USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a history, Volume III > Part 28
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HOWARD S. AMEY-Many of the fine residences and business buildings of Ambler, Pennsylvania, are the work of Howard S. Amey, contractor and builder. Always deeply interested in making his town
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the best sort of a place in which to live, he has done well his part in bringing this about, not only by way of his trade, but by readiness to give his thought and services in the movements that make for the improvement of civic affairs. He is the son of William and Amanda Amey, and has two brothers, Herbert and William F., and two sisters, Harriet and Maud.
Howard S. Amey was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1885, and was educated in the public schools of that city. He early began to earn a living in the employ of the Keasbey & Mattison Company with whom he remained five years. He left this company to become a carpenter, and learned and worked at this trade for the following five years of his career. Naturally gifted with the ability that characterizes a leader, he started taking contracts for the construction of houses, and has since been kept busy as a contractor and builder. His well known skill, integrity and close attention to his clients' interests have won for him a notable name and success. Aside from business his principal recreation is found in baseball, and he is president of the Ambler Ath- letic Association. His religious affiliation is with the Baptist church of his city, and he is an Independent Republican in politics.
At Wilmington, Delaware, August 23, 1906, Mr. Amey married (first) Emma May. Urban, daughter of Henry and Anna Urban. She died March 13, 1912, and was the mother of one son, Howard S., Jr., born November 10, 1908. On October 19, 1913, at Wilmington, Mr. Amey married (second) Laura May Fluck, daughter of Jerry and Margaret Fluck. They are the parents of four children : Edith Lorea, born Novem- ber 9, 1914; Richard, born May 16, 1916; John, born June 13, 1919; and Margaret, born March 27, 1921.
WILMER W. MILLER-The life of Wilmer W. Miller has been spent in North Wales, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he is now (1923) at the age of thirty-eight, a prosperous business man and a justice of the peace. He has devoted himself closely to the business of each day, and outside of politics has no affiliations or interests other than his business. He is deeply interested in public affairs, and has always labored in a public-spirited way for the good of his community.
Wilmer W. Miller, son of Wilmer and Arabella (Lutz) Miller, was born in North Wales, Pennsylvania, and there was educated in the public schools, finishing with high school, class of 1902. During the following eight years he was employed as a mill worker, then in 1910 established a real estate and insurance agency which he has successfully conducted, now having offices both in North Wales and Norristown. He is an ardent Republican in politics, and in November, 1917, was elected a jus- tice of the peace. Squire Miller is unmarried.
REV. CHARLES F. WILLIAMS-The late Charles F. Williams, former president of the James Lees & Sons Company, of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, who died October 29, 1922, was born in Philadelphia,
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Pennsylvania, April 30, 1856, second son of Henry and Elizabeth A. (Carver) Williams, the former of whom was of Welsh ancestry, and the latter a descendant of the Carver family who settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the early period of the history of the country.
