USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 21
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The second of the three emigrant brothers, Joseph Hiester, born in 1710 and died in 1772, left five sons, as follows: John, born in 1754 and died in 1820; John Christian; Daniel, born in 1761 and died in 1827; Joseph, born in 1768 and died in 1830; William, born in 1770 and died in 1828. These bro- thers (second generation) left sons respectively of the third generation, as follows: The first, John, left five, John, Daniel, Joseph, John Christian, and Jacob; the next, John Christian, left four, John, Isaac, Joseph, and Daniel; the third, Daniel, left nine, John, Joseph, Gabriel, Daniel, Thomas, Jacob, Sam- uel, David, and David again; the fourth, Joseph, left one only, Levi; the fifth, William, also left five, John B., William, Joseph, George, and Cyrus.
The third and youngest of the emigrant brothers, Daniel, the head of the family that remained at Goshenhoppen, has the following genealogy: He was born in Germany in 1713, and
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died in 1795. He had four sons, John, born in 1745 and dieď in 1821; Daniel, born in 1747 and died in 1804; Gabriel, born in 1749 and died in 1824; William, born in 1757 and died in 1822. These brothers had issue as follows: John had three sons, Daniel, John, and Samuel. Of these three of the third generation, the oldest, Daniel, left two sons, John and Henry; the second, John, also left two sons of the same name, who have sons of the fifth generation; the youngest, Dr. Samuel, left one son, John R., now of Pottstown, who has two sons, Samuel P. and William.
The Gabriel just named above left three sons, named re- spectively Gabriel, Jacob B., and Jonathan D. Of these sons of the third generation Gabriel had one son, Augustus, and Jonathan had three, Edwin, Gabriel, and Alexander.
William, the fourth son of Daniel the emigrant, had four sons, Isaac, William, Daniel, and John Philip. Of these Isaac has one son, William M .; and of the fifth generation, Isaac, the son of William M.
REV. WILLIAM W. PRICE.
THE PRICE FAMILY.
Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure, take this rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases- the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that is sin to you, however in- nocent it may seem in itself .- Mrs. Wesley.
Aaron, the brother of Moses, was hardly more distinguished as the lineal head of the Hebrew priesthood than was Jacob Price as the progenitor and head of a line of elders or minis- ters among the German Baptists of Pennsylvania, continuing down to the present day. This Jacob Price, who was born in Witzenstein, Prussia, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, emigrated about 1719, and settled at Indian Creek, in Lower Salford township, Montgomery county, where he took 1
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up land. He was small in stature, rather imperfectly developed physically, and not commanding in appearance .*
Jacob Price the emigrant had but one son, Johannes, who was so weakly that his father feared he would not live to have issue. And yet so anxious was the parent to leave a name and posterity behind him that he encouraged his son to marry while still very young. He did so, and was blessed with two sons. The name of the one was Daniel, whose posterity still live in the vicinity of the old homestead. The name of the other son was Johannes, or John, who moved to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in early life. Of his descendants we know little except that they acquired property and independ- ence there, and several became conspicuous as servants of the church.
The above named Daniel had thirteen children in all, but there were but five sons and two daughters who left families behind them. Their names were John, George, Heinrich, Wil- liam, Daniel, Elizabeth, and Hannah. Elizabeth was married to Jacob Weidner, and Hannah to John Clemmence.
John, the father of the subject of this memoir, was born De- cember 5th, 1751. He was married in 1780 to Elizabeth, the daughter of Lazarus Weidner. She died in April, 1793. They had four sons and two daughters: John, David, George, Wil- liam, Elizabeth (intermarried with George Nice), and Susan- nah (married to Henry Moyer).
