USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 32
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Lucretia Mott has been a total abstainer from alcoholic drinks for many years, and for a long time previous to eman- cipation in the West Indies and our country, her family were-
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FRANK M. HOBSON, ESQ.
abstainers on principle from the products of unrequited slave labor. As a Friend she has been an active laborer in the cause of international peace, as well as woman's. enfranchisement. She and Mrs. Stanton, her biographer, while in England at- tending the world's anti-slavery convention in 1840, arranged to have a women's rights meeting at Seneca Falls, New York, which was held, and James Mott chosen President. This was. almost the commencement of the movement which has pressed its way upon public attention in spite of the opposite sex and the undesirable co-operation of Bloomerites and Free Lovers, who obtruded their help where it was not wanted.
A few years ago Lucretia Mott had the sorrowful lot to be parted from her consort by death, which was a sore affliction and trial, as their union was one of early attachment and true conjugal love.
FRANK M. HOBSON, EsQ.
While you live right, nothing goes wrong .- Jackson.
The ingenious bee constructs commodious cells, but never dreams of rearing tri- umphal arches or obelisks to decorate her waxen city. Through ignorance of the future, they pass from life to death with as much indifference as from watching to sleep, or from labor to repose .- Dick's Future State.
This capable but unpretending citizen of Freeland was born January 22d, 1830, in Limerick township, Montgomery county, on a farm of two hundred and sixty-eight acres, which has been held in the Hobson family four generations, or since 1743.
In a Quaker marriage certificate drawn by Thomas Pierson, one of William Penn's surveyors (now in the writer's posses- sion), of a wedding solemnized at Concord, then in Chester county, the name of Francis Hobson is inscribed as a witness. This is without doubt the great ancestor of the family, he be- ing a Friend who emigrated from England with Penn, or in some of the ships soon following. The tradition of the family is that the original Francis first settled in New Garden town- ship, Chester county, whence he removed and purchased the
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FRANK M. HOBSON, ESQ.
Limerick tract above described. From him it descended to Francis, his son, in 1748, thence to Moses Hobson in 1791, and to Francis Hobson again in 1831, who intermarried with Mary Matilda Bringhurst. These last were father and mother of the subject of this notice.
Frank M. Hobson received a good common school educa- tion, and afterwards completed his studies at Washington Hall, Trappe. He subsequently taught school in that village from 1849 to 1852. In 1856 he opened a store, in which he has successfully prosecuted the general mercantile business, fitting up also in the rear second story of his store-house a capacious room, usually called " Hobson's Hall," for the use of public meetings, societies, and the like. He has also for thirty years been engaged in surveying and conveyancing, having attained accuracy and aptness as a general business man, which, added to his acknowledged industry, integrity and fidelity, secure him increasing outside business.
Such being his qualifications, he has filled numerous public trusts, having been six years a school director, three a town- ship auditor, fifteen an officer of Trinity Christian Church at Freeland, five a trustee, Secretary and Treasurer of Ursinus College, nine a treasurer of a building association, two a director of the Iron Bank of Phoenixville, three a manager of the Per- kiomen and Reading Turnpike Road Company, on the resig- nation of William W. Taylor a director in the First National Bank of Norristown, and finally executor or trustee of the estate of the late Wright A. Bringhurst, Esq., of Upper Provi- dence township.
This last duty, involving the disposal of a very large estate in charitable bequests, Mr. Hobson, in connection with Elijah F. Pennypacker, Esq., a man equally conscientious and public spirited, has been fulfilled to the letter of the will, wish of the testator, and satisfaction of the public. It was a blessed act to make such a will, and a high honor to be the instrument of carrying it into execution. The multiplication and continu- ance of these various employments are the best possible war- ranty of character.
In October, 1856, he was married to Lizzie Gotwalts. They
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HON. JOHN THOMPSON.
have two children, Freeland G., now in his twenty-first year and Mary Matilda, some years younger. The son has already graduated at Ursinus College, and is now pursuing the study of law; the daughter has completed her education at Pennsyl- vania Female College near by. These two promising youth are the only living representatives of the paternal branch o the Hobson family.
HON. JOHN THOMPSON.
What! Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ?- Job II, 10.
