USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume II > Part 60
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(II) Mrs. Appleton's descent is traced from Peter and Judith Trego, her French ancestors, through their eldest son, Jacob Trego, who was born in now Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He married, in 1710, Mary, daughter of Edmund and Mary Cartledge, of Darby, Chester county, Pennsylvania,
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and settled in Merion, but in 1717 moved to Darby, where he died in 1720. His widow was a young woman who married (second) John Laycock, of Wrightstown, Bucks county, who came from England in 1717 and bought land near Wrightstown.
(III) John Trego, only son of Jacob and Mary (Cartledge) Trego, was born in Merion, Chester county, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1715, and came with his mother and stepfather to Wrightstown in 1722. There he grew to man- hood, and in 1736, upon his coming of age, his brother and stepfather deeded him one hundred and forty acres in Upper Wakefield township, a part of which remained the property of his descendants until the present generation. This farm was near the Wrightstown line, and there John Trego lived until his death in 1791. He married Hannah Lester, of Richland, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a descendant of Peter Lester, one of the first settlers in that section of Bucks county known as the Great Swamp. John and Hannah (Lester) Trego were the parents of: Jacob, who died at the Wrightstown homestead ; Sarah, married Joseph Wiggins, of Wrightstown, and moved to Hartford county, Maryland, in 1771; Joyce, died young; Rachel, married a Mr. Skelton; Mary, married Meshach Michener, of Plumstead; Hannah, married David Stockdale, and moved to Hartford county, Maryland; and William, through whom Mrs. Appleton traces her descent.
(IV) William Trego, youngest child of John and Hannah (Lester) Trego, was born at the homestead in Upper Wakefield township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1744, there passed his entire life, and died in 1827. He remained his father's assistant until his marriage, September 19, 1768, when his father deeded him about sixty acres of the homtsead, the remaining eighty acres reverting to him and his six sons after the death of his brother Jacob, in accordance with his father's will, probated in 1701. William Trego married Rebecca Hibbs, and they were the parents of eleven children : Thomas, married Sarah Duffield, and moved to Harford county, Maryland, in 1812, there dying August 7, 1837; Mahlon, of further mention; Joseph, born November 10, 1772; William, married Rachel Tavlor, and died July 14, 1850; John, born February 20, 1776, died October 16, 1832; Mary, died young ; Jacob, married Letitia Smith, lived in Wrightstown until 1846, then moved to the State of Illinois, there dying October 3, 1870; Jesse, died in infancy ; Hannah, married Isaac Beans, and settled in Harford county, Maryland, in 1812; Rebecca, married (first) John Beans, (second) Thomas Briggs; Mae, married her cousin, Mahlon Hibbs West, of Harford county, Maryland, their mothers being sisters.
(V) Mahlon Trego, second son of William and Rebecca (Hibbs) Trego, was born at the homestead in Upper Wakefield, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1770, and died March 22, 1849. He inherited a share of the homestead, and was a farmer all his life. He married Rachel Briggs, daugh- ter of Joseph and Elizabeth Briggs, and they were the parents of thirteen children : Charles B., a distinguished scholar, State geologist, surveyor and professor of the University of Pennsylvania, who died November 10, 1874; Albert, died young ; Phineas, died May 2, 1875; Elizabeth, married John Mer- rick ; Louis, of further mention ; Robert S., died March 29, 1886: Mary, died in Illinois, unmarried ; James, removed to Illinois in 1858; Joseph, moved to Illinois in 1839, a young man of twenty ; Cyrus, died December 11, 1866, aged fifty years; Edward, died December 12, 1886, aged seventy-four years ; Mah- lon, died in 1839, unmarried; Morris, died October 14, 1843, aged twenty- four years.
