USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 49
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
HON. JAMES BOYD.
I must have liberty Withal, as large a charter as the wind, To blow on whom I please .- Shakspeare.
The ancients held that each person was born under the influence sof a particular star, which ruled his or her destiny. So we moderns more accurately and philosophically affirm that each inherits mental and moral characteristics which, within certain limits, give the key- mete of his or her future with nearly as much certainty as the decrees of Fate. For convenience also, mankind may be divided into two classes, the positive and negative, bearing strict relation to their mental and moral force or their lack of those qualities. Strong characters are irrepressible, while the opposite are content to mix and gravitate with the undistinguished mass.
Mental force and will-power give the clue to the success of the gen- tleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch, as will appear by what is briefly stated hereafter.
Colonel* James Boyd, as he is usually called, of the Norristown bar, is of Irish or English lineage, his parents coming from Virginia to Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 29th of
*As may be supposed, this title was not won in "grim-visaged war," but received by ' .appointment as Governor's aid.
523
HON. JAMES BOYD.
March, 1821. During his minority his father, Jeremiah Boyd, re- moved to a place near Norristown, and engaged in business. While :so continuing James was receiving his education, first at an academy in Philadelphia and afterwards at Haddington College, German- town. For a brief period just before his majority he engaged in the apothecary business, but not finding it in accordance with his tastes very soon abandoned it and entered the office of the late Daniel H. Mulvany, Esq., as a student of law. He was admitted August 16th, 1842, and almost at once entered upon a successful practice. From the start his will-force and bold energy brought him into nearly every criminal prosecution on one side or another, and it was early observed and commented by disinterested parties that "Boyd worked just as hard with a weak cause as a strong one, or for a poor client as a rich one." This natural result of his amazing positive- ness and professional energy of course made his fortune. But his belligerent and dogmatic style of practice brought its author into many a forensic tilt with his brethren, testing judicial firmness and .courtesy to the utmost.
With ripened experience, however, and a growing commercial and corporation practice, he has gradually swung out of the line of petty criminal trials. With the jury of average will, intelligence, and force of character, Mr. Boyd is nearly omnipotent, as he rarely fails to carry their minds by the impetuosity of his mental charge. But with men of opposite character he often fails, by his mere boldness and invective, in the ability to sustain the weak points of a case on which reliance is sometimes placed.
For a long time Mr. Boyd has been a considerable stockholder in banks and other corporations of the locality, and a director in many of them, thus accumulating money rapidly, in addition to his degal business. For many years also he has been retained as coun - sel for the Reading railroad company, attending to all its interests in the county, for which service he receives a large salary. It is understood that he was in 1870 largely instrumental in selling or leasing the Norristown railroad to the Philadelphia and Reading corporation.
Mr. Boyd entered public life as a Whig, and so continued up to 1856. But that year, like many other of our leading citizens who could not accept the necessity of anti-slavery issues, he refused to enter the Republican party, and voted for James Buchanan. He has remained in the Democratic party ever since; yet during the. var that ensued he gave the government active support, being ap-
524
HON. JAMES BOYD.
pointed Commissioner to conduct the draft for troops. In 1871 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket and elected a member of the Constitutional convention, and took an active part in its pro- ceedings. At the conclusion of the sittings, however, he refused to append his name to the instrument, this decision arising from his disagreement with some of its provisions. To his lasting credit, also, he refused to accept the extra pay that its members had voted themselves, as he thought it contrary to law.
His refusal or singularity in these matters, as in many others, arises from his bold independence of character; and this, as his well known badinage and dry humor, may be set down as marked pecu- liarities, or eccentricities, as some prefer to call them. He has been known to play the role of clergyman during a social party, not as burlesquing the latter, but by assuming a gravity of demeanor -a sort of "make-believe," as playing children term it-thus af- fording infinite amusement. His humor always takes the shape of irony or ridicule, hitting off the absurdities or pretences of others with a face as grave as a tomb-stone.
His invective, power of sarcasm, and ridicule, while making him a terrible opponent in court or on the rostrum, disqualify him for a political leader, for no party trammels would hold him, and his blunt, outspoken frankness, would get him enemies where he sought friends. Hence Mr. Boyd is in no true sense a politician.
