USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 66
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At the age of eighteen years our subject had received a fair education by attendance at three boarding schools located in this and Bucks counties, when he entered as an assistant at the store of Jones and Lukens, at Three Tuns; but after a service of ten months his health failing, by advice of a physician, he returned to his father's farm again for a more active life, when his former vigor returned, and he soon resolved to adopt farming as his life occupation. At the age of twenty-two he married Jane, third daughter of Moses and Elizabeth McLean, of Horsham township. Since their union nine children have been born to them, of whom only four are living, Emma, mar- ried to Charles Cottman, of Jenkintown; John, intermarried with Margaret Dettra, William M., and Morris H., all of whom reside, or are in business in Philadelphia.
721
ISAAC L. SHOEMAKER.
It is here proper to sketch the business career of our sub- ject. After living two years on his father's farm following his marriage, he next rented another place in Horsham, to which he removed, where he remained four years. Having a favor- able opportunity he next purchased an adjoining farm of one hundred and seven acres, to which he removed, and which he considerably improved. Here he was quite successful for nearly twenty-seven years, and until his two sons, John and William, had received a collegiate education, when they ex- changed the farm for city life, soon after which Mr. S. rented the farm and removed to Norristown.
In early life, though an industrious, vigilant working man, Isaac L. Shoemaker was an active partisan Whig, and filled many local offices in the township through the partiality of his neighbors and friends. He was also called to adjust diffi- culties between neighbors, almost invariably advising them to keep from under the arm of the law. In 1851 he was Whig candidate for County Commissioner and pitted against William W. Dunn (his brother-in-law), a Democrat, of the same town- ship, but of course was defeated because of the large adverse Democratic majority at that time. In November, 1865, after a heated contest at Skippackville, which mainly grew out of political feeling, Mr. Shoemaker was elected a member of the Board of Managers of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which office he still holds, now for a period of over twenty years, being thought an almost indispensable assistant in as- sessing damages and adjusting disputed claims for damages in a corporation which has several millions of property insured. In 1870 he was nominated by the Republican party for Jury Commissioner, elected and served three years acceptably to the people and with credit to himself; and in 1874 was ap- pointed Prison Inspector, serving a like term, when, with others, he was enabled to introduce numerous improvements in the building, as also salutary reforms in the management and care for the morals of prisoners.
Having a birthright membership in the Society of Friends, himself and family attended Upper Dublin Meeting for wor- ship a period of about fifty years, and in a meeting house erected upon three acres of ground his grandfather donated
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CAPTAIN FREDERICK HAWS.
for that purpose, as also for a burial place for Friends or others; and when about to remove to Norristown he felt con- cerned to have a dwelling house erected on the grounds for the use of the janitor, to which object he contributed liberally.
After several years' residence in Norristown Isaac L. Shoe- maker is known there and esteemed as one of its most liberal, yet conservative citizens, very frequently consulted on sub- jects of public concern by his friends and neighbors.
CAPTAIN FREDERICK HAWS.
The above is a familiar name about Norristown and through Montgomery county, though nearly as well known in its orig- inal orthography, Haas, for both are unquestionably German, and originally the same, dating back probably to the famous "Pastorious settlement at ye Garmantown," very soon after Penn founded Philadelphia. Our subject's father, Samuel, who was connected with the Haas families, of Chestnut Hill, and born in that locality, was originally a stocking weaver, as very many other residents of Germantown were from the early colonial era ; for it is not fifty years since "Germantown made," was a universally accepted commendation of any hosiery goods.
Captain Haws' grandfather's name was Frederick, and his wife's Catharine. They followed the family occupation as did his son and grandson (our subject) when a boy. Samuel Haws married Sarah, daughter of Lewis Kulp, of Barren Hill, and had the following children: Frederick, born April 5, 1818; Mary, wife of George Garrett, of Jeffersonville; Margaret died in infancy, Lewis, Samuel, Sarah, Rachel, the last inter- married with John S. Harding, of Norriton; also Kate, who was the wife of John Cauffman, both deceased. The children of Rachel and John S. Harding are the following: Ada, Hamilton, Wilmer, Lillie (intermarried with Edwin Kneule, of Norristown), and Alice.
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CAPTAIN FREDERICK HAWS.
