USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 29
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In early life Alan W. Corson was married to Mary, daugh- ter of Laurence Egbert, of Plymouth, and they had born to them the following children, seven of whom grew to adult age : Hannah, intermarried with James Richie; Sarah, married to Isaac Garretson; Martha, the wife of Isaac Styer; Elias Hicks, whose life and family history appear elsewhere in this volume; Laurence E., married to Mary, daughter of Dr. Benjamin John- son; Dr. Joseph; and Luke, who is an extensive farmer living in Nebraska.
The living children of the above grandchildren of Alan W. Corson are the following: James and Hannah Richie have two daughters, Helen and Emily. Isaac and Sarah Garretson have five children-Mary, intermarried with William Livezey; Joseph, Alan, Anna, and Eliza. The children of Elias H. are given
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ALAN W. CORSON.
elsewhere. Laurence E. Corson, who for many years was an eminent surveyor, justice of the peace, and conveyancer in Norristown, left three children-Alan (who is now justice, sur- veyor, and conveyancer in Norristown, as his father was), Sal- lie, and Norman. Dr. Joseph, who studied with his uncle, Hiram, graduated at the University, and till the breaking out of the rebellion practiced at Portsmouth, Ohio; was surgeon of an Ohio regiment, and died soon after his return; was married to Martha Cutler, and his widow and one son, Edward, live at that place. Luke, who is the only son living, has one child, Alan.
Alan W. Corson's eldest daughter inherited her father's love of natural science, and more than thirty years ago furnished the Montgomery County Cabinet of Natural Science a valua- ble herbarium. She stands very high as a botanist, and the vast collection of rare specimens in that science she has gath- ered and prepared, as also her museum of salt and fresh water shells, have made her justly celebrated among her acquaint- ances. She has two daughters, one the wife of Dr. John Gra- ham, of Philadelphia, and the other married to a gentleman named Perkins, of the same city.
A notice of Alan W. Corson would not be complete without a further reference to his brothers and sisters, the other child- ren of Joseph Corson (who left a large family), nearly all of whom were well educated, and possessed commanding talents and marked moral characteristics. The author will be par- doned for saying that they exhibit family peculiarities remind- ing him of some of the time-honored clans of Scotland. The Corsons will arraign each other, sometimes sharply; but to- the outside world they are a unit. This results from the very commendable and warranted pride of family, or esprit du corps, as the French phrase it. Almost all the race possess a keen, jocular, and sarcastic turn of mind, and some of them a talent for mimicry and critical badinage peculiarly French. The author may also add that he has no knowledge of any man of the county from whom are descended so large a number of cul- tivated and distinguished offspring, both in the male and female branches, as are descended from Joseph Corson.
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ALAN W. CORSON.
Joseph Corson's next eldest child to Alan W. was Mary, in- termarried with Charles Adamson, of Schuylkill, Chester county, who died recently at the age of 85. She was the mother of Thomas Adamson, who for many years held the position of United States Consul at Pernambuco, Brazil, and is now in a similar position at Rio Janeiro. In these posts he has won an enviable fame with American seamen navigating those waters. A sister of Thomas, Dr. Sarah R. A. Dolly, studied medicine -being one of the first women in the United States to gradu- ate-and has, in connection with her husband, Dr. Lester A. Dolly, a large practice in Rochester, New York. Another sis- ter is married to Elijah F. Pennypacker, Esq., of Phoenixville. The youngest son, Charles, also lives at Phoenixville.
The third child was Sarah, the wife of Thomas Read, late of Norristown, whose family is mentioned in connection with the sketch of Dr. L. W. Read, found on another page of this book.
Joseph Corson's next child was Joseph, intermarried with Ann Hagy, and by whom he had the following children: Hi- ram, Hannah, Isabella, Humphrey, Clara, and Howard. Of these the first named is a very distinguished and well known scholar, having been at one time a professor in Girard College at Philadelphia, St. John's College at Annapolis, and now of lan- guage in Cornell University. He was recently invited by the New Shaksperian Society of London, England, to deliver the annual address before them, an honor never before tendered an American. Isabella, a sister of Hiram, is the wife of George A. Lenzi, a very gifted artist of Norristown. Clara, the young- est sister, is intermarried with a son of Rev. Mr. Scholl, for- merly of Norristown. Howard, the youngest child, is dead.