In 1848 Mr. B. was married to Sarah, youngest daughter of Sam- uel Jamison, Sr., the owner of large cotton mills in Norristown. Their eldest son, Robert, died when a boy seven or eight years old. The other children still living are Wallace J. and Howard, the former of whom has been recently admitted to the bar and appointed a Notary Public, and still later elected Burgess of Norristown, his- office being in the same building as his father's. Mrs. Boyd died suddenly of heart disease in 1876, and is buried in an ornamented tomb at Montgomery Cemetery.
Having had a very lucrative practice for many years, a large and profitable interest in a stone quarry at Conshohocken, a number of farms, and being a stockholder in numerous business corporations, he is reputed one of the wealthy men of Norristown.
As this sketch is written without the assent or co-operation of Mr .. Boyd, and merely to complete the record in our book of Montgom- ery county's public men, responsibility for the facts and this por- traiture must lie at our door instead of his.
525
DANIEL O. HITNER.
DANIEL O. HITNER.
Honest labor bears a lovely face .- Thomas Dekker. * * a man
That from the first has been inclined to thrift .- Shakspeare.
Among the modest, unpretending, and successful business men of Montgomery county, there is none stands higher than Daniel Otto Hitner, of Springmill, in Whitemarsh township, who was born in Pottstown, the upper borough of our county, on the 29th of January, 1815. He is the son of Daniel and Catharine Scheetz Hitner, who for many years afterwards resided at Marble Hall, in the same town- ship. He is the son of a second marriage of his father with the daughter of General Henry Scheetz, elsewhere recorded in this vol- ume. His paternal grandfather, also called Daniel, was probably of the Protestant German emigration of the early part of the last cen- tury, as were also his maternal ancestors of those who came over with Pastorius and settled at Germantown. The grandfather Hitner was a soldier of the Revolution, and was killed at the battle of German- town. Daniel and Catharine Scheetz Hitner had three other child- ren, named as follows : Henry S., so long and well known as a part- ner with Daniel O. in the furnace business, and who married Mar- garet Dager; Margaret, who is dead, was married to Henry Cress ; and Catharine, who married Reuben Y. Hagey, the latter of whom is deceased.
After receiving primary instruction in the common schools of the locality of Marble Hall, where his father removed soon after his birth, Daniel O. Hitner, up to the age of sixteen, had the benefit of academic training under Alan W. Corson at his famous seminary near by. . At the age named, however, his father placed him as as- sistant or superintendent of the noted marble quarries at Marble Hall. A short time previous to this, while shooting at game, he had the misfortune to lose his left arm by the bursting of a gun.
On the 3Ist of January, 1836, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Hit- ner was married to Catharine B., daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Kirkner, of Barren Hill. The same year he rented or took charge of his father's extensive marble quarries at that place. In 1840 he erected a large steam mill adjoining the quarry for sawing the stone into merchantable condition, and from that time till the present a very heavy business in marble has been done, the sales ranging from thirty thousand to fifty thousand dollars per annum. In 1841 his
526
DANIEL O. HITNER.
father died, leaving the quarries, mill, and a portion of the land to. him, and the main farm and homestead to liis brother, Henry S. His- mother died as early as 1824.
Residing in a mansion beside the works, he continued to push the production of marble till 1849, when, in company with his bro- ther, he bought the upper William Penn Furnace, and in 1853 they erected another immediately below, both of which were kept in blast till near the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861. Having; confidence in the future, and capital to hold the product, the Messrs .. Hitner did not "blow out" on the recurrence of hard times in 1857, but accumulated the pigs until the war began, when a prodigious. demand for iron arose, thus demonstrating their wise foresight, and. adding very materially to their fortune. In 1863 D. O. and H. S. Hitner purchased of the heirs of Abraham Kunzi the old Spring Mill. Furnace, just above William Penn. All these establishments were kept in blast from that time until about 1878, when some of them were stopped, and subsequently all, as the result of business pros- tration all over the world. These furnaces produced, when run- ning, or were capable of producing, about twenty thousand' tons of iron per annum, consuming thirty-five thousand tons of coal, and em- ploying nearly sixty hands, independent of perhaps a hundred others engaged in digging ore and hauling on their own account.
