USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a history, Volume I > Part 45
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West Norriton Borough
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APPENDIX
B. Evans; 1891, Milton S. Kurtz; 1893, Levi R. Shaffer; 1894, John H. Williams; 1897, Charles W. Wainwright; 1900, William Todd, Jr .; 1905, Samuel Roberts; 1909, Samuel Lattimore; he served until 1914; 1914, J. Elmer Saul; 1918, Samuel D. Crawford; 1922, James W. Potter, still serving.
The 1923 borough officers are: President, Norwood D. Matthias; clerk of the council, Harris S. Borneman; burgess, James W. Potter ; treasurer, Harry P. Hiltner ; solicitor, Henry M. Brownback; engineer, S. Cameron Corson ; building inspector, Harry A. Simpson ; stenographer, Miss Ruth Dotts; clerk of the markets, Mills Williamson; janitor city hall, Thomas H. Blackwell.
There are now eleven wards in this borough, and the present council is made up as follows: First Ward-John P. Famous, George F. Leit- tenberger, Daniel Moser; Second Ward-George M. Fratt, Charles E. Naile, George W. Pifer; Third Ward-Joseph D. Wolfe, Henry K. Fryer, Gilbert R. Fox; Fourth Ward-James I. Lawler, Francis Hayes, John Carroll; Fifth Ward-Angelo Charles, John Durante, Edward Kennedy; Sixth Ward-Bernhard Kuhlman, Norwood D. Matthias, Harry E. Sacks; Seventh Ward-William A. Steinbach, Thomas King- ston, Nevin R. Cassell; Eighth Ward-H. Walton Wood, H. Severan Regar, Clarence R. Palmer; Ninth Ward-Frank R. Anselm, Charles Schiele, Franklin L. Carter; Tenth Ward-Stephen Van Leer, Albert Holbrook, Clement J. Dressler; Eleventh Ward-John A. Rhoades, W. Z. Frederick, Charles M. Daub.
No finer set of borough records are kept in the State than found in Norristown. The clerk's last report shows the borough to contain three and fifty-four hundredths square miles. Its population is (1920) 32,319. Dwellings in the place, 5,931 ; families, 6,624; the two chief markets are the City Market or Borough Market, and the Farmers' Market. These are both on De Kalb street, near and at the borough building. The present bonded indebtedness is $343,200. Number regular policemen eighteen ; a volunteer fire department; five engine houses. The records also show that the borough has a fraction over thirty miles of paved streets of which almost ten miles are of vitrified brick. The council and other officers have moved many times. First they met in 1812 in the old court house ; then many years around at private houses; next in hotels, and then built the red brick block now owned by the Montgomery County Historical Society, near the court house, which property they sold to the society named in January, 1897, for $5,500. The present City Hall or borough building was erected in 1894.
Presidential Vote Since 1860.
1860-Republican, Abraham Lincoln, 5,826. Democratic, John C. Breckenridge, 5,590. Constitutional Union, John Bell, 690. Independent Democratic, Stephen A. Douglas, 509.
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1864-Republican, Abraham Lincoln, 6,872. Democratic, George B. McClellan, 7,943. 1868-Republican, U. S. Grant, 8,083. Democratic, Horatio Seymour, 8,803.
1872-Republican, U. S. Grant, 8,080. Democratic, and Liberal, Horace Greeley, 5,113. Democratic, Charles O'Connor, none. Temperance, James Black, none.
1876-Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes, 9,386. Democratic, Samuel J. Tilden, 9,654. Greenback, Peter Cooper, 58. Prohibition, Green C. Smith, 40.
1880-Republican, James A. Garfield, 11,026. Democratic, Winfield S. Hancock, 11,025. Greenback, James B. Weaver, 75. Prohibition, Neal Dow, none.
1884-Republican, James G. Blaine, 11,617. Democratic, Grover Cleveland, 11,088. Greenback, Benj. F. Butler, 66. Prohibition, John P. St. John, 215.
1888-Republican, Benjamin Harrison, 13,445. Democratic, Grover Cleveland, 12,482. Greenback, A. J. Streeter, II. Prohibition, Clinton B. Fisk, 379.