Soon after the birth of Charles F. Williams, the family removed to Delaware county, Pennsylvania, from which place another move was made to Lionville, Chester county, Pennsylvania, after a short time. There the boy received his education and there his boyhood was passed. When about sixteen years of age he entered a printing office in West Chester, the county seat of Chester county, Pennsylvania. Step by step he advanced until a few years later we find him a newspaper writer, located at Media, Pennsylvania. In the meantime he had become a member of the Baptist church and found himself increasingly interested in Christian activities, so much so, in fact, that through the advice and persuasion of friends and officials of the church he finally decided to enter the Christian ministry. In order that he might be better prepared for his work, in 1878 he entered Crozier Theological Seminary, at Upland, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1880. In June of that year he was ordained and assumed charge of the Baptist Church at Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. In the same month his marriage with Flora J. Christie, of Chester, Pennsylvania, took place, but within a year his wife died and he was left with a son, J. Ambler Williams, who is now (1923) judge of the Court of Common Pleas, of the Thirty-eighth District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Williams remained with the Bridgeport church until 1884, when at about the time of his second marriage he accepted a call to the leading Baptist church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1885 his vocal cords became strained and he was compelled because of this to resign and return to Norristown, where he assumed a position as editorial writer for the Norristown "Times," then owned by the late Captain William F. Rennyson. In the fall of the same year, his throat having been much benefited by the rest, he accepted a call to the Spring Garden Street Baptist Church, of Philadelphia, where he remained until January 1, 1892, a period of six years, during which time the church was removed from Spring Garden street to the corner of Nineteenth and Master streets. Not long after this removal Mr. Williams received a call to the First Baptist Church, of Waltham, Massachusetts, and the duties of this pastorate he discharged faithfully and efficiently until February 1, 1895. It was here that a certain physical weakness which with increasing intensiveness always annoyed him, again compelled him to resign his work in the ministry. He returned to Norristown and became associated with the James Lees & Sons Company, as secretary, the firm style just mentioned having been taken by the concern after the death of the senior partner, Joseph Lees. Mr. Williams continued to act as secretary until 1897, when, the newly organized concern being in operation, he again responded to the call of the ministry and became pastor of the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, of Brooklyn, New York. During this pastorate his son of the second marriage, Joseph Lees
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Williams, died, and the grief of the parents was so severe that desiring to remove his family from the saddened environment, he accepted an invitation to become pastor of the North Avenue Baptist Church, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. After locating in Cambridge, although his work was most successful, he soon found that notwithstanding every precaution, the old weakness began to manifest itself, and in 1903, upon the advice of a noted specialist in Boston, he resigned and returned to Norristown, where he was elected president of the James Lees & Sons Company, which official position he continued to hold until January I, 1921, when he resigned from active participation in the affairs of the company, accepting the position of chairman of the board of directors, which he continued to hold to the time of his death, October 29, 1922. It was during the period from 1903 to 1921 that he gave his full time to the development of James Lees & Sons Company. During all those years the work of wise and strong officials caused the concern known as James Lees & Sons Company, manufacturers of woolen goods, to grow and prosper. Additions were built to the plant, which is located at Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, innovations and improvements in processes and methods of manufacture were introduced, and the amount of output as well as the scope of the market for the products, greatly increased. In 1908 Mr. Williams was elected president of the Manufacturers' Asso- ciation of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and that official position he continuously held until 1918. It was during the time he held this office that a controversy arose between the Department of Commerce, at Washington, and the association, which attracted wide attention, the question at issue being the cause of the industrial depression of the period from 1903 to 1907. The newspaper files of that period probably contain the best record of the heated discussions of that controversy.
In addition to his professional and business interests and in public affairs, Mr. Williams was deeply interested in several forms of art. His effort at collecting was the assembling of a group of Oriental rugs and carpets of the early periods, part of which collection is now with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. The collection and Mr. Williams' skill continued to grow until for work done and researches made in this direction Mr. Williams was made an honorary fellow for life by the Metropolitan Museum just mentioned. In 1910 the board of directors of the exhibition held at Munich, Bavaria, the chairman of which was Prince Rupprecht, elected him a member of the Art Commit- tee of the Exhibition of Masterpieces of Islamic Art. In the same year he served actively on that committee and furnished for the exhibition some valuable specimens from his own collection. He was internation- ally recognized as an authority on rugs and his advice was solicited upon many occasions by connoisseurs in this country and abroad. After fre- quent trips to the Old World his collection of rugs and carpets, the finest in the country, was completed, and he then turned his attention to the collection of antique furniture and other curios. He was a member of
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the board of directors of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, of New York City, in which capacity his expert knowledge and his enthus- iastic interest were equally valuable.
Rev. Williams was twice married. He married (first), in June, 1880, Flora J. Christie, of Chester, Pennsylvania. She died May 12, 1881, at the birth of a son, J. Ambler, whose sketch follows. Mr. Williams mar- ried (second), at Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1884, Mary Lees, daughter of Joseph and Maria (Hinkle) Lees. To the second marriage one son was born, Joseph Lees, who died in Brooklyn, New York, Jan- uary 12, 1900.
