USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 2
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WILLIAM MOORE SMITH. [Contributed by Wm. J. Buck.]
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season .- Job r, 26.
The father of the subject of this notice was William Smith, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, where he graduated at the University in 1747, and three years later came to America. He was considered one of the most accomplished scholars of Philadelphia, and it was through his exertions that the Uni- versity there owes its origin, and he was elected its first Provost. He was early admitted to the ministry of the Episcopal Church, and of which he was a pastor for many years. He married Rebecca, daughter of William Moore, of Moore Hall, in Chester county, who was a descendant of Sir John Moore, of England. His eldest son, William Moore Smith, was born in Philadelphia, June Ist, 1759, and completed his studies at the college over which his father presided with such credit and usefulness. He studied law, which profession he followed with honor, profit and success.
It appears he had inherited a taste for letters, for he was early distinguished for the extent and variety of his acquire- ments. In 1785 he collected twenty-five of his fugitive pieces and had them published under the title of " Poems on Several Occasions, Written in Pennsylvania," which were re-published the following year in London, by C. Dilly, in an octavo of 106 pages, and in Baltimore in 1804. These poems are not
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WILLIAM MOORE SMITH.
without merit and local interest, for in several of them he mentions the Schuylkill and fixes incidents on its banks.
At the time that Montgomery county was formed from Philadelphia, the land where is now Norristown chiefly be- longed to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, to whom it had been transferred by the Rev. Dr. Smith, the Provost. His son, William Moore Smith, however, became the final owner under certain reservations to that institution, and has the honor of having first laid it out as the town of " Norris" into streets and lots. There were in all, in 1785, sixty-four town lots, bounded on the north by Airy street, cast by Green alley, south by Lafayette street, and west by Cherry. This may be considered the original size of the town, which probably then did not contain eight dwellings. During his residence at Norristown, John Brown, a notorious offender, was executed for burglary on the 12th of April, 1788, of which he wrote a full account dated the following 5th of May, which was published in the Pennsylvania Archives.
Near the close of the century he became general agent for British claims in America, provided for in the sixth article of Jay's Treaty, and in consequence visited England in 1803 to close his commission. After his return he retired from his professional practice to a residence near Philadelphia, where he died the 12th of March, 1821. His remains were interred by the side of his father in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Two sons survived him, William R. and Richard Penn Smith. The former was born in Montgomery county, August 3Ist, 1787, and became distinguished. He had accompanied his father as his private secretary to England, and in 1837 removed to Wisconsin, where the following year he published a work entitled " Observations on Wisconsin Territory," af- terwards succeeded by a " History of Wisconsin," in four vol- umes, octavo. In 1853 he became Attorney General, and was also for many years President of the State Historical Society there. He died at Quincy, Illinois, August 29th, 1868. Richard Penn Smith was a noted literary man about the com- mencement of the present century, and lived in a fancy man- sion at Schuylkill Falls.
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THE MUHLENBERGS.
THE MUHLENBERGS .*
Patriots have toiled in their country's cause- Bled nobly ; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. We give in charge Their names to the sweet lyre. Th' historic muse, Proud of the treasure, marches with it down To latest times .- The Task.
Montgomery county was fortunate in securing early in the past century the settlement of one of the most eminent Luth- eran clergymen that ever Germany sent to the United States.
The Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the founder of the family, was born at Eimbeck, in Hanover, September, 171I. Entering the University of Gottingen in 1735, he passed to the theological school in 1737, and after graduating there went to the famous University of Halle; after perfecting himself in his studies there he was ordained to preach the gospel, and soon after started for America, where the want of a regularly edu- cated Lutheran ministry was greatly felt. Accordingly, he set sail and landed in this country in 1742 ; came to Philadelphia and found a congregation gathered there, one at Trappe, and an- other at Swamp or New Hanover. He pushed into the coun- try, and soon found it necessary to build churches for the small congregations already gathered. The Swamp people had a small log house of worship, but the Trappe congregation had none; but one was built the next year, 1743, which still stands a monument of the liberality of that rude age. Here, and at New Hanover, and Philadelphia, Muhlenberg gathered the scattered German emigrants, who had begun to throng into Eastern Pennsylvania about that time, and he broke to them the bread of life in their mother tongue. Two years after building the Trappe church he married Anna Maria, daughter of Col. Conrad Weiser, the celebrated Indian interpreter, tak- ing up his residence at Trappe. Here there were born to him the following noted children : Peter, Frederick Augustus and Henry Ernst, who were all noted clergymen or civilians ; also, Mary, intermarried with General Francis Swayne. Another daughter married Rev. John Shulze, and became the mother
*For the material facts of the Muhlenberg family we are indebted to Buck's History of Montgomery County, 1859.