1892-Republican, Benjamin Harrison, 13,591. Democratic, Grover Cleveland, 13,611. Prohibition, John Bidwell, 447. Socialist (Labor), Simon Wing, II. People's Party, James B. Weaver, 22. Industrial Reform. A. E. Redstone, none. American, James L. Curtis, none. Union Labor, Robert H. Cowdrey, none.
1896-Republican, William McKinley, 17,320. Democratic, William J. Bryan, 9,685. Prohibition, Joshua Levering. Northern Democratic. John N. Palmer. Social Labor, C. H Matchett.
1900-Republican, William McKinley, 17,650. Democratic. William J. Bryan, 11,208. Populist, J. G. Wooley. Independent Socialist, Eugene V. Debs.
1904-Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, 18,818. Democratic, Alton B. Parker, 10,399. Socialist, Eugene V. Debs. Prohibition, Silas C. Swallow. Peoples, Thomas E. Watson.
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1908-Republican, William Howard Taft, 19,070. Democratic, William J. Bryan, 11,892. Socialist, Eugene V. Debs, 493. Prohibition, Eugene W. Chafin, 381. Social Labor, August Gillhaus, 29. 1912-Republican, W. H. Taft, 8,968. Democratic, Woodrow Wilson, 11,898.
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Prohibition, 136. Socialist (Debs), 1,129.
1916-Republican, Charles E. Hughes, 20,420. Democratic, Woodrow Wilson, 13,649. Prohibition, 257. Socialist, 721.
1920-Republican, Warren G. Harding, 31,963. Democratic, James Cox, 12,238. Prohibition, 302. Socialist, 1,180.
Miscellaneous Subjects.
The telegraph was first introduced into Norristown by private enter- prise. A company was organized by William E. Phillips, who later was made superintendent of the telegraph offices in the city of Philadelphia. G. R. Fox was associated with Mr. Phillips as secretary and treasurer of the company ; Henry Freedley, Rev. J. Grier Ralston and a few more Norristown citizens formed the original company, and Samuel Brown became the first operator.
What was styled the Philadelphia and Norristown Telegraph Com- pany was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly, March 9, 1855. The names of the incorporators from Montgomery county are as follows: Henry Freedley, Thomas Sauerman, John McDermott, John Wood, Patrick Flynn, Daniel R. Brower, Robert Iredell, G. R. Fox, John McKay, David Krause, R. E. Chain, Henry C. Hill, and J. G. Ralston. The company was given the power to purchase the House Line of printing telegraph, then lately constructed from Philadelphia through Manayunk and Conshohocken to Norristown. This was before telegraphing by sound was perfected, but all messages were "ticked off" by the instrument which recorded the words in dots and dashes on a narrow slip of paper attached to the receiving machine. The capital stock of this company was $6,000, divided into twenty-five dollar shares. Subsequently a company was formed and ran their line as the Philadel- phia, Reading & Pottsville, but was in the interest of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. This line dated from 1871. The Western Union Telegraph Company joined interest with it as a commercial line in 1879, the principal offices being then established at Norristown at No. 77 East Main street. In Montgomery county in 1883 there were fifty- five telegraph stations on this line. Prior to 1882 another company was formed, the Bankers' & Merchants' Telegraph Company, having eighteen stations in this county. It connected with Allentown, Philadelphia and Reading. It had as its president, J. B. Erdman ; its superintendent was J. T. Maxwell.
Long since the telegraph systems have largely been merged and operated by the Western Union, which networks the continent, and outside of special lines held by the newspapers of the land, it does the
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
commercial telegraph business of every town and borough from ocean tc ocean.
