USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
361
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
qualifications. Accordingly he was actively instrumental in found- ing the Phoenixville Bank, and was a director therein for one term. On the organization of the First National Bank of Norristown, in which he assisted, he was made one of its first directors, and so con- tinued till his resignation in 1878 on account of ill health.
Of William W. Taylor as a business man it is proper to remark further that he drove with indomitable will and sound judgment whatever he undertook. He has no patience with careless, moping people, who live in idleness, filth, and disorder. He was eminently an improvement man while in active business. When he took pos- session of the farm of his father-in-law the buildings were those of the first settlers. These he replaced by both dwelling and barn of the largest size, with all the improvements. He further renovated by the removal of all trashy vegetation, and after liming heavily left it one of the best improved farms in the county. He also built the cottage he occupies at Freeland, and upon a half acre of land attached has planted some small fruits, which are very productive. He inherited not beyond the merest pittance, yet he has retired on a fair competence.
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
He which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins .- James V, 20.
Samuel Mclellan Gould, who for more than thirteen years, or from January, 1838, to April, 1851, preached successfully as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Norristown, deserves a place among the eminent men who have lived and labored in Montgom- ery county. Mr. Gould was born in the town of Gorham, Maine, on the 24th of January, 1809, of Scotch-Irish and Puritanic stock. His father, Nathaniel Gould, was descended from an English family of that surname who settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about the commencement of the last century. His mother, Elizabeth Mc- Lellan, was descended from Bryce Mclellan, a strict Presbyterian from the north of Ireland, who settled in Portland, Maine, in the year 1730.
Mr. Gould's patronymic and maternal grandfather was Samuel Mclellan, a sea captain, who was taken prisoner by the British, and
24
362
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
died on board the prison ship Jersey, in New York harbor, in 1778, at the age of thirty. He had also an uncle Samuel Mclellan, who was likewise a sea captain, and with whom the subject of our notice had some experience of seafaring life in his early years. From this knowledge of the ocean many of the most forcible illustrations and imagery of his sermons were drawn.
While attending store in Portland, during his eighteenth year, his mind was especially drawn to the subject of religion. He joined one of the Congregational churches of that city, and in the spring of 1828 began to prepare himself for college with a view to the min- istry. In 1830 he entered Bowdoin College in an advanced class, but not long after, being obliged to leave it from decline of health, he spent a year or two in teaching. In 1833 he was entered a stu- dent of theology under Drs. Beman and Kirk, at Troy and Albany Seminary, and graduated with honor. In the fall of 1835 he went to Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Congregational Association. After this, for the period of two years, he preached as an evangelist or supply at Spen- certown and Stephentown in New York, Hartford, Connecticut, and finally at the Central Presbyterian Church, Coates street, Philadel- phia, where he was elected pastor in October, 1837. At the close of this year, while preaching there, the Rev. Robert Adair having re- signed his charge of the Norristown Presbyterian church, Mr. Gould was invited to preach before the people, which he did the last Sab- bath in December, and continued to labor with them a few weeks. In January, 1838, he was tendered a unanimous call by the congre- gation to settle among them.
At this time the question of "new school" and "old school" began to be a serious matter in the Presbyterian church, growing out of the recent trial of Rev. Albert Barnes for "departure from the standards," and every man who came from New York and New England was suspected of heresy. The Norristown church at this time belonged to the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, which was very strongly old school, or .. of the Scotch type, while the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia, of which Rev. Albert Barnes was a dis- tinguished member, was as decidedly new school. This being the state of parties and things when the Norristown church made appli- cation for the reception and installation of Mr. Gould, the Second Presbytery rejected him on the ground of "unsoundness in chris- tian doctrine." The Norristown church, however, having full con- fidence in his orthodoxy, and believing that his rejection was owing
363
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
to the party spirit before mentioned, at once took measures to with- draw from the Second Presbytery and join itself to the Third. This it did after the great division in the church at large had taken place, which occurred in the month of May of that year. In July follow- ing, the church having been transferred by Synod, according to the discipline, from the Second Presbytery to the Third, Mr. Gould was examined before the latter body, now connected with the Synod of Pennsylvania, and admitted a member. On the 25th of Sep- tember he was ordained and installed pastor of the Norristown ·church, which was united and harmonious, there being but one man who withdrew from it because of the change of Presbyterial rela- tion. Mr. G. continued to preach to increasing congregations till February, 1839, when an unusual interest began to manifest itself, and a very sudden and powerful revival sprang up, multitudes seek- ing religion as for their lives. The work went on by occasional help of other ministers till the Ioth of March, when sixty or more persons were added to the church, most of them on profession of faith, and a goodly number at the following communion.
