USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 27
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On the 5th of March, 1869, by orders from the President (Gen- eral Grant), he was transferred to the command of the Department of Dakota, with headquarters at St. Paul, Minnesota, where he re- mained until the death of Major General Meade in the fall of 1872, when he was again assigned, in orders d'ated November 25th, 1872, to the command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, with head- quarters in New York city, where he is at present stationed.
In 1869 he was urged by his friends to accept the nomination of the Democratic party of Pennsylvania as their candidate for Gover- nor of that State, which he at once positively declined; and al- though not an aspirant for the honor, he was among the most prominent named for the Democratic nomination for the Presi- dency in their national conventions in 1868, 1872, and 1876.
It has been the good fortune of but few men to render to their country such long continued and valuable services as the subject of
284
MAJOR GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK.
this sketch. As a soldier he stands among the nation's most able- and illustrious, while his "civil record" has shown such capacity for administration, coupled with the highest respect for and obedience to the laws of the land, as to gain for himself the respect and confi- dence of all classes of his countrymen.
The last active military service performed by him was superin -- tending the disposition of a small body of regular troops brought to Maryland and Pennsylvania, on requisitions of the Governors. of those States upon the President, to suppress railroad riots which broke out in the summer of 1877 within their jurisdiction, and in General Hancock's military division. This delicate duty he per -- formed with such prudence and discretion that the regulars were: not brought into actual collision with the people, but, nevertheless,. exerted a powerful influence in restoring peace and order.
Of General Hancock's distinguishing characteristics as a soldier- it is but justice to remark that he resembles Wayne of the Revolu- tionary army and Sheridan of the rebellion, in dash and fearless: bravery ; and yet, in his brief command in the South, he exhibited the very opposite of assuming boldness, which does him credit as a. military leader in time of peace. It is natural for men of. his pro- fession to hastily resort to force in emergencies, especially as there- were so many inducements leading him to adopt those means in- stead of the opposite. How far, or whether at all, political views in- fluenced him, it is impossible to determine. But it must be admit- ted by even those who hold that the civil rights of the late rebellious; States had lapsed, that the famous letter of the General to Gover- nor Pease, dated March 9th, 1868, in defence of General Order- No. 40, is an able document and hard to refute. It is an open- question, Republicans generally maintaining that civil rights and constitutional guarantees existing at the South had gone down with- the "lost cause"; that those States had no rights but such as the- conqueror chose to reconvey; and that in those Commonwealths. all civil administration of law not in full conformity with the new order of things was ipso facto, in the nature of war, to be suppressed by Federal arms. Democrats denied all this theory, maintaining that open resistance having ceased, all remedies were or should be civil ones alone. Whichever be the true theory, General Hancock's views were the safest for an American General to assume. They were the opposite of those held by Cæsar when he crossed the Rubicon, or Croniwell when he ejected the long Parliament.
It only remains to add a few items concerning General Hancock's.
285
SAMUEL B. HELFFENSTEIN, ESQ.
.
family connections. He has but one surviving child, his son Rus- sell, who resides in St. Louis, Missouri. A beautiful and accom- plished daughter died in New York, in her 18th year.
General Hancock's father died in Norristown on the Ist of Feb- ruary, 1867, in his 68th year, and his mother, at an advanced age, still (1879) resides in the same place. Benjamin F. Hancock, Esq., .during his early business life, was for many years a Justice of the Peace, and till the time of his death an eminent lawyer at our bar. He was also, as his wife, during all their adult life, worthy members of the Baptist churches of Norristown and Bridgeport.
The General's twin brother, Hilary Hancock, Esq., is a lawyer residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His younger brother, John Hancock, Esq., was some years a member of the Legislature from Philadelphia, and has a number of children living.
SAMUEL B. HELFFENSTEIN, EsQ.
THE HELFFENSTEINS.
If death were the final dissolution of being, the wicked would be great gainers by it, by being delivered at once from their bodies, their souls, and their vices; but as the soul is immortal, it has no other means of being freed from its evils, nor any safety for it, but in becoming very good and very wise .- Socrates.