Great as was the discovery of the electric telegraph by Professor Morse, even greater was that of the telephone which first made its appearance in the seventies, but was not perfected to any extent until early in the eighties. Here in Montgomery county, Norristown had its first "Exchange" in August, 1883; it was established with its office at No. 52 East Main street. At the close of 1884 the number of stations in this county was one hundred and seventy-two. The president of the company was James Merrihew; general superintendent, W. B. Gell; assistant superintendent, W. F. Westbrook. The introduction of the 'phone has almost bridged space itself. Not only does the business man in city and borough profit by its use daily, but almost every farm house within the confines of this county has its own phone and can quickly call a far-away neighbor or the physician, by day or night. The country is literally within a mass of wires, over which the people whisper their wants to the surrounding world. The number of phones and exchanges has come to be all but numberless. It is a money-saving system for city and country. For an expense of a farthing, a half day's trip can be saved; often life itself is saved by being "on the line" and able to com- mand a doctor at once in emergencies. With all the perfection of the telephone systems of to-day, scientists aver that we are soon to have a practical method of conversation by the "wireless" that is to be the outcome of the present popular radio systems. Then we will not need the net-work of telephone wires and countless poles set all over the country, but the human voice will be heard in common talking, as we now hear the latest songs with our recently discovered radio.
Distinguished Residents.
General Winfield S. Hancock, who it has been said with Generals Anthony Wayne and Philip Henry Sheridan constitute the great trio of American chieftains distinguished above all others for "fearless cour- age and desperate energy," was born in Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania, the son of Benjamin F. and Elizabeth Hancock; the date of his birth was February 14, 1824. He received his education in Norristown in the academies conducted by Eliphalet Roberts and the celebrated Rev. Samuel Aaron. Leaving school, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and was a cadet with Grant, McClellan, Reynolds, Franklin, Burnside, Reno, and William M. Smith. He was graduated June 30, 1844, and the following day received his appointment as a second lieutenant in the Sixth United States Infantry, served on the western frontier, and then went to Mex- ico, where in the war he distinguished himself as a young officer. He was later engaged against the Seminole Indians in Florida, and served in Kansas during a portion of the quasi-civil war there.
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At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he was at Los Angeles as chief quartermaster for the Southern District. He was relieved to report at Washington, D. C., for duty in the field. In September, 1861, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers. He afterwards joined the Army of the Potomac, and from that time until the close of the war his career was notable. During the winter of 1861-62 he commanded a brigade in Virginia. In the spring of 1862 he accompanied General McClellan to the Virginia Peninsula, and took part in the Seven Days Battle near Richmond. On the strength of his ability in that particular time and place he was promoted at McClellan's suggestion to major- general. He again proved his military fitness at those never-to-be-for- gotten battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancel- lorsville, and Gettysburg. He was with Grant around Richmond in the campaign that resulted in Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He was severely wounded at Gettysburg, and received the thanks of Congress. While in front of Richmond he was promoted to brigadier-general in the regular army, August 12, 1864. In 1865 he was assigned to the com- mand of the Middle Military Division; in August, 1866, he was trans- ferred to the command of the Department of the Missouri ; was in com- mand of the Department of the Gulf from 1867 to 1868; from March, 1868, to March, 1869, he commanded the Military Division of the Atlan- tic. From 1869 to 1879 he commanded the Military Division of the Dakotas, after which he was again placed in command of the Atlantic Department, with headquarters at Governor's Island in New York Harbor, which position he held until his death, October 29, 1885. He declined the nomination for governor of Pennsylvania in 1869, at the hands of the Democratic party, but in 1880 accepted the nomination for President, and was defeated at the polls by General James A. Garfield.
Lucretia (Coffin) Mott, who for several years was an honored resi- dent of Cheltenham township, Montgomery county, was one of the most remarkable women this country has ever produced. "Truth for author- · ity, not authority for truth," was the form of a favorite aphorism which Lucretia Mott in a fair round hand wrote on the back of a photographed portrait when she was eighty-six years of age. By this principle the career of this woman was always directed. In fact it was a predominat- ing element in her noble character ; it was the light she ever followed, the inspirer of her courage to walk fearlessly in the path of duty prescribed by the light within-the conscience, Emmanuel, God with us. Her name was a synonym for a rare combination of Christian graces. Hers was the sweet, strong and noble soul, ever guided by unswerving loyalty to truth and righteousness.