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THE MUHLENBERGS.
of Gov. John Andrew Shulze, of Lebanon, Pa. Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg had two other daughters whose names have not reached us. Mr. Muhlenberg continued to live at Trappe till 1761, when he removed to Philadelphia to give better attention to his church there; but fifteen years later, in 1776, returned and resided here till his demise, October 6th, 1787, when he died, aged 76. His wife, Anna Maria, was born 1727, survived till 1802, August 23d, and died at the age of 75. Their bodies lie beside each other and beneath a marble slab in Augustus' Church Cemetery.
GENERAL PETER MUHLENBERG was born at Trappe, Oct. I, 1746. At the age of sixteen, with his two younger brothers, he was sent to Halle, Germany, to receive an education. Being of a bold, resolute turn of mind, and a wild American, he could not endure the restraints of the school, so he left it and joined a German regiment as a soldier. From this posi- tion he was rescued through the influence of an English offi- cer, with whom he returned to America again. He completed his studies under his father, and prepared for ordination in the Swedish Lutheran Church. In order to accomplish this he went to England in 1772 in company with Bishop White to receive Episcopal ordination. On his return he took charge of several churches near Woodstock, Dunmore county, Vir- ginia, where he remained until the breaking out of the Revo- lutionary war. Here he was in the hot-bed of Virginia dis- content during the arbitrary acts of the British government, and being an ardent Whig was sent by them to the House of Burgesses, where, of course, he sympathized with the patriot cause. About the middle of January, 1776, as foreign invad- ing armies began to land on our shores, he resolved to leave. the pulpit for the army. He prepared a sermon on " the duties men owe their country," which he preached, adding at the conclusion "there is a time for all things-a time to preach and a time to fight-and now is the time to fight." He at once descended from the pulpit, took off his gown, which had covered a Colonel's uniform, and told his people he was ready to serve his country thenceforth. He read his commission, ordered drummers to beat for recruits, and within a few days
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THE MUHLENBERGS.
three hundred men of his own churches had enlisted for the war. It was not long till he had a full regiment mustered into service. His first military service was in Georgia and South Carolina, but he soon joined the army under Washington. In February, 1777, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, and in that year participated in the battles of Brandy- wine and Germantown, and at Valley Forge held the advance of the encampment. He was also engaged in the battle of Monmouth on the retreat of the British, and was one of the captors of Stony Point under General Wayne. On the tide of war rolling South, Gen. Muhlenberg followed, and was at the taking of Yorktown in 1781. He continued in the army until it was disbanded, and received the brevet rank of Major Gen- eral. He is one of the brigade commanders of the Continen- tal army whose record was tarnished by no defeat, and whose name is not specially distinguished by any victory. He ap- pears never to have returned to the pulpit, but sought and obtained honorable employment in civil life. Such confidence was reposed in him that he was chosen a member of the Su- preme Executive Council of the State, and elected its vice- President in 1787. This body performed the functions of Governor till 1790, when Mifflin was chosen under the new State Constitution. As soon as the federal government went into operation in 1789 he was chosen a member of Congress, and served from that year to 1795 ; and after an interregnum of four years, during which he served in the State Assembly one year, 1797, was elected again in 1799 and served till ses- sion 1801, during which year, in February, he was chosen to represent our State in the U. S. Senate. He seems to have resigned this post soon after, and was succeeded by George Logan, and on the following June was appointed by President Jefferson Supervisor of Federal Revenues in Pennsylvania. In 1803 he was appointed Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which he held till his death in 1807. He died at the age of 62. All these offices he seems to have filled with scrupulous fidelity ; and in a notice of his death by the Aurora it says : " In private life just, in domestic life affectionate and sincere, his body lies beside his father's at the Trappe Church."