During the remainder of this year he continued to preach earn- estly to full houses. Becoming straitened for room and Sabbath school accommodations, measures were taken the following spring to enlarge and improve the house of worship, which up to that time had stood many feet above the street upon a high bank. An addi- tion of twenty-five feet to the front was made, a basement story or lecture-room added, and everything modernized and made conve- nient.
During the years 1840-41 seventy-five persons were added to the «communion, mostly on profession of faith. The year 1842 Mr. G. notes in his diary "a great deal of temperance, but no special in- terest in religion." The next year was noted for the most power- ful ingathering ever known in that church, there being in the month of March a hundred and ten persons, most of them new converts, standing about the pulpit and aisles at one time in order to make a profession of religion. Forty of them were baptized.
From this time till 1848, Mr. Gould preached faithfully on gen- eral subjects, but with no special results in the way of conversions, though the congregation was large, flourishing, and harmonious. In February of the latter year he added about forty persons at one time, and additions continued till early in 1849, when troubles and divisions began to arise in the church, which the pastor attributed to "Satanic influence." At this point the author, as cognizant of
364
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
all the circumstances of the church, ventures to quote the fifteenth& verse of the twenty-second chapter of Deuteronomy as applicable to both pastor and people at that time: "But Jeshurun waxed fat and: kicked; thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God who made him, and lightly es -- teemed the Rock of his salvation."
Mr. Gould, however, continued to minister the word as usual till January, 1851, when he gave a written notice to the congregation that he intended to resign the charge after the first of April, stating fully his reasons for the step he proposed to take. The congrega- tion was much divided in sentiment, and though a large majority of the church protested against his withdrawal in a written communi -- cation signed by them, it had no effect in changing the result. This; was an unfortunate event for both pastor and people, and in due: time both parties repented it bitterly.
For some weeks before his resignation was to take effect, owing- to failing health, nervous prostration, and mental suffering, he was; altogether unfitted for any public service, and left soon after to visit: among friends in Maine, where he remained most of the summer. By the month of October he had so far regained health and spirits; as to accept an engagement to minister six months to a small con- gregation worshiping in a hall on Parrish street, Philadelphia, where quite a number of conversions occurred. The following: spring he spent some time with the church of Marple, in Delaware- county, and was cordially invited to settle there. But leaving Philadelphia for the East, he preached his first sermon on the 15th of August, 1852, before the Second Congregational Church of Bid- deford, Maine, and shortly after was called to the pastorate of the- same. He entered upon his labors here in October, and was in -- stalled on the 6th of January, 1853, over a congregation worship -- ing in a large, commodious church building-a scattered though. united congregation, where, as the phrase is, "religion was greatly run down." Worldliness and vanity, according to the new pastor's. view, prevailed to an alarming extent. He continued preaching: in his plain, pointed way, the necessity of conversion and salvation through Christ, when "light broke in." The result was a great awakening, and more than one hundred persons professed to have. experienced a change of heart. The house of God at once became filled with attentive hearers. Nor did the work cease with this be- ginning, but continued for three successive years, during which the:
365
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
membership was quadrupled and the moral condition of the city greatly elevated.
