History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 221

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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The members, with the consent of Haverford Monthly Meeting in 1703, continued their worship at the same house that had then come in possession of Hugh Jones, and remained there for several years, after which it was held at the house of John Cartlege for some time. Through the increase of population, it was agreed to build a meeting-house for their better accommodation, which was accordingly done at the present site, which for some time previous had been used as a burying- ground. With the consent of Haverford Monthly Meeting and the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, the Friends of Plymouth and Gwynedd were permitted to hold the first Monthly Meeting for themselves the 22d of Twelfth Month, 1714-15. It cannot be ascertained from the records at what exact time this meeting- house was built, but there is reason to believe that it could not have been long previous to that date. John Rees was appointed, the 25th of Twelfth Month, 1723, to keep the records of the births and burials which had been commenced in 1690. A school was kept from the beginning in connection with the meeting, and was the only one in the township down to the Revolution. Pupils came to it from miles around on horseback, in consequence of which a log stable was built on the premises.

In his visit to America, the celebrated Jolin Fother- gill, an English Friend, preached on two different occasions at this place,-the first time on the 15th of Twelfth Month, 1721, and again the 27th of Tenth Month, 1736. Thomas Chalkley, in a visit here in Fourth Month, 1726, mentions David Meredith as one of the elders, who was then nearly eighty-nine years old, but who died in the following Eleventh Month. A short time before the Revolution the Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia adopted a minute that the "members do not hold negroes in bondage," and "that they shall not buy or sell any slaves." Eight incurred the cen- sure, when a committee was appointed, in 1775, to ascertain the exact number held by the members of the meeting, which was ascertained to be sixteen negroes and one mulatto. Thomas Lancaster, Sr., was among those prevailed on, who emancipated his man, Cato, aged forty-six years, 6th of Sixth Month, 1774.

The Revolution was also a trial to its members, several being disowned for entering the army or

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PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP.

bearing arms, contrary to their precepts. The meeting- house was also used as a hospital for the sick or wounded from the battle of Germantown. In 1827 and the following year a division took place among the members on points of doctrine, and the result was that a portion separated and built not long afterwards a two-story stone meeting-house near by, which is known as the Orthodox congregation, who have retained for their use a portion of the ancient graveyard. The present meeting-house is an ancient stone structure, one story high, situated in the west angle of the intersection of the Germantown and Plymouth turn- pikes. Having been injured by fire, it was repaired in the summer of 1858 and a gallery placed in the east end. The graveyard has but one stone that bears an early inscription, and that is to the memory of Mathew Colly, who died March 3, 1722, aged fifty - five years. As he was not a Friend, that portion of the ground has since been incorporated with the rest, the meeting-house standing on its eastern portion.

ASSESSMENT OF PLYMOUTHI, 1780.

Frederick Dull, assessor, and James Shepherd, collector.