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THE MUHLENBERGS.
He not only filled the foregoing numerous public trusts but was named on the commission to manage the drawing of a lottery in aid of the fund to build Perkiomen bridge on the Reading and Germantown turnpike at the crossing of that stream. A friend at Freeland has placed in our hands the following relic of said lottery. It is without date, but is sup- posed to belong to the year 1800 or ISO1 :
[No. PERKIOMEN BRIDGE LOTTERY.
CLASS THE FIRST.
THIS Ticket entitles the Bearer to fuch prize as may be drawn againft its number, if demanded within twelve months after the publication of the fortunate numbers, fubject to a deduction of twenty per cent.
P. Muhlenberg.
General Francis Swayne, a brother-in-law, was his executor.
It is proper to add here that General Peter Muhlenberg has been selected as one of the two distinguished Pennsylvanians who are awarded statues in the Federal Capitol.
HON. FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, son of Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, was the second son, and not less brilliant and distinguished than his brother Peter He was born June 2d, 1750, and remained at the University of Halle, where his father had placed him with Peter, till he became an accomplished scholar. After graduating in Germany he re- turned and took charge of a church in New York, but on the breaking out of the Revolution left it in consequence of the entry of the British into that city. The stirring events of the war seem to have secularized him, as they did his brother Peter, for we find him elected to the State Assembly in 1779. In 1783 he was chosen one of the Executive Council, and in 1784 was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and also the same year one of the first Judges for Montgomery county. Leaving that position soon after his selection he accepted that of Register
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THE MUHLENBERGS.
and Recorder for the new county of Montgomery, holding it from 1784 to 1789. The latter year he was elected a repre- sentative to Congress, and had the honor of being the first Speaker. He continued a representative in Congress four terms, or till 1797. He had previously been elected by the State Legislature a member of the Continental Congress in 1779, and served in that capacity two terms. He had also been a delegate to the State Convention in 1787, called to ratify the Constitution of the United States, and was its Presi- dent. In 1793 he was run by the Federal party for Governor of Pennsylvania against Thomas Mifflin, and again in 1796, but. was beaten the first time by about eight thousand votes. In 1800 he was appointed Receiver-General of the Pennsylvania Land Office, which he held at his death in 1802. He died at the age of 52.
REV. HENRY ERNST MUHLENBERG, son of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, was born at Trappe, Montgomery county, Nov. 17, 1753. With his two brothers he was sent to the Univer- sity of Halle at nine years of age, and remaining nine years, returned in 1770, a young man of 18. In his twentieth year he was ordained, and acted as assistant pastor of the Lutheran Church, Philadelphia. He, like his brothers, had to leave his charge when the British entered that city. Being like his father, and an ardent patriot, the enemy tried to capture him, but without success. For a short time after leaving Phila- delphia he devoted himself to the study of botany, mineralogy and kindred sciences, till 1780, when he was installed pastor of a Lutheran church at Lancaster, Pa., with which he remained thirty-five years, till his death in 1815, at the age of 62. He was distinguished for his talents, piety, usefulness and exten- sive literary and scientific acquirements. His works are Cata- logus Plantarum, Gramina America Septentrionalis, and Flora Lancastriensis, all in Latin. There have been a number of distinguished men of the third generation of the Muhlenberg family, of which Henry A., of Reading, was. Democratic can- didate for Governor in 1835.
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REV. GEORGE MICHAEL WEISS.
REV. GEORGE MICHAEL WEISS. [Contributed by J. D.]
Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth .- Psalm xxvii, 8.
Rev. George Michael Weiss was a native of the Palatinate on the Rhine. He came to America in company with about 400 emigrants (as they expressed it), " Natives and late Inhab- itants of the Palatinate upon the Rhine and Places Adjacent into this Province of Pensilvania in hopes and expectation of finding a Retreat and peaceable Settlement therein." His name with the affix " V. D. M." appears at the head of a list of fifty heads of families, who, on the 21st of September, 1727, sub- scribed the obligations of allegiance to the King of Great Britain.
Mr. Weiss was sent to this country by the upper consistory or classis of the Palatinate. He came, as it seems, with a number of people, migrating thence at that time as their pas- tor. Four years after Mr. Weiss's arrival, we learn, from a report made to the Synod of Holland, that there were about 15,000 Reformed members holding to the old Reformed Con- fession in America.
