USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 70
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In 1842 he was married to Mary Cowden, daughter of Thomas and Hannah Cowden, of Plymouth, and in 1844 find- ing the manufacturing and wholesaling of hats required more assistance, he dissolved with his brother and took in Florence Sullivan, which arrangement continued four years, when the firm was dissolved and the latter went to West Chester for a year, but returned the next and opened a hat store on DeKalb street. Finding also the hat trade otherwise declining from increased competition, he added ready-made clothing to his
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business in 1856 or 7, and so continued, not making much beyond a very moderate living, until the revulsion of 1858 set in at Norristown, consequent upon land speculation, and rising troubles between the North and South about slavery, which culminated in the war 1861. This also for a year or two stagnated business still more, but in 1864 things revived and he had fair trade, he "taking stock" at the first of the year, as had always been his custom, yearly balancing accounts until 1873, when the exhibit (estimating real estate and goods at current rates) showed a favorable balance of nearly $3000. But that was the era when the national government set on foot " measures to resume specie payments." At once money began to grow scarce, business declined, and real estate would not sell except at ruinous rates. Thus money was made " dear " and merchandise and real estate " cheap," and work failed to the laborer, for the reason that if a dollar was put into goods or property, when re-converted into cash again, it would only yield seventy to ninety cents. Under such cir- cumstances, business men instead of making profits found their return only expenses and debts. The result of this prolonged state of things was, our subject spent four weary years trying to sell out his stock and place of business, only to find by September, 1877, that he was unable longer to continue for want of capital. He was thus "swamped " by what people call " a change of times "-but what he lost-his all-others pocketed ; and thus we see the government got specie pay- ments as a result, while thousands were crushed in the process. Our subject never wasted money in extravagant living of any kind, but found himself at near three score and ten- after living an industrious frugal life-with little left but his integrity.
Finding himself without capital in 1877 (the three thousand dollars having melted away) he sold out his stock at public sale, applied the proceeds in liquidation of his debts, and made a futile attempt to enter the lecture field. Soon after, in 1878, he projected the first edition of the present volume, of which near six hundred copies were sold at $3.00 a volume, leaving a very fair profit, including the endowment fund. He also at the same time published a considerable pamphlet of essays, or
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lectures, most of which were sold. But we have anticipated- some of the most useful and important life-work of our sub- ject has been passed over.
About 1850, being deeply interested in temperance and " free-soil " efforts, he, with others, subscribed $100 to pro- cure the transfer of the Olive Branch from Doylestown to Norristown. This paper Dr. Joseph Moyer edited two years and Lewis H. Gause, Esq., for a like period, until the spring of 1857, when the stock holders or subscribers were threatened with a suit to satisfy the claim of the latter editor for a con- siderable sum. To avoid a law suit and gain time to sell the " Branch " to others, our subject agreed with James Hooven, Isaac Roberts and one or two others of the chief owners, to take charge of the paper and run it for a time for its current receipts, which he did for over five years, changing its name to the Norristown Republican. The first year it just paid its way, because a publisher had been left in the office whose sal- ary absorbed the profits. The concern was put upon a paying basis by utilizing the rare mechanical and artistic skill of a new apprentice, who in less than a year after he came to the office to learn his trade, was thought capable by the editor, and modestly consented to " do the best he could " and get out the paper. That apprentice was the now distinguished John H. Williams, the present witty associate of the Daily Herald. The three following years paid the conductor a moderate profit, until the breaking out of the war, 1861-2 left him about ten dollars "out of pocket" and all his work thrown in, for the war at first destroyed all business. He kept an exact account of receipts and expenditures and knew what the paper was worth. He sold it in 1862 to At- kinson & Jenkins, and the following year during July and August had an experience of six weeks as a soldier among the "emergency men " in Company I, Forty-third Regiment, lying most of the time near Clear Spring, Maryland, on the Potomac. He was in the same company with Judge Krause, Daniel Loyd, and other old men, as " high privates in the rear rank."
At the conclusion of the war, as has been already stated, trade was considerably revived and our subject pursued his business
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until 1870 when feeling the necessity of a temperance organ in Norristown a subscription of two or three hundred dollars was contributed by friends of the cause, and our subject agreed to issue a weekly deminutive sheet, the True Witness, which early in 1872 he enlarged somewhat and continued to issue in the rear of his store and in an office fitted up beneath it- There being a general wish expressed to have it enlarged he attempted, August, 1874, to issue it of the size of our daily pa- pers, which was done by using a " patent outside," but by No- vember of that year it was abandoned, as it was found to cost more than its receipts. Until that enlargement took place, it paid its way but was edited gratuitously of course.