Samuel Haws, the elder, came to Norristown during the improvement era, 1835 or '38, and employed teams in plow- ing, excavating and widening the streets of the borough, as ordered to be done by the Legislative Commission about that time. Captain Haws, being then young, was generally acting as plowman. On the completion of that job Samuel Haws and his sons went into brickmaking along the river front, and fol- lowed it until he purchased of the "Land Company" the resi- due of the Pawling farm, the mansion of which stood near the present Chestnut and Green streets. About that time Captain Haws, our subject, was married to Miss Isabella, daughter of Andrew Mason, of Norristown, who was a native of Scotland. After marriage he left his father's employment, and they re- moved to a small farm in Lower Merion, following that occu- pation two years, when he returned to Norristown again to manage a brick yard for his father, at Barbadoes and Lafay- ette streets. This he continued for three or four years, when he purchased a small property near Spring Mill, and went again to farming, and so continued there and elsewhere until 1855, when he purchased of his brother-in-law, John Cauff- man, the farm of thirty-two acres, including an established brick yard, on Marshall street, which he has improved and where he has still resided for the past thirty-one years, pros- ecuting, in company with his sons, both farming and brick- making, doing a large business in the latter, the market for their output being Norristown, a mile eastward.
Frederick and Isabella Haws have been blessed with eleven children, namely, Samuel A., Sarah (died in infancy), Charles L., Frederick A., A. Mason, Mary, also deceased in childhood, Camilla, who died at the age of twenty-one, Ray, Kate M., Harry C. and Eugene.
Soon after the breaking out of the Southern rebellion, Samuel A. Haws, their eldest son, joined Company B, First Pennsylvania Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Owen Jones, and after serving gallantly to near the end of his enlistment, when in a skirmish at " Haws' Shops," Virginia, he was killed and buried on the field of battle, but afterward taken up and reinterred at Cold Harbor amongst other brave men who gave their lives for their country in the latter famous struggle.
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CAPTAIN FREDERICK HAWS.
His grave is there appropriately marked. In 1862, at Governor Curtin's first "emergency" call for volunteers to repel the rebel invasion of the state, Frederick Haws responded promptly by marching in a militia cavalry company, mounted on their own horses, and commanded by Captain Daniel H. Mulvany, of Norristown, to the state capital, when and where they found that the first rebel raid was ended, so were disbanded and returned home.
Again, the next year, in 1863, when the Confederates in- vaded Pennsylvania as before, Frederick Haws, on a new call of the Governor, raised a company of cavalry, the men, as be- fore, mounted upon their own horses, and at the rendezvous, the men recognizing his native force of character, elected him captain, and without delay the troop organized into a battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Mosen, when they marched to the line of the Potomac, where, for several weeks, they did val- uable service in scouting along both sides of the border, until Lee and his cohorts retired South again, when they were mustered out of service with the commendations of the state and national governments. Captain Haws had also his son Charles, though youthful at the time, enlisted in his company, and Colonel Wynkoop, recognizing Captain Haws' judgment and promptitude, made him during part of his service Provost Marshal, a post requiring determination, judgment and fidelity.
The intermarriages and personnel of Frederick and Isabella Haws' children may be noted at this writing as follows : Charles L. is married to Harriet Ashenfelter, and their child- ren are Adele, Camilla and Bella; Frederick is intermarried with Mattie George, and they have two children, Harry and Mabel; A. Mason is married to Maggie Wanner, and have also two children, Wanner and Lillias.
In politics Captain Haws has been an active Republican, though never an office-seeker.
725
FREDERICK GILBERT.
FREDERICK GILBERT.
Although there are numerous German families of the above surname in Montgomery county, and Mr. Gilbert spoke that language fluently, it being his vernacular, still there is a well settled tradition in the family, that our subject, whose name stands above, is of English origin, and that they emigrated with Penn, or soon after his settlement of the state, and located near Philadelphia, but soon removed to the upper end of Montgomery county, or lower border of Berks county. Fred- erick Gilbert's paternal grandfather (probably of second gen- eration after the settlement), was George Gilbert, born 1762, resided in New Hanover township, Montgomery county, where he married and raised a large family of children. George Gilbert died 1838, aged seventy-six years, and was buried at Lutheran Church Cemetery, at New Hanover. His seventh
son, Daniel Gilbert, was born in 1789 and died at Norristown, 1853, aged sixty-four years, and is interred at Montgomery Cemetery. His wife, originally Catharine Specht, was the daughter of a German family of that name at New Hanover, and there were born to them ten children, as follows: Fred- erick, Amos, Joshua and Daniel; and daughters, Margaret, Rachel, Catharine, Sarah, Mary and Hannah. The history and intermarriages of all these except the first, our subject, are briefly stated as follows: Daniel is married and lives at Allentown; three sisters, Sarah, Mary and Hannah, are mar- ried and live in Limerick township; the others are deceased.
