USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 44
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Samuel Jamison, Sr., and his wife Agnes, who had come with him from the old country, had seven children, named as follows:
William M., who married Mrs. Harriet Parker (originally Dun- gan), died without issue.
The next child was John, who was buried in childhood.
The third is Jane, the wife of William Stroud, of Norristown. They have two sons and four daughters living, two children dying in infancy.
Agnes, the fourth child, was intermarried with S. Porter Stinson, of Norristown. They have one daughter, named for her mother, and who resides with her father. Agnes Jamison Stinson died while young, and is interred beside her parents.
The next was Mary, who married John Potts, Esq., recently de- ceased. She had five children, three sons and two daughters. One of the latter died in childhood; the other, Mary, married Dr. Theo- dore Jacobs, then of Coal Valley, Illinois, where she died about two years ago. One of the sons is also deceased, and of the family only Samuel and William now (1879) survive. Mrs. Mary Potts died in I868.
Samuel, the sixth child, is married to Elizabeth, daughter of John C. Craft. They have one daughter, Agnes.
Sarah, the youngest, was the wife of Hon. James Boyd, of Nor- ristown. They had three sons: Robert, the eldest, died in child- hood; Wallace J., who was elected Burgess of Norristown on the
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GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.
18th of February, 1879; and Howard. Mrs. Boyd died in 1876.
Samuel Jamison, Sr., was bred a Presbyterian, and usually at- tended the First Church of Norristown. He did not become a member, however, till shortly before his death, which took place September 8th, 1856, at the age of seventy. His wife's demise pre- ceded his own eight years, she dying November 3d, 1848, in her sixty-fourth year. In person Samuel Jamison and consort were tall and robustly built, he having a light florid complexion. He was one of the most thorough and energetic business men that ever flour- ished and died in Norristown. He and his wife and daughter Agnes lie buried near the rear wall of the First Presbyterian Church, and an ornamental marble shaft commemorates their lives. Mrs. Potts and Mrs. Boyd are interred in Montgomery Cemetery, in their fam- ily tombs.
GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.
The ties that briefly bound to earth Have one by one been broken;
My soul has left its idle mirth, And owns each sadd'ning token. My spirit waits the call to join The household of my heart .- W. Whitehead.
If we measure life by its useful results and by the scriptural limit of threescore years and ten of honest effort, then the person whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch stands among the successful men of our day .*
William Schall belongs to the sterling German Protestant element infused into our State by religious persecution in Europe during the early part of the eighteenth century. He traces his descent to To. bias Schall, who settled in Earl township, Berks county, just about the time the Rutters and Potts were founding the iron business in that locality, a hundred and fifty years ago. Tobias Schall, among
*THE POINT OF VIEW.
In illustration of the sentiment just advaneed we presume to quote the following an- ecdote, which shows that an estimate of human life greatly depends upon the point of view :
" It was a sad funeral to me," said a gentleman, in a company of friends; "the sad- dest I have attended for years."
"That of Edmondson ?" asked a friend.
" Yes."
" How did he die?"
" Poor as poverty. His life was one long struggle with the world, and at every dis-
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GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.
other children, had one son George, who in turn had also a son George, and who rose to some eminence, being a member of the Legislature from Berks county. This George Schall married Catha- rine Eyster, and there were born to them (the fourth generation) the following children: George, John, David, William, Hannah, and Catharine. Of these, Hannah was intermarried with Daniel Jacoby and Catharine with Dr. William Herbst. David was the father of Colonel John W. and George Schall, now of Norristown. The third and youngest son, William, is the subject of our notice. He was born in Oley township, Berks county, on the 18th of April, 1812, and in his youth received a fair education both in Ger- man and English, though he was early trained to labor and the management of the iron business, in which his father was engaged. From his early childhood William Schall lived at what was called District Forge, în District township, Berks county.
In 1833 he built Green Lane Forge, in Marlborough township, Montgomery county, and worked it successfully till 1848, when he removed to Norristown. For many years previous to this time his father's works had manufactured large quantities of bar and other merchant iron. In 1835, Mr. Schall, in company with Robert Stin- son and Wright A. Bringhurst, was elected on the Whig ticket to the lower house of Assembly, and served one year. This result was in consequence of the division of the Democratic party into the Wolf and Muhlenberg factions, and their running two tickets.