William Price, who was born August 29th, 1789, was many years an esteemed elder of the Brethren's church at Indian Creek. He was born on part of the ancient homestead, and early in life, when working with his father on the farm, mani- fested an eager desire for knowledge, occupying all spare mo- ments in reading and other studies. He had made great pro-
*About 1715 Jacob Price and Johannes Naas, the latter of whom was a very large, tall man, were traveling together as evangelists, in Germany, when they encountered the recruiting officers of the King of Prussia, who, finding Naas just of the stature for one of the Life Guards, insisted upon his enlisting. He constantly refused, however, al- though they tortured him to enforce his consent. Being obdurate, they carried him be- fore the King, who, eyeing him closely, added: " Why, yes, I would very much like to have you. Tell me why you will not enlist in my armny." "Because," said Naas, "I have already enlisted on the rolls of the noblest armny, under the very best captain in the world, and dare not prove traitor to him." "Why, to whom then-or who is your captain?" asked the astonished King. Naas answered, "My captain is the great Prince Emanuel, our Lord Jesus Christ. I have espoused his cause, and cannot forsake him." "' Neither will I then that you should," answered the noble King, when he dismissed him with a small present as a reward for his fidelity, and Naas rejoined Price. Both started soon after for America .- Abraham H. Cassel.
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gress in learning, when, in his sixteenth year, he was appren- ticed to the tailoring trade, which he followed until arriving at manhood. Then he was requested to teach a school, in which employment he continued for several years. In 1813, when twenty-four years.old, he was married to Mary Reiff, and com- menced farming. William and Mary Price had ten children born to them, seven of whom are living: Mary, wife of John Fisher, of Pottstown; Timothy, residing at Annville, Lebanon county ; Elizabeth, intermarried with Samuel H. Cassel, of Harleysville; Sophia, married to Ignats Karn, of Limerick; Magdalen, wife of Abraham Heckler, of Franconia; Catharine, living in Philadelphia; and Benjamin, of Springfield, Bucks county.
In 1814 Rev. William W. Price was elected to the ministry, and about 1830 was advanced to the office of Elder or Bishop,. which position he filled with untiring zeal and unflinching faith- fulness until the day of his death, which occurred August 7th, 1849, in his 60th year. Of him it may well be said, " He preached the word, was instant in season and out of season,"" sowing the divine seed on every side. Beside the care of a. large family and a faithful discharge of duties to his charge at home, he traveled much as an evangelist, visiting surrounding churches and assisting them at communion seasons. Occa- sionally he took missionary journeys to other States, once at least through Ohio before modern facilities of travel had been established, going in his own conveyance and at his own ex- pense, thus practically enforcing the precept, " Freely ye have received, freely give."
As he was a preacher of more than ordinary gifts, he an -- swered many calls from outside his own people to labor in the- work of the ministry. He had a powerful voice, retentive: memory, a thorough understanding of the science of music, and sang with great compass and power. He was also a poet of no mean abilities, and wrote a number of hymns and several poems of considerable length, all in German. He also had published at Euphrata, in 1838, a collection of German hymns, many of them being translations by him of popular English ones, with a large number of his own composing. He wrote
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a poem of some length on the promises to the patriarch Abra- ham, and another on the history of the prophecies, which have never been published.
A friend, who knows of them in all their genealogies, says:
" The Price family have ever been identified with the most intelligent people of Montgomery county. They appear to have been a priestly race in all their generations as far back as we have any knowledge of them, for their great ancestor, Jacob, first described, was a noted preacher in Europe. His son Jo- hannes was a preacher and poet, and Christopher Sauer, of Germantown, published a small collection of his hymns as early as 1753. Daniel, the son of Johannes, had at least two sons in the ministry, namely: John, the father of William (the pro- per subject of this memoir), and George, elder of the church at Coventry. The latter's son, John, became a preacher so young that he was at first called 'the boy preacher.' This 'Johnny Price,' as he was fondly and familiarly called in Ches- ter county, was the father of Rev. Isaac Price, of Schuylkill, in that county, and of George, the latter of whom has been for many years a resident of Providence township, Montgomery county, and is also an authorized preacher. The younger John has now succeeded his father at Coventry. Jacob, old Wil- liam's son, and uncle to Rev. William W., was elected at the same time as the subject of this memoir; and his son Jonas is now a minister in the church at Hatfield. Daniel, the brother of the subject of this memoir, has a son now in the ministry at Indian Creek. This makes at least sixteen in one line of de- scent, of whom we know, that have been called to the " min- istry of the word."
The Isaac Price above named in his early manhood edited an anti-Masonic paper in Pottsville a short time, but for the past forty-five years has been a storekeeper and postmaster at Schuylkill, near Phoenixville. He is known to the author as a man of superior mental endowment and blameless life For full forty years or more he has been an acceptable preacher at the church at Green Tree, and has also traveled much into distant parts as a Bishop overlooking the churches. For many years also he has been an earnest enemy of slavery and advo- cate of total abstinence from alcoholic drinks, speaking on those subjects with great zeal and effectiveness.
