USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 10
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During his public career Mr. Roberts had been an earnest and active supporter of the policy of protection to American industries . in the laying of imposts on imported goods and merchandise. About . the close of the last term of his public service the revision of the : tariff laws became necessary. Foreign governments had so adapted- their legislation as to defeat the protective policy of this country. The old free States had turned their attention to manufactures, while: the Southern slave States could not adapt slave labor to these pur -- suits. Notwithstanding this development of sectional interests, some- advantages were gained for the manufacturing interests; but, as time: passed on, further measures in that direction were called for. A-
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society was formed in Philadelphia to promote the growth of the useful arts. At their instance a national convention was held at Harrisburg in 1827. Mr. Roberts took a prominent and influential part in that assemblage. So strongly was he in favor of encouraging home manufactures that he never knowingly would wear a garment of foreign-made fabrics.
The result of this movement was the triumph which the policy of protection gained in all our free territory, and population throve with wonderful rapidity, as New England had before done in the pursuits of navigation and the fisheries. The jealousy of the slave- holding South therefore became aroused on seeing the prosperity attending free labor. In 1831-32 it became obvious that the pub- lic debt, for which impost duties were largely required, would soon be extinguished, and it had become the cry of the South to conform the duties to the payment of the economical wants of the National Government. Their aim was to get something like a horizontal tariff of duties on all imported commodities.
A free-trade convention met in 1830 or 1831 in Philadelphia, at the head of which was Albert Gallatin as the representative of the importing trade. He was placed at the head of the committee to memoralize Congress in the interest of the free traders. In doing this he could not avoid admitting the discriminative principle, and if not to encourage at least to sustain home industry. The con- vention served no other purpose than to rally the cotton-growers and those concerned in the ocean-carrying trade to make a stand against a squarely protective policy. A few months thereafter the friends of home industry held a national convention in New York city, which was attended by from five hundred to six hundred dele- gates. Mr. Roberts was sent to that body, and, against the strong opposition of the Jackson element in the convention, was placed on the committee of business. In discharging the duties of that com- mittee he performed the most valuable services. The session was continued for a week, and throughout its proceedings Mr. R. took an active and prominent part. The result of these popular move- ments was the compromise tariff of 1832-33, which subsequently proved so disastrous to the prosperity of the country.
During the anti-Masonic agitation in Pennsylvania, Mr. Roberts, feeling that he could not affiliate fully with either of the fragmentary political movements into which the people of the State were divided, withdrew for a time from active participation in politics. But in 1835 he warmly supported Joseph Ritner for Governor, as the Whig
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candidate. Disappointed in the policy of Governor Ritner's ad- ministration, Mr. Roberts remained a passive observer of the drift of public affairs until the misgovernment of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren brought on a crisis in 1839 that called him again into the field of politics. A National Whig convention met at Harris- burg to nominate a Presidential candidate to succeed Van Buren. Mr. Roberts went as a delegate to that convention, and energeti- cally supported the claims of Henry Clay to the nomination. The choice, however, fell to General Harrison, who received the untir- ing and able support of Mr. Roberts during the very exciting politi- cal campaign which followed. In making choice of a candidate for Vice President it fell to the lot of Mr. Roberts, on behalf of the Pennsylvania delegation, to nominate John Tyler, of Virginia, a duty the discharge of which subsequently caused him the deepest regret.