Lucretia Mott was a descendant of one of the earliest settlers on Nantucket, Massachusetts, where she was born January 3, 1793. Her parents moved to Boston, and when she was thirteen years of age, she
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
was sent to the "Nine Partners" boarding school, an institution estab- lished by the Friends, in Dutchess county, New York, a few years before. There she was under the instruction of Deborah Rodgers (afterward Mrs. Jacob Willetts), who died in 1879 at the age of above ninety years. Miss Mott's parents removed to Philadelphia in the meantime. She returned home and two years later, in 1812, married James Mott, a young merchant and a Quaker. At twenty-five years of age she became a minister, and extended her labors from Virginia to Massachusetts. She battled against war and intemperance and slavery, and in 1827 joined the Hicksite branch of the Friends' church. She took an active part in the organization of the Anti-Slavery Society at Philadelphia in 1833, and was sent in 1840 to the World's Anti-Slavery convention at London, where she was refused a seat because she was a woman, but astonished many of the delegates by speaking at a breakfast to which they were invited. She believed in woman's right to the ballot. As a minister or speaker, she spoke to the heart and judgment, and was a model of purity, elegance and force. Mrs. Mott died November 1I, 1880, at her home in Philadelphia. Husband and children had passed on before her, but no funeral gloom shadowed her spirit, for she was in sympathy with all sufferers, and a bright beckoning hope always made her cheerful. The atmosphere of her home was indeed ideal in its peace and harmony. Of such beautiful characters the world has none too many.
General Arthur St. Clair, a citizen property holder and temporary resident of Pottstown, this county, from 1779 to 1797, was a conspicuous character in the days of the Revolutionary War, and, although a brave military leader, failed in winning that fame to which his talents and courage entitled him. General St. Clair was president of the Conti- nental Congress in 1787, commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States in 1791, and governor of the Northwestern Territory from 1788 to 1802.
He was born at Thurso Castle, County Caithness, Scotland, in 1734. He was educated in the University of Edinburgh, and removed to Lon- don to study medicine under the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. War breaking out between England and France, he purchased an ensign's commission and served under Wolfe in his campaign against Quebec in 1759. After peace, he resigned his commission as lieutenant, resided for some time in Boston and Philadelphia, and in 1765 was placed in command of Fort Ligonier, in western Pennsylvania, by General Gage, to whom he was related. He took up large bodies of land in the Ligonier Valley, was made prothonotary of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, in 1781, and two years later aided largely in the erection of Westmoreland county. As a county officer he successfully resisted the claims of Vir- ginia to the territory. When the Revolution came on, he cast his for-
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tunes with the Colonies. He inspired the Hannastown Declaration of Independence in 1775, perfected the Associators, and was commissioned colonel by Congress. He raised a regiment, fought in Canada under Montgomery and Arnold, and was promoted to brigadier-general. At Trenton and Princeton he behaved with great skill and bravery, and was commissioned major-general. He was placed in command at Ticonder- oga in 1777, but was compelled to abandon it in retreat with a disastrous loss of men and munitions. A military court of inquiry acquitted him of all blame. While suspended from command he fought as a volunteer at Brandywine, and with the army of Washington at Valley Forge he was on faithful duty. He succeeded Arnold at West Point, and was a member of the commission which sentenced Major André to death. After the capture of Yorktown he proceeded with a body of troops to join General Greene in the South, and on his way he drove the British from Wilmington, North Caroline. In 1783 he became a member of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, was elected to Congress, and served as president of that body during 1787. Upon the erection of the North- west Territory in 1788, he was appointed governor and faithfully served as such fourteen years. In 1790 he ran as Federal candidate for gover- nor of Pennsylvania, receiving 2,802 votes, while the winning candidate, Thomas Mifflin, had 2,725 votes.
