USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 65
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In the midst of the foregoing detail of business activity Mr. Quillman has not neglected religious duties, but at various times has served his church in the capacity of trustee, deacon and elder; also as superintendent of Sabbath school.
Humanly speaking, much of Mr. Q.'s life lies before him. Now only at prime of life, he has already achieved a conspic- uous success, and with children well grown and educated to help him-quiet and undemonstrative in all that he has done -he doubtless has an honorable future before him. His re- cord surely vindicates our introductory homily.
709
ABEL FITZWATER.
ABEL FITZWATER.
Among the sturdy English Friends who, 1682, accompa- nied William Penn in the ship Welcome, was the earliest known progenitor of him whose name stands at the head of this sketch. It is shown by the record that Thomas Fitzwater and wife Mary, came from Middlesex, England, as above, and with them two sons, Thomas and George, from one of whom Joseph Fitzwater, Sr., the father of the subject of our sketch, was a descendant, probably in the third or fourth generation. Upon the death of his mother, Abel, while yet in his infancy, was taken by his uncle, Moses Hobson, a well known resident of Upper Providence township, Montgomerycounty, and by him reared and fitted for a teacher, which profession he success- fully followed for some years. Subsequent to the death of Abel's mother, his father, Joseph, again married, and as a re- sult left six daughters, who in turn were all married, and be- came the maternal heads of as many worthy families through- out the county.
On February 17, 1825, Abel Fitzwater was married to Isa- bella, daughter of Jonas Umstad, of Upper Providence town- ship, where the village of Green Tree now stands. He then relinquished his business of teaching and bought a farm known as the "Thomas Homestead," along the Schuylkill, where since the village of Lumberville-more recently called Port Providence-sprang up. Soon after his marriage both he and his wife attached themselves to the Dunker or German Bap- tist Church, a branch of which was organized in the neigh- borhood, and of which her brother, John H. Umstad, and brother-in-law, Isaac Price, became noted ministers. To the devoted piety and powerful influence of Isabella Fitzwater, who was the first to join the church, much of the success of the new organization, now known as the Green Tree Church, is justly attributed. Abel and Isabella had three children, namely, Albert U., Joseph and Anna. The last died at the age of four years, and Albert, who was an exceptionally promising young man, at the age of nineteen. The loss of so promising a youth
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ABEL FITZWATER.
was deeply felt in the community, and at his funeral his late pre- ceptor, the well known Rev. Samuel Aaron, paid the highest tribute to his fidelity as a student and a christian. The death of Abel Fitzwater, which occurred November 2, 1840, was so remarkable in its connected circumstances as to deserve spe- cial attention.
It will be remembered by elderly people that the most de- structive ice freshet that ever happened on the Schuylkill oc- curred early in January, 1839, at which time many bridges and dwellings on the banks of the river and confluent creeks were swept away. The newly sprung-up village of Lumberville, which had been built on part of the farm and close to the Fitzwater mansion, was almost totally submerged, and it was exposure amid the floating ice in his endeavors to assist the helpless inmates of the surrounded houses on that eventful day that lay the seat of a disease that eventually caused his death, November 2, 1840. That he bore his sufferings and affliction with marked resignation and fortitude, only realized by the true christian, may be inferred from the following ex- tract from notes found among his papers after his death. He had taken observations of the progress of his disease at vari- ous times during his illness, and a few months prior to his death, after mentioning some of the remedies that had been applied, he writes :
"But may I be assisted to look to that physician who can alone supply a sovereign remedy for every disease of body and soul, and through his grace may I be enabled patiently to await the time when my suffering here shall cease, and when through his assistance I may be prepared to enter on a new scene, not like here, of suffering and sorrow, but of glory and immortality. Oh, my father, help me to be patient for thy son's sake. Amen !"
Abel Fitzwater was a man of high christian character and enlarged benevolence, always ready to be in the foremost ranks of workers in the temperance, anti-slavery or other works of reform. Runaway slaves ever found an asylum in his hospitable dwelling, and many poor fellows, after having their lacerated backs bathed and wounds dressed, were for-
.
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ABEL FITZWATER.
warded on the underground railroad to a safer and more north- ern home.