Versatile and gifted, interested in all that pertains to the finer things of life, and a faithful worker in spite of the handicap of impaired health, the life of Reverend Charles F. Williams is an inspiring example of courage, persistence, and successful achievement.
JUDGE J. AMBLER WILLIAMS-For a decade and a half Judge Williams practiced his profession at the Montgomery county bar with the success that always follows honorable, well directed effort, and attained high position among his contemporaries. On April 17, 1923, his name was presented by Governor Pinchot to the Pennsylvania Senate as his appointment for judge of the Thirty-eighth Judicial District of Pennsylvania (Montgomery county), to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Judge A. S. Swartz. Four minutes after the nomination was received by the Senate, Judge Williams was confirmed and will serve under that appointment until January 1, 1924.
J. Ambler Williams, son of Rev. Charles F. and Flora J. (Christie) Williams, was born in Bridgeport, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1881. He completed public school study with graduation from Norristown High School, finishing in 1897. He then entered Colgate University, and there spent four years, winning not only his degree, but high rank in athletics, as a debater, and an orator. His college life was exceptionally full, as the following summary will show: A member of both the basket ball and the foot ball teams ; led two university debating teams against the universities of Virginia and Cornell in his sophomore year, was editor of his class manual, "Colgate Salmagundi ;" associate editor of "Madisonensis," now the "Colgate Maroon;" winner of the Kingsford prize for public speaking ; was vice-president of Colgate Chap- ter, Delta Upsilon, in his junior year and president in his senior year ; president of the University Athletic Association ; manager of the 'varsity basket ball team; editor-in-chief of "Madisonensis;" winner of the senior debate prize given by the class of 1884 in his senior year, and was one of six students chosen from the graduating class as commence- ment day speakers.
He was graduated Bachelor of Philosophy, class of 1901, and having chosen the law as his life work, he entered the law department of the University of Pennsylvania and thence was graduated Bachelor of Laws, class of 1904. During the years at law school he was a registered law
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student in the offices of the eminent William Draper Lewis, of Philadel- phia, and Nicholas H. Longelere, of Norristown, and added to the list of college activities and honors he had acquired at Colgate. He was captain of the University of Pennsylvania foot ball team, 1904; editor of "Penn," a college daily newspaper; member of the Hare Club, and winner of the Frazier debating prize.
Mr. Williams was admitted to the Philadelphia bar, June 30, 1904, and on September I following to the Montgomery county bar. In 1907 he began the practice of law in Norristown, first at No. 320 De Kalb street, then in the Miller building until March, 1907; then to No. 332 De Kalb street until October 1, 1921, later removing to No. 501 Swede street, where he remained until November 1, 1922, when he again removed to his recent location, No. 402 De Kalb street, Norristown. From the inception of his professional career he met with success and the years have been marked with continuous advancement. He special- ized in municipal corporation work; was two terms solicitor for the recorder of deeds; is counsel for the Department of Health of Mont- gomery County ; solicitor for the East End Improvement Association of Norristown ; secretary of James Lees & Sons Company of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania ; ex-president, vice-president and a director of the local Young Men's Christian Association ; served on the board of managers of the Alumni Association of the University of Pennsylvania; member of the advisory board of the Salvation Army; and a member of the Montgomery County Bar Association.
His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he has always been staunch in his support of its principles and policies, uphold- ing them both as a private citizen and a public official. He has been solicitor for the school districts of Norristown since December, 1911; solicitor for the school districts of Bridgeport since 1916; solicitor for the borough of Bridgeport; solicitor for the comptroller of Montgomery county ; chairman of the Norristown Republican committee; chairman of the second division of the Republican Committee of Montgomery County ; chairman of the Republican Committee on Meetings and Speakers; in 1904 was appointed speaker by the Pennsylvania Repub- lican State Committee to stump the State for Theodore Roosevelt, and has been on the list of State speakers ever since; member of the Mont- gomery County Republican Executive Committee; and county chairman of the Eighth Ward of Norristown in 1908, 1914 and from 1920 to the present time. These offices were resigned upon his taking his seat upon the county bench in April, 1923.