General St. Clair commanded an army of two thousand men which was sent against the Miami Indians in 1791, and November 4th of that year he was defeated with a loss of nearly seven hundred men. He was suffering from a fever, yet bore himself bravely in the thickest of the battle. It is now contended that the public was severe in their con- demnation of him. Subsequently Congress acquitted him of all blame in the defeat. As an old man he retired from public life in 1802. His health and fortune mostly gone, he settled down a few miles from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, on his remaining farm. At one time he had owned 10,887 acres of western Pennsylvania land, but it had nearly all slipped from his control while he was following military life. He had advanced the United States army several thousand dollars during the war for independence, but because he had failed to certify his claim in proper time, the government never allowed him or his heirs a farthing. He also advanced $8,000 to pay off the Indians, and furnished $7,400 to fit out the expedition in 1791. These sums which he had actually bor- rowed for the government they refused to pay, and his property was taken at half its true value by his greedy creditors, who also attached every dollar of the pitiful pension granted him by Congress in 1818. His last days were ones of penury and want, and he kept a tavern in a log cabin on the summit of Chestnut ridge until his death, August 31, 1818. He was a Freemason, and his remains were interred at Greens- burg, Pennsylvania, by the Masonic fraternity. In 1832 they also erected
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a small monument over his remains, on which monument is appropri- ately inscribed these words: "The earthly remains of General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this humble monument, which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one due from his country. He died August 31, 1818, in the eighty-fourth year of his age."
David Rittenhouse, whose name is known the world over among scientific men and especially among astronomers, was a resident of Montgomery county, having lived in Norriton township from the time he was eight years of age. Among the many biographical notices that have from time to time appeared in publications of Pennsylvania, telling of the rare genius of this man, we are permitted to use the subjoined, which is a brief outline of a man whose name and fame will live as long as the printed page is in existence, or the heavens contain the thousands of stars which this good man delighted to study through his telescope and then give to the world his conclusions and discoveries in astronomy. We here quote :
Near the banks of the beautiful Wissahickon, in the vicinity of Ger- mantown, four miles from Philadelphia, lived three hermits a century and three-quarters ago; and near their hiding places from the world's ken, a mile from the old village, where the good Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian, labored and reposed, was the birthplace of one whose name is co-extensive with scientific knowledge. It was David Rittenhouse, the eminent mathematician, who was born in Roxborough township, April 8, 1732. His father (Matthias) was an humble farmer, and David was his chief assistant when his life approached manhood. The geometrical diagrams which disfigured his implements of labor, the barn doors and the pigsty, attested the peculiar workings of his brain while yet a mere lad. These indications of genius would doubtless have been disregarded, and his aspiration remained unsatisfied had not a feeble body made the abandonment of field labor a stern necessity. David was apprenticed to a clock and mathematical instrument maker, and the pursuit being con- sonant with his taste, he was eminently successful. Rittenhouse was a sincere student, but on account of his pecuniary wants, he was deprived in a great degree of the most valuable sources of information, especially concerning the progress of science in Europe. While Newton and Lieb- nitz were warmly disputing for the honor of first discovery of fluxions, Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant of what they had done, became the inventor of that remarkable feature in algebraical analysis. He had his observatory on the eminence above the Presbyterian church, where Ben- jamin Franklin frequently visited him. About 1766, although only known as a clockmaker, he constructed for Princeton College the first orrery ever made in America. In 1769 he observed the transit of Venus, and in 1795 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of London.
On February 20, 1766, David Rittenhouse married Eleanor Coulston, daughter of Bernard Coulston. When Dr. Franklin died, Rittenhouse was chosen president of the American Philosophical Society to fill his place; and from his own earnings he gave the institution fifteen hun-
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dred dollars on the day of his inauguration. His fame was now world- wide, and many official honors awaited his acceptance. He held the office of State Treasurer of Pennsylvania for many years; and in 1792 he was appointed the first director of the Philadelphia Mint. Failing health compelled him to resign that trust in 1795; and on June 6th the following year he died the death of a Christian, at the age of sixty-four years.
John James Audubon, perhaps the world's greatest ornithologist, from 1771 to 1851 resided in Lower Providence, this county, and at intervals afterwards. He was a remarkable man, whose numerous books include his "Birds of America," 448 colored plates in life-size, elephant folio, five volumes, price $1,000; "American Ornithological Biography," five volumes, 8vo., 1828; the "Birds of America," in reduced size, 8vo., 1844; "Quadrupeds of America," three volumes folio, containing 150 plates, 1851. By an act of Congress passed in August, 1856, the Secretary of State was authorized to purchase one hundred copies each of the "Birds of America" and "Quadrupeds of America," for an exchange with for- eign countries for valuable works.