The next son of Joseph Corson, Sr., was Charles, who is commemorated in the sketch of his son, George N. Corson, Esq., elsewhere recorded in this book.
Next comes George Corson, Sr., who all his life lived at Plymouth Meeting, first as a merchant, and afterwards as a farmer and extensive manufacturer of lime. He was justly dis- tinguished for high moral qualities, being a most untiring anti- slavery and temperance reformer while he lived. He was mar-
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ALAN W. CORSON.
ried to Martha, daughter of Samuel Maulsby, of Plymouth. His eldest son, Samuel M., studied law, and practiced some years in Philadelphia, but has resorted to teaching and litera- ture as more congenial to his taste. A brother, Elwood, is the well known physician of Norristown, who, to his reputa- tion as a doctor, has added botany as a special study. A sis- ter, Helen, who after years spent in the School of Design at Philadelphia, and two years under private instructors in France in the study of art, returned to Plymouth, but is now pursuing her profession again in Paris. Another daughter of George is Ida, who, after graduating at Vassar College, taught mathematics in a popular school in Philadelphia, and is now residing with her uncle, Surgeon George Maulsby, of the United States Navy, in Washington, District of Columbia.
After George Corson, who died in 1860, in his 58th year, comes Hiram, without doubt the most celebrated physician in the county. Reference is elsewhere made to him at length.
The youngest of Joseph Corson's family is William, who studied medicine and graduated at the University of Pennsyl- vania, and was admitted to practice in 1831. He has long been at the head of the profession in Norristown, having a very large practice. He is an enthusiastic devotee to everything that relates to it, besides being a man of enlarged public spirit. He and his brother Hiram were mainly instrumental in organizing the Montgomery County Medical Society, and are also mem- bers of the State society.
During the late war Dr. William Corson was appointed by Dr. H. H. Smith, Surgeon General of the State of Pennsylva- nia, in connection with Dr. Green, of Easton, and Dr. Worth- ington, of West Chester, members of his examining board con- vened at Harrisburg. Subsequently he was appointed to fill the position of examining surgeon, or medical officer, of the Sixth district during the drafts. This was a post of great re- sponsibility, demanding good judgment and high moral cour- age. Since the conclusion of the war he was appointed exam- ining surgeon under the pension laws of the United States. At present he has the position of commissioner in the board ap- pointed to superintend the building of the Warren Hospital for
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MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
the Insane. Though naturally diffident, retiring, and not seek- ing official responsibilities, he has frequently been chosen to sit on public committees, and has contributed at different times some valuable papers to the medical literature of the day.
With few exceptions the whole Corson race have been cul- tivated in mind and notorious for their love of free thought. True to their Huguenot origin, they have been outspoken for freedom-the deadly foes of slavery; and most of them being life-long teetotallers. As the phrenologists say, the moral in- stincts have predominated over those strictly religious, Alan W. being nearly the only one of the male members of the family who has assumed the strict garb and life of Friends, al- though most of them adhere to the society's teachings. Alan is justly noted for his doctrinal unity with those who hold the views of Elias Hicks, and for the conscientious fulfillment of every precept of christian morals.
Alan W. Corson's mind received a strong religious bent at a very early age, and his conscientiousness and truthfulness have been controlling characteristics during his long life. He has been all his days an ardent lover of nature. Many years ago, with his cousin, John Evans, he used to make annual ex- cursions to the lowlands of Delaware, Maryland, the sandy pine woods of New Jersey, and even to the Adirondacks, for specimens of botany, geology, mineralogy, and entomology, and in search of other scientific matters.
MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
The time of life is short ; To spend that shortness basely 'twere too long If life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour .- Shakspeare.