For many years he was a deacon in the church of his choice, and held in the highest estimation by his religious brethren and fellow-citizens generally. His wife survived him thirty- nine years, dying November 13, 1879, aged seventy-four years.
It now becomes our duty and right here to record the fur- ther history of Abel Fitzwater's only remaining son, Joseph Fitzwater, who has permitted us to draw this family memorial. Joseph Fitzwater was born at the family homestead, already described, May 25, 1829, where he still lives to this writing. His education was derived from such tutors as Elijah F. Penny- packer, of Chester county, and later Samuel Aaron, of Norris- town. He was married October 19, 1852, to Frances B. daugh- ter of Nathan and Elizabeth Pennypacker, of Chester county, and there have been born to them two children, Albert and Ada M. Albert married Letitia Vanderslice, and they have children, Carrie M. and Joseph A. Joseph Fitzwater, ever since arriving at manhood, has been carrying on the farming business exclusively at the old homestead until about 1870, when he embarked in the hardware and agriculture implement business at Phoenixville, having leased his farm for that pur- pose. About 1880 he gave his son Albert an interest in the business in Phoenixville, and conducted the hardware business in connection with the implement and drilling of wells by steam-power for a period, when the hardware branch was dis- posed of and the well-drilling continued, superintended by his son.
For many years Mr. Fitzwater has been one of the direc- tors of the National Bank of Phoenixville, and President of the Phoenixville Bridge Company. He was three years one of the School Directors of Upper Providence, during which three school houses were built, partly the result of his exertions. Mr. Fitzwater, though filling with great acceptance these local and business trusts, has never aspired to those of a public or political nature. In politics he has always been an anti-slav- ery Whig or Republican, with a decided leaning to the Pro- hibition party of late years. In religion he and his family ad- here to the church of his father and mother, at Green Tree.
712
MILFORD H. GREGG.
His farm is one of the best improved in that part of Schuyl- kill valley, and although badly cut by the new Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley railroad, he has secured a station near his house, which makes some amends.
Mr. Fitzwater will pardon the author for adding, of his own knowledge, that he is a man of most genial nature, kind and hospitable to all who visit his domicile, intelligent and well posted upon all public questions, of decided literary taste, and an active member of the County Historical Society, in short, a man who has seen much of life, and yet not "spoiled by con- tact with the world."
MILFORD H. GREGG.
Milford H. Gregg, who has achieved considerable distinc- tion in Philadelphia as a monumental designer and constructor, was born at Chestnut Hill, April 29, 1856, and served his ap- prenticeship in Norristown, where he resided for several years. He comes from Revolutionary stock, both his great-grand- fathers having been soldiers in the Revolution. His maternal great-grandfather, Joshua Butcher, was in the battle of Ger- mantown, and it is recorded that after the battle he went to his home to change his linen, when he was followed by three British soldiers who began to batter down the front door, but were held at bay by a large mastiff until the family had escaped through a rear door. When they returned in a few days they found the house rifled, the feather beds cut open and the dog killed. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Butcher, held a commission as color-bearer in the war of 1812, and the noted company to which he belonged is still remembered by the old residents of Germantown. His father, John D. Gregg, though of Quaker ancestry, who had settled in the vicinity of Kennett Square, Chester county, was also imbued with mili- tary instincts, so when the war of the rebellion broke out he enlisted in the first three months' service and remained con- tinuously during the war, participating in twenty-one engage-
713
MILFORD HI. GREGG.
ments unharmed until in the very last battle fought on the soil of Virginia he fell mortally wounded at Five Forks April I, 1865, while acting as First Lieutenant in the 11th Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. Richard Coulter com- manding.
Young Gregg, thus left an orphan at an early age, was sent to the National Soldiers' Orphan School at Gettysburg, where he remained nearly four years and received a liberal military education. In 1871 he returned to Germantown and shortly afterward entered the service of Edwin T. Freedley, who paid him, he says, the first dollar he ever earned. Desirous, however, of learning a trade and having a decided inclination for mechanical pursuits, he went to Norristown and inden- tured himself as an apprentice to James Moyer to learn the art of marble carving and served out his time with credit to him- self and satisfaction to his employer. After learning the trade he started on a traveling tour through the state carving mon- uments and lettering tombstones until the autumn of 1879, when, while in Phoenixville, he received an offer from Van Gunden & Young, of Philadelphia, to superintend and man- age their branch works at Thirty-ninth street and Woodland avenue, which he accepted. He remained with that firm for seven years, and during that period he contracted for and superintended the erection of a large amount of elegant mon- umental work in marble and granite, of which the West mon- ument in Ivy Hill and the W. C. Allison monument in Wood- lands Cemetery are illustrations. During this period he also perfected himself in drawing and became quite noted as an originator of appropriate monumental designs. Recently an opportunity occurred to purchase the works of which he had been manager, using for that purpose money that had been left him by his grandfather, and he is now carrying on busi- ness for himself. His friends, who include men like B. K. Jamison, W. C. Allison, and others, predict for him a bright future.