Samuel B. Helffenstein, Esq., editor and proprietor of the Na- .tional Defender, Norristown, is the oldest son of Jonathan and Eme- line Bush Helffenstein, and was born in Gwynedd township, Mont- gomery county, November 24th, 1838. His father was the son of Rev. Samuel Helffenstein, D. D.,* for many years pastor of the German Reformed congregation in Race street, Philadelphia, who was the son of Rev. John Conrad Helffenstein. The latter emigrated from the Palatinate, Germany, in 1772, where he was born February 16th, 1748. He settled over the German Reformed church of Ger- mantown, and labored there nearly all his life, preaching a short time, however, during the Revolutionary war, at Lancaster, Penn- sylvania. He soon returned to Germantown, where he died May 17th, 1790, aged 42 years, and is buried there.
His son, Rev. Samuel Helffenstein, D. D., first mentioned, and the grandfather of the subject of this notice, was one of the most
*For the facts of this record we are indebted to Harbach and Heisler's "Fathers of tthe German Reformed Church."
286
SAMUEL B. HELFFENSTEIN, ESQ.
eminent ministers that the Reformed church in this country has- ever produced, and deserves, in this connection, a more extended notice. His mother's maiden name was Kircher, and she was a resident of Philadelphia. Though a feeble, weakly child, his mo- ther, like Hannah of old, dedicated him to the Lord, giving him in charge of the Synod to be educated. He was accordingly trained carefully, and ordained in 1797, first having charge of Bæhm's and Wentz's congregations, in Montgomery county. In 1798 he was settled over the Race street church, Philadelphia, laboring there till 1832, when he removed to a rural home in Gwynedd township, near North Wales, Montgomery county, where he died October 17th, 1866, aged 91 years. He was married early in life to Anna Christina Steitle, by whom he had twelve children, three of whom, Samuel, Albert and Jacob, became eminent ministers of the gospel.
Dr. Helffenstein's life or career is a remarkable instance of a man of delicate constitution marrying young (22), becoming the father of a very large family, and dying in extreme old age, with his mental force hardly abated. As late as 1846, when seventy-one, he published a volume of didactic theology, and during his minis- try of fifty years as many as twenty-seven young men studied the- ology under him. His wife died in January, 1860, six years before. him, at the age of 81, and they are both interred in the family vault at North Wales Reformed church-yard.
The Helffenstein family is perhaps rather more noted in Pennsyl- vania annals as connected with the ministry of the German Re- formed church than the Muhlenbergs have been as prominent in that relation in the Lutheran church. Three of the sons of the patri- arch of the family (John Conrad Helffenstein), Rev. Samuel, of the Race street church, Philadelphia, Charles, and Jonathan, were all. eminent ministers. In the next generation, Samuel, Albert, and Jacob, sons of Samuel (the son of the emigrant), were equally dis- tinguished clergymen in their day. It happened to the author to sit for a short time under the occasional ministrations of Rev. Sam - uel, Jr., and he bears testimony to the simple, earnest orthodoxy" of his preaching.
Dr. B. W. Helffenstein, of Norristown, is one of the sons of Rev. Dr. Helffenstein. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, practiced a number of years, but later in life re- moved to Norristown, where he has divided his time between at- tendance upon an apothecary that he keeps and giving lessons on the piano, of which art he is a professor. He is intermarried with
28,7
SAMUEL B. HELFFENSTEIN, ESO.
Elizabeth, daughter of Edward and Magdalen Updegrove. They have had three children, Joseph U., Anna E., and Jacob H., the- last of whom died in his 18th year. Dr. B. W. Helffenstein and family have been decided adherents of the evangelical branch of the Re- formed church, and were among the most active in organizing the- 'Trinity Reformed Church of Norristown, which stands as a protest. against the anti-Protestant tendencies of many in the Reformed body.
We return to the subject proper of this notice. His brothers and: sisters are the following: Albert, an experienced printer, who many years was associated with him in the publication of the Defender,. and is married to Matilda Earl; they have three children, Emily,. Mamie, and Kate. Annie is intermarried with Thomas B. Evans,." now (1879) foreman of the above named office. They have one- daughter, Addie. Emanuel and Emily now live with the widowed. mother in Norristown.
Samuel B. Helffenstein, Esq., when a boy at his home at North: Wales, and at the age of fifteen, was seized with a white swelling in: his leg, which laid him aside as an invalid for three years. He still,. however, so profited by his opportunities as to commence teaching: school when in his twentieth year, though crippled for life.