During the World War Mr. Williams was one of the "four-minute" men; was a member of the legal advisory board of the Norristown Draft Board, but resigned later to accept the appointment as government appeal agent ; and was legal adviser to the Pennsylvania State Council of National Defense for Montgomery county.
Since leaving college he has kept up an active interest and partici- pation in athletics; he was coach for the Norristown High School foot
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ball team in 1908-09; won the tennis championship at the Ersine Tennis Club of Norristown, 1910, 1911 and 1912; won the tennis championship at the Plymouth Country Club, 1912, 1913 and 1914; and represented both clubs at the Tri-State Tennis League. He is a member of the University of Pennsylvania debate council, and as its representative was instrumental in forming the first triangular debate league (Cornell, Columbia and University of Pennsylvania) in this county, and it is now practically universal; was two years president of the Alumni Corpora- tion, Colgate chapter ; first vice-president of the Colgate Alumni Corpo- ration of the Philadelphia district for many years; and at the time of the million dollar drive for the endowment fund for Colgate served as chair- man of the Philadelphia district. He is now a golf enthusiast, and a member of the Plymouth Country Club and of the club golf team.
Judge Williams married, June 10, 1911, Mabel Drake, daughter of Dr. H. H. Drake, and they are the parents of two children: Louise, born January 29, 1913; Howard Drake, born February 1I, 1919. The family home is at No. 1003 De Kalb street, Norristown.
Judge Williams has always taken an active interest in community affairs, and has been in hearty sympathy with all movements to advance the permanent interests of Norristown. During the years of his resi- dence there he has gained a wide circle of friends by whom he is held in highest esteem. He is a man of sterling character, and his recent elevation to the bench was heartily approved by both the bar and the laity.
EUGENE W. SCHOLL, who stands among the leading citizens of Montgomery county, and is active in the real estate business, has had an interesting career, having served as notary public for thirty-five years, and having been a prominent figure in his present field for thirty years. He comes of an old Montgomery county family, residents of Upper Hanover township for generations. He is a grandson of Frederick and Catherine Scholl, and a son of John and Lucy (Whitman) Scholl, the Whitman family also prominent in this State and county. He is the eldest of three children, the others being Katie and Henry Clayton, both now deceased.
Eugene W. Scholl was born in Upper Hanover township, October 19, 1858. Highly educated, he began his studies in the local public schools, later attending Washington Hall, and preparing for college at Perkiomen Seminary. Eventually he entered Ursinus College, which he attended for two years. Beginning life as a school teacher, Mr. Scholl fol- lowed this line of endeavor for a period of nine years, teaching in various parts of his native county. In 1887 he was appointed notary public at the Farmers' National Bank at Pennsburg. He has filled this office continuously since, and still serves in this capacity. Meanwhile, how- ever, five years after accepting this appointment, Mr. Scholl began his present business in real estate and insurance brokerage, and has carried forward this interest very successfully along with his duties as notary.
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For the last twenty-five years Mr. Scholl has given much of his time in the secretary's office of the Goschenhoppen Mutual Fire and Storm Insur- ance Company, of which he is now a director, and served as an assistant to the secretary during the whole of this period. He has done much constructive work in the progress of the community, and is counted among the forward-looking men of the day. He has few interests outside of the activities outlined above, but fraternally is prominent as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, also of the Encampment, both of Pennsburg. He is active in church work, long a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Red Hill, which he has served for years as treasurer.
Mr. Scholl married, in Pennsburg, January 20, 1881, Emma L. Dechant, daughter of Rev. Augustus and Amanda (Stauffer) Dechant. The Rev. Mr. Dechant is a noteworthy figure in the history of the Reformed church in Montgomery county. He introduced the Sunday school in this church, and was evicted from the church because of the institution. Upon leaving the body to which he had devoted the best years of his life, he built a hall, known as the Klidflith Hall, and con- tinued his Sunday school services under the shelter of its roof. Eugene W. and Emma L. (Dechant) Scholl are the parents of two children: Lucy, born July 18, 1884, now the wife of Walter Mechler, and the mother of two children, Eugene Anton, and Rupert Dickson ; and John Augustus, born April 14, 1888, who married Bertha Reninger, and has one son, John Eugene. These children and their families are also resi- dents of Montgomery county.