Zebulon Potts, 100 acres, 5 horses, 3 cows, and aged mother to main- tain ; James Robinson, 106 a. ; llenry Grubb, 3 b., 4 c. ; Martin White- man, grist and saw-mill, 64 a., 2 b., 2 c .: Widow Leake's estate, 105 a ; John Davis, shoemaker, 2 h., 4 c. : Jacob Wager, 95 a., 2 h., 2 c .; Wigard Levering, 200 a., 4 h., 8 c., aged ; Michael Wills, 225 a., 6 lı., 4 c., aged ; Barnabas Conlston, 100 a., 1 h., 2 c., aged ; Andrew Lisinger, 2 h., 2 c. ; James Strond, 111 a., 2 b., 4 c. ; Frederick Dull, 120 a., 4 h., 4 c. ; Jacob Peterman, smith, 92 a., 3 h., 3 c. : Christian Steer's estate, 40 a. ; Andrew De Haven, 2 h., 2 c. ; John Ettridge, Sr.'s, estate, 50 8. ; James Shepherd, 100 a., 4 h., 2 c. ; Heary Hence, 2 h., 3 c. ; John Woods, 62 a., 2 b., 3 c. ; James Wood, 96 a., 2 h., 4 c., maintains ao aged mother ; Moses Meredith's estate, 150 a. ; Charles Linensheat, 2 h., 2 c .; Moses Meredith's estate. 250 a. ; John Timberman, 2 h., 1 c. ; David David, 96 a., 2 h., 2 c. ; Nathan Potts, smith, 36 a., 2 h., 3 c. ; Michael Trump's estate, 11 a. ; Jacob Brown, 1 c. ; Elizabeth Meredith, 198 a., 2 b., 2 c., William Ellis, 1 h., 1 c. ; Joba Campbell, 148 a., 2 h., 3 c. ; Jolm Sisler, 126 a., 2 h., 1 c., ; Simon Armstrong, 137 a., 2 1., 2 c. ; Ludwig Sharer, 50 a., 2 h., 2 c. ; John Halmao, 126 a., 4 c., an aged mother to main- tain ; William Ryan, 100 a., 1 b., 2 c. : Samuel Brooke's estate, 186 a., 2 h., 3 c. ; Peter Arnold, shoemaker, 1 b., 1 c. ; John Davis, 166 a., 3 h., 2 c. ; Thomas Whorlon, 1 c. ; William Gregory, 60 a., 1 c., 2 h. ; Alexan- der Loyal, 50 a., 2 h., 2 c., aged ; Saninel Canghlin, inu-keeper, 18 a. ; 2 h., 1 c. ; Sarah Wagstaff's estate, 10 a. ; John Dickinson, shoemaker. 1 h., 1 c .; Rebecca Lloyd, 21 a., 1 c., aged; Philip Lloyd, 2 h., I c .; John Coulston, inn-keeper, 130 s., 3 h., 2c. : Rudolph Bartle, 2 h .. 3 c., Nathaniel Van Winkle, turner, 5 a., 2 c. ; Levi Trump, 3 a. ; Joseph Buttler, innkeeper, 2 h., 2 c .; Israel Dickinson's estate, 47 a. ; Jesse l'ex, 1 h., 2 c. ; Nicholas Knight, 6 a., 2 h., 2 c. ; Joseph Jones, 250 a., 3 h., 3 c. ; Reese Bell, 2 c .; Thomas Davis, 130 a., 4 h., 2 c. ; Merey Davis, 100 a , 2 h., 2 c. ; Archibald McCall's estate, 75 a. ; Daniel O. Neal, inn-keeper 2 h., 1 c. ; Joseph Levering, 70 a., 2 h., 2 c .; John Pringle's estate, 130 a., and grist-mill ; John Whiteman, 5 h., 3 c. ; Alexander Colley, 250 a., 4 h., 6 c. ; Philip Sidney, 1 c. ; Joseph Fitz- water, wheelwright, 44 a., 2 h., 2 c. ; Daniel Deal, inn-keeper, 52 a., ~2 h., 1 c. ; Andrew Crawford, 180 a., 3 h., 4 c. ; Samuel Cowdon, weaver, 2 c. ; John Bayard, merchant, 50 a., 3 b., 4 c., 4 slaves, 1 chariot, 1 chair, plate 130 cz. ; Stephen Potts, 70 a. ; John Yetter, 1 c. ; Jonathan Tom- kins, 1 h., 1 c. Single Men .- Patrick McConnel, Hugh McKnowles, William Samuel, George Wolf, William Tippen, Amos Pharoah, Joseph Levering, Benjamin Levering, John Colton, Michael Wills, Jacob Whiteman, Jobn Whitemaa, Jesse Wager, John Loyal, Andrew Norney, David Jones and Jonathan Colley.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

THE CORSON FAMILY.1

The Corson family trace their descent from the Huguenots who fled from France in 1675 on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which drove nearly all Protestants from that kingdom. The historical fact is that two French ships sailed with families for Charleston, S. C., one of them landing its exiles at the place of destination and the other being either cast away on the shores of Staten Island or making a harbor in distress and discharging its passengers there. Ou this vessel, as we are informed by Weiss, in the appendix to his "History of the Persecution of the French Huguenots, by Louis XIV.," came the Corsons, Kreusons, Lefferts, Larza- leres, Du Bois' and other French families, who, about 1726, pressed their way westward and settled in Northampton township, Bucks Co., Pa., where, to the present day, their descendants are quite numerous. There is documentary proof that Benjamin Corson, of Staten Island, on the 19th of May, 1726, bought two hundred and fifty acres of land half a mile below the present Addesville, Bucks Co., for three hundred and fifty pounds. This was the original home of the family in Bucks County, and remained in its hands until 1823. This Benjamin Corson was the great-grandfather of Joseph Corson, a merchant and farmer, who in 1786 came from Bucks County and located near Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery Co. The latter married llannah, daughter of William Diekinson, whose ancestor, Walter Diekin- son, of the Church of England, received a patent for four hundred and twenty acres of land on the Patapsco River, in Maryland, in 1658. From this ancestor descended William Dickinson, who became a Friend, moved to Pennsylvania and settled at Plymouth Meeting shortly after Penn founded his colony, in 1683. He was the great-grandfather of Hannah Dickinson, who married Joseph Corson, and became the mother of the children mentioned in this sketch. The mother of Joseph Corson was a Dungan, a lineal descendant of Rev. Thomas Dungan, a Bap- tist preacher, who came from Rhode Island and settled at Cold Spring, near Bristol, Bucks Co., in 1684. This minister was the founder of the Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. He had left England to escape the persecutions against his sect, but finding New England no better, came to Pennsylvania to share the religious liberty of the Quakers. In the graveyard of the church to which he ministered he buried the remains of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Revo- lutionary fame. The zeal of the Corson family for liberty of conscience, therefore, is derived from Huguenot, Baptist and Quaker sources, certainly forming a strong pedigree in that direction.