In July, 1864, S. B. & A. Helffenstein purchased of General Wil- liam Schall the paper which had previously been published by his sons, Edwin and Edward. At that time the circulation was about six hundred copies a week. Under the management of S. B. & A. Helffenstein, and of Samuel B. alone, it has been run up to two thousand, in the face of increasing competition all over the county.
In 1869 S. B. Helffenstein, Esq., was elected Clerk of the Courts,. which office he filled three years to public acceptance, and in 1871 he bought his brother's interest in the Defender, since which time he has published it alone. In 1873 he was married to Hannah R., daughter of the late Peter Streeper, of Whitemarsh.
S. B. Helffenstein's father died in 1847, when his son was but nine years old, and the latter, after subsequently spending three- years of excruciating suffering in a sick room, was at last permitted to enter life as a teacher, which calling he followed six years, till. taking charge of the Defender. This last enterprise he began with- out experience in the calling or wealth to back him. The present stable position of the paper, with a wide and reliable patronage, is. the best proof of his industry and capacity for business. As an edi- tor, Mr. Helffenstein is courteous and spirited towards opponents. or friends, and pointed and forcible when he takes hold of the per to excoriate a political enemy.
288
WILLIAM J. BUCK.
WILLIAM J. BUCK, HISTORIAN.
He lives with antiquity and with posterity: with antiquity, in the sweet commu- nion of studious retirement; and with posterity, in the generous aspirings after future renown. The solitude of such a mind is its state of highest enjoyment. It is then vis- îted by those elevated meditations which are the proper aliment of noble souls .- W. Irv- ing's Roscoe.
The family is of German origin, dating back in Franconia to the time of the Crusades, its coat of arms being a white or silver springing buck on a vermilion field. "We may fairly conclude," says Lower in his work on the source of family names, "that sometimes such surnames which indicate cour- age or agility have been borrowed from the shields and ban- ners of war." This remark probably applies in this instance. Several centuries later branches of the family are recorded as settled in Alsace, Flanders, and Lorraine. In the latter the De Bocks held the seignories of Olgrange, Petrange, Vance, and Autel, down to their confiscation in the French revolution. The most common christian names in the family for generations have been Nicholas, Jacob, and John.
The name of the great-grandfather of the subject of this no- tice was Nicholas Bock, or De Bock (the German or French for Buck), who came from near Thionville, Lorraine, about 1753, and first resided in Berks county for a few years. From there he removed to Springfield township, Bucks county, where, in 1758, he first took up one hundred and eighty-two acres of land by patent from the proprietaries, on which he settled and made the first improvements, and subsequently one hundred and seventy-two acres more adjoining. He was a man of cul- ture, and could speak German, French, Flemish, and English with fluency. A short time before his death in 1787, he di- vided his real estate among his several sons. His third, Nich- olas, was born in Springfield in 1769, and in due time married Mary, the daughter of John Eck, of Lower Salford township, Montgomery county. In 1792 he purchased a tract of land on the Durham road, in Nockamixon township, on which he removed the following spring, and continued there, ma king extensive improvements, thus becoming the founder of Bucks- · ville. His descendants still hold most of the real estate there.
289
WILLIAM J. BUCK.
' 'Here his second son, Jacob E. Buck (the father of the subject of this notice) was born in 1801, and subsequently brought up to the storekeeping business. On the 24th of February, 1824, he was married to Catharine, daughter of Joseph Afflerbach, cousin of the late Major General Paul Applebach.
His eldest son, William Joseph, whose career we are sketch- ing, was born at Bucksville on the 4th of March, 1825. In 1831 he purchased the property at "Stony Point" (the name he gave it), and there entered into the mercantile business. After 'William J. had been sent to the neighboring schools till he could read, at the early age of eight years he was sent from home, under charge of an uncle, to Doylestown Academy, where he continued at intervals down to the spring of 1842, and where he received the greater part of his school education. In the year just named his father purchased the Red Lion ho- tel property, at Willow Grove, in Montgomery county, to which he removed and there continued till 1870. Here also William J. resided till the summer of 1866, teaching the public school of the place from August, 1847, till the spring of 1849, when, through ill health, he resigned the position.
In October, 1857, he was elected County Auditor, which office was held two terms, or till the beginning of 1863, after which for several years he was an occasional assistant in the United States Revenue Collector's office, under David Newport. Previously, however, so early as 1844, he became a member of the Hat- boro Library Company, which gave him access to books, and which association he served as a director from 1859 to 1862.