Having so large an interest and business on the line of the Schuyl- kill, Mr. Hitner in 1856 concluded to remove from Marble Hall, and erected for himself, on an elevation near the furnaces, a hand- some and commodious cottage, now surrounded by evergreens, ter- races, statuary, and other needful ornamentations. This dwelling, his family first occupied in the spring of 1857.
To his original patrimony of one hundred and fifty-two acres, in -- cluding the quarries, Mr. Hitner a few years ago purchased the ad -- joining Dull tract of one hundred and ten acres and the Wood pro -. perty of fifty-two acres. Most of these contain iron ore, which has. been mined in past years. The furnace property covers about sixty acres. In 1879 Mr. H. and his brother Henry S. dissolved part -- nership in the iron business, the former retaining the furnaces.
For many years Daniel O. Hitner was a considerable stockholder andi a director in the Bank of Montgomery County, and still more re -- cently was active in founding the First National Bank of Norris -. town, and has been a director in its Board for fifteen years, or from its organization to the present time.
In public and political matters Mr. Hitner has always been dis-
527
DANIEL O. HITNER.
tinguished as a man of public spirit. He gave very largely to the- fund in support of the families of the "emergency men" in 1863, when our State was invaded. He was also a very liberal contribu- tor to the erection of Barren Hill Lutheran Church, as to most other objects of a like nature in the locality. Having always been an active Whig and Republican, his purse is generally open to promote- the success of the party. Pending one of the drafts for troops dur- ing the rebellion, he was appointed, and served for a short time, as; United States Marshal of our district. He was once run for Con- gress, but failed of election owing to an adverse majority. He has often represented his political friends in county and State conven- tions.
Mr. Hitner still owns and operates the works at Marble Hall, and' has a large yard for the sale of the stone at Ninth street and Colum- bia avenue, Philadelphia, which is superintended by his son-in-law, L. V. Righter, while his son, Daniel O., overlooks the diamond-saw- cutting. The works at Marble Hall are managed by his son, Henry H., and his son-in-law, Henry M. Helling. His quarries, which furnished much of the marble for Girard College, originally belonged to his grandmother, and were first opened and operated in 1785 by Thomas Moore, who leased them for many years. From that time- to the present many millions of tons of blue and white marble have- been conveyed to market, constituting as sure an income as a gold mine, and not demoralizing, as the latter usually are. Mr. Hitner's farms are worked on shares, and they are all of the most productive character.
It only remains to record the offspring of Mr. and Mrs. Hitner and their wedded affiliations. Their eldest, Elizabeth K., is mar- ried to Henry M. Helling; they have two children, Kate H. and D. Hitner. The second, Rebecca R., is intermarried with Lindley V. Righter; they have seven children, Lizzie L., D. O. H., Kate H., Helen P., Rebecca H., Lindley V., and Edwin L. The next child is Henry H., married to Isabella Lentz; they have two child- ren, Daniel H. and Clara H. The fourth child, Helen S., is the wife: of John Freedley Prince; they have four children, Clara H., Mary A., Helen P., and Kate H. The next is Kate H. The youngest son, Daniel O., is married to Lizzie Lentz; they have two children, Lillie May and Horace R. The last child is Clara R. The two latter daughters live with their parents at William Penn Cottage.
528
HENRY A. STEVENS, ESQ.
HENRY A. STEVENS, EsQ.
From nothingness we enter into time, Controlled by laws we made not, but obey As slaves their masters; filled with thoughts sublime, We crawl in dust and perish in a day .- L. F. Bittle.
The gentleman whose name stands above is the son of John and Catharine Stevens, and was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylva- nia, in 1827, while his father was a temporary resident there, acting on a government commission to survey and establish the true channel of the Ohio river.
We turn aside here to trace the history of Mr. Stevens' father and mother, whose incidents are curious and interesting. John Stevens, his father, was born in New York city in the year 1780, he being an orphan boy, living under the care of an un- cle in that city. In 1793, when he had grown to the age of thirteen, as is well known, Admiral Alexander Cochran, of the British navy, looking after English interests along our coasts, dropped anchor at New York. While remaining there he boarded some time on shore, and made the acquaintance of the uncle of John Stevens, the father of the subject of this notice.