John Thompson, the son of William and Mary Thompson, was born in Pottstown, Montgomery county, on the 11th of February, 1799, and is now eighty years old, but robust for his age. His paternal grandfather was James Thompson, who came from Ireland previous to the Revolution, and settled in Pottstown, where he died in 1792 at the age of 65 years. He was a spinning-wheel maker by trade, and in religious profes- sion an Episcopalian. The great-grandfather of John Thomp- son on the maternal side was Christian Markel, a German, who very early emigrated and settled in Berks. He was the owner of what was called "Moselem," in that county, and it is related of him that he made the first wagon ever built in that region of country. Joseph Markel, who was run for Governor many years ago by the Whig party, was a first cousin of the mother of John Thompson. The name of his mother's father, like that of his grandfather, was Christian, and he lived in Reading.
Young Thompson received the usual common school edu- cation of the time, and at the proper age learned the trade of a carpenter. After following that calling for a period, being of a ready, intelligent turn of mind, he was commissioned a Justice of the Peace by Governor Wolf in 1833, and reappointed and elected five times to fill the same office, which was the full- est proof of his capacity and integrity. In 1857 he served one
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REV. JOSIAH PHILLIPS.
term in the lower house of Assembly, and the next year was chosen for three years to the State Senate. John Thompson was at first a Whig, but subsequently a Republican, and reached the Legislature in both instances as the result of the new county feeling so rife thirty years ago. He filled both places very acceptably, proving himself a careful, conscientious law- maker.
Mr. Thompson has lived in Pottstown all his life with the exception of a short period at Philadelphia and Huntingdon county while engaged in the transportation of merchandise.
For many years, in connection with his service as Justice of the Peace, he has attended to a general scrivening and con- veyancing business, enjoying in the highest degree the confi- dence of the people of that borough and vicinity. He was for several years a director of the Pottstown Bank. Till a very recent period he had accumulated a competence, but owing to forgeries and the perfidy of a friend to whom he had confided most of his estate, it has been swept away. A short time ago Mr. Thompson was elected President of the Mutual Fire In- surance Company of Pottstown, vice Owen Stoever, deceased. In religious profession Mr. T. is an Episcopalian. He is un- married, and has one sister living.
REV. JOSIAH PHILLIPS.
God never created an independent man To jar the concord of his general plan.
A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps .- Proverbs XVI, 9.
Rev. Josiah Phillips, pastor of Gwynedd Baptist church, at North Wales, is the son of Owen and Rachel Evans Phillips, of East Nantmeal township, Chester county, and was born on the 10th of September, 1817.
The progenitor of this branch of the Phillips family is traced back to Joseph Phillips, who emigrated from Wales in 1755, and settled in Chester county. He built a log house, and fol-
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REV. JOSIAH PHILLIPS.
lowed weaving and farming, assisted by several sons. One of these, Josiah, settled on a farm near the present village of Lion- ville, in Uwchlan township. Here Owen, his son, was born in 1789, who, in 1814, married Rachel Evans, and purchased of his father-in-law a farm in East Nantmeal, where the following seven brothers were born: Jesse, Josiah, Lewis, David, Joseph, Thomas, and Abner. Our business is with Josiah, the second of these, who remained at home till his seventeenth year, when he left to learn the carpenter trade. He served an apprentice- ship of three years with Isaac Miller, and with whom he also worked two years afterward. Being invited to teach a public school, he reluctantly accepted the offer, and spent the next two years alternately teaching and going to school himself. Although he enjoyed the former, he soon resolved to leave it, under the conviction of duty, to prepare himself to teach in a higher and more sacred calling.
Without making this purpose publicly known, he attended the boarding-school of Jonathan Gause, at Unionville, and en- tered a course of study preparatory to the gospel ministry. Previously to going to the Hamilton Literary and Theologi- cal Institution, New York, to pursue a scientific line of study, he also spent three years in a preparatory course in the semi- nary of Rev. Samuel Aaron, at Norristown. After some six years of preparation he entered the work of the christian min- istry, and was publicly set apart to this calling by ordination as pastor of the Radnor Baptist church, in Delaware county, on the 14th of February, 1850. Here he enjoyed a pleasant and encouraging pastorate in that field of work for seven years.