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GEN. ADAM J. SLEMMER.
BRIGADIER GENERAL ADAM J. SLEMMER.
Prudent as Fabius, forbearing and patriotic as Phocion, unfortunate as Regulus.
Brevet Brigadier General Adam Jacoby Slemmer, of the United States Army, was born in Frederick township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of January, 1829. He was the young- est son of Adam and Margaretta Slemmer, so long residents of Nor- ristown, where the former still (1878) resides, at the advanced age of 87 years, being one of our most estimable and respected citizens.
Adam Slemmer the elder was born December 7th, 1791, in Phila- delphia, and about 1819, when a young man, removed to the upper part of Montgomery county, where he engaged in teaching school until 1826, when his Democratic fellow-citizens nominated and elected him to a seat in the lower house of the General Assem- bly, and was re-elected three times, making four years of service as a legislator. After the conclusion of his legislative term in 1833, Governor Wolf appointed him Prothonotary of Montgomery county, when he removed to Norristown, at which time Adam J. Slemmer was four years old. The next year Mr. Slemmer purchased the Norristown Register, the organ of the Democratic party, and con- tinued to publish it until 1846, when he retired from business alto- gether. During his long life in Norristown he has filled various public and social positions, always with credit to himself and pub- lic acceptance. The ancestors of General Slemmer are known to have emigrated from Basle, Switzerland, about 1740, and settled at Philadelphia, where the grandfather, Jacob Slemmer, when quite young, entered the army of the Revolution, and served through that heroic struggle.
General Slemmer's brothers and sisters are the following: Jacob C., deceased, leaving a number of children ; Samuel, William, Dr. Henry T., Charles, and one sister, Hannah S., intermarried with John N. Pomeroy, Esq., the last many years deceased.
The school-boy days of General Slemmer were passed at Norris- town, where in the public schools he acquired a good primary edu- cation. After he had attained about his sixteenth year he entered the drug store of his brother, Dr. Henry T. Slemmer, serving for a period as druggist's clerk, and the next year (1846) was appointed a cadet at West Point. Entering at the close of the encampment season he necessarily took position at the foot of the class, which was an unusually large one, numbering one hundred and six young
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men. Gradually but steadily he advanced, and at the close of his academic term stood twelfth on the list in a class noted for the in- tellectual strength of its members. Upon graduating, in 1850, Cadet Slemmer was assigned to duty as a brevet Second Lieutenant, and was attached to the First Regiment United States Artillery. He joined his company at Tampa Bay, Florida, in the fall of that year.
The soldierly qualities of Cadet Slemmer were eminently dis- played in his second year's course at the military academy. The class succeeding his was as much smaller than ordinary as his had been larger. The new one, as usual, had assigned to it the police duties of the camp. Owing to the paucity of its numbers this duty was likely to prove irksome, and the third class, by reason of its greater numbers, having had comparatively little of this kind of duty the preceding year, was required to assist the then fourth class. Of course the "dignity" of the higher cadets was touched and obedience refused. None but Cadet Slemmer reported for duty. He answered all remonstrances from his classmates with the inevi- table "Duty to obey orders," and as a consequence received honor- able distinction for his military bearing, while his misguided class- mates were reduced, nolens volens, to obedience. That Cadet Slemmer, notwithstanding, retained the respect and esteem of his classmates, is ample evidence that his acquiescence was based on rigid adherence to principle and not the offspring of cowardice or other unworthy motive.
After serving a brief period at Tampa he was promoted to the grade of full Second Lieutenant, shortly after serving at San Diego, Fort Yuma, and other posts in California. In 1855 he was com- missioned First Lieutenant in the same regiment, and stationed a short time at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. He was there but a short time, when application was made by the United States Coast Survey to have him assigned to duty in the principal office in Wash- ington. But, as at the same time, he was called to assume the duties of an assistant professor at the military academy at West Point, the War Department refused to grant the request of the Coast Survey, and assigned him to the professor's desk. Here he remained four years, first as instructor in ethics and English studies, and afterwards in mathematics. During this period, in August, 1857, he married Caroline Lane, daughter of Rev. John Reynolds, formerly rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, Norristown. This
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union was blessed by the birth of a son, Albert Lane Slemmer, who died in his fourth year, leaving them childless.