In the autumn of 1855 politics began to run high, and for a time seemed to override religion and everything else. Dissensions of that nature crept into the church, and difficulties grew to such pro- "portions that a council of ministers was called to settle the trouble. But although there was a unanimous decision that Mr. Gould should remain, nothing appearing against him, we find him on the follow- ing 4th of March taking leave of the church, and with forty fami- lies, part of the Second church, organizing a new congregation con- nected with the factories of the place. The hall in which these meetings were held soon became crowded, and on the 20th of Oc- tober following a council organized a new church there, consisting of forty-two members, and by the spring of 1858 it had doubled its original number. During that summer, however, Mr. G., finding his labors burdensome and wearying, accepted a call which had previously been tendered him to take charge of the Congregational ·church at Owego, New York. But no sooner was he installed in his new charge than he regretted the change of location, for under :a new minister the Biddeford church progressed, while the Owego people and the new pastor were not congenial to each other. Con- -sequently he left within six months, and passed westward to Paines- ville, Ohio, to supply a Presbyterian church during the illness of the preacher.
In the summer of 1859 we again find him in Philadelphia, whence he shortly after journeyed by invitation to Thomaston, Maine. After supplying a church for six months he traveled to Waldbor- ough, Winslow, and other places, doing the work of an evangelist. Soon after this he acted as a stated supply preacher to the Presby- terian church of Southwark, on German street, Philadelphia, where he remained till December, 1862. From here he went to Allen- town, Pennsylvania, remaining there some fifteen months, and was instrumental in lifting a five-thousand-dollar mortgage from the house of worship, leaving the congregation greatly strengthened. Mr. Gould next began to preach for the people of Port Penn, Dela- ware, but the locality not agreeing with his health, he left. After laboring a short time for the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Phila- ·delphia, he went to Emporium, in Cameron county, Pennsylvania, where he labored with special profit to the place and people, re- maining there about two and a half years, building up the church, ·getting it out of debt, and feeling that he had done much good.
366
REV. SAMUEL M. GOULD.
True to his record, however, he left just when he had placed a good! foundation upon which another minister could build. Since that: time (1875) he has preached for short terms at Scarborough, near- Biddeford, Maine, and various other places, making his home in Philadelphia in the meantime, where he now resides.
Of Mr. Gould as a preacher and minister, Rev. Dr. Ralston, in: his centennial history of the church, says: "In the removal of Mr. Gould from Norristown the church lost an able, laborious, and: faithful pastor; the working class, a considerate and sympathizing friend; and the town a valuable citizen. He was a close observer." of events, shrewd in business, exact in accounts, and sincere in! friendships, though blunt in manner." Mr. G. retains his vigor of mind and activity, though nearly threescore years and ten, and: delivers a sermon with nearly all the earnestness of his early years.
Mr. Gould has never been married, and doubtless to this circum- stance and slight eccentricities is due the fact that he has been an evangelist most of his life rather than a pastor. In all his changes he has retained his reputation as a religious man and his standing as a sermonizer. It only remains to refer to him as a gospel preacher,. in which character he had few superiors. Lacking social and personal: qualities, he was never successful as a pastor. The author's earliest recollection of him as a preacher was in noting his deep grasp of what are usually called the "doctrines of grace." During seasons of special religious interest he preached constantly at the unconverted,. laboring to make them feel that their present moral condition was. at variance with divine truth and their highest good. The whole drift of his sermons at such times was to convince non-professors- that religious people had precious gifts and enjoyed comforts of which without conversion his hearers could know nothing. He was a strong believer in the agency of the Spirit in securing revivals,. and at times had himself, very deep convictions and experiences of human depravity. Hence it was no unusual thing to impress his- unconverted hearers with the idea that while alienated from Godi they were really as irrational as the inmates of a lunatic asylum, or,. in the natural state, as depraved at heart as the tenants of the world! of woe.
These were but logical postulates from the Scriptures he quoted,. and the conclusions drawn from them. Then when he came to' urge motives drawn from the cross and its august sufferer, there was- often in his manner of urging it a depth of pathos that at times sub- dued the proudest hearts. He had a happy gift also of using ocean.
367
CHARLES CHRISTMAN.
imagery and quoting the metaphors of the Bible with wonderful aptness and force. He was a Calvinist of the New England, but not of the Scotch type ; consequently his expositions of Scripture were at times not thought to be in accordance with the "stand- ards," but the resultant conversions that waited on his ministry were a much better warranty than they.
CHARLES CHRISTMAN.
Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams .- Bryant.