Frederick Gilbert, the proper subject of this family memo- rial, was born March 27, 1817, in Limerick township, Mont- gomery county, and during his early life worked on a farm, remaining there until about his twentieth year, when he came to Norristown. Having acquired a slight knowledge of car- pentering at home, he contracted for further instruction with Bolton & Christman, then leading builders, and very soon after, 1839, Married Mary Spare, and there were born to them four children, of whom the following grew to maturity : Sarah Ann, Wilhelmina, William R. and Frederick. Up to this
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FREDERICK GILBERT.
writing the intermarriages and status of these children are as follows: Sarah Ann was the wife of Colonel M. R. McClennan, who commanded the 138th Regiment of Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, with great gallantry, nearly the whole time of the re- bellion to its close, and was breveted Brigadier General pre- vious to his discharge. General McClennan died in 1872, leaving his wife, who still remains a widow, with two children, Charles and Mary, who reside at Norristown. Frederick and Mary Gilbert's second living daughter, Wilhelmina, is the wife of John Slingluff, President of the Montgomery National Bank, and they have had three children, Mary, Helen and William, the first of whom is intermarried with Howard Boyd, and at this writing have two children, James and John How- ard. Frederick and Mary Gilbert's eldest son, William R., was a soldier in General Hartranft's command, Fifty-first Regiment, during the whole rebellion, serving to its close, and was discharged as an honored veteran in 1865. Their younger son, Frederick, has long been an accomplished hard- ware salesman and book-keeper for Quillman & Koplin, since William H. Koplin, Norristown. He is married to Sarah H. Edmunds, formerly of Bridgeton, N. J., and they have at this writing one daughter, Alice.
We now return to narrate the business career of our sub- ject, covering a period of nearly fifty years. After serving out his term of apprenticeship he began working for Joseph Fronefield, Philip Koplin and Jacob Bodey, and finally entered into partnership with the last in the carpentering business; but not finding things to his mind he took his brother Amos as a partner in 1850, and bought out the stock, good-will and fixtures of Wheeler, Mellick & Co., then in the agricultural machinery business at Main and Arch streets, Norristown. In 1852 his brother Amos retired from the concern, Christopher Rittenhouse, near by, purchasing the formers' interest, and the firm with enlarged facilities, under the name of Gilbert & Rittenhouse, did a large and profitable business in the building of threshers, horse-powers, and all descriptions of agricultural machinery until about 1860. About this time Mr. Gilbert retired from the Norristown concern, taking hold soon after of a like business, "The Bridgeport Agricultural
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FREDERICK GILBERT.
Works," then in the possession of David Havard, as assignee of the former owners. Here he remained until 1865 (also during the time manufactured cigars with Henry Quillman), when he sold out his interest to other parties and purchased of Thomas H. Wentz his extensive lumber yard and rented his planing mill, at Main street and Stony creek, here re- maining over two years, until 1868, when he transferred it by sale to the new firm of Merritt & Evans. From this time he commenced carpentering and building partly for himself and others, during which he erected some buildings of considerable note, including Montgomery hose house, on Penn street. He had at different times also purchased vacant lots, which he improved and kept for rent; the care and improvement of these during his declining years have kept him busy. His health had been declining for some years past, but appeared ro- bust, when, September 29, 1886, he went to Philadelphia chiefly to attend the funeral of his old friend Samuel B. Lewis and called on the writer of these lines (by previous arrange- ment) to supply the memoranda of this family memorial. Just one week after, the following Wednesday, his remains were consigned to the tomb, at Montgomery Cemetery, he having died the previous Saturday, October 2, in his seventieth year. His sudden death, caused by rupture of a blood vessel of the brain, was a startling shock to his numerous friends, and at his funeral there were many sincere mourners.
Frederick Gilbert was widely known as a man of clear head and sterling integrity, a man of strong common sense, mild, harmless, and yet independent in thought and action to a re- markable degree. His opportunities of education had been limited, and yet profiting by careful newspaper reading he was a man of extensive information. Originally a Democrat, he grew into a "Freesoiler," and finally a Republican, by the force of native repugnance to slavery, but was never an active partisan, so was not selected for public trusts beyond one term of Town Council. Few business men of Norristown, having such a long and varied career, have left the stage of action more respected for uprightness and quiet virtues than he.