Unfortunately for the country General Harrison did not live to inaugurate the policy which was expected from his election. One short month after his inauguration he died, and the executive duties devolved upon Mr. Tyler, the Vice President. The terrible busi- ness depression under which the country was then laboring caused an unusual desire and pressure for public appointments. In Phila- delphia the Collectorship and other offices connected with the reve- nue department were vehemently contested for, and remained un- assigned on General Harrison's death. Among the aspirants for the Collectorship were ex-Governors Shultz and Ritner, ex-Mayor John Swift, Bela Badger, Henry Morris, and I. Washington Tyson. The warm competition among these prominent and influential applicants led Mr. Tyler to seek to avoid offence by appointing some person who would be calculated to soften the asperity of feeling to which the competition had given rise. He thought he knew enough of the character of Mr. Roberts to warrant him in giving him the ap- pointment without solicitation or suggestion on his part or that of anybody else. Mr. Tyler had good reasons for this mark of confi- dence in Mr. Roberts. He had known the latter while in Congress, and knew his independent fidelity to what he believed his public duty. Accordingly on April 14th, 1841, the appointment of Mr. R. was made as Collector of Customs for the port of Philadelphia. The announcement was a great surprise to Mr. Roberts, as he had warmly urged the appointment of Henry Morris, the youngest son of Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolutionary epoch. This appointment found Mr. R. just convalescing after a severe and protracted illness of five months. Knowing the difficulties and per-
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plexities which would necessarily attend the discharge of the duties of Collector at that anomalous period, Mr. Roberts hesitated to ac- cept the appointment, although the President and others urged him to do so. After some days he decided to accept the commission from the President. In that short time the applicants for appoint- ment to offices under the Collector, about eighty-two in all, num- bered over a thousand. It was a difficult and trying duty to make the necessary selections from so many applicants. By the Ist of May the new appointments were made, and the Custom House force organized for an efficient administration.
At that time President Tyler gave no indication that he enter- tained the idea of becoming his own successor for the next Presi- dential term; but on the assembling of Congress the ensuing winter his purpose to accomplish that object became manifest. This brought him into antagonism with the two houses of Congress on measures which the latter bodies deemed important. Mr. Clay, who was an active opponent of the President's financial views, became an object of his hatred and jealousy as a rival candidate for the Presidency. Mr. Tyler knew Mr. Roberts' partiality for Mr. Clay, and he be- came distrustful of the latter. President Tyler at length determined to fill all the offices under Mr. Roberts with his clamorous partisans, and especially with those who would adopt his hatred of his dreaded rival. Mr. Roberts' sympathies were entirely with the Whig party, which was in open and avowed antagonism to the President.
In his last veto message President Tyler had promised to strive to meet Congress with some measure that might meet their recipro- cal duties. Mr. Roberts thought of resigning his office, owing to his want of approbation of the course of the President, but he was urged by the Whigs not to resign, in order that the purposes of the President should be forced upon public attention. Finding that Mr. Roberts did not tender his resignation, and incited by intriguing parasites, President Tyler was guilty of the monstrous official impro- priety of signing a requisition upon Mr. Roberts to dismiss without cause thirty of his subordinate officers for whom he was held pecu- niarily and officially responsible, and to appoint thirty other per- sons who were named, about whom he knew nothing, and who did not possess his confidence. Mr. Roberts lost no time in personally expostulating with the President, but failing to have any influence with him peremptorily refused to comply or resign. It was Mr. Roberts' duty to hold the office until a successor could be lawfully appointed, and whose receipt would discharge him from its respon-
538273
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sibilities. While the Senate was in session no one could assume the office until confrmed by that body, and no one he could have ap- pointed could have been confirmed. Congress did not adjourn un- til August. The adjournment left the way open for the President's action, and he appointed as Mr. R.'s successor Thomas S. Smith, who cheerfully assented to all that the administration required of him. Notwithstanding this subserviency on the part of Mr. Smith, his appointment was rejected by the Senate at the instance and with the approbation of the President, and Calvin Blythe was appointed Collector in his place. Mr. Blythe had been removed by John Tyler to make the appointment of Mr. Roberts, and he was now re- appointed without any other reason than the hope of his support as a prominent Democrat-so far had the President drifted from the party that had elected him to the Vice Presidency. In refusing to bend at the behests of the President, Mr. Roberts was controlled by influences solely of a public nature, and did not forfeit the respect and confidence of President Tyler, who through his intimate friend, Mr. Catlett, in the hour when he was about to restore Mr. Blythe, assured Mr. Roberts that he thought as highly of him as he ever did. Mr. Roberts left the Custom House with the affectionate regard of all who had been associated with him officially and with the good will and respect of all who had had business transactions with him.
From that time Mr. Roberts held no public position, but con- tinued to have a lively interest in all that was transpiring of a pub- lic character. He had reached the ripe old age of 71 years, with unimpaired mental powers and vigorous physical strength. The last twelve years of his life were spent in rural occupations upon his extensive farm and in the enjoyment of books, his keen relish for the acquisition of knowledge seeming to increase with age. He was an ardent friend and advocate of general education, and paid much attention to that work at home and elsewhere. Several very able. lectures of Mr. Roberts on the subject of education are still in ex- istence in manuscript, which were written and delivered at a very advanced age. He has left in his memoirs, which he addressed to his children, a treasury of information which is not attainable else- where, but which, owing to its personal nature, is not well suited for public reading.