At this time the subject of American slavery was at the height of its agitation, and being one of the most decidedly anti-slavery gospel ministers of the denomination, he was so- licited to take an agency in behalf of the American Baptist Free Mission Society, which was organized "free from the avails of slave labor or fraternal co-operation with slavehold- ers." He accordingly accepted the call, and spent two years in missionary and agency work in behalf of home and foreign missionaries, under the auspices of this society. This agency
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REV. JOSIAH PHILLIPS.
labor was pursued principally in the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts.
After the expiration of this time, and a suspension of about: six months on account of sickness, he accepted a call from a. church at Euclid, a village on the shore of Lake Erie, near Cleveland, Ohio. Here he was permitted to see a favorable growth of the church under his care, and enjoyed there a pleas- ant home and work for more than seven years.
Excessive labor and consequent failure of health, however, made it necessary to withdraw for a season, on which account he returned to his native State to rest. In this retired capacity he lived one year in West Chester and two in Norristown, where he pleasantly renewed many old acquaintances. At the close of this recess, with regained health and anxiety to resume his life-work, he entered an open door at Milestown, within Philadelphia city limits, as pastor of the Baptist church of that place. Here also the Master seemed to own the relation by His constant blessing on the means of grace. After five years he was called to his present charge, leaving many warm and kind friends behind him. Accordingly, on the Ist of April, 1875, he received a kindly welcome where he is laboring at present, in the pretty borough of North Wales.
We return to record the domestic relations of Mr. Phillips .. Shortly after his entrance to the ministry, March 29th, 1853,. he married Mary Ann Davis, of Chester county. The only issue of this marriage is a daughter, Clara R., who was born July 23d, 1854. She has received a superior education, having attended a public school one year at West Chester, and two years at Oak street, Norristown, where she graduated. She next spent a year at Jefferson Grammar School, Philadelphia, thence to the girls' normal school, graduating again, and at the next commencement was made one of the teachers or faculty. On the 29th of April, 1877, she was married to Mr. Eugene H. Austin, principal book-keeper of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, Philadelphia.
As a preacher, Mr. Phillips is characterized by great plain- ness and boldness in "declaring the whole counsel of God," being a very outspoken opponent of intemperance and other popular sins.
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HARVEY SHAW.
HARVEY SHAW.
Silence to passion, prejudice and mockery, is the best answer, and often conquers what resistance inflames .- William Penn.
Harvey Shaw, son of Aaron and Susanna B. Shaw, was born in Plumstead township, near Doylestown, August 30th, 1812. He remained on his father's farm until fourteen years of age, when he was placed in the store of Yardley & Jones, at New- town, and continued there four years. He then accepted a situation in the counting-room of his co usin, Elias Shaw, who was largely engaged in the flour and general commission busi- ness in the city of Baltimore, and remained with him about three years. He was then appointed to a clerkship in the Union Bank of Maryland, continuing in that institution from three to four years, when he resigned and entered the firm of Elias Shaw & Co., and subsequently that of Gambrill & Shaw. On his retiring from the bank, Cashier Mickle presented him with a handsome testimonial letter for his fidelity and cour- teous deportment during his engagement there.
In May, 1837, Mr. Shaw was united in marriage with Sarah W. Ely, a sister of the late General John Ely. She died in 1839, and in 1845 he married Sophia, daughter of John Elliott, formerly of King-of-Prussia, Montgomery county. After this marriage he closed his business engagements in Baltimore, and moved to Buckingham valley, Bucks county, where he pur- chased the beautiful residence of the late Dr. John Wilson, and for ten years was engaged in the business of farming. In the spring of 1857 he was appointed Secretary and Treasurer of the Barclay Coal Company, and removed with his wife and children (Isabella and J. Elliott) to Norristown, of which bor- ough he has since then been a resident, still filling the above situation that he has held for the past twenty-one years.
Mr. Shaw is a member of the religious society of Friends, and in politics a Republican. In the latter particular, however, he cares more for the qualifications of the man to fill the office than for party ties. He has never sought nor held any politi- cal office, but has on many occasions been called upon to set- tle estates and act as guardian, trustee, and the like.
23
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HON. WILLIAM A. YEAKLE.