His affectionate consort had been in feeble health for some time previous to his demise, so his sudden call away fell like
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LAURENCE E. CORSON, ESQ.
a lightning flash, prostrating her nearly to the point of death. 'She lingered a month or two, confined most of the time to her room, then also passed away, November 22, in her seventy- third year. Mrs. G. was a model wife and mother, and her children cherish her memory.
LAURENCE E. CORSON, ESQ.
Undoubtedly the most distinguished civil engineer, surveyor and assistant business man that for nearly a life time ever flour- ished in Norristown was Laurence E. Corson, who was the son of the celebrated Alan W. Corson, elsewhere recorded in this volume. He was born in Whitemarsh township, April 26, 1819. Up to the age of eighteen years he had been a close student in his father's private Seminary, near Plymouth Meet- ing, where his naturally mathematical mind was fully trained for a future active career. In 1838, at the early time of life above stated, he went to Quakertown, Bucks county, to take charge of a public school, continuing there the next year also, when in company with a friend he made a short tour to the Southern States, and in the spring of 1840 opened an office in Norristown, adjacent to that of his uncle William, where he established the business he followed all his life-time-that of surveying and scrivening-agent of the "Franklin Fire In- surance Company of Philadelphia," as also of the " Equitable," but after some ten or fifteen years' service retired from the life insurance branch of the business.
On December 25th, 1845, Mr. Corson married Mary, daughter of Dr. Benjamin and Sarah Jones Johnson, also of Norristown, and there were born to them the follow- ing children : Alan W., Sallie, Norman B., and four others who died in infancy. These have intermarried as follows : Alan W. with Delia McGuire, and have children, Mary, Am- brose Burnside and Norman Butler. Sallie married Robert P. Garsed, attorney-at-law. Alan W., named for his paternal grandfather, had the best opportunity of education in the
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LAURENCE E. CORSON, ESQ.
Norristown public schools, graduating 1863 with the first honors, and in mathematics under his father's special training ; he was thus by his seventeenth year qualified to fill his father's place as surveyor and civil engineer, which he did on or soon after his demise, which took place May 8, 1872. But we must return and endeavor to give a connected narrative of the busi- ness life of Laurence E. Corson, who probably ran, fixed and enscribed more land-marks than any other man that ever lived in Montgomery county.
Although he had for four or five years subsequent to 1850 the active competition of J. Morton Albertson and other sur- rounding surveyors, he had the chief employment in that line as also civil engineering. In 1853 he was elected Justice of the Peace for the then Third or Lower ward, and re-elected twice, the last time in 1863, holding the office nearly up to the time of his death. During the year 1849 he was one of the Com- missioners named in an act to lay out and fix the boundary of an enlargement of the Borough of Pottstown, he being the surveyor of the commission, and in 1850 performed a like ser- vice for the then rising Borough of Conshohocken, and near same time similar duties for Bridgeport.
Very early in life he commenced a career in railroad build- ing by taking the contract to build the Plymouth road from Conshohocken to Corson's kilns, his father being chief engi- neer, which he completed in 1841. In 1855 he ran the pre- liminary lines of "The Norristown and Allentown railroad," he being chief engineer, the road since built, 1868, and called " Perkiomen railroad." In 1868 or '69 he ran the line of the Stony Creek railroad, which was built almost without changes on the preliminary lines given by Mr. Corson. In 1870 or '71, he ran the "Edge Hill and Neshaminy railroad," and also the " Neshaminy and Brownsburg railroad," his son Alan W. serving as the assistant on both the latter, as also the Stony Creek, the former lines since built and known under different names, in connection with the " North Pennsylvania."