As before stated, Mr. Roberts was until nearly his 40th year a birth-right member of the society of Friends. Owing to the active and prominent part which he took in the National Councils in sup- port of the war of 1812 against Great Britain, he was disowned by
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HON. JONATHAN ROBERTS.
that denomination. This he felt to be a relief from observances which he could not apprehend were suited to a free and independ- ent exercise of his intellectual and moral promptings. He always continued, however, to sympathize with Friends in most of their views and convictions. He notwithstanding never sought to renew his connection with either branch of that divided religious denomi- tion. Up to within a few months of his death he continued in the full enjoyment of all his faculties. In the spring of 1854 his strength began to fail him, and continued to do so until the succeeding July, when on the 21st of that month he died in perfect peace, " confi- dent of a spiritual life beyond the grave neither limited as to time nor restricted as to its possibilities."
Mrs. Roberts survived him nearly eleven years. She passed a life of general usefulness in her various spheres of action hardly less marked and prominent than that of her distinguished husband. Her whole life was devoted to the good of others. She lived to the ripe old age of 76, and passed to the reward of the righteous on June IIth, 1865.
The remains of Jonathan Roberts and wife sleep beside each other in the private cemetery of the family on the farm of William B. Roberts, their son, a little west of the road leading to King-of- Prussia. The lot is enclosed and the graves indicated by plain marble memorials.
Mr. and Mrs. Roberts had nine children : Mathew Thomas, Mary C., William B., Anna M., Jonathan M., John B., Sarah H., Ma- thew, and Edward F. Of these children Mathew Thomas, Mary C. and Anna M. died when young. The youngest of the four, Ma- thew, attained maturity, but was not married. He was drowned in the spring of 1851, in California, while trying to save the property of a friend. The other five are still living.
William B. Roberts married, in 1842, Susan H. Holstein, young- est daughter of Colonel George W. Holstein, of Upper Merion. They (William B. and wife) have eight children, all living: Eliza A., who is married to David Conrad, of Plymouth; Sarah L., mar- ried to William Wills, Jr., of Plymouth; Mathew H., married to Clara V. Conrad; William H., married to Laura Massey, of Chester county. Jonathan, George, Edward and John are unmarried. At the fall election in 1878 William B. Roberts was chosen a member of the lower house of Assembly on the Republican ticket.
Jonathan M. Roberts married Mary H. Abbott, of Norristown. They have had seven children, six of whom are living. They are
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GEN. FRANCIS SWAYNE.
Susan A., Rebecca H., Eliza B., Mary T., Virginia L., Anna T., and Sarah T. All survive except Eliza B., who died in infancy, and all are minors.
John B. Roberts married Virginia M. Lewis, of Burlington, New Jersey. They have had two children, Louisa and Jonathan M. The latter, a minor, survives; the former died in infancy.
Sarah is married to Samuel Tyson, of Upper Merion, and they have had four children, Jonathan R., Edward M., Eliza H., and Mary F. The first three named survive, and are minors; the last died in infancy.
Edward F. Roberts is unmarried.
[NOTE .- Since the earlier pages of this biography were printed the author learns that his conjecture-expressed in a foot note-that Mr. Roberts' repugnance, when a boy, to declaim " Cato's Solilo- quy" was not on account of Addison's reputed intemperance, but because the boy's moral sense was shocked at Cato's suicide, follow- ing his lofty musings on the immortality of the soul. Young Jona- than Roberts had not then learned that self-murder was right and honorable according to heathen ethics, and only condemned by christian morals. Very properly, Addison made Cato talk like a heathen, as he was, and not like a christian.]
BRIGADIER GENERAL FRANCIS SWAYNE.
Other things are disposed of by Chance and Fortune, but Death treats all men alike. -Seneca.
