder.

The taxables in 1741 were 87 ; iu 1828, 323 ; in 1858, 442; in 1875, 446 ; in 1884, 471. The population in 1800 was 1595; in 1830, 1344; in 1850, 1635 ; in 1870, 1900; and in 1880, 1905.

The villages in New Hanover are Swamp (the town-

ship seat), Fagleysville, New Hanover Square and Pleasant Run. The village of New Hanover, better known as the Swamp or Swamp Churches, is situated sixteen miles from Norristown, and in 1832, Gordon, in his " Gazetteer," says it contained two churches, a post-office, tannery, two taverns, two stores and eight dwellings. The post-office was established before 1827, under the title of "Swamp Churches," which was changed a few years after to its present name of New Hanover. This is quite an old settlement. Nich- olas Scull mentions here, in 1758, "The Lutheran Dutch" and the "Dutch Church," and "Yelyer's Mill," where is now Christman's grist and saw-mill, a mile northeast of the village.

Fagleysville, on the turnpike, two miles south of New Hanover, appears also to be an ancient settle- ment, Scull mentioning an inu bere, iu 1758, called " The Rose."

The importance attached by the early German set- tlers of attending to the education of their children is shown by the fact that schools, under the support and control of the various religious denominations, were established shortly after this portion of country was settled. As early as 1755 schools at Falkner Schwezny in New Hanover, received by charity from the Fath- ers and Overseers of the Reformed Church in Hol- land, Germany and Switzerland the sum of £35 15s., which was followed by other contributions till 1770. In 1760 there were forty-five boys in the school at New Hanover. The fact that no mention is made of girls being in attendance upon these schools strongly suggests that the custom of educating the boys and not the girls prevailed at this early time. The custom was incident to the laws of primogeniture, which were abrogated in this country in 1682, but the effects were still felt in these old communities.

The present public-school system was accepted by the township about the year 1750. There are eleven schools in the township, including the independent distriets of Swamp and Fagleysville. The former has a term of eight months, giving a salary of forty dollars per month, and the latter a term of seven months, with the same salary. The regular school term is five months, nine teachers being employed, at a salary of thirty dollars per month. The entire absence of fe- male teachers in the township, with but one excep- tion, would appear that the prejudice formerly so marked against the employment of ladies as teachers is not entirely removed.

The New Hanover Lutheran is the oldest German Lutheran congregation in America. Its first pastor was Justus Falkner, who came here in 1703, having been ordained and sent by Andreas Rudman, the Swedish provost at Philadelphia. In 1717, Rev. Ger- hard Henkel settled here and mauy of his descendants are still in this neighborhood. From 1720 to 1723 this church was frequently visited by Rev. Samuel Hesselius, Swedish pastor at Morlatton. In 1732 Rev. John Christian Schulze took this charge, and he in

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

turn was succeeded by Rev. John Caspar Stover. The Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg arrived in Philadelphia from Germany November 25, 1742, and only three days afterward preached here his first sermon in Pennsyl- vania, from 2 Corinthians v. 20. He then found abont one hundred communicants, who worshiped in a log church. At his first arrival in New Hanover, there was considerable opposition to his reception in conse- quence of self-constituted preachers, but the power of his eloquence overcame all and unity prevailed. In 1767 the congregation built a new and spacious stone church, which is still standing. In October, 1761, Mr. Muhlenberg left the congregations of New Han- over and the Trappe, and moved to Philadelphia, but returned in 1776. In his journal of October 7, 1777, he says, -

" I was informed that a number of Americans wounded in the battle last Saturday (October 4, at Germantown) were put in our Lutheran Church, at New Hanover, to be treated by the surgeons. October 9, Dr. Steril came to-day in the rain from New Ilanover, and informs me that the surgeons are cutting off shattered arms and legs of the wounded soldiers there, and that three had died last night of their wounds. Those that could bear transportation were to be taken up to Reading, and the balance of the sick and wounded to be distributed among the neighbor- ing houses."

The present pastor is Rev. L. Groh who lives at Boyertown, Berks County, and officiates at St. John's Church, Boyertown, in connection with the New Hanover Lutheran or "Swamp."

From the best information at hand, the first Re- formed Church in New Hanover was built in 1720. Its first pastor was John Philip Boehm, succeeded by Michael Schlatter, in 1746. From 1784 to 1799, John Philip Leydich, Nicholas Pomp and Frederick Del- lecker officiated, and they, in 1800, were succeeded by Dr. L. Frederick Herman, who died in 1848. This congregation also worshiped at first in a log building which stood till 1790, when they erected a fine brick church, which was remodeled in 1869 and is now one of the finest churches in the vicinity. Its present pastor is the Rev. L. J. Mayer, who came here in 1866. There is connected with both this and the German Lutheran Church large burial-grounds, which are attended to with evident care and kept in excel- lent condition.

The following report will show that the early in- habitants of New Hanover were not unmindful of their duty to the poor :

" March 30, 1741, Bernhart Dotterer and Jacob Freyer settled the ac- counts of Dilman Zeigler and Samuel Yerger, overseers of the poor :

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 213

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