After closing his business in September, 1877, he was em- ployed for two or three years in writing lectures, essays and the first edition of this work and the sale of the same, after which for a year or two he was engaged in the book subscrip- tion business, his daughter in meantime occupying the store room as a hair store, but in the spring of 1886 she closed her business and the family removed to Philadelphia where he has been engaged getting out this third edition.
In conformity with most other sketches of this book, the author subjoins the parsonne! of his family.
Moses and May Auge have had born to them four children, Annie, William (died in infancy), Hannah M., and Ella M. Hannah, the second daughter, died March 4, 187 1, in her twenty- third year, a remarkable instance of the power of faith in Christ to disarm death of its terrors.
It is proper also that the author should here pay a due tribute to his father and mother who though poor were very worthy people.
His father and mother were persons of marked and con- trasted characteristics. Hence most of their children also pos- sessed like bold individuality of character. From the mother our subject inherited his moral and mental force, she being a woman of remarkable will and self-reliance, as also very indus- trious, frugal, tidy, and upright in her feelings. From his fa- ther he received the most precious boon of life, a hopeful, trusting turn of mind, that makes the most of the present, and does not grieve after the unattainable.
APPENDIX.
GENERAL ATHUR ST. CLAIR. It is but little known but it has been made tolerably clear, that the General was for a short time a resi- dent of what is now Montgomery county, residing at Pottstown some time between the years 1779 and 1797. We know by the records that in the former year he purchased for £6700, Continental mo- ney (probably his army pay), the mansion of John Potts, Jr., at the southeast corner of High and Hanover streets, in that town, which had been sold by the United States under the confiscation act, Potts having departed with the British. This purchase was undoubtedly made during the period he was stationed for the defence of Phila- delphia and forwarding troops to Washington, who was then operat- ing in the South between 1778 and 1781.
We learn further from the same records that in 1797 General St. Clair conveyed that property to William Nichols for £100o, Penn- sylvania currency. That he resided at Pottstown between those periods we have also a traditional assurance through his great-grand- daughter, Mrs. Rachel St. Clair Jacoby, of Sumneytown, who says that some years ago an aged citizen of Pottstown offered to show her where the General lived in that town.
L. H. Davis, Esq., the Centennial historian of Pottstown, in his sketch of the borough, affirms that, being President of the last Con- tinental Congress, General St. Clair, pending the induction of the new Constitution, was virtually President of the United States. Mr. D.'s other statement, however, that the General rode about the streets of that place in a dilapidated condition, is doubtless a myth derived from the fact that during his last years, after he had re- turned from the West, and had been stripped of his property, he was living in straitened circumstances with his children at Ligonier.
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The following interesting relic of both St. Clair and Washington (the document bearing the sign-manual of both) is in the possession of the former's granddaughter, Mrs. Boyd, of Philadelphia, but was not transmitted in time to go into the text of the General's life. It is appended here. It is proper to add that this oath of allegiance, which is filled up on a printed form, was taken by all the officers of the army before entering upon the campaign of 1778:
I, ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, Major General, do acknowledge the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to be free, independent and sovereign States, and declare that the people thereof owe no alle- giance or obedience to George the Third, King of Great Britain ; and I renounce, refuse and abjure any allegiance or obedience to him; and I do swear that I will, to the utmost of my power, sup- port, maintain and defend the said United States against the said King George the Third, his heirs and successors and his and their abettors, assistants and adherents, and will serve the said United States in the office of Major General, which I now hold, with fidelity, according to the best of my skill and understanding.
AR. ST. CLAIR, Major General.
Sworn before me, camp at Valley Forge, May 12th, 1778.
G. WASHINGTON.
In drawing General St. Clair's life we have been laid under spe- cial obligations to Mrs. Rachel St. Clair Jacoby, before mentioned, for valuable printed and written matter.