The first public notice of General Francis Swayne is the recorded fact in the Pennsylvania Archives that he was State Clothier, ap- pointed July 23d, 1779, probably with a Colonel's or Major's com- mission, to contract for clothing for the State militia during the Revolutionary war. He settled here about the time of the organi- zation of our county, and was elected the second Sheriff in 1787, to succeed Zebulon Potts. As the office was then annually elective, he was twice re-elected, closing his term of service in October, 1790. He had probably received the appointment of Brigadier General by brevet in the State militia, for we find his name appended as such to a notice to the qualified and enrolled militia to meet and liold the annual election in 1805. In 1800 he was appointed Clerk of
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GEN. FRANCIS SWAYNE.
the Courts and Prothonotary by Governor Mckean, which posts he held nine years, till superceded by Philip Hahn, who was appointed by Simon Snyder in 1809.
Towards the close of Governor Mckean's first term there began to be great opposition to him (McKean) in the ranks of his own party, the outcry being that he was an aristocrat and sympathized with the English. In 1804 Swayne was a Presidential elector. He had married a daughter of Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, and in 1807 was left executor of the estate of his brother-in-law, General Peter Muhlenberg, who died that year. When parties began to de- velop, after the formation of the Federal Constitution, Swayne, in common with the Muhlenbergs, Hon. Frederick Conrad, and others, took the Federal side as against the Jeffersonians. Accordingly we find him participating in a public meeting in 1807 in favor of Mr. McKean and against Jefferson and Snyder, and opposing Jonathan Roberts, Nathaniel B. Boileau, and other Republicans. Before McKean retired from the Governor's chair, in 1808, he appointed Swayne a Justice of the Peace, which at that time was a life office. In 1811 he was elected President of the Ridge Turnpike Road Com- pany and one of the commissioners to superintend the sale of stock. On March 17th, 1813, he advertises in Winnerd's Register to sell all his household furniture. It is presumed this was just after the death of his first wife, who was buried at Trappe, in the Muhlen- berg family row. General Swayne was elected the first President of the Bank of Montgomery County, which was organized shortly after the events just recorded, but having expressed a desire in 1817 to resign the post, the Board of Directors accepted, and tendered him a vote of thanks, signed Levi Pawling, President, and Zadok Thomas, Secretary of the Board.
General Swayne built the large two-storied brick house at the southeast corner of Main and Cherry streets, afterwards owned by John B. Sterigere, and occupied it till his death. After his first wife's demise he married a widow, who on his death married an inn- keeper of Pottstown named Ritze. In person General Swayne was rather under medium height, stout made, of florid complexion, and was advanced in age at the time of his death. He left no children by either of his wives, and the time of his death is not certainly known, but doubtless was previous to 1825. He sleeps beside his Ae, first wife at St. Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe.
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PHILIP YOST, ESQ.
PHILIP YOST, EsQ.
It was not by choice meats and perfumes that our forefathers recommended them- selves, but in virtuous actions and the sweat of honest, manly labors .- Seneca.
There is no family of German descent in eastern Pennsylva- nia whose respectability and standing have been better preserved than the Yosts. They are spread nearly all over the county of Montgomery, and so separated that relationship is scarcely traced among its remote branches.
The progenitor of the family of which we are writing was Philip Yost, who was born in Nassau, West Germany, in 1718, and emigrated about 1740. The maiden name of his wife was Vronicei Dotterer. They settled near Pottstown, where he died in 1804, aged 86 years, leaving among other children Philip Yost, the subject of this biography. He was born in Limerick township, August 24th, 1757, and received a good German and English education at Pottstown. When quite a young man he enlisted in the army that assisted to gain our independence. He was first enrolled as a private, but subse- quently attained the position of Cornet, and went through the disastrous battles of Brandywine and Germantown unhurt. Returning at the end of the war he married Rozina Beringer. The children of that union were Mary, Jacob, Benjamin B., Salome, Tobias, Elizabeth, Rozina, Herman, Jonas, Sarah, and Philip. Of this large family, one (Rozina) is still living at or near Limerick Station.
Philip Yost, the Revolutionary soldier, and subject of this notice, was, as his father, a member of the German Reformed church. He learned the trade of a wheelwright, but afterwards followed farming till nearly the time of his death, which took place on August 28th, 1832, in his 76th year.