Audubon, "the bird man" so known everywhere in the world to-day, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 4, 1780, the son of John and Anne Moynette, both parents being natives of France. The son was given a fine education for those times, and went to Paris to study natural history. In 1780 his father removed to Philadelphia and soon purchased land in Lower Providence township this county, at the mouth of Per- kiomen creek. From about 1800 young Audubon lived on this two hundred acre plantation, on which was a grist and sawmill. In his preface of that masterpiece of his in later years, he says :
In Pennsylvania, a beautiful State almost central on the line of our Atlantic shores, my father, in his desire of proving my friend through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful "plantation," refreshed during the summer heats by the waters of the Schuylkill river and tra- versed by a creek named Perkioming. Its fine woodlands, its exten- sive fields, its hills crowned with evergreens, offered many subjects to agreeable studies, with as little concern about the future as if the world had been made for me. My rambles invariably commenced at break of day ; and to return wet with dew and bearing a feathered prize was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I have been fitted.
Of all the thousands of American birds he studied and described in his great publication, each and everyone was printed in the exact color found in the plumage of the bird as found in forest and glen in its natural state. The work was in size about eighteen by twenty-six inches, and only a few birds, like the swan, crane and pelican, also the eagle, but went on one page; but in such instances a larger sheet was used and folded in, as sometimes a large folding map is made. After a useful career in different parts of the globe, Audubon, who had finally settled
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down on the Hudson river above New York City, passed from earth's circle of most interesting authors and useful men, a lover of Nature as well as of Nature's God.
Hon. Frederick A. Muhlenberg, eminent as the first Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, was the second son of Rev. Henry Melchior and Anna Maria (Weiser) Muhlenberg, and was born at Trappe, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, November 17, 1753. He received his education at the University of Halle, in Germany, was ordained to the Lutheran ministry at twenty-one years of age, and served as pastor of a Lutheran church at Lancaster, this State, from 1780 until his death in 1815, at sixty-two years of age. He was also an authority on botany, mineralogy and kindred sciences, and wrote in Latin several very valuable botanical and geological works.
Rev. John Philip Boehm was the first Reformed minister in the Province of Pennsylvania, where he first acted as a singer and school- master as well as minister. He came from Germany in 1720, and located at Philadelphia, where he acted as a reader for the members of the Reformed church then living in that city. He then preached without a license or church authority until 1729, when on November 29th he was ordained by authority of the Classis of Amsterdam. He labored through- out a large region, and laid the foundation of many Reformed churches. He settled in Whitpain township before 1734, organized the congrega- tion there now known as Boehm's church, and became very wealthy, owning a large tract of land, slaves, and a distillery. He died suddenly on May I, 1749, and his remains lie under the wall of the present church structure.
Bench and Bar.
In the historical sketch of the Montgomery Law Library Committee, in the chapter entitled as above, on preceding pages of this work, refer- ence is made to a gap in the minutes of the committee for about twelve years prior to January, 1895. Since that article has gone to press, the lost minutes have been found during housecleaning in the Law Library. They extend from November 16, 1883, to December 28, 1894. The only data of general interest afforded by the lost minute book are that meet- ings were to be held on the last Friday of each month at 3 o'clock p. m .; on December 24, 1885, Montgomery Evans was elected treasurer, to suc- ceed Charles T. Miller, deceased ; on December 12, 1889, Judge Swartz presiding, William W. Owen was elected librarian, who was also to act as secretary of the committee; on April 1, 1890, the librarian was reelected and reappointed secretary, and Montgomery Evans was reelected treasurer ; Judge Weand and Messrs. Chain and Strassburger were appointed a committee on books; and Messrs. Evans, Jenkins and Dannehower, on room; and on December 30, 1892, William W. Owen resigned, and John S. Jones was elected to succeed him as librarian and secretary.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY Family and Personal History
LAUREL BOOK SERVICE KATHERINE ANO KARL GOEDECKE 565 North Laurel St. HAZLETON, PENNA.
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