At an early day he joined the Third Troop, being elected First Lieutenant shortly after, and subsequently Colonel of the Third Regiment of Montgomery county volunteers. In 1840 he was
advantage. Fortune mocked him all the while with golden promises that were destined never to be fulfilled."
"Yet he was patient and enduring," remarked one of the company.
" Patient as a christian, enduring as a martyr," was the reply. "Poor man! he was worthy of a better fate. He ought to have succeeded, for he deserved success."
"Did he not succeed?" questioned the one who had spoken of his patience and en- durance.
"No, sir. He died poor, just as I have stated."
" I was with him in his last moments," said the other, "and thought he died rich."
"No," said the first; "he has left nothing behind. The heirs will have no concern as to the administration of his estate."
" He left a good name," said one, "and that is something."
" And a legacy of noble deeds that were done in the name of humanity," remarked another.
" And a precious example," said a third.
"Lessons of patience in suffering; of hope in adversity; of heavenly confidence when no sunbeams fell upon his bewildering path," was the testimony of another. "Then you think he died rich?" inquired the first speaker.
"Yes; richer than the millionaire who went to his long home on the same day, mis- erable in all but gold. 'A sad funeral,' did you say ? No, my friend; it was a triumphal procession-the planting of a living grain to rise to life again, not the burial of a human clod. 'Did not succeed' ? Why, his whole life was a series of successes. Look what he accomplished while he lived. His heirs have an interest in all he did, and also what he left behind. A large property is left, but not in money. Let his children see to it that they do not squander the example and good name he has bequeathed them."
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GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.
elected Brigade Inspector, which office he held till 1847, when he was chosen Brigadier General of all the county militia.
General Schall moved to Norristown, and purchased of Hon. John Freedley the large dwelling at the corner of Main and Mill streets, together with a convenient plot of ground at the confluence of Schuylkill river and Stony creek. He there first proceeded to erect very extensive nail works, and not long afterwards the large rolling mill, which were all put in operation, employing a great number of lands. From this time (1853) until 1857, when the commercial revulsion overtook us, these works were among the most valued sources of our productive industry. Doing a very heavy business for several years, the need was felt for a home sup- ply of pig metal. Accordingly, in 1857, before the revulsion of that year, in company with his sons, he proceeded to build " Lu- cinda Furnace" by the side of the other works. This was put in operation, notwithstanding the dull times, and was kept in blast till the breaking out of the rebellion, when a temporary suspension occurred, as nearly all his sons entered the army with the Fourth Regiment. But the war soon revived the iron trade, and for two or three years such a heavy business was done here that in 1864 Gen- eral Schall and sons concluded to erect a rolling mill between the railroad and the river, in the lower part of the borough. This was run till about 1870, when it was sold to Samuel Fulton, of Consho- hocken. During late years the works of the Messrs. Schall were capable of producing about thirty thousand kegs of nails, and roll- ing and sending to market one thousand tons of boiler iron a year, generally employing about two hundred hands.
The years 1867 and 1868 will be known in American annals as the inauguration of the new governmental policy of a forced return to gold payments, as the period from 1873 to 1879 was the culmi- nation of the same. Under this suicidal effort half the industry of the country, which had grown up in recent years, has been de- stroyed, and a large proportion of its population reduced to poverty and destitution. Since September, 1873, we have seen this great, new country-or, rather, continent of ours-which invites labor and development on nearly every mile of its surface, struck as with a death-like paralysis-a palsy, which has crushed enterprise, crippled manufactures, stopped material improvement, foreclosed railroad and other mortgages in favor of foreign capitalists, and prevented the construction of new roads that are needed. The nation is now seen staggering under four thousand millions of national, State, and
31
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GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.
corporation debts, which it is striving to pay while its own idle people starve, in order that we may thereby export the residue of labor products to pay those foreign debts, with the interest, and pay them in gold.