John S. Brown, proprietor of the Bucks county Intelligencer, quite early became impressed with the literary tendencies of Mr. Buck, and encouraged him to become a contributor to his paper so early as 1851. Mr. B. continued to furnish mat- ter for that paper many years. In 1852 the Historical Society of Pennsylvania published in their collections his "History of Mooreland," and the following year his articles on "Local Su- perstitions" and "Indian Relics." For the former article he received a complimentary letter from Washington Irving, encouraging him to continue his historical efforts. The paper on "Indian Relics" is illustrated by eighteen lithograph im-
290
WILLIAM J. BUCK.
pressions from drawings furnished by him. In this article he suggested a historical map, which the Historical Society after- wards carried into effect and had published in 1875, and to which he was a valued contributor.
From a boy he evinced a passion for Indian relics, having, unaided by any one, gathered a considerable collection from the vicinity of Stony Point before he was twelve years old, and which he presented to the Hatboro Library in 1856.
Observing the interest taken in the extracts from his "His- tory of Mooreland," published in the Intelligencer, Mr. Brown prevailed on him to write a history of Bucks county for his paper, which accordingly appeared in its columns weekly, commencing with November 7th, 1854, and ending March 13th, 1855. The editor afterwards had the series printed in pamphlet form, commending it in very complimentary terms. Copies of this work have been recently sold at high prices, as it is out of print, and only comes down to the close of the eighteenth century. These facts are somewhat remarkable, inasmuch as it was hastily written, for from the time he re- ceived the first invitation to write it until the whole passed into the publisher's hands was but seven months.
In 1859 appeared his "History of Montgomery County within the Schuylkill Valley," a work of considerable labor and merit, and in preparation to write which he traveled afoot the previous August about three hundred miles, visiting all objects of interest and making full notes by the way.
His "Contributions to the History of Bucks County" com- menced in the Intelligencer April 19th, 1859, and continued till the 20th of September following.
"The Cuttelossa and Its Historical Associations" appeared in the same paper from April 8th to September 23d, 1873, the subject being a romantic stream in Solebury, but little over three miles in length, in the neighborhood of which he had spent several weeks during the two previous autumns.
For many years Mr. Buck's mind has been drawn irresistibly towards historical and antiquarian studies. Mr. Watson, the annalist, who met him at such a meeting at Graeme Park in. 1855, wrote of him shortly after as "the young historian" who
291
WILLIAM J. BUCK.
he supposed "would devote himself to such work hereafter, as he has the mind for it."
In the Home Weekly, of Philadelphia, appeared a series of articles by Mr. Buck between February, 1866, and January 23d, 1867, entitled "The Naturalist" and "Observations of a Naturalist."
In September, 1870, he accepted a situation with the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania, as his other business permitted, till November, 1872, in making extracts for their use from early original records, to accomplish which required about one thousand miles of travel, and the manuscript filling upwards of four thousand compact foolscap pages. Since that time he has had charge of the manuscript department of the society, hav- ing arranged and had bound nearly one hundred volumes, of which thirty-nine are folios belonging to the Penn collection, purchased in 1871 at a cost of nearly four thousand dollars.
He read a paper before the society on the 4th of January, 1875, on the early discovery of coal in Pennsylvania, which was published by his permission in the tenth volume of the "Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society." A second paper was read March 13th, 1876, entitled "Early Accounts of Petroleum in the United States," which was is- sued in a pamphlet by Bloss & Cogswell, at Titusville, Penn- sylvania, and, with additions, in the Engineering and Mining Journal, of New York.
In the summer of 1876, availing himself of the opportunities afforded by the Centennial exhibition, he made nearly four hundred drawings, with descriptions, of the best specimens of the various Indian relics exhibited by the government and others.
In the fall of that year he wrote a full "History of Mont- gomery County," which was published in the spring of 1877 in Scott's Atlas. It is a remarkable condensation of history in a narrow space, first as a county, and again by townships and boroughs. To the late publications of the Historical So- ciety he has continued as an occasional contributor.
