USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 5
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On February 13th, 1807, Mr. Boileau offered a resolution to ap- point a committee to inquire into the expediency of repealing an act of Assembly passed in 1777, making the Common Law of Eng- land the law of Pennsylvania, and report by bill or otherwise. This was a time of much anti-English feeling in the country, and it was alleged impossible for unlearned persons to know under what laws they were living.
As before stated, party spirit ran very high, and much dissatis- faction was felt and expressed in " Republican" circles at the aus- tere and aristocratic bearing of Governor Mckean. So much oppo- sition was manifested against his renomination for a third term, in fact, that Simon Snyder came within a few votes of beating him in the canvass before the legislative caucus. Accordingly a motion was made in the House during the last year of his third term to "" inquire into his official conduct," but it was lost by a tie vote. Mr. Boileau recorded in favor of laying the motion on the table- that is, in the negative. In January, 1808, Mr. B. moved that " our Senators in Congress be instructed and our Representatives ibe requested to support a bill for opening water navigation, by canal, 'between the Delaware and Susquehanna," and Mr. Boileau ;and Mr. Leib called up a bill which had been previously reported iin favor of opening water communication between the Schuylkill : and Susquehanna rivers.
As before stated, Mr. B. was elected Speaker of the House on December 8th, 1808, and made a pertinent speech on the occasion. On the 20th of the same month, however, Simon Snyder, then just elected Governor, appointed him Secretary of the Commonwealth, tto which office he was reappointed December 17th, 1811, and De-
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HON. N. B. BOILEAU.
cember 20th, 1814. On his resignation to accept the Secretaryship, Richard T. Leech, probably a relative, was elected early in 1809 to the vacant seat.
It is a curious fact that one of the last legislative acts of Mr. B., as one of the first, signed by the new Governor (Snyder), was an omnibus lottery scheme, entitled an act to raise $7000 by that means, to enable an association in Montgomery county "to pro- mote the culture of the vine and to pay their debts and accomplish the objects of their association"; also including two thousand, as before stated, to build a school house at Sumneytown in which to teach English.
In the fall of 1808, Colonel, or Judge Robert Loller, an eminent and wealthy neighbor, died, leaving the bulk of his estate, after the death of his widow, which happened in 1810, to build and endow Loller Academy, and Mr. Boileau was left sole executor, a position of great trust and responsibility. He was charged in the will with: the duty of building and providing for the seminary according to his: own judgment and plans. This institution Mr. B. erected during 1811-12 on ground adjacent to his property, and disbursed some $11,000, the residue of the estate, with great wisdom and fidelity ..
The war breaking out in the summer of 1812 greatly increased the duties and responsibilities of Governor Snyder and his Secre- tary. Though bred only a civilian, he had to assume the duty of Aid to the Governor, and was so appointed in May of that year in company with John B. Gibson, Wilson Smith and John Binns, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. About that time, or soon after, a draft was issued for fourteen thousand men for the defence of the State and nation, and there not being appropriations to fully equip the troops Mr. Boileau made advances from his private purse. In fact, the first mortgage given on his land was to raise three or four thousand dollars to procure blankets for the soldiers, and either through informality of law or the modest unselfishness of Mr .. Boileau, that money was never repaid him. This is given on the: authority of one who had it, many years after, from his own lips .. Mr. Boileau and his family were Republican or Democratic in all their habits and instincts. Instead, therefore, of his wife and son removing to Lancaster* and Harrisburg, and living in style as the manner of most officials now, his family remained at Hatboro."
. The eight years of legislative service, and nine as Secretary of the Commonwealth under Honest Simon Snyder, caused no abate-
"The State Capital at the time of Snyder's inauguration.