It was Esquire Corson's fortune to be the most capable man in his calling, from 1845 to 1860, during nearly the whole period of the enlargement or founding of the now prosperous boroughs of the county. People living in active life now have
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LAURENCE E. CORSON, ESQ.
little conception of the furor in lot-selling and purchasing that continued in some, or most of these towns, year after year. Of course each land operation-converting farms into prospective town lots-required a surveyor to run lines, lay out streets and mark the lots on a paper plot or diagram, and who so fit for this as Surveyor L. E. Corson? Thus he was kept busy for years, and finally he also, in company with Gabriel Kohn, in the autumn of 1853, made a purchase of the "Chain farm," west of Stony creek, then in Norriton, now "West Norristown." They purchased seventy-six acres for which they paid $45,000, and the following spring sold most of it in lots at very profitable rates, clearing a large sum by the speculation. The improvements that resulted from that purchase and sale now covering the locality doubtless exceed those existing in the whole borough previous to 1830. Mr. Corson, during his service for various land speculators, had purchased lots himself, which were afterwards sold, usually with profit. During the years of 1858, '59 and '60 he was asso- ciated in business with Dr. Joseph K. Corson, producing lime on the " Crawford farm," below Mogeetown, as he had been 1853, '54,'55, '56, '57, in company with James Wells, Patrick Flynn and James W. Schrack, in handling the William A. Crawford limestone property, selling some off in lots, but not making it a full success. In 1860 he surveyed and superin- tended the sale of Benjamin Harry's land, at Conshohocken, into town lots, and three years later did a like service for Theodore Trewendt, in that borough also; in fact there was hardly a lot sale in Norristown or neighboring town between 1845 and 1860 but Laurence E. Corson had a hand in it some where, as surveyor, clerk or scrivener. Among his books and papers left in the hands of his son, Alan W. Corson, Esq., " who is following in his footsteps," there is a curious histori- cal document, now of great value, being well worn draughts of nearly all the parcels of lot land sold at auction, with the lots outlined, numbered, and the nameofthe purchaser inscribed, as marked down at the public sales. Below we append a mere catalogue of these sales, the time and localities briefly indi- cated, certainly a very curious record to old citizens who can recall those transactions. It would appear from this docu-
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LAURENCE E. CORSON, ESQ.
ment that Mr. Corson, as surveyor, had arranged the sales and kept the record at auction as follows :
November 1, 1845, Jacob Bodey's sale, on the flat, between Arch and Green.
October 31, 1846, "the Carson farm."
December 25, 1846, John Boileau's sale. Probably Powel farm.
December 25, 1846, Isaac Roberts, on the Powel place.
September 18, 1847, Stroud and Powel's sale, out Green street.
December 11, 1849, Mordecai R. Moore's lots.
March 9, 1850, Isaac Roberts' sale. (The Haws farm.)
October 2, 1850, Mordecai R. Moore and Samuel Haws' lots on " Williams farm."
October 5, 1850, Mordecai R. Moore and Samuel Haws' lots on "Williams farm."
November 2, 1850, Isaac Roberts' sale, " Keesey farm."
November 30, 1850, Presbyterian grave lots.
June 17, 1852, Jacoby estate, L. E. Corson, Agent.
November 20, 1852, Roberts' sale, probably remnant of Haws' farm.
December 25, 1852, the " Brown farm" (I. Roberts.)
March 23, 1853, postponed sale of I. Roberts.
July 23, 1853, Charles Jones' lots, Conshohocken.
October 22, 1853, sale on the Chain farm, Kohn & Corson.
November 12, 1853, William Powel's lots. Probably Green street.
November 12, 1853, Lydia Thomas's lots, Basin street.
December 10, 1853, Breitenbach's sale, 514 lots, Bridgeport.
January 5, 1855, lots, " East Norristown" or Plymouth. November 22, 1855, Bodey & Jacobs' lots, Bridgeport. February 28, 1857, Isaac Jones' lots, Conshohocken. October 6, 1860, Benjamin Harry's lots, Conshohocken.
May 2, 1863, Theodore Trewendt sale, Conshohocken.
The purchasers' names were inscribed on each marked lot at every sale, of which the above is but a catalogue or index.
It is only necessary to add that Laurence E. Corson, who died in his fifty-fourth year, as before stated, respected for his eminently useful and patriotic life, was buried at Montgomery
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THOMAS H. WENTZ.
Cemetery in a family lot. Like all of his name, he was a man of bold, outspoken views, the enemy of fraud and oppres- sion, an earnest radical Republican. In person he was tall, well formed, fair complexioned, with dark hair and eyebrows. His wife died August 23, 1867. His son Alan W. Corson appears to fill his place admirably, being engaged in survey- ing, as his father was ; has been selected as town surveyor for the boroughs of Norristown, Bridgeport and West Consho- hocken ; he has been three times elected Justice of the Peace for the Fourth ward; is a capable, trusty business man, and an influential politician. Being a young man, his life is be- fore him.
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