William H. Holstein is the eldest surviving son of Colonel George W. Holstein, of Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, and was born February 17th, 1816. His brothers and sisters, with their intermarriages and offspring, are the follow-
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MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
ing: Ann Sophia was married to Andrew Shainline, farmer, of Upper Merion, both deceased; left four sons and three daughters. Rachel M., the wife of Thomas J. Molony, farmer, of Kingsessing, Philadelphia; also deceased, leaving no child- ren. Elizabeth W., married to Dr. Joseph Brookfield, of Phil- adelphia; died without children. Mary Atlee, intermarried with William Amies, papermaker, of Darby, Delaware county, now deceased; have two daughters. Emily Wilson, the wife of General William B. Thomas, flour merchant, of Philadel- phia; three daughters. Louisa B., the widow of George W. Dewees, formerly of Chester county; has two daughters and one son. Susan, the wife of William B. Roberts, Esq., farmer, of Upper Merion; two daughters and six sons. Dr. George W., intermarried with Abby T., daughter of Daniel R. and Ann Brower, then of Phoenixville; one daughter and two sons. Isaac Wayne, farmer, of Upper Merion, married to Alice H. Hallowell; two daughters and one son.
William H. Holstein's father, with the late Major Matthias and William Holstein, were the descendants in the third gen- eration of Matts Holstein, who was born in Philadelphia (or rather, where part of that city now stands) in 1644, of Swedish parents, two years after the second immigration of Swedes to the banks of the Delaware and Schuylkill. The family thus antedates the Penn settlement in Pennsylvania by nearly half a century. The immediate descendant of Matts Holstein, his son Matthias, came to Upper Merion (then known as Amas- land) during the year 1705, and purchased one thousand acres of land running west from the Schuylkill, near Swedes' Ford, and extending to Red Hill. In 1714 he built a stone house on Frog creek, near the centre of the tract, where his children and grandchildren, four generations down, have been born. This house is still standing, and in a good state of preservation. The farm which Major William H. Holstein owns and occu- pies is part of the original tract, and has always remained in the possession and occupancy of the Holstein family. The maternal ancestors of Mr. Holstein were Welsh or English, his grandmother, Elizabeth Wayne, being a sister of Major General Anthony Wayne, of Revolutionary fame.
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MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
The subject of our notice received his chief education in the neighboring schools, excepting one year spent at the seminary of C. Atherton and Rev. Samuel Aaron, at Burlington, New Jersey. On the 26th of September, 1848, he was married to Anna M., daughter of William Cox and Rebecca Ellis, of Muncy, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. He has been em- ployed as a farmer all his life, having sought no public office, nor held any beside that of Secretary of the Chester Valley railroad corporation and the position of vestryman of Swedes' Episcopal Church, the latter of which he has filled for the long time of thirty-five years.
During the late civil war he enlisted in the ranks of the Seventeenth Regiment of Pennsylvania militia ("emergency men"), and served till it was mustered out. Shortly after, about the time of the battle of Antietam, in company with his wife, he commenced a tour of hospital duty, which was con- tinued without intermission until the end of the war, July 4th, 1865, when they returned again to their home. His brother, Isaac W., occupies his father's homestead. Mr. Holstein re- sides upon an adjoining farm which descended to him from his uncle, William Holstein, who died many years ago without children.
As the most important public service of Major Holstein's life was performed in connection with that of his capable and public-spirited lady, we give copious extracts from a small vol- ume recently written and published by her, of their experience in that benevolent work, under the title of "Three Years in Field Hospitals." On visiting the terrible field of Antietam, she says :
"As I passed through the first hospitals of wounded men I ever saw, there flashed the thought, 'This is the work God has given me to do in this war-to care for the wounded and sick, as sorrowing wives and mothers at home would so gladly do were it in their power.' "
Thus she and her husband, feeling themselves "called" to the work, continued three years in it. The duty of nurses often placed Mr. and Mrs. Holstein in circumstances of great trust and responsibility, and faithfully they discharged them :
"Near Union Mills our troops camped for the night in order of
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battle. Many officers and men came with the request that we would take charge of money and valuables for them. It was a, touching sight-upon the eve of a battle, as we thought-to see keepsakes from loved ones at home entrusted to comparative stran- gers. I wore under my coat a belt, and carried the costly sword belonging to it under my dress. A civilian, as my husband was, could not do so without arrest, while I would pass unnoticed. The large amount of money and valuables in our possession were brought safely to Philadelphia, and the former soon restored to its owners. The sword, with some other articles, were unclaimed till the end of the war."-Pages 36, 37.