1 For sketches of Drs. Hiram, William and Elwood Corson, see chapter on the Medical Profession.

1034

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ALAN W. CORSON.

"Let the mind be great and glorious, and all other things are despic. able in comparison."-Seneca.

Without doubt, the best-known and most justly celebrated scholar and scientist in Montgomery County was Alan W. Corson (son of Joseph and Han- nah Corson), of Whitemarsh township. We have others whose general scholastic attainments are more classical, but in the higher mathematics- botany, geology, mineralogy, conchology, entomol- ogy and astronomy-he was distinguished in our county.

Born in Whitemarsh township, Second Month 21, 1788, he continued ou the farm of his father and at- tended Friends' school until twelve years of age, when his father having entered the store business and needing his services he entered on his duties there, at which he continued until grown to adult age. That business in the country ofttimes affords much oppor tunity for study ; and, with an ambition to learn, a good memory and great mental capacity, he soon made rapid progress in knowledge. The libraries were visited for volumes of history, science and general literature, and he rapidly took place among the brightest young men of the time. "He possessed such decided math- ematical capacity," says Mr. Auge, "that he was able to master these studies nearly unaided by teachers. By the time he was grown, therefore, he was capable of teaching all the common mathematical branches, as well as the other studies usual in high schools. He was thus early a self-taught scholar and teacher also, a profession to which he devoted himself. For many years, in addition to carrying on a farm of about fifty acres, he taught Friends' school at Plymouthi Meeting, and afterwards for many years a boarding- school in his own home, in Whitemarsh, his reputa- tion as a teacher being so high that he drew many pupils from Norristown and other places.

" About middle life, however, he abandoned teach- ing as a profession, and having a large farm and a nursery of trees and shrubs, he divided his time be- tween these and land-surveying, an art in which he was regarded as the most accomplished in the county. His reputation in that department was so eminent that he was often called to distant places and employed wherever there were difficult lines to run that required extra skill and accuracy to de- termine true boundaries.

"In this calling he was not relieved from service until he was nearly, if not quite, eighty years of age, when he deemed it prudent to decline further labor.

" He was also, during nearly all his adult life, be- cause of accuracy in accounts, excellence of judg- ment and high character for integrity, employed by neighbors and acquaintances to write wills, deeds and agreements for them ; he was frequently, also, ap- pointed executor by testators or chosen adminis- trator by those dying intestate.

Quite early in life Alan W. Corson was married to

Mary, daughter of Lawrence Egbert, of Plymouth, and they had born to them the following children :

J. Hannalı, who married James Richie, and lives in Philadelphia.

II. Sarah, married to Isaac Garretson, of White- marsh.

III. Martha, wife of Isaac Styer, of Plymouth.

IV. Elias H. Corson, whose life and family history appear elsewhere in this volume.

V. Lawrence E., who married Mary, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Johnson, of Norristown.

VI. Josephi, who studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. Hiram, graduated at the University of Pennsyl- vania, and till the breaking out of the Rebellion practiced at Portsmouth, Ohio; was surgeon of an Ohio regiment during the war, and died soon after his return. He was married to Martha Cutler, of that place, and his widow and two sons still reside there.

VII. Luke is a farmer in Nebraska ; has two sons.

Alan W. Corson's eldest daughter, Mrs. Richie, inherited her father's love of natural science, and more than thirty years ago furnished to the Montgom- ery County Cabinet of Natural Science, which her father had been mainly instrumental in forming, a valuable herbarium. She stands high as a botanist, and the vast collection of rare specimens which she has gathered and cultivated, as also her museum of salt and fresh-water shells, have made her justly cele- brated among her acquaintances. She has two daugh- ters living in Philadelphia, -- one the wife of Dr. Jolin Graham, the other married to Mr. George Perkins.

No man could be more careful than Alan Corson to so deport himself as to give no offense, so sensitive and unobtrusive as to refuse to be put forward in places above his friends, or more ready to discover the appearance of neglect and quick to refuse to receive a favor bestowed with a shade of reluctance.