When Mr. Weiss arrived in this country he settled in Schippach, (Skippack), then in Philadelphia, now Mont- gomery county, about twenty-four miles from Philadelphia. Here they built a wooden church, and Dominie Weiss was chosen their minister. This was among the first regular or- ganized German congregations in Pennsylvania. There were some congregations formed in the Province, but none previous with a regularly ordained preacher of that denomination. The old church stood until about the year 1760, when it was torn down and never rebuilt, the congregation having removed their place of worship to what is now called Wentz's, Worces- ter township. The church officers at the old wooden church were Jacob Deimer, Michael Hillegas, Peter Hillegas, Joost Schmidt, Heinrich Weller, Jacob Siegel and William Rohrich. In this neighborhood the German Palatinates are more thickly settled than in other parts.
In the year 1729, in company with an elder, he went to
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REV. GEORGE MICHAEL WEISS.
Holland to collect money, Bibles and other good books for the destitute families and congregations in America. The amount of cash collected, after deducting some expenses, was about £135
In 1732 Mr. Weiss became pastor of a church in Rheinbeck, Dutchess county, near Albany, New York. He was com- pelled to flee from that field of labor on account of the war with the Indians, by which not only individuals but also fam- ilies and settlements were in danger of being massacred.
He now returned to old Goshenhoppen, a place where he had often ministered, and from 1746 until the time of his death preached for that congregation.
Mr. Weiss, so soon as Schlatter arrived, fell in with his mis- sion and helped him to gather together the scattered members of the Reformed churches in the Province. For this purpose he accompanied the latter to Oley, Lancaster, then across the Blue Mountain to Tolpehocken, and back to Lancaster the second time.
Mr. Weiss was among the number (four ministers) that or- ganized on the 12th of October, 1746, the first Reformed Synod (German) in America. His charge at the time of his death consisted of Old Goshenhoppen, New Goshenhoppen and Great Swamp. These three congregations paid him £40 per year. He died in the beginning of the year 1763 at a good old age, and was buried in the church at New Goshen- hoppen. Tradition says that he was a fine Latin scholar and a man of much energy, and the records of the churches show that they enjoyed great prosperity during his ministrations.
It is said, by industry and economy, he accumulated a great deal of property, and got to be what is called a rich man. He owned at one time the Green Lane iron works.
Mr. Weiss had no children, but owned about twenty slaves. The most of these at his death passed into the hands of Mr. Mayberry, who became proprietor of the iron works. He baptized all his slaves and their increase. Some of the de- scendants of these slaves still linger around Goshenhoppen.
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REV. JOHN PHILIP BOEHM.
REV. JOHN PHILIP BOEHM. [Contributed by J. D.]
With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding .- Job xii, 12.
From some papers found in the archives of the Collegiate Reformed (Dutch) Church in New York, and translated by the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, and published in full in the October number of the Mercersburg Review, it appears that Mr. Boehm arrived in this country as early as the year 1720. Having been school-master and fore-singer in Worms, a city of Ger- many, for about seven years, he found a demand for his services as reader (doorlezer) upon his arrival here. The Reformed people around him were destitute of the means of grace, and he became a sort of pastor to them by exhortation, catechising their children, and performing other religious services without receiving any compensation for the same.
The great influx of the immigrants began about the year 1707.
So well did he perform these services that the destitute Re- formed people besought him to assume the functions of the ministerial office. This he did in 1725, receiving as compen- sation only the voluntary contributions of the people.
Mr. Boehm was the first Reformed minister, either Dutch or German Reformed, as they called them, in the Province of Pennsylvania.
When Mr. Weiss, the first regularly licensed and ordained minister of the Reformed (German) Church arrived here, in September, 1727, he visited the Schippach (Skippack) congre- gation and preached there. This brought him into collision with Mr. Boehm, who had been preaching there for some time without regular license and ordination. Some of the people then disclaimed Mr. Boehm's ministerial acts, because he was not ordained, and wished to retain Mr. Weiss as their regular minister.
In July, 1728, the Consistories of the three congregations where Mr. Boehm had been preaching, 1Wit Marshen, Schip-
*Rupp's 30,000 German names, page 39.