Of Gettysburg, where they had a long and arduous tour of duty, she says :
"For a few weeks the events daily occurring in the hospitals were most painful. They might be summed up, briefly, to be : fearfully wounded men; nurses watching for the hour when suffering would cease, and the soldier be at rest; parents and friends crowding to the hospital, hoping for the best, yet fearing the worst; strong men praying that they might live just long enough to see, but once more, wife, or child, or mother. After this battle relief came promptly. It was upon our own soil, and the great heart of the people was stirred to its very depths when they knew that among us thousands of our countrymen lay with ghastly wounds-men who had stood as a 'living wall' between us and the foe to save our homes from. rebel rule."-Page 40.
Other incidents are related :
"In the officers' row lay, for some weeks, a young Lieutenant: from Schuylkill county, with both thighs shattered, suffering fear- fully. A few hours before his death, at his request, the holy com- munion was administered to him. After joining in the solemn ser- vices he remained perfectly still-unconsciously ' passing away,' as, those present thought-until a glee club from Gettysburg, going through the hospital, sang, as they walked, 'Rally 'Round the Flag.' The words and music seemed to call back the spirit to earth. again, and forgetting his crushed limbs and intense suffering, sprang up, exclaiming, 'Yes, boys, we did rally 'round the flag; and you will rally oft again!' then sank back exhausted, and soon was at rest."-Page 48.
" In another portion of the hospital was a man from western Penn- sylvania, whom his friends mourned as dead, whose funeral sermon had been preached, and his name on the rolls marked 'Killed in battle.' His captain and comrades saw him fall in the midst of a desperate charge, and almost without a struggle life was gone-as they thought, and so reported. But it was not so. The bullet, in its course, went crashing through both eyes, though sparing life. A few hours later, when the wounded were gathered up, he was found, then taken with others to the hospital, where for weeks he lay unconscious, his brain affected from the inflammation which en-
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MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
sued. He could give no history of himself, but when hungry would make it known by calling ' Mother !' and talk to her constantly- first about his food, then of home concerns. I have heard him in these sad wanderings when he would ask, 'What do the girls say about me, now I have gone to the war? Does Jennie miss me?' At length his parents heard of him, and from the description thought it might be the son they mourned as dead. I was in his tent when his father came and recognized in the blind, deranged man, his handsome, brave boy. Eventually his mind might be restored, but his sight never. In this state he took him home to the mother he talked of so much."-Page 49.
The experience of Major Holstein and wife, as detailed in the pages of this little volume, are both pathetic and interest- ing, sometimes amusing, of which the following are speci- mens: On the march to Richmond under Grant, in 1864, the hospital service passed an Episcopal church, and Mrs. Hol- stein, opening the prayer-book on the desk, found the words "President of the United States" were cut out. Beside it lay a manuscript copy of prayers for the rebel government. This Mrs. H. and her husband, being Episcopalians, confiscated, sending it to the Sanitary Fair, and substituted the prayers for the Union armies as published by Bishop Potter, of Pennsyl- vania .- Page 63. A motley crowd of men, women and child- ren (contrabands) were constantly arriving. Mr. H. met an old woman of eighty carrying, as he supposed, a child in her arms. Upon coming up to her, however, and questioning her as to her burden, she said she had her "ole mudder," who was over one hundred; that they were "going to the land of free- dom, and could not leave her a slave in Virginia."-Page 64.
We make no apology for copying the following passage, which has a local interest :
"On the 5th of June Mr. Reuben T. Schall came, bringing the body of his brother, Colonel Edwin Schall, to be embalmed. He fell at Cold Harbor on the 3d of June, shot through the neck. Connected with this gallant officer's death is an incident so singu- lar that it is worthy of record. On Sunday, the 7th of June, in the officers' hospital in Georgetown, my niece* was sitting by her hus- band's bedside, watching the passing away of a life now near its close. As the things of earth receded, and another world dawned upon his gaze, the lamp of life flickered and flashed in this its clos- ing scene. Suddenly rousing up, his voice, which had previously been faint and feeble, rang out in a clear, loud tone : 'Lieutenant !
*Wife of Captain Bisbing, who had been shot in the same battle a- Colonel Schall.
21
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MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.