714
JACOB D. CUSTER.
JACOB D. CUSTER. CLOCK MAKER AND INVENTOR.
Unquestionably the most eminent and ingenious mechanic* that Montgomery county ever produced was Jacob D. Custer, the famous watch and clockmaker, of Norristown, and like his predecessor, David Rittenhouse, he was entirely untaught by others. He was born in Worcester township, Montgom- ery county, March 5, 1805. His ancestry were undoubtedly German Menonnists, who left the fatherland early in the last century. His father was John Custer, a respectable farmer, and his mother's maiden name Barbara Ann Detwiler, also of German descent and a Menonnist. They had five children, as follows: Jacob D., our subject, and a twin sister, who died in infancy; the others were Jonas, Mary and Isaac D., the last and youngest of the family still living in the far West.
As was customary with the plain German sects of Pennsyl- vania at the time of his youth, little attention was paid to ed- ucation beyond enough tuition to enable children to read the Bible, which was almost the only book, with enough further instruction to write and cast accounts. So Jacob D. never went to school till near his sixteenth year, and then but a short term of two or three months.
The manner of his first introduction to watch repairing is thus described.
As was customary then, farmers grew considerable flax and wool, manufacturing their own clothing; so Jacob's mother was much engaged spinning, and soon trained him to assist at that labor also, he having a given number of cuts of thread to do daily as a task. In after life he related that his mind was constantly running upon other machinery than spinning wheels, so that in order to give vent to his natural inclination, he would often rise long before day and spin by the light of a " tállow-dip" in order that he might finish his task and have daylight to exercise his mechanical skill upon such things as boys are inclined to construct for themselves.
*David Rittenhouse is not rated a mechanic but a philosopher.
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JACOB D. CUSTER.
About the time we are describing, when he began to go to school, and while his father had gone to market, he observed the latter's watch stopped and laid in a drawer for want of re- pairs. He asked his mother's leave to examine and see if he could not mend it. On promising if he did not succeed he would take it to a watchmaker and pay for its repair himself, he was permitted and undertook the task. Finding the main spring broken, by use of a pin for rivets, he restored it to mo- tion and hung it up repaired and running over the desk, where his father found it going when he came home and said he feared that "Jacob had spoiled his watch." About that time also the clock and watch .repairer of the neighborhood died, and our subject conceived the idea of taking his place. He soon got a like job from his school teacher, which was well done, and other watches and clocks soon came to him for re- pairs, so as even to shorten his brief term of three months' schooling. By the time he had reached his nineteenth year, therefore, he had made a clock, and soon after set up the business at the corner of "Ridge and township line roads," a mile west of Jeffersonville. There he erected his first clock dial and clock for public use, by placing the clock face open to the public over his place of business. He next procured a horse and a small vehicle, and drove through the country mending clocks and collecting watches for repair. This was very soon after the introduction of "Yankee wooden clocks."
Not long after Mr. Custer, having become proficient in his self-learned trade, moved to Norristown, as offering a wider field for his skill and enterprise. This was in 1832, and the following are his announcements, as found in newspaper files of that period :
"Jacob D. Custer has commenced clock and watchmaking one door above Thomas & Hooven's store, Swede and Main streets. He keeps on hand and makes patent clocks at short notice. The following persons have bought and used my clocks: Abraham Heebner, March, 1831, Joseph S. Penny- packer, August, 1831; Abraham Rhawn, January, 1832; A. T. McFarland, March, 1832."