In the autumn of 1860 Lieutenant Slemmer was placed in com- mand of the Florida forts, where he was joined by his accomplished and loyal wife. Here, with a handful of men, he was given the oversight rather than command of three forts, requiring two thou- sand soldiers for their proper defence, while the fires of rebellion were lighting all along the coast, and the chief conspirators were busy at Washington and at Montgomery, Alabama, organizing the " Confederate States of America."
Pensacola Bay is commanded by Forts McRea, Barrancas and Pickens, the first two on the main land and the last on the point of Santa Rosa Island. Early in January the Governor of Florida be- gan to make arrangements, even before the ordinance of secession had declared the State out of the Union, "to take possession of the forts, navy yards, and all property of the United States within the limits of the State." Lieutenant Slemmer was early apprised of these designs, and at once made the best arrangements in his power to frustrate them. He, with his family, occupied as barracks Fort Barrancas, the least defensible of the three, because the most com- fortable and convenient as a place of residence in time of peace. The navy yard, nearly a mile eastward, was held by Commodore Armstrong, a veteran naval officer. Governor Perry, of Florida, had just purchased in Northern cities and received six thousand muskets and rifles, and the ordinance of secession was expected daily. Lieutenant Slemmer learned also that the forts near Mobile had been surrendered without resistance, whereupon he and Lieu- tenant Gilmore called upon Commodore Armstrong, of the navy yard, on the 7th of January, and engaged, as they thought, his co- operation to secure Fort Pickens for the United States as the key- fort to the harbor. The Commodore at first declined to do any- thing, pleading " want of orders." Lieutenant Slemmer himself, without waiting for orders from Washington, proceeded the same evening to place the batteries of Barrancas in working order, secured the powder or removed it, and, strengthening the outer guard, drew up the draw-bridge, thus preventing an assault which was contem- plated the same evening. About twenty armed insurgents appeared before the fort, but finding it prepared for resistance retired. The next day Lieutenant Slemmer received instructions from Washing- ton to use all diligence in protecting the forts, and Armstrong had like orders to assist him. The two commanders agreed that Slem-
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mer's petty garrison of forty-six men should be removed in the Wyandotte to Fort Pickens from Fort Barrancas, where they then. were, and be reinforced by all the men that could be spared from the navy yard. The arnied vessel and the store-ship Supply were to furnish him provisions, and both to anchor under the guns of the fort. Lieutenant Slemmer fulfilled his arrangements, and was transported to Pickens, but no reinforcements were then added. He expostulated with the commandant, asking Armstrong how he expected him (Slemmer) to defend a fort with fifty men which was only fully manned when it had twelve hundred. It subsequently appeared that Armstrong's subordinates who were expected to co- operate were traitors .* Slemmer and his loyal little command, with about thirty ordinary seamen from the yard, and the officers' wives and children, were carried over, however, on the Joth. Nearly all the fixed ammunition also was transported, and the abandoned guns, fifteen in number, spiked. In this hasty and tumultuous "moving" the patriotic wives of Lieutenants Slemmer and Gilmore did yeomen's service. Having apparently assisted thus far, Arm- strong, against the protest of Lieutenant Slemmer, ordered the two vessels off the coast on a cruise.
No sooner had the garrison become ensconced in Fort Pickens than five hundred troops from the States of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, appeared before the navy yard and demanded its sur- render, when the Commodore and sixty men, most of them dis- loyal, yielded without a blow. The rebels soon after also occupied both Forts Barrancas and McRae. Before leaving the coast Cap -. tain Berriman, of the Wyandotte, sent Lieutenant Slemmer some muskets which he had procured from the navy yard before its sur- render, with which to arm his small reinforcement of men. The. Commodore, however, ordered the captain of the Wyandotte not to assist in the defence of Pickens, but only to defend his vessel in case it was attacked. No sooner had Slemmer and Gilmore got into the fort with their wives and families than they began to labor unceasingly to strengthen every defence. He had but eighty-one souls within, with five months' scanty provisions, and fifty-four guns in position. They were not left long to wait, for on the 12th:
*Lieutenant Gilmore, who accompanied Lieutenant Slemmer on a visit to Commo- dore Armstrong to ascertain the cause of the failure to fultill the promises before made. said subsequently that "on that occasion Lieutenant Slemmer spoke as he had never heard one man speak to another. Treason and bad faith were manifest, and Lieutenant Slemmer hesitated not to upbraid them in becoming terms. That the world may never know more than this, the old Commodore trembled before the patriotie impulses of the young Lieutenant, and yielded so far as to give him some thirty odd landsmen, who were thus added to the numerical force of the defenders of Fort Piekens."