(VI) Louis Trego, fifth child of Mahlon and Rachel (Briggs) Trego, was born November 1, 1801, died at Newtown, Bucks county, a cabinetmaker. He married Susan Willard, of an old Bucks county family, who survived him. Later she joined her son in Peoria, Illinois, and there lived to the great age of ninety-three years. They were the parents of seven children: George
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W., of further mention ; Albert, Harrison, Caroline, Mary Ann and Harvey. (VII) George W. Trego, eldest son of Louis and Susan (Willard) Trego, was born at Newtown, Pennsylvania, died December, 1868, at his farm, about four miles north of Newtown. He learned the wheelwright's trade, and fol- lowed that occupation for many years, but finally bought a farm four miles from Newtown which he sold, then reinvested in a similar property at Mechanicsville, which later he disposed of that he might purchase an old Trego farm upon which stood a log cabin built by an ancestor. There he ended his days. This farm of two hundred acres was the girlhood home of his daughter, George Emma Trego, now the widow of Charles L. Appleton. George W. Trego was a gallant soldier of the Union who bore to the grave the marks of hard service which he saw. He served with a Pennsylvania regiment, and was in many of the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac, and at Antietam was wounded in the arms, and at Gettysburg was shot in the leg.
George W. Trego married Eliza Ann Neald, who survived him and mar- ried (second) John C. Goodnoe, and settled in Claytown. Later they moved to a farm in Newtown, and still later the wife bought a home in Pennsville, and also resided in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, finally locating near Newtown, where she died in January, 1899. George W. and Eliza Ann (Neald) Trego were the parents of five children : Anne Belle, married Matthias Harvey, and resides at Halstead, Kansas; Caroline, married Frank Buckman, of Utica, Kansas; Wilbert H., married Mary Ann Buckman, and resides north of New- town, Pennsylvania; Louis, married Caroline Shaffer, and died near the old home in Bucks county; George Emma, widow of Charles L. Appleton, of Easton.
Mrs. Appleton is an active member of Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, and helpful in all branches of church work. For some years she has been president of the church Missionary Society, and for ten years has been treasurer of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She is a teacher in the Sunday school, having a class of twenty-three girls. For fifteen years she has served the church as steward of the poor. She is deeply interested in temperance work, and in addition to her duties as president of the Union, she is treasurer of the Evangelistic Committee of the city and county, and has charge of the Women's Prayer Meetings. She is highly esteemed and greatly beloved by her associates in church and temperance work, and is giv- ing her most carnest efforts to the good causes with which she is connected.
SAMUEL MOON-Samuel Moon, one of the most prominent artists of Pennsylvania, and whose beautiful pictures and portrait paintings now deco- rate the homes of many Easton citizens, was born in Downingtown, Penn- sylvania, February 22, 1805, son of Samuel and Hannah Moon. When still a small boy, his taste for the fine arts, drawing and painting, was manifested in a very remarkable degree. It seemed to be the ruling passion of his life- fishing along the green banks of the historic Brandywine, he would forget the object of his visit, and the line might float away with some lively "shiner" fastened to its end, making desperate efforts to release itself from the fatal hook, while his whole mind and heart was absorbed in drawing some picture in the sand with a twig or a stone. The little fisher boy was then already a painter in embryo.
Full of poetic imagination, loving the beautiful in nature, much of his leisure time was employed in rambling among the hills and along the mur- muring streams of his native place, drinking in the beauties of color and form which only the eve of genius will observe in the natural scenery around us. The dreamy woods with its variety of trees covered with hoar frost, or smooth-barked like the unbearded face of youth ; the moss-clad rocks sleeping for centuries in their unchanging beds, covered with the climbing clematis
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or wrapped in ferns, with the mountain daisies growing around them; the silvery streams fringed with their green willows and maple; the towering hills kissing the golden sunlight; the broad fields clad in the royal robes of green and gold ; all these were objects of ecstatic delight, as well as deep study to the boy. How deep a hold this passion for sketching and painting had on his mind may be inferred from one little incident. When still a boy, he was a regular attendant at the meetings of the Friends or Quakers. Those who have attended any of these religious gatherings will know how tiresome and dull they must seem to an active child full of buoyancy and life, used to continual exercise and motion on the playground or elsewhere. The long, unbroken silence, the unmovable forms sitting in their high box-like pews, waiting for the stirrings or the wooings of the spirit. This is said with all reverence, for we love and revere the noble, pure-hearted people who for cen- turies have held fast to the doctrines and customs of their church, and whose pure, untarnished lives have reflected more of the real virtues of the Master than any other in the land. But the truth remains, nevertheless, that their meetings were not at all entertaining to the boy of ten or twelve years of age, and while the brethren and sisters were patiently and silently waiting for some special moving of the spirit, sitting in various postures and positions, some of the older and more easily fatigued, perhaps nodding in their seats, our little artist, to pass the time more' easily, occupied himself in sketching the different members of the congregation on the high back of the pew before him. These portraits were so strikingly true to nature, such faithful repre- sentations of the original, that for many years after the drawer had left his home these portraits were permitted to remain where he made them.