Not long after Mr. C. removed to near the corner of Main and Green streets, where he remained a long time, and where
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JACOB D. CUSTER.
his brother Isaac learned the trade with him. Here he was located near a public school building on Green street, which had a little bell in a diminutive belfry on the roof. Mr. Custer conceived the idea of erecting a small town clock as a substi- tute for the little bell, but before getting it finished the time- piece was purchased by citizens or the Town Council, and with two or more dials placed upon the court house, where it ran, keeping good time until removed with that old building in 1855 or '56, when that edifice had been replaced by the present structure, and the clock substituted by a new one, also made by Mr. Custer. Before this, however, Mr. C.'s reputation as a clockmaker had traveled nearly all over the Union, and he had before or later erected such at the follow- ing, among many other places: On a Market street refrectory, Philadelphia, at Uniontown, Danville, Gettysburg, Phoenix- ville, Falls of Schuylkill, Germantown, Coatesville, Glassbor- ough, Bridgeton, New Jersey, as also at Salem, Ohio, and to South Carolina, Alabama and other Southern States, as also one for his friend, Thomas Saurman, for his Eagle foundry, and still running there. His later manufactured town clocks have movements chiefly of cast iron, and being heavier, are cheaper and less likely to get out of repair.
Mr. Custer's reputation as an ingenius mechanic and in- ventor brought him applications to build machinery and contriv- ances for a great variety of uses, among others an application from the United States Government for the invention of a "Fog bell" to warn mariners of shoals in misty weather. General Meade and Professor Bache indicated what was wanted, and Mr. Custer soon had a machine that met requirements, and they are now in use all along our coast. Also during the civil war the government wanted a machine that would rapidly produce Minie balls. Mr. Custer soon had one built that would turn them out rapidly. The machine he sold to Tatham, of Phila- delphia, at much below its worth, as it was thought by his friends. But we have anticipated. Before Mr. C. went into the construction of cast-iron clocks and heavy machinery he made a number of gold and silver watches for his friends on their order, which were wholly made by him, except perhaps the main and hair-springs, and such like. Some of these are
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JACOB D. CUSTER.
running and keeping fair time to the present. The author re- cently examined one which is worn by Mr. John Jacobs, of Norristown, who values it highly. He also made one for the late William H. Slingluff and another for his wife, for Dr. George W. Thomas, Othniel Spang and others. He invented an invaluable contrivance, the "oil cup" to lubricate journals under steam pressure, as also a reaper, besides a sewing ma- chine for his wife on an original pattern of his own invention. An umbrella manufacturer in a western town heard of him and wrote to learn if he could construct an automatic parasol that would open and shut by clock work ? Mr. C. soon had it made to order, and his brother saw it operating in the show window of a western city. He invented a number of valuable improvements to steam engines, a coal oil lamp with a blast, to avoid the use of a glass chimney, as also a mowing ma- chine. It seemed only necessary for him to look at any labor- saving machine in motion to instantly conceive an improve- ment to it, or an improved substitute for it. His mind never rested in its inventive flight, but was ever on the wing.
About 1845 Mr. Custer purchased a lot on Main street above DeKalb, which contained a dwelling, and after a time erected a shop, which he occupied two or three years, when about 1850 he erected a large machine shop on Lafayette street, below Mill, for a clock manufactory and machine shop. Here he gradually retired from the watch trade and more ac- tively entered into the construction of town clocks and heavier machinery. While here he made the engines and heavy ma- chinery for several of our Norristown manufacturers.
As has been the fate of genius in all ages, Jacob D. Custer was one of the most unselfish and unfortunate men that ever lived; and because of his inability to make "sharp bargains" he was repeatedly cheated of the honest fruit of his toil and inge- nuity. He was often overreached in business contracts ; once he sold a valuable improvement he had made to the ordinary Yankee clock. An Eastern clockmaker, hearing of his im- provement, called upon him and agreed to buy the sole right to use the invention, and pay Mr. C. "a percentage upon all he should make," but for some reason afterwards refused to make any, so Mr. C. was defrauded of his improvement. Officers
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JACOB D. CUSTER.
of the Light House Board told him once, on learning his terms for inventive skill, that "he worked entirely too cheaply." Mr. C. only looked at his manual labor and outlay in making charges, consequently he gave away much of his honest earn- ings. Many of his inventions also were patented in Europe by others as their own. There was no business man in Nor- ristown who had a higher reputation than he for punctilious honesty in all his dealings with others.