Among the mechanics who settled in modern Norristown, he whose name stands at the head of this notice is one of the most prominent. He is the son of George and Mary Christman, of Lim- erick township, Montgomery county, where he was born December 28th, 1814. After enjoying the benefit of the common schools of the locality till about his seventeenth year, he was apprenticed to John Shellic, of East Vincent, Chester county, to learn the trade of a carpenter. Very soon after he had finished his trade he came to Norristown, working as a journeyman for John Bolton and Philip Koplin until January, 1837, when he formed a partnership with Mahlon Bolton under the firm name of Christman & Bolton, and which existed one year. In May, 1838, having dissolved, he started for the West, stopping a year at Picaway, Ohio, after which he returned to Norristown and worked at his trade for Jacob Bodey from March, 1839, to February, 1841. About this time he renewed the partnership with Mr. Bolton under the firm name of Bolton & Christman, which continued uninterruptedly for ten years, till 1851. At that time, finding the business enlarged, they took in Francis G. Stinson, and the firm name was changed to Bolton, Christman & Co. This continued till May 29th, 1871, when Mr. Christman with- drew, and in part payment of his interest took shares in the Key- stone Lumber and Salt Manufacturing Company, owned by the firm, at Bangor, Michigan, now West Bay City.
368
CHARLES CHRISTMAN.
In 1837, very soon after starting business in Norristown, the mem- bers of the original firm erected two stone houses for their own oc- cupancy at the corner of Swede and Marshall streets. At that time there were but two or three buildings beside theirs north of the Baptist church. In February or March, 1838, a frame work-shop occupied by the firm, located near Penn and Green streets, took fire, and was burned to the ground. About 1846 the firm erected a steam planing-mill and opened a board yard on Marshall street between Swede and DeKalb, at which a large business was done for several years. Trade continuing to increase, costly dwellings gath- ered about the works, and the necessity of having facilities for saw- ing much of their own lumber, drove the firm to the river front, where they began the erection of the extensive lumber mill now oc- cupying the grounds at the mouth of Stony creek.
During all these years Mr. Christman was the outside business manager, doing all the buying of lumber on the Susquehanna and other lumber marts, and attending to most of the settlements and financial duties of the firm, while the other partner looked after the workmen and forwarded contracts at the mill. This was one of the most prosperous and long continued firms ever established in Norristown, Mr. Christman's connection with it lasting thirty-one years.
As has been stated, Mr. Christman had invested considerable money in the lumber and salt manufacturing company of which he was elected President in 1870, which post he held two years, and then retired. He was re-elected in 1875, and still holds the posi- tion.
In April, 1839, very soon after settling in Norristown, he mar- ried Mary T., daughter of John and Sarah T. Miller, of Limerick township. Their three eldest children, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth, and Anna Cecilia, died of scarlet fever in infancy, as also an infant son. Their living children are Mary Emma, Minard L., Charles, Ira, and William Henry, all now residing in Norristown.
Though not in any proper sense following the business of a car- penter himself, he apprenticed Minard and Charles to learn that trade, having in the meantime given them the best education af- forded by our free schools. Minard graduated in the Polytechnic College, and turned his attention to architecture as a specialty. He was employed to draught and plan the Presbyterian churches of Bridgeport and Jeffersonville, and also the Lower Providence Bap- tist church, which have given satisfaction to all concerned and done
369
CHARLES CHRISTMAN.
him much credit as an architect and builder. Charles Christman has held no public positions except three or four terms of service in the Town Council, several years ago, during which period, how- ever, many of the most important town improvements were pro- jected and executed. Since 1843 Mr. C. and wife have been mem- bers of the Central Presbyterian Church, they having joined the First Presbyterian Church under Mr. Gould's pastorate, and before the division. He has also been for many years a trustee in said church.
In 1872, being retired from active business in Norristown, he built himself a two-story stone mansion, with Mansard roof, at the corner of DeKalb and Jacoby streets, which is perhaps the most elegant building of the kind in the borough, the sidewalks and rear avenues being paved with artificial stone, and having terraces and other elaborate ornamentations of the most recent invention. This building, drafted by Minard, thus planned, finished, and furnished within in the best style, is a very good illustration of the resultant industry and life-labors of an American mechanic.