In his youth he attended the Academy of the Friends in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where by earnest application to his studies he obtained a good education. But the strong passion for drawing and painting could never be subdued. He seemed impelled by some inward power to this work. But hav- ing no means or opportunity to engage in the study of the fine branches of art, he entered, when a young man, the cabinet warerooms of his father, at New Hope, Pennsylvania, where for some time he was employed, and there the different ornamental paintings on furniture, etc., aroused still more the desire to paint. While thus employed, he applied himself earnestly to the blending of colors and had charge of the ornamental paintings and gilding of chairs, etc., in which work his talent was still more remarkably developed. He finally entered the studio of Charles Sully, a celebrated American por- trait painter of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in the pursuit of his favor- ite and long-wished-for work he for the first time felt that "life was real." He applied himself to the study of painting with all the enthusiasm and pleasure of genius in its proper element, and soon gave evidence of more than ordinary talent. Here he remained for some time.
In 1830, having a desire to apply himself to his profession, and thinking a more retired place than a crowded city would be preferable both as to labor and profit, and no doubt being pleased with the beautiful natural scenery at and around Easton, he removed here and opened a studio in this town. His work soon attracted attention, and a fair share of encouragement met him at once. Many of his beautiful life-like portraits decorate the walls of the residences of our older citizens, and his scenic paintings are scattered and still admired all over the State. His fame as a painter soon spread abroad, and he was frequently called to Philadelphia and other cities and towns in Eastern Pennsylvania to paint portraits, etc. In the painting of miniatures and female heads he had few equals anywhere. He remained in Easton, loved and esteemed by all who knew him, not only for his talents as an artist, but for his many personal, good qualities, until his death, which took place June 8, 1860.
Samuel Moon married, in 1834, Matilda White, of Easton, Pennsylvania,
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and they were the parents of the following children, only one of whom, William W., is now living, namely: Sarah, married D. H. Wiles, of Hagers- town, Maryland, their only child a son, who died in infancy ; Anna; William W., of further mention ; Ellen ; Alexander ; Maria, married Prof. F. J. Halm, of Hagerstown, Maryland, and they had no children ; Frederick, married Emily, Brodhead, of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, their only son, Frederick (2), now living in Kingston, Pennsylvania; and Samuel.
Withan: W. Moon, son of Samuel and Matilda (White) Moon, was born at Easton, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1839, and is now residing with his daugh- ter, Mrs. John' A. Miller, in' Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He was educated under the, instruction of Rev. John Vandeveer, D.D., and in other schools which he attended until 1855, when he entered Easton High 'School; but left in the spring of 1856, and under the private teaching of Professor Lehman. prepared for college. . He entered; Lafayette College in the fall of 1856, but ill health compelled him to abandon the idea of a college course. . He then studied law under the preceptorship of A. E. Brown, but law did not prove a congenial study and he took up the study of telegraphy. In 1867 he entered the employ of the Glendon Iron Company at Glendon, Pennsylvania, as assistant to John Bacon, the cashier. He remained in that position until 1875, when he purchased the shoe business of H. Oscar Nightingale, of Easton, and until 1897 he devoted himself to the management of that store. In 1897 he closed out the business and retired.
Mr. Moon married Ophelia F. Nightingale, of Easton, Pennsylvania, who died in Quincy, Massachusetts, April 11, 1905. They were the parents of five children: Mattie and Annie, both died in infancy ; Arthur; died, at the age of thirty, unmarried ; Emilie N., married John A. Miller, of Nazareth, and has a son, John A., Jr .; Franklin, who is professor of Forestry, Syracuse University, married Pearl Stutson, of Detroit, Michigan, and has a son, Franklin, Jr.