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HON. N. B. BOILEAU.
ment in the rigid morality and sterling patriotism of Mr. Boileau. All the animosities felt against him, therefore, were purely political, and from the able manner he had filled the post of Secretary for three terms, having the full confidence of Mr. Snyder, justified the expectation that he would be taken up for Governor to succeed him. Nearly the last political, or military, appointment he filled was that of Acting Adjutant General from May, 1816, to January, 1817. In March, 1817, however, the legislative caucus, or State convention, assembled to place a Democratic candidate for Gover-' nor before the people. William Findley, who had been a repre- sentative in Congress almost from the organization of the Govern- ment, Isaac Weaver, of our county, Speaker of the Senate, and the Secretary, N. B. Boileau, were informally nominated. When it came to a vote Findley received 99 to Boileau's 14. Whether per- sonal chagrin at his defeat by Mr. Findley had anything to do with warping his clear judgment in the matter, or whether Mr. Boileau's allegations were well grounded, cannot now be known, but Mr. B. charged the nomination to corrupt influences exerted by Findley, and he broke with his party by writing a bold letter in which he made that charge in unmistakable terms. Mr. Boileau did not hesi- tate in that letter to espouse the side of Joseph Hiester, Mr. Find- ley's Federal opponent. This letter got into the hands of the latter party, which was used in the canvass, and a crisis in Mr. Boileau's political life was reached at once.
The Democratic county committee appointed by the nominating State convention, consisting of Philip S. Markley, Henry Scheetz, Benjamin Reiff, Philip Reed and Philip Yost, prepared and issued a secret circular just before the election, denouncing Mr. Boileau as a traitor for charging that Findley got his nomination corruptly. Mr. B. retorted briefly but sharply, charging that Markley had col- lected a large sum of bounty money that he had appropriated to his own use, and paraded some documents fastening the charge upon him.
Except an active advocate of the anti-Masonic movement from 1829 to 1834, this Findley and Hiester campaign was Mr. Boileau's last appearance in politics. In reference to the letter that led to his exit from the Democratic party, the editor of the Norristown Herald, alluding to it, says: " We have never been the eulogist of Mr. Boileau, but his integrity and probity have never by us been questioned."
Mr. Boileau joined the anti-Masonic movement with considerable
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HON. N. B. BOILEAU.
zeal, and when Joseph Ritner was elected Governor by that party he received the appointment of Register of Wills in January, 1836, and held it three years, his son Thomas acting as his deputy and clerk. This was the last public office he filled.
It only remains further to refer to Mr. Boileau's exalted private life, sum up his political career, and record his peaceful death. In sterling integrity, patriotic aims, ingrain Republican principles, and unselfish benevolence, Mr. Boileau has had few if any superiors in our county. One that knew him best of any says: " He was very benevolent. The indigent never went away from his door empty handed; he gave to the poor as long as he had anything to give. He worked on the farm in haying and harvest till past mid -. dle life. He was very industrious and never idle; was very handy with tools for working in wood; made nearly all his farm imple- ments, even wagons, carts, plows, harrows, etc. He was the most capable and trusty business man of the time to settle estates, act on arbitrations, and the like." Another neighbor says: "Mr. Boi- leau's moral and religious character was as high as any man's could be for honesty, integrity and good will to men; he was benevolent to a fault, for he seemed to give when he had nothing to bestow. No man more than he had the confidence of his friends." After the temperance reform arose he was an ardent advocate of the cause ; was many years President of the Montgomery County Tem- perance Society, and a member of the Bible society. The latter quoted friend further says of him: " His estate was largely sunk by efforts to reform his prodigal son. He went West to look after his welfare, then returned and died with his niece at Abington, whose husband was sexton of Dr. Steele's church, to which he (Mr. Boileau) had long been a worthy member and supporter. As his money left him, so did his friends; and of all he knew in the days of his wealth and influence, there were not enough present at his funeral to carry him to the grave without his relatives assisting."
In person Mr. Boileau was rather under than over the medium stature, well built, dark, florid complexion, stooping somewhat in his old days, and in figure and countenance resembled the portraits of John Quincy Adams. In society he was social, cheerful, and could adapt himself to all grades of people, often bringing himself down to the capacity and moods of children, and jesting with them to their great delight. His want of rigid care of property in his old days was perhaps a weakness, but an amiable one, for his wealth
51
PHILIP HOOVER.
lasted nearly as long as he had use for it, and when the summons .came he had no idol to bind him to earth as many have.
The most interesting remains of this truly great and good man are two oil portraits in the possession of Mr. William Sprogel, of Hatboro, one of them taken early in life and the other when he was Secretary of the Commonwealth; and the large Bible containing family records in the bold, clear handwriting of this eminent man, as also a painted life-size portrait of Mr. Boileau's first wife, are now in possession of Mr. John Jacobs, of Norristown, whose wife is :a sister of the wife of Thomas L. Boileau, deceased.