The population of the United States is greater now than in 1870. The people have as many wants now as then, which constitute the basis of all industry, and they are as willing to labor for the purpose of gratifying them. Yet our production and consumption have shrunk to nearly a half of what they were in the period first named. A half settled country like ours should have a steady, uniform and continual development of its industry and of material improvement. The reason that it has not all these is not found in nature, Provi- dence, or as the result of accident.
Of course such a state of things as we have described has swept away from hundreds of thousands the capital and savings of their whole lives. It is no wonder then that General Schall is among the number financially ruined. In his old days, however, he can point to what he has done' in a long life rather than what he has in hand, and to the fact that when and after the rebellion broke out he sent into the field his eight sons to fight his country's battles, giving also the life of one of his brave boys to her on the field of blood.
In January, 1831, while a young man, William Schall married Caroline, daughter of Reuben Trexler, of Berks county, and there were born to them fourteen children, ten of whom are living. The names of those who survived infancy are as follows: Lucy, Reuben, Edwin and Edward (twins), David, Calvin, Margaret, George, Per- cival, Alexander, Annie, and Amelia. Lucy, the eldest daughter, is intermarried with Herman L. Baer. Margaret, the second daugh- ter, is the wife of Charles Hunsicker, Esq., attorney-at-law. Reu- ben, the eldest son, is married to Virginia, daughter of George White. David was intermarried with Mary Jane, daughter of the late Nathan and Ann Rambo; she has now been dead some years, leaving one son, named William. Edwin, the distinguished soldier, was killed at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in 1864, as elsewhere recorded in this volume. Edward, the twin brother, unmarried, is a prac- ticing attorney at the Montgomery county bar, and being a soldier, advertises himself as an agent to procure soldiers' pensions. Cal- vin was married to Susannah, daughter of John White; she is de- ceased. Percival D. wandered from home, and enlisted in the army. Alexander, when in his twenty-second year, was accident-
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GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.
:ally killed by a railroad accident near Bristol, Pennsylvania, while .going on a summer excursion in 1874. Amelia, the youngest child, is married to John Beaver. Mrs. Caroline Schall died on the 7th of March, 1870, deeply mourned by her family and friends, and is buried in Montgomery Cemetery.
During his whole residence in Norristown General Schall has been a man of public spirit, entering heartily into all matters of general interest with his fellow-citizens. He has been a school di- rector and a member of Town Council a number of terms. For many years he was an active Whig, but on the rise of the Republi- .can party was first identified with the American, and since with the Democratic party, though he has never been an office-hunter in either of them.
General Schall and most of his family have been members of the Reformed Church of the Ascension, and for many years he has been ·one of its elders. His life has been a useful and busy one, which, with his numerous and well raised offspring, and a blameless repu- tation, are his contribution to the present and future.
The late Wright A. Bringhurst, who had served in the Legisla- ture with General Schall, in making his will left the latter one of the trustees of that munificent charity fund for the benefit of the poor. Very opportunely, therefore, General Schall, being out of employment the past year, was engaged in superintending the erec- tion of the houses provided, under the will, to be built. Early in 1879 he was appointed Bank Assessor by the Auditor General to as- sess the bank taxes of the counties of Montgomery and Bucks and part of Philadelphia.
Most of General Schall's sons are in business in Norristown. Reuben deals in coal, wood and lime, and David gives attention to the iron business, while George, who was recently Burgess, is now a wholesale coal operator. Calvin is employed and resides in Phil- - adelphia.
As may be supposed, General Schall's real estate, when it was .closed out at public sale, in the midst of a time of universal idleness and stringency in the money market, scarcely brought a tenth of its cost or of its previous value. The General, however, bears his al- tered circumstances with remarkable submission and philosophy. He can honestly exclaim with thousands who have gone before us, "Sic transit gloria mundi !"
476
JACOB F. QUILLMAN.
JACOB F. QUILLMAN.
Art is long, and time is fleeting, And our hearts though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave .- Longfellow.
Jacob F. Quillman, son of Daniel and Lydia Quillman, was; born at Sumneytown, Montgomery county, November 5th, 1835 .. Before sketching his education and rise as a business man, we turn aside to give what is known of the origin and pedigree- of the family. As the arthography indicates, the name is Ger- man, the great-grandfather coming from that country and set- tling in Chester county, thence moving to Montgomery and' settling at Sumneytown. His son Jacob, (Jacob F. Quillman's- grandfather) married Margaret Foust, and after burying his® first child, Henry, moved to McKeansburg, Schuylkill county, and they had born to them there the following offspring == Catharine, Daniel, Hetty, Jacob, and Jonathan.