Since February, 1876, he has also arranged and indexed thirty-three volumes of manuscripts belonging to the Pennsyl-
292
REV. JACOB K. REINER.
vania Abolition Society, which was founded by Franklin and his compeers, and so satisfactorily was the work accomplished that the society at its annual meeting on the 26th of Decem- ber, 1878, decided to engage him to write a full history of that famous association which has existed over one hundred years. This work will embrace the record from its institution in 1775 to the Emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln. Mr. Buck is now (1879) engaged on that publication.
Although Mr. Buck has proved himself a devoted student, he is, what is equally commendable, an active business man also, for in the summer of 1866 he purchased a farm of two hundred and twenty-seven acres near Federalsburg, Caroline county, Maryland, of which he has twenty-five acres planted with trees now bearing fruit, and where he makes his chief home when not at the Historical Society's rooms. He also occasionally resides at Hatboro, Montgomery county, on a farm received from his father in 1872, on which he has worked a valuable stone quarry.
Judging by Mr. Buck's capacity, tastes, and his means of gratifying them, it would not be surprising if his intimate rela- tions with the Historical Society should continue in some shape or another while he lives.
His family connections living are not numerous. He has an only brother, James, residing in the West, and a sister, Isa- bella, married to J. Frank Cottman, of Jenkintown.
REV. JACOB K. REINER.
I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and wherever I have seen the print of his shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot, too .- Bunyan.
The man whose name heads this sketch is a venerable min- ister of the Dunker church at Indian creek, and was born in Hatfield township, Montgomery county, March 22d, 1807. He is the son of David and Mary Kulp Reiner, also of Montgomery county. He received but a common school education in his youth, such as was then common, embracing reading, writing,
293
REV. JACOB K. REINER.
arithmetic, grammar, geography, and some of the inferior branches of mathematics. He early exhibited a fondness for reading and study, having the opportunity to gratify his taste by the aid of the Hilltown Library and that of Montgomery Square. He also availed himself of the advantages of lyceums. during long winter evenings, taking an active part in the de- bates. Thus prospering in the pursuit of knowledge till his twenty-seventh year, he was married to Lydia Harley on the 28th of November, 1833. There have been born to them five children, Mary Catharine, Joel, Isaiah, Samuel, and Israel. The eldest died at the age of four years, and Israel in his twentieth. Joel is intermarried with Esther Bevinghouse, and Isaiah with Eliza Markley. Being of a religious turn of mind, Jacob K. Reiner early joined the German Baptist church. About 1841, when thirty-four years old, he was, as is the custom among them, elected a minister to preach the gospel at Indian creek, and has been serving in that calling ever since.
The Reiner family of the United States, according to Grube's tables, originate with Lawrence Reiner, a wealthy and educated Protestant, who emigrated from Germany early in the last cen- tury. He had traveled to England, and obtained from Queen Anne's government four things as an outfit for a pilgrim to the new world-an axe, scythe, sickle, and .a grant of land in the province of New Jersey, upon which he settled. But happen- ing once to be nearly drowned while crossing the Delaware to mill (there being none in New Jersey then), he resolved to re- move to Pennsylvania, which he did, and located on or near the Perkiomen creek.
His offspring, of the second generation, were Lawrence and Philip. The third generation is traced through the second son, Philip. They were as follows: Henry, a miller; Mrs. Reiff, who moved to Virginia; David, a farmer; Abraham, a wheel- wright and farmer, who married Christiana Wanner, and by whom the descent is next traced.
294
REV. JACOB K. REINER.
This Christiana Wanner has a romantic and somewhat mel- ancholy history, which is here narrated .*
The offspring of Abraham and Christiana Reiner were as follows: Mary, intermarried with a man named Stong; David, a turner and spinning-wheel maker, and the father of Rev. Jacob K. Reiner, the subject of this biography. Their other children were: Rebecca Hoffman, mother of Philip Hoffman, born January Ist, 1792, and died November 5th, 1864; Beata Stauffer, wife of Rudolph Stauffer; Elizabeth Switzer, of North Coventry, Chester county ; and Philip Reiner, who had twelve children, and finally became afflicted with a mild type of in- sanity.
Thus Christiana Wanner and sister, at once orphaned and robbed of their patrimony, under God's ruling hand became, notwithstanding, the mothers of an exalted line of descendants, reminding one of the patriarch Isaac, who was almost slain on the altar of sacrifice, a lesson to all future ages.
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