The Admiral took a fancy to John, the young Yankee, then about fourteen years old, and often took him on board of his ship to see the sights. The attachment seemed mutual, the little fellow admiring the plump, ruddy-faced Englishman, and amused by the yarns of the seamen. So when the time to weigh anchor came, John, by permission of his uncle, found himself on board of the English ship, under the special care of the Admiral, bound for a long cruise "to see the world," the latter promising to permit his return when his relatives should so determine.
The next year, 1794, as is well known in history, the Brit- ish sent a fleet to chastise the Algerines for their piracies. In making the attack it was necessary to disembark in boats ad- jacent to the city. While doing this young John was placed in a boat as cockswain, with two Lieutenants on board to land under the eye of the Admiral. The boat had hardly touched the beach, and the two officers landed, when the lives of both were simultaneously sacrificed by the deadly fire of the enemy.
529
HENRY A. STEVENS, ESQ.
Not knowing whether he would be censured or commended for the loss of his companions, he instantly put the boat's head towards the ship, and was soon on the great deck again to await further orders. He was at once commanded into the presence of the Admiral, who, for his gallantry, courage and presence of mind, made him a midshipman on the spot, and ordered that he should be respected as such. From this time until near the breaking out of the war of 1812, the young mid- shipman sailed with his patron, Admiral Cochran, till England and the United States seemed on the point of going to war again. Young Stevens had always dreamed of a joyous re- turn to his native country; so, consulting with his uncle, he was advised to resign his commission and return home, which he did soon after.
We will now turn to give an account of Mr. H. A. Stevens' maternal ancestry, which is equally full of incident. His mo- ther's father was General Nicholas Parisett, who, by invitation of General Lafayette, left France and his home, which was surrounded by all that fortune could bestow, to assist in our Revolutionary struggle. In July, 1780, he arrived at New- port, Rhode Island, with the French forces, under Admiral Count De Rochambeau. From thence the French fleet and forces went South to co-operate with Washington against the British in Maryland and Virginia. Late in 1781, as is known, the allied army and navy compelled Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, which nearly ended the war.
The year following, General Parisett, while operating with the army, or encamped in Maryland, married the daughter of General York, of that State, and soon after purchased a planta- tion with stock, slaves, and the like, near the Head of Elk, where he resided for several years. But the climate not prov- ing to his mind, in 1792 he removed to Trenton, New Jersey, with his family of four daughters, the eldest becoming the mother of H. A. Stevens, Esq., the subject of our notice. Here the former midshipman, Stevens, who had turned his mind and attention to engineering and surveying, formed the acquaint- ance and married Miss Catharine Parisett, and thus became the parents of our subject.
530
HENRY A. STEVENS, ESQ.
Mr. Stevens' maternal grandfather, General P., while resid- ing in Trenton, in 1793, at the suggestion of General Wash- ington, prepared a treatise, entitled "The Discipline of the Cavalry of the United States," which he dedicated and pre- sented to General Washington, as appears on the records of the War Department, in Volume LXXVIII, page 189. The following is a copy of the note accompanying the book:
TRENTON, December 13th, 1793.
Sir-I flatter myself with the hope that you will pardon the lib- erty I have taken to dedicate to your Excellency this small perform- ance. My labor shall be amply rewarded if it meets with your Ex- cellency's approbation.
I propose presenting it to the Congress for their acceptance also as the book of "The Discipline of the Cavalry of the United States."
I am, with great respect,
Your Excellency's most obedient, humble servant,
To the President.
NICHOLAS PARISETT.
General Parisett died at Trenton in 1803, universally re- spected as a patriot and soldier. Mr. Stevens' father, as be- fore stated, was engaged in civil engineering and maritime enterprises between New York and other ports, making that city his residence. In the year 1824, upon the arrival of Gen- eral Lafayette in New York harbor, John Stevens was one of twelve persons selected by the authorities to row the General to the wharf, in a superbly built yacht, from the ship lying in the stream. Commodore Bainbridge, of the United States navy, acted as cockswain, the party landing at Castle Garden. Mr. John Stevens died in the prime of life at the island of Cuba, of yellow fever; his widow, in Philadelphia, in 1868.
We return now to a further account of the proper subject of this notice. At nine years of age he commenced elementary instruction, preparatory to entering Rutger's College, and on completing his education, studied law in Philadelphia, was ad- mitted when quite young, and soon gained a lucrative prac- tice there; but his health failing by reason of a bronchial affec- tion, he relinquished practice in the year 1857, and moved into our county, settling in Whitemarsh township, though he had been admitted to our bar as early as October, 1848, he having a case to try here for a Philadelphia client. He came to Nor- ristown to reside in 1868, and returned to practice.