Lieutenant !' A wounded Lieutenant lying near answered : ' What is it, Captain ?' He replied: 'I am not calling you; it is Lieuten- ant Colonel Schall. I saw him fall, and thought the way he was lying perhaps he was dead.' His wife soothed him, telling him, 'The Colonel is all right,' and he sank exhausted on his pillow. But in a few moments he called in the same tone: 'Lieutenant ! Lieutenant !' repeating again the same words that he had seen him fall. Again he was soothed to quietness. Fully conscious that death was near, the brave soldier, in a few earnest, never to be for- gotten words, sent home the message that he 'gave his life freely for his country.' In Captain Bisbing's death, two homes were made desolate. He was an only child; to the home circle of wife and children, an irreparable loss."-Page 69.
Mr. and Mrs. Holstein were occasionally subjected to the usual homesickness, as appears by the following brief extract :
"Now sheltered from the scorching sun we are very comfortable -quite luxurious living ; and certainly we should never complain while sick and wounded lie upon the ground. But in contrast with this dwelling, sometimes will come before us thoughts of a country home in Pennsylvania, with cool, airy rooms, and pleasant surround- ings of shade and fruit trees, gardens, and the like, until the long- ings seem almost irresistible."-Page 81.
We close these narratives of hospital life by a description of our poor starved men from rebel prison-pens, as they were de- livered from shipboard at Annapolis:
"On board a vessel which had just unloaded its miserable pas- sengers, came a young boy, who was carried on shore, and when bathed and made comfortable with clean clothing was taken into one of the tents of the naval school hospital. As he was laid upon his nice clean mattress, he called to his comrades in suffering : 'Boys, I'm ready to die, now that I have heard the music and seen the old flag.' Some one said: 'Surely you don't want to die, now that we are home again.' The boy replied : 'I prayed so earnestly that I might live only long enough to die upon our own soil; and now, though I should like to see my own home, I am perfectly happy and ready to go. I know I can't live.' He continued to talk cheer- fully of death, repeating every few minutes: 'I've heard the music, and I've seen the old flag!' In three hours the feeble spark of life was gone, and the next morning he was carried to the cemetery, with sixty-five of his companions, the most saddening funeral pro- cession that perhaps was ever formed. Sixty-five starved men, who lingered long enough to die upon our own soil, and under our dear old flag !
" "They died for me and you.'
"In one arrival of four hundred and sixty, only sixty were able to walk ashore: the four hundred were carried. Half of these died within a few days: one-third of the whole number imbecile. They
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GENERAL WILLIAM J. BOLTON.
.appeared like a wretched bundle of bones, covered with a few filthy .rags." *- "' *_ Page 94.
MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM J. BOLTON.
If it be anght toward the general good, Set honor in one eye and death in the other, And I will look on both indifferently .- Shakspeare.
William Jordan Bolton, second son of James and Mary Ann Bolton, was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, October 22d, 1833. His father had lived a long time in Norristown, having been in his early years in partnership with the late Hon. Levi Pawling in the milling business at the foot of Swede street. James and Mary Ann Bolton were married when the former wwas somewhat advanced in life. Their children were Rebecca, Joseph K., William J., and John S.
The Bolton family are probably of French origin, though the tradition is that they were English Quakers, and emigrated with Penn's people in 1683.
William was named after Rev. William Jordan, a Baptist preacher, originally from South Carolina, who, in 1833, was pastor of the Baptist church in this place, of which his mother was a member. In his early years he had the benefit of our public schools, but afterwards received a fair academic educa- tion under the tuition of Rev. Samuel Aaron, at Treemount Seminary.
When of proper age he was apprenticed to the trade of a machinist or engineer, and previous to the breaking out of the late rebellion had charge of the engine at the rolling-mill of James Hooven & Sons. While holding this position, his first
*The author cannot help remarking here that he has never contemplated this infer- .. nal cruelty without horror, nor without indignation against all concerned in it. First, against Davis and others who deliberately starved these men for a definito purpose, and .for which they should have been hanged; and against our government, who, knowing how our soldiers were being murdered in rebel pens, were feeding Confederate soldiers in our hands on the best of the land, and handing them back in good condition to fight us again. Rulers who conduct a war upon any other principle than the lex talionis-law of rigid retaliation-are not fit for their trust. Had rebel prisoners been starved a single week, and Davis notified of it, our men would have been fed and treated as prisoners of war. We always thought the violent death of Lineoln was the providential complement of this needless misery, as doubtless the yellow fever visitation lately seourging the South is part of the remainder of it.
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