Thus died in poverty Nathaniel B. Boileau, who was born rich, married two wealthy wives, was industrious, honest, frugal, and patriotic. He outlived all his early friends and relatives except his unfortunate son, till he was nearly left alone in the world, and went up like Lazarus to his reward on high. As his life was no sham, so there are no " lies" nor fulsome eulogies on his tomb-stone, the in- scription on which, in Abington Presbyterian church-yard, reads as follows :
N. B. BOILEAU, DIED MARCH 16TH, 1850, In the 88th year of his age.
PHILIP HOOVER, Eso.
"No man knows his own strength or value but by being put to the proof. The pi- lot is tried in a storm; the soldier in battle; the rich man knows not how to behave him- self in poverty .- Seneca.
Philip Hoover was born July 20th, 1782, in Hilltown township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He was a son of Henry and Margaret Hoover, the maiden name of the latter being Hern. Their parents came from Germany. In the year 1794 the family removed to Gwynedd township, Montgomery county, where he purchased a farm containing two hundred acres. Philip received a common ·school education, and was a close student, which in his after life was of great advantage to him. He became a member of Boehm's (German Reformed) church on September 13th, 1804, and such he continued while he lived. He was first elected a deacon, and then ·an elder, which latter position he held at the time of his death, be- iing a member of the consistory over forty years. He was delegate
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PHILIP HOOVER.
to many of the ecclesiastical bodies that convened during that period.
Mr. Hoover married Mary, second daughter of Hon. Frederick Conrad, of Worcester township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on November 13th, 1804. They had thirteen children, named Frederick W., Julian, Susanna, Maria, Henry C., Ann, Catharine, Hiram, Conrad, Albert C., Ann Elizabeth, and Andrew J. Only six, however, lived to manhood and womanhood, four sons and two daughters, to-wit: Frederick, Hiram, Albert, Andrew, Maria, and Ann Elizabeth. At the death of the progenitor, Henry Hoover, the property was divided into two parts, Philip taking the old man- sion with one hundred acres of land, upon which he lived nearly all his life. He removed to the city of Philadelphia, however, and kept a grocery store one year. Preferring farming as an occupation he returned, and there remained till 1830, when he removed to new buildings which he had erected on the place, and retired from the active duties of the farm for awhile. He had also been elected to the State Legislature, in which position he served three years, the customary term. While sitting there he opposed granting such un- limited franchises to corporations, believing it was dangerous to in- vest a corporate body with power that could, and most likely would, be used to enhance their own interest regardless of the welfare of others. He served as an officer in a rifle regiment under command of General Cadwallader during the war of 1812-14. He was con- sidered a useful and good citizen, serving his neighbors in various ways, and filling nearly all the positions of township officer, juror, and the like, during the whole period of his adult life. Between: the ages of sixty and seventy he traveled considerably, taking de- light in seeing the improvements of the country. He helped to de- fend against British aggressions. His faculties were unimpaired: down to his death-bed, when he died in his 83d year.
Hiram C. Hoover, son of Philip and Mary Hoover, was born on: October 23d, 1822, in Gwynedd township, Montgomery county,. Pennsylvania, and educated in the common and select schools of the- neighborhood. He also studied vocal and instrumental music, which he afterwards taught for twenty-five years. Several choirs in neigh- boring churches were established by him, and he was a member of the first Sunday school organized in the neighborhood, of which he became teacher, and next Superintendent. He was admitted a. member of Boehm's church in his 18th year, elected elder at an early age, and has been re-elected continuously at the expiration of
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PHILIP HOOVER.
each term ever since. He has been President of the consistory during all the time except the first year.