After some years, Jacob Quillman, Sr., and wife, with their- children, returned and took up their abode again at Sumney- town, where the wife and mother died in 1856.
Daniel Quillman, the eldest son, the father of the subject of this notice, was born in Schuylkill county, January Ist, ISII; and after arriving at manhood married Lydia, daughter of George and Elizabeth Frederick, of Upper Salford township, Montgomery county. The surviving children of this mar- riage are Jacob F., born November 5th, 1835, and Daniel F.,. March 30th, 1845.
In 1848 Daniel Quillman, the father of these two sons, was. elected County Commissioner, and in 1851, at the conclusion of his term, moved to Norristown, and rented the Rambo. House, on Swede street, which he kept several years. About 1856 he left the hotel. Daniel Quillman, on leaving the pub- lic house, bought out the stove and tin business of John M. Stauffer, at Main and Swede streets, which he continued to, successfully carry on at that place six years, when he bought the building so long known as the "Washington House," by- the side of the public square, to which he removed his stove- and tin business.
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JACOB F. QUILLMAN.
After coming to Norristown, 1851, Jacob F. Quillman, the "subject of this notice, for four years was receiving the best education our Norristown schools and seminaries afforded, when, in 1854, at nineteen, he went into the office of Clerk of the Courts, Jesse B. Davis then being the incumbent; and (continued to fill this position through the succeeding terms of E. B. Moore, James C. Burnside, and Daniel Fisher, Esqs., when having served twelve years apprenticeship in the office, through "civil service reform," or "rotation," he was elected Clerk of the Courts himself in 1866, and served three years, go- ing out of office in December, 1869. At this time his father was conducting the stove and tin trade at the store-house just described, but growing old and desiring to be relieved of the business sold out the concern to his son Jacob F., who at once improved the store facilities, and took in partnership with him William H. Koplin, for many years in the employ .of Henry C. Hill, in the iron and hardware trade. To the : stove and tin line Messrs. Quillman and Koplin added a full lline of iron, steel, cutlery, and hardware of all kinds, and at once the business of the concern began to assume large pro- portions. From this time, 1870 to 1877, their trade continued ito increase, when the necessity for more room made improve- ments in the building necessary, whereupon a large stairway, ·entry and second floor were removed, a rear quarter-deck, or : stove sales-room fitted up; large additions of hardware, and · almost every description of house-furnishing goods, and man- ufacturers and mechanics' supplies added; and it may now be · characterized as one of the fullest and completest retail estab- , lishments of its kind in the State.
In April, 1861, Jacob F. Quillman was married to Henrietta, second daughter of Christian and Justina Meeh, of Norristown. The surviving children of this union are Tillie Justina, and 'William Harry Quillman, two others having died in infancy.
Since his sixteenth year, when he came to Norristown, Mr. Quillman has been constantly busy, first acquiring an educa- tion, and next serving the public in the very responsible office The held so long, and since then as the head of one of the llargest mercantile houses in Norristown. It is proper to add
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JAMES HOOVEN.
here that he left the office as popular as he entered it, and the large trade he holds is the best proof of his deportment as a- merchant. It ought to have been stated before, in connection with his father's notice, that his grandfather Quillman died at. the residence of his father, in Norristown, 1860, and also that. both the grandfathers of Jacob Quillman, Sr., were soldiers of the Revolutionary war.
It will not be inappropriate to add also that our subject's. brother, Faniel F., recently served three years as clerk for the County Commissioners, and for the past two years has been deputy Clerk of the Courts under Franklin T. Beerer.
JAMES HOOVEN.
Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. But health consists with temperance alone; And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own.
-Pope's Essay on Man.