Mr. S. is a man of cultivation and advanced sentiments touch- ing the public welfare. On occasions appealing to public charity he contributes liberally, as may be instanced when pri- vate funds were immediately wanted during the rebellion to equip men for the common defence, Mr. Shaw, in a public meeting, tendered his check for a hundred dollars, which ex- ample others followed. He has shown equal munificence and public spirit in taking the initiative and heading a list for the procurement of an ornamental drinking-fountain for public use, in front of the Norristown public square. He procured the subscriptions, collected the money, purchased the fountain, in- duced the parties erecting it to remit their profits, and handed it over to the borough authorities with a detailed exhibit of the contributions and disbursements for the same, which was published for general information. In like manner, in conjunc- tion with Mr. Charles D. Phillips, he procured in the same way a large number of iron settees for the square, as also assisting in the procurement of boxes for the birds in the square and in Friends' meeting yard.
Now, in the closing years of his life, Mr. Shaw enjoys the comforts of a home and a competency which early industry and habits of temperance have acquired and saved.
HON. WILLIAM A. YEAKLE.
The life of nations is much longer than that of persons, but their health depends on their observance of the laws of health notwithstanding. The law of right is their law of health also .- John H. Hunt.
William Anders Yeakle, son of Samuel and Lydia Anders Yeakle, of Norristown, was born in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county, on the 20th of October, 1824. His an- cestors on both sides from the era of the Reformation have be- longed to that humble and evangelical people called Schwenk- felders. They are the followers of Casper Schwenkfeld, of Silesia, Germany, who was cotemporary with Luther. The Yeakles, Anders, and other families of this plain and pious
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HON. WILLIAM A. YEAKLE.
people, are settled on a belt of country extending from Ger- mantown to Hereford, Berks county. The ancestors of Mr. Yeakle are known to have settled in the middle townships of what is now Montgomery county subsequent to 1734.
The father of Mr. Yeakle, as himself, was a farmer, and gave his son a good common school education, such as was usual forty years ago, consisting mainly of the rudimentary branches, to which he has since added by constant reading and study. On the 17th of January, 1849, he was married to Caroline, daughter of the late John and Elizabeth Hocker, of White- marsh, and in the spring following commenced farming for himself on the beautiful plantation (the old family homestead) where he still resides. His land has a frontage nearly to the Bethlehem turnpike road, with the Wissahickon crossing its eastern end, and extending back a mile, covering as handsome a plateau as can be found in that township of beautiful farms.
In 1850 his neighbors elected him a member of the school board of the township, and by their partiality he was continued in the position during eighteen years of continuous service. He then declined a re-election, though he remains one of the auditors of the board, being now over twenty years since he assumed the duties connected with it.
In the summer of 1870, at the solicitation of friends, he con- sented to be a candidate for State Senator before the Republi- can convention of the county, and was nominated in Septem- ber. The district, however, being composed of Montgomery, Delaware and Chester, the conferees of the two latter finally voted for Henry S. Evans, of Chester, when Mr. Yeakle mag- nanimously withdrew from the contest in favor of the former, who was put on the ticket and elected. Three years later Mr. Yeakle's claims were again presented. In the meantime Mont- gomery county had become a Senatorial district by itself. He was nominated again on the Republican ticket to take his chance of success in a Democratic county. At the election in the following October he was chosen by a majority of thirty votes over Dr. John G. Hillegass, his Democratic competitor. This was a most satisfactory proof of Mr. Yeakle's worth and - great popularity. Mr. Y. served his term of three years, but
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HON. WILLIAM A. YEAKLE.
declined a renomination, and the place was filled by the Demo -- crats electing Jones Detwiler over S. Powell Childs at the next election.
For a long time Mr. Yeakle has taken a deep interest in. everything that concerns agriculture, and has been for many years a member of the Montgomery County Agricultural So- ciety. In January, 1877, it chose him on its behalf a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and on taking his seat he drew the one-year term. Upon its expiration he was chosen again in January, 1878, for the full term of three years.
Mr. Yeakle enjoys in the largest degree the confidence and favor of his neighbors and fellow-citizens, having frequently represented them in the county conventions of the Republican. party, and on one or more occasions has presided over the an- nual gathering.
As a legislator Mr. Yeakle represented the most elevated sentiment and feeling of the Republican party, and his votes. show that he carried with him to the State Capital the high moral principles of the religious society of which most of his family are members. If men of his stamp were oftener sent to. legislative bodies there would be fewer charges of peculation and corruption alleged against officers and representatives.