On the 4th of March, 1847, he was united in marriage with Margaret, youngest daughter of the late Frederick Dull, Sr., of Whitemarsh township. To them were born four children, William A., Irvin W., Sarah D. and Mary M. Irvin died in the 3d year of his age; the three living are grown to manhood and womanhood. William and Sarah are married, the latter removing to Richmond, Virginia. All are members of the Reformed church. In 1849 Hiram C. Hoover purchased a farm in Norriton township, at the in- tersection of the turnpike and the Stony Creek railroad, on which he has erected a number of improvements. Soon after his removal to this place he was elected Superintendent of a Sabbath school at Burr's meeting house, where he continued several years. He also became a member of Penn Square Literary Society, in which he took great interest, participating in nearly all the discussions. He has served as school director eleven years, was President of the con- vention at which Professor A. Rambo was first elected County Su- perintendent of the schools of the county, was elected Justice of the Peace three times, and has been President of the Norristown and Centre Square Turnpike Company since its organization. He was elected to the State Legislature three times, serving during the ses- sions of 1862-3-4, and also served two terms of five years as an Asso- ciate Judge of the several courts of this county. He has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall Col- lege, and also recently chosen to a like position on the Board of Ursinus at Collegeville. He has been connected with Sabbath schools the greater part of his life, and is at present teacher of the Bible class at Boehm's church, consisting of over thirty young men and women. This record shows that he is a very worthy descend- ant of his father, and also of his grandfather, Hon. Frederick Conrad.
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ZADOK THOMAS.
ZADOK THOMAS, EsQ.
"Old age, thine evening twilight, for him who has a Saviour, blends so undistin -- guished with the sunrise, that there is scarcely a night between."-Tholuck.
Among the quiet, unpretending business men of the past two generations in this locality, none have left a stronger ex -- ample or brighter testimony to the excellency of uprightness and commercial integrity than he whose name stands at the head of this page. He was born in Newtown township, Del- aware county, 1773. The family are of Welsh origin, and. connected by blood or affinity with that of General Wayne,- having settled in the same locality with the ancestors of that great man. Very early in life, being of delicate frame, he was. put into a store, to which business he was trained, and became a very successful merchant and expert book-keeper, always. adhering to the double-entry system.
In all his long intercourse with the world, the writer has. rarely if ever met with a more scrupulously honest or exact. man than Zadok Thomas .* To a nice sense of justice and truth he added wonderful prudence and exactitude in details .. He was sought, therefore, for charitable trusts, and accordingly for nearly fifty years was Treasurer of the Montgomery County Bible Society, as also for many years Treasurer of the First: Presbyterian Church, and his accounts were always accurate. to the half-penny.
Early in life Mr. Thomas was married to Ruth Thomas,. whose maiden name was the same as his own, and they had: one son and two daughters. The first, named Azariah, he- bred to store-keeping, and for a great many years he followed mercantile business in the Great Valley, and afterwards at
*Many years ago Mr. Thomas was a trustee of one of the Norristown churches, but not a member of its communion or of any church then, when the following question arose: A certain very prominent man, bearing about the same relation to the church congregation and property as himself, had assisted to lay off the grave-yard adjoining, specifying certain aisles or passages between the lots, which latter were proposed to be sold for the benefit of the corporation. Stakes had been affixed to these passages, and the survey was considered settled and final. Subsequently this leading individual de- sired to purchase a large lot close in the rear of the house of worship, and. to extend across the middle avenne, forgetful or regardless of the meets and bounds of the yard. This almost demand came up as a question in the Board of Trustees, and at first a ma- jority of the members, many of them eminent for their piety, were disposed to yield the- point out of deference to a strong-willed, wealthy man, but Mr. Thomas still mildly protested, saying, "It is not right; Mr. - ought not to ask such a thing. There is ground enough on each side, as much as he desires. Besides, Mr. - knows. that he is seeking to break over the regulations he himself helped to establish."
His arguments and firm uprightness prevailed. The wealthy gentleman was recon -. ciled to a side lot and the rules of the corporation maintained.
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ZADOK THOMAS.
Sugartown. He is now some years deceased, leaving one or two daughters, who reside at West Chester. Zadok and Ruth Thomas' daughter Julia Ann married a gentleman named Galt, who died about middle life, leaving her a widow with two sons, Zadok T. and James Galt. These were educated partly at Norristown, and the former studied law with Daniel H. Mul- vany, Esq., and married his sister. For many years he has resided at Reading and in Schuylkill county, and been in the employ of the Reading Railroad. His younger brother, James Galt, lives a prosperous business man at Stirling, Ill. Zadok and Ruth Thomas' youngest daughter, Maria, also married a Galt, and has a son, Azariah T. Galt, Esq., a prominent lawyer at Chicago, Ill. They also had a younger son, Z. T. Galt, who learned watchmaking.