Mr. Moon, now an octogenarian, has three mottoes which have long been a rule and guide to his faith and practice: "What is worth doing, at all, is worth doing well." "Do it now." "Do it to help others.". With a heart filled with love for God and man, and filled with a profound belief that he was raised from :a bed of sickness, from. which his friends never expected he would leave alive, in order that he might render his fellow-men some serv- ice, he seeks every opportunity to perform some deed of kindness and love. Hisgreat opportunity was found. in South Carolina, where he spends the winters at the winter home of his daughter. There, among the poor children, white and colored, he found much need of his ministrations, and his many. acts of kindness and love have been deeply appreciated.
THE MILLER FAMILY-John-A. Miller, immigrant ancestor, came to the United States in 1852, settling in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became a prosperous; merchant. He married Mary Ashburn, reared a family of eight sons and daughters, and died in Blairstown, New Jersey.
Conrad, Miller, son of John A. Miller, was born in Germany, October 20, 1838, and died March 29, 1912. He came to Baltimore, Maryland, with his parents, in 1852, and there began his business life. He was quartermaster of construction in the quartermaster's department in Washington during the Civil War period, after which he became interested in railroad contracting. He became heavily interested in that line of work and contracted sections of the Baltimore & Ohio, in Ohio, the South Mountain Road in Pennsylvania, and in 1876 built the Blairstown (New Jersey) railroad to Delaware station for John I. Blair. Two years later he built the Belvidere Water Works, and the Bangor Portland railroad, a distance of eight miles. He was elected president and manager of that road, and in 1880 continued its extension to Pen Argyl, completing the line to Nazareth in 1881. From 1890 until 1898
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department, and later going to the high school, from which he graduated in the class of 1880. He then entered Lafayette College, class of 188.4, but after one year there decided to make the practice of medicine his life work, so in 1881 the young man matriculated at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the class of 1884. Immediately after his graduation, Dr. Collmar received the appointment of resident physician at the German Hospital in Philadelphia for the term of 1884 and 1885. After having trained for two years in hospital work, he returned to Easton, entering into practice there, and has continued it successfully ever since. When the hospital at Easton was established he became the surgeon of that institution, continuing in that capacity for three years. While he has always been a very busy man, he yet has been a most public-spirited one, taking an active part in politics and holding public offices in the gift of the people, serving with great credit in each one.
Though reared a Democrat, Dr. Collmar is no party man, being independ- ent of them all. Under the old councilmanic form of city government he served as a member of the Board of Health from 1893 to 1899, and as a common councilman for two years under the old form from 1904 to 1906, and from 1906 to 1913 as select councilman. He was twice chosen president of the Select Council. When the commission form of government was estab- lished in Easton in 1913, he was elected a member of the new government, and became head of the department of streets and public improvements. He is now a candidate for re-election.
With his expert knowledge of municipal sanitation and his interest in the public welfare, he has been able to raise the standard of sanitation of Easton to that of the best managed cities of its size. He has long been ait advocate of a better and complete sewerage system, with sewage purification. The city will again vote on this question this year. Dr. Collmar early saw the necessity of a civic body large enough to guide public opinion in muni- cipal and business matters, and was one of a number of citizens who organ- ized the present popular Board of Trade in 1909, to the activities of which may be ascribed Easton's recent advancement. He is a member of the trus- tees of the Board of Trade.
Dr. Collmar has never become affiliated with any fraternal orders, his inclination never leading him in the direction of lodges or clubs. He is a member of Zion Lutheran Church. Dr. Collmar's residence is at No. 15 South Fifth street. In 1894 Dr. Collmar married, in Easton, Norma McFall, of that city, the daughter of Isaac McFall and his wife, Louisa (Young) McFall. Dr. and Mrs. Collmar have one daughter, Rida N., born 1903.