53I
ROBERT IREDELL, ESQ.
Mr. Stevens is married to a daughter of Thomas·Dallett, de- ceased, of Philadelphia. She is the granddaughter of John Simcoe Saunders, of London, author of the celebrated law work known as "Saunders' Pleadings." Mr. Stevens' family consists of wife and three sons, Henry Saunders, Charles Al- bert, and Alfred Herbert. He has been for several years an active Democratic politician, and is a fluent speaker at the bar and on the stump. He has been in nomination for Burgess of Norristown, and other town offices, but failed of election by reason of a dominant Republican majority.
ROBERT IREDELL, EsQ.
'Tis not a year or two shows us a man .- Shakspcare.
The men now in any wise at the head of business establish- ments in Norristown who were so engaged forty years ago, may be counted on the fingers of one hand. Of this number, however, the subject of this sketch is conspicuous.
Robert Iredell, the son of Jonathan and Hannah Iredell, was born in Horsham township, Montgomery county, on the 15th of October, 1809. His great-grandfather, Thomas Iredell, a prominent member of the Society of Friends, settled in Hors- ham township in 1709; his grandfather, Robert Iredell, was born there in 1720. He is the youngest of eight sons. After receiving a good common school education he was apprenticed to David Sower, Jr., in March, 1827, to learn printing. At that time there were four young men learning the business in Nor- ristown who became noted editors or eminent in after life, to wit: Samuel D. Patterson and William H. Powell at the Regis- ter, and Philip R. Freas and Robert Iredell at the Herald office.
Mr. Iredell belongs to a long-lived race, the ages of his pa- rents and grandparents, six persons in all, aggregating four hundred and ninety-six years.
In 1831, soon after coming of age, Mr. Iredell purchased the Norristown Free Press of Henry S. Bell, who had started that
532
ROBERT IREDELL, ESQ.
paper as an anti-Masonic organ. The former published it six years, until January, 1837, when John Hodgson, who had be- come the owner of the Norristown Herald, sold him his paper also. From this time forth, for more than twenty-seven years, Mr. I. continued to issue the united journals as the Norristown Herald and Free Press. He thus outlived or remained longer in journalistic harness than any of his cotemporaries, except Mr. Freas.
On the election of Joseph Ritner as Governor, in 1835, Mr. Iredell had been named as Recorder of Deeds, which office he held three years. Mr. I. was superceded by James Wells, ap- pointed on the accession of Governor Porter.
From the time he issued the joint paper, till 1843, he continued to edit and publish one of the handsomest Whig journals in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. In the latter year he sold a half interest in the paper to William Butler, Esq., of Chester county, recently made Judge of the United States District Court in the city of Philadelphia. Mr. B. was joint editor and publisher eigh- teen months, during which he studied law here, and was ad- mitted to practice on the 18th of November, 1845. He retired from the paper, however, about that time, and at once entered practice in Chester county. During the time Mr. Butler was connected with the Herald the previous high character of the paper was fully sustained. From the time Mr. B. retired from the paper, until March, 1864, when the establishment passed into the hands of Morgan R. Wills and Robert Iredell, Jr., his son, it was conducted with the same unswerving fidelity to Whig and anti-slavery principles.
For some two or three years before the breaking out of the war of rebellion, Mr. Iredell's brother-in-law, Loyd Jones, was associate editor, as he had for a long time been a correspond- ent on political topics, and did very efficient service, being a bold and vigorous writer, an accomplished politician, as well as a competent business assistant. He retired from the paper in 1862 to take a position in the provost marshal's office. He died in 1870, leaving a widow but no children. As a writer, Mr. Iredell has always been characterized by boldness, perspi- cuity, and force, but never as a bitter partisan. The paper
533
ROBERT IREDELL, ESQ.
during the palmy times of Whig rule and effort was always very decidedly anti-slavery in its tone and sentiment.
Mr. Iredell served four years in Town Council, during which DeKalb street was opened north from Airy, the borough pur- chasing the Academy property, and the market-house was built.
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.