He became a member of the Society of Friends at a very early age, and attended the meetings very reg- ularly. Once, after an attendance at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, he was returning on foot (at that time there was not even a stage), when, as he reached the hill at " Robin Hood " (now Laurel Hill), he saw a neighbor coming behind him in a two-horse carriage, with some of his family in it, but yet a vacant seat. He felt that now he could have a ride home. As they neared he turned and spoke to them, and instinctively held up his hand just as they seemed to be passing. They stopped and took him in. He had scarcely been seated before the conviction seized him that but for the gesture he made they would have passed with- out inviting him in. At once he said he desired to get out. They endeavored to detain him, but he sprang out and afterwards walked home with a very light step. This little incident was most characteristic of the man. Mr. Auge, in his biography, already alluded to, thus sums up his history,-

"A notice of Alan W. Corson would not be complete without further reference to his brothers and sisters,

Man Merson

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PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP.

the other children of Joseph Corson, who left a large family, nearly all of whom were well educated and possessed commanding talents and marked moral characteristics. The author will be pardoned for say- ing that they exhibit marked peculiarities, reminding him of some of the time-honored clans of Scotland. The Corsons will arraign each other, sometimes, sharply, but to the outside world they are a unit. This results from the very commendable and warranted pride of family, or esprit de corps, as the French phrase it. Almost all the race possess a keen, jocular turn of mind, and some of them a talent for mimicry and critical badinage peculiarly French. The author may also add that he has no knowledge of any man of the county from whom are descended so large a number of cultivated and distinguished offspring, both in the male and female branches, as are descended from Joseph Corson.

" With few exceptions, the whole Corson race have been enltivated in mind and are notorious for their love of free thought. True to their Huguenot origin, they have been outspoken for freedom,-the deadly foes of slavery, and most of them life-long teetotalers. As the phrenologists say, the moral instinets have predomi- nated over those strictly religious, Alan W. heing the only one of the male members of the family who assumed the strict garh and life of Friends, although most of them adhere to the society's teachings. Alan W. is justly noted for his doetrinal unity with those who hold the views of Elias Hicks, and for the con- scientious fulfillment of every precept of Christian morals.

" Alan W. Corson's mind received a strong religious bent at a very early age, and his conscientiousness and truthfulness have been controlling characteristics during his long life. Many years ago, with his cousin, John Evans,1 he used to make annual excursions to

1 An incident in the life of Alan W. Corsoo and John Evans may be mentioned here which, though commonplace, doubtless exerted a great influence oo their after-movements. Alan, on returning from a visit to his danghter (present Mrs. Richie), at Westtuwu School, felt that he ought to calloo his cousin, Joho Evans, whose house was but little out of the direct road home. The Corsou and Evans families, though so closely related, had lived iu different counties, and these two cousins had but slight acquaintance with each other. John was a miller and farmer, living in a most romantic place among the hills of Radnor, and kept houods, and among his horses always had one famous for following the dogs as they sped miles and miles away after foxes in winter-time. Fox-hunting was a grand pastime with the Radnor boys and men, io those days when foxes were plenty. Alan reached his home io the evening, and early next moroing was along the creek aod on the hill-side looking for plants. He was delighted with the variety and luxuriaoce of the flora of that horn- blende region, and returned before breakfast bringing with him several plants. John inquired of him what he was going to do with them. Alan then explained to him the botanical systems of Jussieu and Linnaeus, and pulling to pieces the plants he had gathered, showed him how to analyze them. The quick mind of Joho Evans saw before him a new field to ex- plore. The flowering plants, the weedsand briars, the evergreeos and other trees growing around him were seen in a new light : where before there ofttimes seemed to be deformity aod confusion, he then saw the order of nature. From that day the foxes were no longer molested by him ; the hunting-horses and the houods were forgotten, and instead of dashiog at breakneck speed over the hills, he became, with his cousin, ao explorer of nature. Together they often traveled over the same hills on

the lowlands of Delaware, Maryland, the sandy pine- woods of New Jersey, and even to the Adirondacks, for specimens of botany, geology, mineralogy and entomology, and in search of other scientific matters."

He died June 21, 1882, in his ninety-fifth year, and was buried in Friends' burying-ground at Plymouth, where he had been accustomed to attend meeting for nearly ninety years, the last seventy years, almost in- variably, when well, twice a week.