+Whitemarsh, where the Barren Hill Lutheran Church now stands; Skippaek Wentz's Reformed Church, Worcester ; Falkner Swamp, now Swamp Churches, New Hanover township, Montgomery county, yet a large and flourishing congregation.
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REV. JOHN PHILIP BOEHM.
pach and Falkner's Swamp, sent an application to the New York Classis to have Mr. Boehm licensed, ordained, and his former pastoral acts approved. This appeal was forwarded to the Classis of Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction the Amer- ican Classis was at that time, and a favorable answer was re- turned, dated June 20th, 1729.
On the 23d of November of that year the Rev. Mr. Boehm was ordained and set apart to the work of the ministry by Henricus Boel and Gualterius du Bois, under the oversight of the Consistory of the Low Dutch Church of New York.
The work of Mr. Boehm was exceedingly exhausting in Eastern Pennsylvania. His chief points of labor were in Philadelphia, Germantown, the other places already mentioned, and at the forks of the Delaware, then Bucks, now Northamp- ton county, ministering unto them and laying foundations for future churches.
The congregation in Whitpain, now called Boehm's Church, was first organized by him, and it is said at the building of this church in 1740 Mr. Boehm "labored with his own hands."
The exact time he settled in Whitpain is not exactly known. In the list of land-holders, published in 1734, his namefis marked, having two-hundred acres and paid a quit rent. The deed for the property on which he resided at the time of his death was dated September 9th, 1736, and calls for two hun- dred acres, costing £165 13s. Id.
As a minister and teacher he was quite successful, and tra- dition speaks well of his labors. He held large tracts of land, and became wealthy, although it appears he did not set his heart upon it .*
" The gospel was his joy and song E'en to his latest breath."
He died suddenly at his house in Whitpain, May Ist, 1749, having on the previous day administered the Holy Commu- nion to the Egypt congregation in Northampton county, and is buried under the wall of the present church, in the east corner, at that time under the altar, and in front of the pulpit where he had often preached.
*In Whitpain he held 200 acres : Saucon, Lehigh county, 200; Skippack, 150-total, 550.
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NICHOLAS SCULL.
At the time of his death he held slaves and had a liquor distillery. In the appraisement of his personal property three 'servants are mentioned, two boys and one girl, appraised at £30; two distilling tubs and coolers, £40.
These facts are a curious commentary on the advance made since that day as to the rightfulness of holding slaves and the manufacturing and using alcoholic liquors as a common drink.
His descendants were numerous in Philadelphia and some of them quite wealthy. He held considerable correspondence with the church in the mother country, and kept a record of his labors ; but unfortunately the chest containing these valuable relics was destroyed by fire.
NICHOLAS SCULL.
Among the early residents of what is now Montgomery county, and who left their impress upon our State, was Nich- olas Scull, a surveyor and Indian interpreter in early colonial times, who left some maps and surveys, showing that he was a man of education. His origin or nativity is unknown, but he was probably an Englishman, who came over shortly after Penn's settlement of the colony, and located in Whitemarsh. He belonged to Franklin's literary club, the " Junto," in 1729. It is known that he run and laid out the road leading from Willow Grove to what was Gov. Keith's residence in Horsham. In 1748 he succeeded William Parsons as Surveyor General of the Colony, which post he held for thirteen years till his death in 1761, when he was succeeded that year in the office by John Lukens, of Horsham. His wife, Abigail, died in 1753, in her 65th year, and is interred in the family cemetery on Camp Hill, near the line of Whitemarsh and Upper Dublin.
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COL. THOMAS CRAIG.
COL. THOMAS CRAIG. [Contributed by William J. Buck.]
Amongst the early and conspicuous settlers of Northampton county may be mentioned William and Thomas Craig, who immigrated from the north of Ireland sometime between 1728 and 1733, and several years afterwards took up a large tract of land in Allen township on which they settled. They were probably brothers, and at the first court held at Easton for said county, in June, 1752, with three others, presided as Justices ; and both also rendered effective service in the French and Indian war. Thomas, son of the last mentioned, was born in 1740 at what was generally known as the Irish or Craig's set_ tlement, about four miles from the present town of Bath. He received a fair education for the time, and was brought up to an agricultural life.
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