HON. JOHN B. STERIGERE. In the life of Mr. Sterigere, page 180, we stated in reference to his bachelor life and fondness for little girls, and that it was suspected that, like of his distinguished friend, Mr. Buchanan, possibly he had once "a tender flame and was jilted." An elderly gentleman, familiar with his history, has since assured us that the guess was strictly correct. That many years ago, when a young man, engaged in teaching in Norriton township, he courted and expected to marry a very respectable young lady who lived near Evansburg ; but another teacher, a fancy gentleman of French lineage and manners, won her from him and married her. So Mr. S. resolved to turn his back upon the marriageable sex for- ever.
GENERAL WILLIAM J. BOLTON. In the sketch of General Bolton it is stated that at the explosion of the mine before Petersburg on the 3d of July, 1864, "he was wounded by a bullet which struck him on the cheek almost on the spot of the old wound, passed downward and lodged there, where it yet remains." We now amend the record by adding that by the General's coughing violently on the 20th of May, 1881, the ball dislodged itself into
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his mouth, and he now carries the " little joker" attached to his watch-guard, as an honorable memento of the war.
DAVID SCHRACK, M. D. In the haste of getting the first edition to press a few sketches were abridged or imperfectly written, among the number that of the gentleman here named. It ought to have been stated that Dr. S. holds flattering certificates of academic schol- arship, both from the Principals of Mount Kirk Institute and Free- land Seminary, the former of which schools he attended nearly five years. In addition to being President of the local School Board, he has been for years an active member of the county and State medical societies, and a delegate to the national society which recently met at Richmond, Virginia.
GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. It is due to the above named dis- tinguished Montgomery countian to add, that since the publication in the first edition of our sketch of his career, he was nominated in the summer of 1880 for the office of President of the United States by the Democratic party. And though he failed of an election in the Electoral College, his friends claim that he received a consider- able majority of the popular vote of the people.
It is further worthy of remark that through the whole heated po- litical campaign that ensued, General H. was not betrayed into in- discretions of any kind, and his military record passed the dangerous ordeal unscathed in every particular. All these things are gratify- ing to our county pride.
GOVERNOR JOHN F. HARTRANFT. In continuation of his public service it may be added that after holding the Philadelphia post office a little over a year, a vacancy occurring in the United States Collectorship of that city, the place was tendered him and accepted, showing that his lucky or auspicious star is still in the ascendant.
CHARLES BOSLER. On page 213, the beginning of this sketch, in the tenth line, these words are printed : "Their eldest son, Joseph, died June 23d, 1828, and his widow January 16th, 1831. "They are both buried in Friends' burial ground on Chelten avenue, Cheltenham." In its stead substitute the following : " Joseph Bos- ler, Sr., and his widow, the latter of whom died January 16th, 1831, were both buried in Friends' burial ground on Chelten avenue, Chel- tenham. Their eldest son, Joseph, had previously died June 23d, 1828."
At the bottom of the same page, in the last line, the following misprint appears : " Fromended." This is a transposition of type,
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and should conclude the paragraph, " till the raid was ended." The succeeding paragraph should begin, " From the time he returned," and so on.
On page 214, in the fourteenth line, the word " fall" should be " summer."
Again, on page 216, after the word "suddenly," in the third line, insert "August 11th, 1873."
HON. JOSEPH FORNANCE. In the sketch of Joseph Fornance, in the first edition, it was incidentally stated that his son Joseph was then practicing his profession in St. Louis, while, in fact, almost co- temporaneous with our publication, he had returned to Norristown.
EVAN JONES. In this sketch, on page 581, the date of his birth should be Ist of Fourth-month instead of 4th of First-month, and, on page 583, the date of his death should be Ist of Fifth-month instead of 5th of First-month.
SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. Partly to gratify honest pride (which Franklin in his autobiography says is universal, however men may deny it), and partly to give the reader the greatest amount of matter for the money, it is proposed to annex to this new edition, so far as they will extend, the sheets which were already in print, having been prepared for a pamphlet of essays printed in 1879, but not all bound or sold.
Errata .- Upon the said leaves of the autobiography, on page 60, in the twentieth line, the words "This Benjamin's" refer to the emigrant and not to his eldest son Benjamin, who had the " kind- ness for Lydia." And, in the twenty-fourth line, it was not Caleb the son, but Moses the father, who built the house there mentioned, and which Caleb afterwards occupied. In the thirty-second line, the name " Edgemont" should be " Willistown."
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