Mary Corson, the second child of Joseph and Han- nah Corson, married Charles Adamson, of this county. They, soon after marriage, moved to Chester County. Their children now living are Hannah, who married the widely-known philanthropist, the faithful anti- slavery and temperance advocate, one of the purest and best of men; they have several children. Mary's second child was Sarah, who, either inheriting or being tanght the woman's rights principles so ar- dently cherished and advocated hy her mother, and yearning for knowledge and work beyond the narrow bounds at that time accorded to woman, commenced the study of medicine, under the instruction of her uncle, Dr. Hiram Corson. At that time (1851) the medical schools of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and other places refused her admission to the lec- tures, as they had refused Elizabeth Blackwell, who finally succeeded in graduating at Geneva, in the State of New York-the first woman physician who obtained the degree of M.D. in the United States. Even the Geneva College had then, through fear of losing students, shut their doors against women; but fortunately a medical college was established at Syra- cuse, N. Y., which expressed a willingness to re- ceive females. Thither she went, and in due time graduated. She then spent one year as an assistant to the physician in the Blockley Hospital, in Philadel- phia; subsequently married Lester C. Dolley, M.D., a former professor in the medical school in which she had gradnated. They both practiced in Rochester, N. Y., until his death very successfully. She still resides there, and enjoys a high place in the profes- sion in that city.

Her only child, Dr. Charles Lester Dolley, occupies in the great Marine Laboratory at Naples the chair of bi- ology accorded the University of Pennsylvania,-the only chair occupied by an American. He is there as the representative of the university. He is yet scarcely twenty-five years of age. Nearly every nation in Europe is represented in this great laboratory, some of them filling from six to twelve chairs, with the most skillful biologists known to the world. It will be no light work to cope with these scientists.

which he had followed the foxes, but it was now to study geology, mineralogy and botaoy. From that time notil his death, nearly forty years, they made their excursions. From his "sand-garden," his " winter-garden " and his green-house, he sent many rare aud valuable plauts to the " Kew Gardens " of Queen Victoria. His home was a center to which lovers of nature delighted to come ; his generosity to them had no bounds. Mrs. Elizabeth Abrams, of Norristowu, and Mrs. Daniel Paxsoo, at the old home in Delaware County, are his only living children

1036

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

The third child of Mary Corson is Thomas, who for nearly twenty years or more has been consul at Rio ! Janeiro, Pernambuco, Sandwich Islands, aud consul- general in Australia, and is at present in Panama. He married Sarah Wright. They have two sons. Charles, the youngest son of Mary Corson, lives at Phoenixville, and is engaged in railroad business.

Though long an invalid, suffering from bronchial disease, Mrs. Adamson had her sitting-room and her bed-chamber always crowded with flowering plants, -- a measure in direct opposition to the prevailing medi- cal opinion of the time ; but the pleasurable enjoy- ment of their presence, and her long life of eighty-five years, and the conviction in the minds of physicians of the present day prove the wisdom of her course. Her love of flowers, and her enjoyment of poetry, that essence of literature, were marked characteristics of her quiet, beautiful life.

Sarah Corson (third of Joseph Corson's children). born -, married Thomas Read. With but a brief interval of two years, they always lived in the county. For many years he kept store at Hickorytown; after" wards owned and managed the mill in Upper Merion, near to Catfish dam.

They had several children,-

Sarah, married to Charles Jones, who resides in Conshohocken. Her son Joseph served through the war.

Hannah, married to George Schultz, whose two sons were both killed in the war of the Rebellion, one at Antietam, the other at Gettysburg.

Mary (married to John Roberts, now deceased), who still resides in Norristown.

Lewis W. Read, M.D., whose history appears else- where.

Joseph, who is a lumber merchant in Florida, and who bore an active part in the late war.

Alan Corson Read, a dentist, who has resided for more than twenty years in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Their mother died of consumption -. To her and her sister (Mary Adamson) were entrusted the care of their brothers (wben William was yet only four years old) when their mother passed from them. For their loving care, their wise counsel and, shall I say, to their daily aspirations for protection from all that brings sorrow, these children have ever been grateful.

George Corson, the fourth of the six sons of Joseph and Hannah (Dickinson) Corson, was born First Month 4, 1803, in Plymouth township. He was an apt scholar, with a remarkable mathematical talent, a branch of learning in which his father had marked ability.

In his brother Alan's school, where were congre- gated some of the brightest boys from different parts of the country, he led them all in that branch of study, while in some other studies some of them sur- passed him. In early manhood he engaged in store- keeping at Plymouth Meeting with Jonathan Manlsby,

and soon after married Martha, daughter of Samuel Maulsby (whose grandfather had come to America with William Penn,) and who then resided at Ply- mouth. Here George Corson continued in business for several years, until the death of his father-in- law, when he purchased the homestead and farm and lime-kilns, and then dropped the mercantile business to engage in farming and manufacturing lime. Here he continued in active and successful business until his death from consumption, November 18, 1880.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 221

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