Among the self-made men of Montgomery county pre-emi- nently stands James Hooven, of Norristown, whose business life extends back nearly fifty-five years. He was born in Upper Merion township on the 30th of March, 1808. His parents were Benjamin and Jane Hooven, now many years deceased. When a small boy he received a good common school educa- tion until old enough to go into a store as assistant, which he did with Azariah Thomas & Co., at King-of-Prussia, as early as his fourteenth year. He remained with them three years, and with their immediate successors three, when he entered into partnership with Charles McClennan until 1830, a period of two years, at the same place. This brought him to his twenty- second year, at which time he was invited to go into company with George W. Thomas, of Norristown, in the general mercan- tile business, then long established at the corner of Main and Swede streets. Here, under the title of Thomas & Hooven, they prosecuted an extensive business until the spring of 1837.
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JAMES HOOVEN.
In 1833, while thus engaged, he was married to Emeline, the daughter of Joseph Henry, of Evansburg.
In the spring of 1837 Mr. Hooven retired from the concern, after many years of service, and Dr. George W. Thomas took in Roberts Rambo and John Potts, forming the new firm of Thomas, Rambo & Potts. Mr. Hooven at once purchased from Alexander Crawford the quarries and lime-works imme- diately below Norristown, which he improved by building ad- ditional kilns, dwellings, landings, and the like. He pushed business with great vigor, shipping lime to Philadelphia and to all the States bordering on the Delaware river and bay. Dur- ing the first year he was also actively engaged in settling up the store accounts of Thomas & Hooven. About 1840 he built himself a large brick mansion on Main street, at the corner of Walnut, in which he resided until 1853. He con- tinued in the lime trade for eight years.
Having accumulated considerable capital, he associated with Mordecai R. Moore, who, together with Merchant Maulsby, had been selling coal and lumber up to that time. The new firm arranged to erect a rolling and nail mill, being part of what is now known as the Norristown Iron Works. This mill, partly planned and erected under the supervision of John Grif- fin, a professional iron manufacturer, went into operation in 1846. Under the malign influence of a reduced duty on iron, however, the works did not then prove as remunerative as they expected. Although standing idle about six months in 1852, the works ran on till 1853, when Mr. Moore retired from the firm, and the rolling and nail mills were put in motion again and kept running by Mr. Hooven until the breaking out of the rebellion, when an immense demand for iron arose. Gradually Mr. H. abandoned the manufacture of nails, bolts, and so on, and adjusted his works to roll boiler and tube iron. He also took into partnership his two sons, Joseph Henry and Alexan- der H.
In 1869-70 the firm, which had always taken especial care to have their manufactures of the best quality, found their sales so increased, and the necessity of providing suitable pig metal
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JAMES HOOVEN.
for their mill so great, that they resolved to build a smelting furnace close at hand, which was accomplished by 1870, and put in operation only to encounter the prostrating business storm of 1873. This, of course, placed the furnace out of blast. These capacious structures, which combined bear the name of Norristown Iron Works, cover a large site, having a front- age of seven hundred feet on Washington street and about five hundred feet on the river. These works are capable of smelt- ing and manufacturing two hundred tons of skelp, band and bar iron per week. The rolling mill has been run on part time since 1874, as orders were obtained, but the furnace has been silent about five years. The latter, being one of the best built in the country, could nevertheless be put in motion within a month. As manufacturers of iron the firm of James Hooven & Sons have a very high reputation, they always making it a primary aim to use good material and produce iron of superior quality.
Mr. Hooven's eminent success in life has been mainly owing to two things: first, his inflexible rule to superintend for him- self the details of business as recorded on the books (he being a thorough accountant), thus always having his affairs fully in hand, like the General of an army; and second, his following the good old rule that "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well."
For many years Mr. H. was an earnest anti-slavery Whig, and is now a Republican, but never a politician or office-seeker. In 1860 he was one of the delegates to the Chicago convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and in I 862 his Republican fellow-citizens named him for Congress. He magnanimously declined, however, in favor of Hon. David Krause, who stumped the district, but failed of election before the people.
Being a man of enlarged public spirit, Mr. H. was for three years a member of the Town Council of the borough, and for a long time reliance has been placed upon him to help forward all objects of public charity and town improvement. Accord- ingly, when the Federal government adopted the policy of sub- stituting national banks for State institutions, Mr. Hooven was
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