HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



17 



manager and afterwards president of the 

 Bucks County Agricultural Society; one 

 of the organizers and most active mem- 

 bers of the Solebury Farmers' Club; a 

 manager of the Farmers' and Mechanics' 

 Mutual Insurance Association of Bucks 

 County, probably the largest local in- 

 surance company in the county, and 

 for many years its president, (1877 to 

 1886); a manager of the Lahaska and 

 New Hope Turnpike Company, and its 

 president for many years prior .to his 

 death; a manager of the Doylestown and 

 Buckingham Turnpike Company from 

 1864 until his death; a manager of the 

 Lambertville National Bank, and school 

 director for many years. He was an 

 active member of Solebury Monthly 

 Meeting of Friends, being for thirty-tive 

 years clerk of the Meeting, and in every 

 position he discharged its duties with 

 ability and fidelity. Few men have been 

 more honored and respected for sterling 

 qualities than he. He was married 4 

 mo. 16, 184s, to Mary Anna, daughter of 

 Hugh B. and Sarah M. Ely, of Bucking- 

 ham, where she was born, 11 mo. 30, 

 i8t6. She died in Solebury, 7 mo. 2, 

 1879. Moses Eastburn inherited the 

 farm upon which he was born and spent 

 nearly his whole life there. It is now 

 the property of his only son, Hugh B. 

 Eastburn. The children of Moses and 

 Mary Anna (Ely) Eastburn were: Hugh 

 B., born 2 mo. 11, 1846; and Fannie, born 

 10 mo. 27, 1847, died 1851. 



HUGH B. EASTBURN, of Doyjes- 

 town, lawyer and banker, was born on 

 the Solebury farm, 2 mo. 11, 1846. He 

 attended the public schools of the neigh- 

 borhood until 1859, and then entered the 

 Excelsior Normal Institute at Carvers- 

 ville. graduating in 1865. For two years 

 he taught in the Boys' Grammar School 

 at Fifteenth and Race streets, Philadel- 

 phia, and subsequently in the Friends' 

 Central High School. While there he 

 began the study of law under the pre- 

 ceptorship of Hon. D. Newlin Fell, now 

 justice of the supreme court, and was 

 admitted to the Philadelphia bar in the 

 spring of 1870. In June, 1870, he was 

 appointed by State Superintendent Wick- 

 ershani to fill a vacancy in the office of 

 county superintendent of schools in 

 Bucks county, and was elected to that 

 position in 1872, and re-elected in 1875. 

 Mr. Eastburn resigned the office of 

 county superintendent in 1876 and en- 

 tered the law department of the Univj^r- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, and was admitted 

 to' the Bucks County bar in August, 

 1877. In 1885 he was elected district at- 

 torney on the Republican ticket, receiv- 

 ing a handsome majority, though the 

 county was at that time Democratic. 

 Mr. Eastburn was one of the organizers 

 of the Bucks County Trust Company in 

 1886, and has been one of the board of 

 directors since organization and its pres- 

 ident since 1895, and trust officer since 

 2-3 



1892. He has always been deeply inter- 

 ested in educational matters, and his 

 voice and pen have been potent in every 

 movement for the advancement of -edu- 

 cation in his native county and state. 

 He was for several years a member of the 

 board of trustees of the West Chester 

 Normal School, and has been a member 

 of the Doylestown school board since 

 1890, and is now its president. In poli- 

 tics he is an ardent Republican, and has 

 taken an active interest in the councils 

 of his party. He has been its represen- 

 tative in many district, state and national 

 conventions. 



He was married 12 mo. 23, 1885, to 

 Sophia, daughter of John B. and Eliza- 

 beth S. (Fox) Pugh, of Doylestown, and 

 has two sons: Arthur Moses, born 9 

 mo. 27, 1886; and Hugh B., Jr., born 2 

 mo. II, 1888. 



ROBERT EASTBURN, of Yardley, 

 Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born in 

 Solebury township, Bucks county, 3 mo. 

 -J 1833, is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth 

 K. (Taylor) Eastburn. Jacob Eastburn 

 was a son • of Moses and Rachel 

 (Knowles) Eastburn, mentioned in a 

 foregoing sketch, and was born oh the 

 old Eastburn homestead in Solebury, 

 September 14, 1793. He married in 1829 

 Elizabeth K. Taylor, who, like Rachel 

 (Knowles) Eastburn, was a descendant 

 of John and Mary (Lofty) Sotcher, 

 through the marriage of their daughter 

 Mary to Mahlon Kirkbride. 



On the marriage of Jacob Eastburn 

 his father purchased for him the farm 

 now owned by John H. Ely, adjoining 

 the homestead, and he spent the re- 

 mainder of his life thereon. Jacob East- 

 burn was a prominent and successful 

 business man and farmer. His elder 

 brother Robert had heired a farm at 

 Limeport, but, going west when young, 

 had died without issue, whereby the 

 farm descended to his brothers and sis- 

 ters, subject to the life estate of the 

 father, Moses Eastburn. During the life- 

 time of Moses the farm, which was a 

 valuable one, as it included the then 

 profitable lime kilns, quarries and 

 wharfage on the canal, was occupied by 

 Phineas Kelly. At the death of Moses 

 Eastburn, in 1846, Jacob, as the eldest 

 surviving son, was induced to take 

 charge of this valuable plant and man- 

 age it for the heirs. He entered into a 

 partnership with the late George A. 

 Cook, who had been a clerk under Mr. 

 Kelly, and the new firm built up a pros- 

 perous and profitable business. They 

 eventually purchased the interest of the 

 other heirs and continued the business 

 until the death of Jacob Eastburn, which 

 occurred August 26, i860. Jacob East- 

 burn was an active and prominent man 

 in the community, though never holding 

 any elective office other than school di- 

 rector and was frequently called upon 

 to act as guardian.' trustee or executor 