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Captain Randolph, Major Marks and. Lieutenant Rutledge, all in military dress, presented themselves at the entrance of Fort Pickens and demanded admittance as citizens of Florida and Alabama. "They were not permitted to enter, but were allowed an interview at the gate with Lieutenant Slemmer. "We have been sent," they said, "to demand a peaceable surrender of this fort by the Gover- nors of Florida and Alabama." . Lieutenant Slemmer immediately replied : "I am here under the orders of the President of the United States and by direction of the General-in-chief of the army, and I recognize no right of any Governor to demand a surrender of United States property. My orders are distinct and explicit."
The intruders immediately withdrew, and Slemmer prepared for an attack that night, which was dark and stormy .* The men stood by their guns, but the attack was deferred. On the 15th Colonel W. H. Chase, commanding Florida troops, and accompanied by Farrand, a renegade officer of the navy, asked of Lieutenant Slem- mer another interview, which was granted. They exhausted all their powers of persuasion upon the patriotic commandant of Fort Pickens, who, after consulting the commanders of the two ships, posi- tively refused to give up the fort. The rebels now made prepara- tions to reduce it, and on the 18th again demanded a surrender, which was still refused, and a siege regularly begun. Acting in accordance with the spirit that then controlled Mr. Buchanan's government, the garrison of Pickens stood merely on the defensive, while its commander saw arrangements made on every hand to bom- bard it.
General Scott urgently advised the reinforcement of Pickens, as all the other Southern forts, but the President, though anxious, was unwilling to do so, lest he should be charged with launching the country into civil war. But at last when he learned, late in Jan- uary, that the rebels in Barrancas and McRae were seriously men- acing Pickens, he consented to send the Brooklyn with one com- pany of ninety men, under Captain Vogdes, from Fortress Monroe. Before landing them, however, a new order was sent not to do more than deliver some provisions to the fort. Thus a sort of armed neutrality continued all winter, while the insurgents were gathering strength in every direction. Nevertheless, the fidelity with which Lieutenant Slemmer held the fort, seemingly deserted, was worthy of all praise.
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*Lossing's "History of the Civil War," page 171
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To increase the deprivations of the little garrison there was no surgeon at the post, but Lieutenant Slemmer had learned much of pharmacy while in his brother's store, and afterwards, when sta- tioned at Fort Moultrie, had procured some books on medicine, which he had studied. Thus, during the emergency, he was able to be not only the commander of his men, but also their surgeon.
With only a limited stock of provisions at first the fort had been reduced to about a ration of Indian meal. The officers and men were also greatly exhausted with watching and double duty. But as soon as the new administration came into power, on the 4th of March, orders came to the commander of the Brooklyn and Cap- tain Vogdes to land reinforcements and supplies to the fort. Owing to a notion entertained by Captain Adams, of the Sabine, then cruising off the fort, that the armistice was still in force, the order was not executed until the 12th of April, or full three months after it was first beleaguered ; and not then till Captain Worden, as mes- senger, had passed overland to convey direct orders to the naval commanders. Had it been postponed another day, General Bragg, who was in command of the rebel troops, meant to open fire upon it. Indeed, Pickens was only saved from successful assault by a mere providential discovery made through a communication to Lieutenant Slemmer from a loyal man in the navy yard that such attack was to be made. The reinforcements, however, soon became known to the rebels, and prevented an attack being made at all. A few days later the Atlantic and Illinois arrived with several hundred troops under Colonel Harvey Brown, and Fort Pickens, after the long suspense, was safe. Being outranked and relieved by a supe- rior officer, Lieutenant Slemmer and command, worn down by ex- cessive labor and watching, were brought to Fort Hamilton, New York harbor, to rest and recruit their strength. Lieutenant Slem- mer, for his activity and fidelity under such trying circumstances, was commissioned Major of the Sixteenth Infantry.
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