Jacob D. Custer was not a scientific mechanic; he knew little of what is taught in books as "technical mechanics," but by intuition he saw all through the workings of any machine submitted to his inspection. Such a man in his specialty is measurably independent of books and all "sciences" so called.
It should have been stated farther back in this narrative that our subject was united in marriage to Miss Mary B., daughter of John and Jean Carlisle, at York Mills, Oneida county, New York, April 14, 1842, and there were born to them five children, namely, Jennie B., Estelle J., Mary Agnes, Isaac C. and John C., the last of whom died in infancy. Jennie . B. is intermarried with Mr. I. M. Templin; they have four surviving children, to wit: Richard Downing, John Carlisle, Thomas Carlisle and Walter C. Mr. and Mrs. Custer's child- ren were all born at Norristown, as all but one of Mr. and Mrs. Templin's. Jacob D. Custer died September 30, 1872. Their eldest son, Isaac C., at this writing, is a, traveling salesman and Mr. Templin farms the Scott farm in Norristown. Mrs. Mary P. Custer, the widow, still resides in Norristown.
In person Jacob D. Custer was of medium height, florid complexion, light hair and very industrious in his habits. His widow and his children hold his memory in fondest remem- brance, affirming that he was to them an affectionate husband and indulgent father, ever caring for his dear ones rather than himself.
719
J. SHELLY WEINBERGER, A. M.
J. SHELLY WEINBERGER, A. M.
Professor John Shelly Weinberger, of Ursinus College, is one of the self-made men now giving impress to our stirring age which needs such scholars more than any since the re- vival of letters. He is not one of those who, to use the im- mortal bard's metaphor, having climbed ambition's ladder, "looks in the clouds and scorns the base degrees by which he did ascend."
He was born in Milford, Bucks county, in 1832, of German Menonnite stock, and in youth got only a common school education, but two years later was thought qualified to take charge of the village school. Rev. H. A. Hunsicker had be- come his brother-in-law, and at that stage advised him to attend his Seminary, at Freeland, which he did, alternating teaching at home and sessions with Mr. H. for a few years, until the way was open, in 1855, to enter freshman's class at Yale College, in a class of one hundred and fifty-three pupils. From this, amid pecuniary obstacles, he continued four years there, graduating in 1859, at the age of twenty-seven, and at once took a professorship of languages in his early alma mater, Freeland Seminary. This showed that Professor W., in the words of a very rude but expressive adage, "was not ashamed of the dish he was baked in," and there also he falsified the simple maxim of his early sect, that more than "a little learn- ing is a dangerous thing." Two years after this he was mar- ried to Miss Emma Kratz, of Bucks county, and continued with Mr. Hunsicker some five or six years, until the seminary passed into the hands of Prof. A. Fetterolf; still he remained through the latter's term until the school was transformed into Ursinus College, some three or four years later, when . the new institution, perceiving the advantage of securing Professor W., he became one of "the pillars thereof," where he remains now, being one of the Faculty from the first.
Professor W. is what may be defined a conservative radical and hence a believer in the co-education of the sexes. He therefore obtained leave to educate his sole daughter, Minerva,
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ISAAC L. SHOEMAKER.
at the college, she graduating in the class of 1884 with all the honors. Professor W. is a member of Mr. Hendricks' Trinity Church and senior elder of the same.
His paper, read before the Inter-county Historical Society last summer, shows that philosophy and elevated criticism are natural to him.
We are indebted to Colonel Bean's "History of Montgom- ery County" for most of the above facts.
1 ISAAC L. SHOEMAKER.
The Shoemaker family, one of the most respectable in Montgomery county, is known to be of German descent, and by most authorities traced to Jacob Shoemaker, a Friend, who came with or near the time of the Penn emigration and set- tled at Germantown about 1682 or '83.
Our subject, Isaac L. Shoemaker, of Norristown, born June 14, 1814, is the only son of John and Martha L. Shoemaker, farmers of Upper Dublin township, the father being the lineal descendant of Isaac Shoemaker, one of the early emigration, and his mother, Martha, a daughter of Isaac Longstreth, whose ancestors were from the South of Wales; and also among the early settlers of the lower section of Bucks county.
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