JOHN HENRY HALFORD-Vice-president and general manager of James Lees & Sons Company of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, John Henry Halford is widely known as an expert manufacturer of woolen and worsted yarns. He was born September 29, 1885, at Great Horton, Bradford, England, in the heart of the English woolen and worsted manufacturing district. He is the only son of Robert and Sarah (Helli- well) Halford, and a descendant of Sir Charles Halford, who raised an army to aid the King in the war with Cromwell and was captured by the Cromwellian forces, finally securing his release by the payment of . £30,000.
Mr. Halford's grandfather was also a soldier and served as a British regular in various parts of the world. The Sikh War in India was the most notable campaign in which he took part. In the course of his military service of nearly thirty years he was stationed in many outlying posts of the British Empire, and thus acquired a rich fund of experience, a knowledge of foreign ways and much geographical and ethnological lore. After his retirement from the English army, his picturesque per- sonality made him a great favorite in any society in which circumstances happened to place him, and his children and grandchildren were never tired of listening to his tales of the open country and his many experi- ences with the denizens of the jungle, from hooded snakes to man-eating tigers. His stories of Eastern forests and of tree trunks covered with
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the rarest and most exquisite orchids awakened in them a profound love of the natural world, and when he died his best legacies to them were memories of happy hours filled with the wonder-compelling charm of an old soldier's reminiscences.
His son, Robert Halford, was born at Oxford, England, October 25, 1862, in the very shadow of the great English universities. His marriage to Sarah Helliwell occurred at Buttershaw, near Bradford, England, in 1880. Mrs. Halford was a member of a family well known in the manu- facturing district of England, where for the last century the Helliwells had been closely identified with the woolen and worsted industry. Robert Halford came to the United States in 1887, at the age of twenty- five years, and after living in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, finally settled in Maine. He was related to Elijah Halford, well known in Washington as secretary to Grover Cleveland during his first adminis- tration. Robert Halford, after arriving in this country, became identified with the woolen and worsted manufacturing industry, and for many years held important positions in this line of activity. At the present time (1923) he is the New England representative for James Lees & Sons Company, of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. John H. Halford, the only son of Robert Halford, has one sister, Minnie, who married B. W. Sanderson, and now resides at Cotuit, Massachusetts.
John Henry Halford was two years of age when brought by his parents to the United States. He received his early education in the schools of Sanford, Maine, and prepared for college at Hebron Academy, Hebron, Maine, whence he was graduated with the class of 1903. He then entered Bowdoin College, in the fall of 1903, where he remained for two years, at the end of that time, however, being compelled to discon- tinue his course in order to acquire more money to enable him at a later date to finish his studies in that institution. That hope though was never realized. Responsibilities were gradually assumed that could not well be abandoned as he was led into the manufacturing field. Having an inherited tendency for manufacturing, he had, during vacation periods since the age of twelve, worked in the mills of the Goodall Worsted Company of Sanford, Maine. After leaving Bowdoin he entered the employ of the Limerick Mills at Limerick, Maine, and spent six years filling positions which varied from machinery cleaner to superintendent.
In 1911 Mr. Halford accepted an offer from the S. B. and B. W. Fleisher Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and spent two years at their main plant, Twenty-fifth and Hamilton streets, Philadelphia. In 1913 Mr. Halford had an opportunity to become associated with James Lees & Sons Company of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, and relin- quished his position with the Fleishers in order to take advantage of it. He is now vice-president of James Lees & Sons Company, and general manager of their business at Bridgeport and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. John H. Halford is a director of the Norris Building Association, and of the Lees Building Association. In 1922 he bought the Hartranft property on the outskirts of Norristown. This estate contains approxi-
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