DAVID GRIFFITH SAMUELS-The story of the life of David G. Samuels is the oft-repeated story of adversity versus a dream, and later per- sistent and determined effort to convert that dream into a reality. Born with a Welshman's heritage, a passion for music, he early began employing his spare moments in acquiring a technical knowledge of music. Upon the advice of professional friends who knew of his predilection for things musi- cal, he decided to prepare himself for the music profession. After a thorough preparation in the study of the piano, pipe organ, voice and theory, covering a period of eight years, he located in South Bethlehem, among the friends of his boyhood who knew his character, who were aware of his musical talent, . also his thorough preparation. He was accorded instant and continued suc- cess as a teacher, and has gone forward in his art and profession until his name and fame have become one of Bethlehem's proud possessions. The Bethlehem Conservatory of Music, which he founded in 1909, and personally owns and conducts, is one of the first and most successful schools of music in Bethlehem and vicinity, and through its agency a great deal of splendid musical talent has been developed. The founding and developing of this
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school of much importance is but one feature of his musical career. He is organist of Christ Reformed Church, and the choir which numbers fifty-two voices renders the best music from the oratorios several times a year.
David Griffith Samuels is a son of Job Samuels, born in Neath, a munici- pal borough of Wales, County of Glanmorganshire, on the navigable River Neath, a borough having extensive copper and iron works and stone quarries. Job Samuels came to the United States in 1856, locating in Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, where he continued in the trade learned in his native land, copper refining. Later he located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he engaged as a coal miner until 1871, removing to South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in that year. There he entered the employ of the Bethlehem Steel Works, and continued a resident of the city until his death, January 16, 1914. He mar- ried Martha Griffith, born in Wales, who died in 1874, when her son David G. was but a child of five years. She was a daughter of David Griffith, born in Wales, who was an expert in coke manufacturing both in his own land and in the United States, the country of his adoption. He constructed and opened up the first coke burning plant in the Ohio Valley, that plant being built for the Thomas Iron Company of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania.
David Griffith Samuels, son of Job and Martha (Griffith) Samuels, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, March 10, 1869. In 1874 his mother died, and that same year the father removed to South Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, then little more than a village. There the child David G. developed into a robust boy, attending public school until twelve years of age. He then entered the employ of the Bethlehem Iron Company as water boy, and for seven years he continued in the service of that company, filling various positions. Amid such surroundings his love of music and thirst for knowl- edge grew, and so intense was his desire that most of his spare hours were spent in the study of music and literature. After leaving the Bethlehem Iron Company, he had a business experience of three years, but since that time has given himself entirely to the profession of music as teacher and performer. His first professional engagement was as organist of the Fritz Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, taking that position at the dedication of the church in 1893. In 1898, after five years of service, he accepted an invitation from the music committee of Christ Reformed Church, Bethlehem, to become organist and choirmaster of that church, which positions he still fills and has served acceptably for twenty-two years. Out of this connection grew the Christ Church Choral Society, organized by David Griffith Samuels, September 15, 1898. Originally it consisted of members of Christ Reformed Church, its object to assist the regular choir in the production of music cele- brating the festival seasons of the church, viz .: Christmas and Eastertide. After a number of successful concerts, in order to widen its influence in the music culture of the Bethlehems, a number of persons who were not members of the church were invited to become affiliated with the Christ Church Choral Society, and thus make it possible to produce the larger masterpieces, viz. : Oratorios. In September, 1907, in order to still further its influence, the society voted to change its name to the Bethlehem Choral Society, and the membership which had been limited to eighty voices was enlarged to one hundred and twenty-five selected voices. On May 8, 1908, the society, under its new name, rendered Mendelssohn's oratorio, "Elijah," in Christ Reformed Church, Bethlehem, with the assistance of Metropolitan soloists and orchestra. The rendition of "Elijah" was a notable success and created much enthusiasm. In the fall of 1908, the Bethlehem Choral Society resumed rehearsals, Gade's "Crusaders" being the work decided upon for the next concert. Professor Samuels, the director, was taken seriously ill in October, 1908, and rehearsals were discontinued. Upon his recovery his physician advised him to do only a limited amount of work until a complete recovery was assured. The Beth- lehem Choral Society, with its organizer and director gone, disbanded when
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