We close this sketch with a brief notice of the family at large, including the record of its emigration and settlement in Pennsylvania. It is known that the great progenitor was named Christopher Yeakle, who died in Silesia, Germany. His son. Christopher, being then but seventeen years of age, came to our State in 1734 with his widowed mother, Regina, and after serving an apprenticeship to a cooper in Germantown, married and settled at Creisheim, on the south side of Chestnut Hill, in Philadelphia county, at which place he built a log-house' about 1743 or 1744. This house is still (1879) standing. A. short time previous to the Revolution he purchased a property on the summit of Chestnut Hill, where he died in 1810 at about the age of ninety-three years. He left three daughters and two sons, Abraham and Christopher. The latter of the two married Susannah Krieble, and remained on the homestead till 1844, when he died, aged eighty-six years. Christopher and Susan-
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SAMUEL F. JARRETT.
nah Yeakle had six children, of whom Samuel Yeakle, of Nor- ristown, the father of the subject of this notice, is the young- · est. Samuel Yeakle and wife have three sons, William A., Charles A., and Abraham A., the last intermarried with Anna Eliza, daughter of Jesse and Harriet Shepherd, of Hickory- town, and they have three children, Frank S., John Morris, and Hattie May. Abrahamı A. is the well known merchant of Norristown, long in partnership with James W. Schrack, de- ceased. He is an active member of the First Presbyterian Church. The children of William A. Yeakle and wife are Annie H. and Samuel. Charles A. resides on a part of the .old homestead in Whitemarsh.
SAMUEL F. JARRETT.
"It is better to be born lucky than rich," says the adage. But better still than either is it to be trained affable, courteous, obliging, and trustworthy. While we know there cannot be such a thing as "luck," for nothing comes by chance, still some circumstances in the notice we are about to write would "seem to confirm that popular notion.
The Jarrett family are supposed to have come from the high- "lands of Scotland early in the past century, for Buck in his his- tory of Montgomery county refers to Thomas and Levi Jarrett ias living in Upper Dublin township, and John Jarrett's name appears as one of the first or original officers of the Hatboro Library Company in 1755.
Mr. Jarrett's maternal ancestors on his father's side were Palmers, a numerous family settled in Delaware county, as also in our own. These were all English Quakers. His maternal : grandmother, of the elder generation, was a Rhodes, and his iimmediate maternal grandparent a Farra, who was of Welsh vorigin.
Samuel F. Jarrett, farmer, and late County Treasurer, is the
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SAMUEL F. JARRETT.
second son of David and Rebecca Jarrett, formerly of Upper Providence, but later of Norriton and Lower Providence town- ships, Montgomery county. He was born in the first named' township on the 19th of November, 1825. His father, aged eighty, is living in Lower Providence. His mother died in: 1876 at the age of seventy-eight, and is buried at Plymouth Meeting. His brothers and sisters are Jesse, Charles P. (killed at the battle of Shiloh), Atkinson F., Elizabeth, John, Lucre- tia, and Chalkley.
Up to his twenty-fourth year Samuel F. lived with his pa- rents and assisted on the farm, receiving with aptness and dili- gence a good common school education, which has since en- abled him to fill with credit important public trusts. At the time to which reference has just been made he was married to Amanda, daughter of Joseph and Rebecca Crawford, of Lower Providence township, and went to farming for himself. The offspring of this union have been Emma (deceased) and Annie· Rebecca, who lives with her parents near Jeffersonville.
In July, 1863, Lee invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, and Governor Curtin called for "emergency men" to meet the in- vaders and defend our homes. Very soon the patriotic farm- ers of our vicinity mustered a company of cavalry and marched it to the front with their own horses, Mr. Jarrett being among the first to enlist. This company, called the "Norris Cavalry," commanded by Captain Frederick Haws, of Jeffersonville, did valuable service in Washington county, Maryland, in picket- ing the Potomac and protecting the loyal from roving rebels, as also in catching skulkers from both armies. The company were on this patriotic service nearly two months, Jarrett being one of the numerous "fighting Quakers" who broke over the rules of the society "just for the emergency," as Governor Curtin termed it.
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