At a very early date Zadok Thomas formed a partnership in store-keeping with William Speakman, a friend of his youth, doing business at Dilworthstown, in Delaware county, five miles south of West Chester, which firm existed over forty years, and was only dissolved by the death of Speakman. For a short time also, about 1816, Mr. T. was in partnership with David Thomas in Norristown ; but afterwards for many years with his son kept the King-of-Prussia store, but some time be- fore retiring from active business purchased a small farm on the Ridge turnpike road above Norristown, where he lived till about 1853 or 1854, when he sold it and removed into town. Shortly before this, August 5th, 1852, Ruth Thomas died, aged 87 years.
In 1831 he was elected President of the Montgomery County Bank, a post which his accurate business habits, great pru- dence and judgment, eminently fitted him to fill. A few years before his death Mr. Thomas united with St. John's Episcopal Church, Norristown. His mind had been keenly alive to the claims of religion for several years before, but was prevented from uniting with the Presbyterian Church, to which his eldest daughter was attached, out of conscientious scruples in accept- ing the whole Calvinistic creed. For a long time before his death he was feeble, but clear-headed and cheerful, and the venerable old patriarch quietly passed away December 27th.
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HON. JACOB FRY, JR.
1865, in his 92d year, and is buried in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church. Zadok Thomas' life was a re- markable illustration of the Bible declaration that "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened," for from a delicate youth, by uprightness and temperance, his time was almost extended to a century.
HON. JACOB FRY, JR.
"An honest man's the noblest work of God," says Pope in his Essay on Man. Very few men, especially politicians, ever more modestly earned the title "honest" than Jacob Fry, Jr., the subject of this biography. His friends applied it to him, and his political opponents conceded it, during a long public career. In this respect he resembled Abraham Lincoln, who was so single-minded, and of such blended firmness and gen- tleness, that he neither excited the animosity of his associates on the one hand nor their envy on the other.
· Jacob Fry, Jr.,* son of Jacob and Elizabeth Fry, of the vil- lage of Trappe, Upper Providence township, Montgomery county, was born on the 10th of June, 1802. His family is said to have arrived in Pennsylvania from one of the German palatinates during the emigrations from 1710 to 1750.
His early education was chiefly obtained in the common schools of his native village, and much of it under the tuition of Francis R. Shunk, afterwards Governor of the State, as also he attended school in company with him, as they were neighbors to each other. In his twenty-fifth year he was mar- ried to Mary Gross, only daughter of Hon. Samuel Gross, who had served several terms in the State Legislature, and two (from 1819 to 1823) in Congress.
Jacob and Mary Fry's children were Benjamin F., born
*His father lived near him till 1852, during nearly the whole period of his publie life, and having used the affix "Jr." so long, he continued to sign his name so while he lived.
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HON. JACOB FRY, JR.
March 13, 1828; Samuel Gross, January 24, 1832, and Jacob February 9, 1834. The eldest died in infancy, 1831 ; Samuel Gross, in Philadelphia in 1876. The youngest and only sur- vivor of the family is the Rev. Jacob Fry, D. D., of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reading, Pa.
On arriving at manhood the subject of our biography, having a good common school education, engaged in teaching till 1830, when Governor Wolf appointed him Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts of Montgomery county, which post he held about four years, till the conclusion of Hon. Joel K Mann's second term in Congress, when he was nominated and elected in the fall of 1834 as his successor. At the conclusion of his first Congressional term he was re-elected in 1836, and served during the exciting times consequent upon the collapse of bank credits and the inauguration of the Independent Treasury under Van Buren's administration. Being elected as a Democrat, Mr. Fry gave his party an active and uniform sup- port, and returned to the people at the end of four years popu- lar with the Democracy at least, though he had sympathized to some extent with the free-trade notions then prevalent with his party at the South. He also, doubtless from convictions of duty, acted in harmony with those of Van Buren's admin- , istration who maintained that all discussion of the subject of slavery by the National Legislature was impertinent and un- warranted by existing compacts. He was present, therefore, during most of the time the Atherton rule against " agitation" and the right of petition was in force, and witnessed many a tilt between the old-man-eloquent (J. Q. Adams) and slave- holding Hotspurs, who ruled supreme at that time. Mr. Fry was present also when the great Commoner expired in his seat
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