We may remark by way of conclusion that Mr. and Mrs. Christ- man enjoy the rare satisfaction in their old days of seeing their sons take to business at the bottom of the ladder, as they had themselves done, instead of seeking to begin, as too many children do, with their father's acquired capital, on his plane, and after a brief strug- gle for a still higher position, land finally where the latter began. Shakspeare, one of the shrewdest observers of human life that ever existed, wrote this moral :
'Tis better to be lowly born, And dwell with humble livers in content, Than be perked up a glistering grief And wear a golden sorrow.
370
JOHN WEBER.
JOHN WEBER.
THE WEBER FAMILY.
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling ?- Job VII, 1.
Among our self-made public men, John Weber stood con- spicuous in an age when place and prominence were not pur- chased with money nor obtained by great family influences. He was the grandson of Christian and Applonia Weber, who in company with some four hundred Protestant Germans came over in the ship Good Will, and landed at Philadelphia on the 27th of September, 1727. The following year he took up fifty acres of land in Towamencin township, purchased of Jacob Hill, on which he built a house that is standing at the present time. They had among other children a son Christian, through whom we trace the posterity of the family. Christian and Ap- plonia Weber, the emigrants, died, the former in 1778, aged eighty-two, and the latter five years before, in her seventieth.
As nearly all the German emigrants of that period to Penn- sylvania, they were without doubt pious members of the Re- formed church, for many of the Webers are buried in the ceme- tery of Wentz's church, Worcester. Their son, Christian We- ber, of the second generation, was born in 1743, and about 1765, after arriving at man's estate, he married Elizabeth Weid- ner, who lived till 1803, bearing him several children, one of whom, John, described below, became very distinguished. This Christian Weber moved to Millerstown, in Lehigh county, married a second wife, died in 1815, and was buried there. He was a man of marked ability and patriotism, and at a harvest home in 1778 recruited nearly a hundred men for the Conti- nental forces, was elected their Captain, and with them served in the army. They were enrolled under Colonel Leech. We have no further record of their military service, but it must have been honorable, for after the war he was appointed by Governor Mifflin a Justice of the Peace. He was also County Commissioner, for Christian Weber's name appears with others on the Manatawny bridge at Pottstown, which was built abou}
371
JOHN WEBER.
1800. He appears to have removed to Millerstown late in life, as his son John, the proper subject of this sketch, who was born October 8th, 1768, remained in our county, and by his fortieth year had become such a very influential politician that in 1807 he was taken up and elected to the lower house of Assembly, and thrice re-elected (a term of four years), serving through the last two sessions as Speaker.
John Weber was originally raised to farming, but having purchased what in late years has been called Reiff's or Detwi- ler's mill, on the Wissahickon, he employed a first-class miller, and, it is said, acquired the art himself in three months. After remaining there a number of years, he removed to the more extensive one at the place now known as Collegeville, and while residing there was sent to the Legislature. When his first son was old enough to carry on that concern he purchased the mill below Evansburg, on the Skippack, and moved there himself, leaving George at the Perkiomen mill.
Christian Weber, of the second generation, also had a son Jesse, who left issue. Jesse was probably much younger than his brother John. He was a military officer during the second war with England, serving for a time at Camp Dupont, near Wilmington, Delaware, and subsequently elected to the lower house of Assembly during the session of 1844-5. He died at the age of seventy-two. This Jesse Weber had a son Thomas, who is well known in our locality, having been a worthy school teacher for many years in Montgomery, Berks, and Schuylkill counties. Thomas Weber had only two children, Rev. J. Stroud and John Hermon, who were accidentally drowned together at Absecom, New Jersey, on the 27th of July, 1860. The Rev. J. Stroud Weber, previous to studying for the ministry, had mar- ried Mary A., only daughter of Matthias and Eliza Yost, of Evansburg, and they had two children, Matthias and Lizzie, who survive, the former being a professional teacher, as were his father and grandfather. J. Stroud Weber was at the time of his death keeping a select seminary at Evansburg, and was a very promising young man.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.