We will now give the descending genealogy through the line of his son, Benjamin B. Yost, who was born December 3Ist, 1787, in Pottsgrove township. He also received a good com- mon school education, and married Sarah Feather on Novem- ber 30th, 1813. Benjamin B. Yost, when the war of 1812 broke out, enlisted as his father had done in the Revolution, and was fife or drum major at the camp at Marcus Hook, on the Dela-
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PHILIP YOST, ESQ.
ware. He was elected County Commissioner in 1833, County Treasurer in 1836, and Register of Wills in 1845. He was also Justice of the Peace for many years. He died September 30th, 1858, in Pottsgrove township, aged 70 years.
We continue the record of the family in the fourth genera- tion. Benjamin B. and Sarah Yost had four children, Isaac F., Sarah, Benjamin F., and Elizabeth. Isaac F., late Associate Judge, one of the above, resides at New Hanover, usually called "Swamp." When a young man he taught school, for which he was qualified by a good common school education, but has been a farmer for many years. Previous to being elected As- sociate Judge in 1871, he had served terms of three years each as County Auditor and County Commissioner. To the latter he was elected in 1854. He sat on the bench during the mur- der trials of Curley and Pistorius, and closed his term in 1876.
The other son of Benjamin B. Yost, Benjamin F., lives in Pottstown.
Of Hon. Isaac F. Yost and family we give a fuller account as follows: He was born at the homestead in Pottsgrove town- ship, March 2d, 1815, and was married November Ist, 1838, to Rozina Miller. They have had thirteen children, as fol- lows: Daniel M. Yost, the well known merchant of Norris- town, who is intermarried with Hannah C. Feather. Their children are Marie R., Daniel, Harry, and Ella. Benjamin, the second son of Judge Yost, is married to Kate Bleim, and lives at Pottstown; Amelia is intermarried with Tobias Shelly; Salomi is the wife of William S. Bleim, of Limerick Station; Isaac M., married to Sallie Johnson, of Norristown, and re- cently removed to Hayes City, Kansas; John R., also resides at Hayes City; Philip M. was with Daniel M., in Norristown; Mary A., Rebecca and Emma Elizabeth reside in New Hano- ver; Louisa, Rosina and Josiah are deceased.
Daniel M. Yost, of Norristown, has a brief but honorable military record also, which should be added. He enlisted as a private in Colonel Hartranft's Fourth Regiment, served the full term, and rose to the position of Orderly Sergeant; re-en- listed in the Eleventh Regiment of Pennsylvania militia in 1862, went out as Captain, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colo-
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JOSEPH LEEDOM, A. M., M. D.
nel. He also served nine months with the same rank in the One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Regiment. This shows that for three generations the Yost family have had a hand in at least three wars of the country.
It is proper to add that nearly all of the younger branches of the family, as was stated of the elder, are members of the Reformed church.
JOSEPH LEEDOM, A. M., M. D.
Dr. Joseph Leedom, son of Richard and Sarah Leedom, of Southampton, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born August, 1769, and died January, 1845, aged 76 years. His mother was a Twining. His ancestry on the paternal side were from Wales, and came over in the ship Welcome, in 1682, with William Penn, whose frequent visits to their cabin in Penn's Woods and the trials they endured in those pioneer days were ever interesting themes of recital to their descendants. They belonged to the society of Friends, the faith to which the sub- ject of this biography adhered through life. Dr. Leedon's father, being a man of wealth, gave his son every educational advantage. He graduated at Brown University when about 21 years of age. Afterwards he entered upon the study of law with Mr. Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, but the profession not be- ing to his taste he abandoned it for that of medicine. At first he studied with Dr. Fenton, of Bucks county, and afterward with Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia.
He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and commenced practice in Sussex county, New Jersey, where he remained several years. Finding, however, that riding over a mountainous country impaired his health, he resolved to re- turn to Pennsylvania. While a resident of New Jersey he mar- ried Eleanor Van Couwenhoven, or Conover, as it is some- times written, who was a lineal descendant of Wolfert Gerret- son Van Couwenhoven, from Amersfoort, Utrecht, Holland,
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REV. BALTHASER HOFFMAN.
"who came to America in 1630, and settled in Upper Freehold, New Jersey.
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