20 



IIISrONV Of BUCKS COUXTY. 



the death of Mr. Twining, in July, 1894, 

 he assumed charge of the entire opera- 

 tions. The following year he purchased 

 the business, and has increased and ex- 

 panded it from year to year until he is 

 now the largest cleaier in his line of trade 

 in Eastern Pennsylvania, operating ex- 

 tensive quarries at Stockton, New Jersey, 

 Lumberville, Yardley, Neshaminy Falls, 

 and in Clearrteld, Elk and Jefferson 

 counties, Pennsylvania, and filling large 

 contracts for furnishing stone to the 

 Pennsylvania and other railroad com- 

 panies, and for many large public and 

 private building operations all over the 

 country, employing from four hundred 

 to seven hundred men in the conduct of 

 his business. He also owns and con- 

 ducts the homestead farm in Newtown 

 township. 



Mr. Eastburn married, January 8, 1903, 

 Margaret B. Phillips, daughter of Theo- 

 dore F. and Emma B. Phillips, of Lang- 

 horne, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and 

 they are the parents of one child, Sarali 

 P., born June 17, 1904- Mr. and Mrs. 

 Eastburn are members of the Newtown 

 Presbyterian church. Mr. Eastburn is a 

 Republican in politics, and has taken an 

 active interest in the success of his 

 party. He is a member of Newtown 

 lodge, No. 426, F. and A. M. 



SAMUEL COMFORT EASTBURN. 

 Among the most enterprising business 

 men of lower Bucks county is Samuel 

 Comfort Eastburn, of Langhorne bor- 

 ough. He is a son of Joseph and Eliza- 

 beth (Comfort) Eastburn, and was born 

 in Middletown township, Bucks county, 

 August 2, 1848. An account of the first 

 three generations of the paternal ances- 

 tors of the subject of this sketch is given 

 in other pages, he being a descendant in 

 the sixth generation of Robert and Sarah 

 (Preston) Eastburn, who came from' 

 Yorkshire to Philadelphia in 1713. and 

 settled near Abington. Montgomery 

 county, Pennsylvania, a year later. Sam- 

 uel Eastburn, the great-great-grand- 

 father of Samuel C, removed to Sole- 

 bury township, Bucks county, in 1729. 

 His son, Robert Eastburn, and his first 

 wife, Elizabeth Duer, were the great- 

 grandparents of both the subject and 

 his wife, Elizabeth (Maule) Eastburn. 



Aaron Eastburn, youngest son of Rob- 

 ert and Elizabeth (Duer) Eastburn, 

 born I mo. 10, 1773, married in 9 mo., 

 1796, Mercy Bye, of Buckingham, and 

 lived in Solebury, dying at the age of 

 seventy-three years, 3 mo. 24, 1846, and 

 Mercy, his widow, dying 2 mo. 21, i8j8. 

 aged seventy-four years. They were the 

 parents of ten children, seven daughters 

 and three sons. Joseph Eastburn, the 

 ninth child of Aaron and Mercy, and 

 the only son who married, was born in 

 Solebury township, 4 mo. 18, 1814. He 



was reared in his native township of 

 Solebury, but on his marriage, 11 ma. 

 19, 1846, to Elizabeth, daughter of Sam- 

 uel and Elizabeth Comfort, of Middle- 

 town, settled on a portion of his fath- 

 er-in-law's farm in Middletown. At the 

 death of Samuel Comfort in i860 this 

 farm descended to his daughter, Eliza- 

 beth C. Eastburn, and a part of it is 

 the present home of the subject of this 

 sketch. The children of Joseph and 

 Elizabeth (Comfort) Eastburn were: 

 Samuel C, born 8 mo. 2, 1848; Anna^ 

 born 6 mo. 24, 1852, married John G. 

 Willetts; and Thomas, born 8 mo. 21,. 

 1853. Joseph Eastburn, the father, died 

 10 mo, 31, 1891. 



The maternal ancestors of the subject 

 of this sketch were among the early 

 Quaker settlers of this section. John 

 Comfort was a resident of Amwell tovvn- 

 ship, Hunterdon county, where he died' 

 in 1728. He brought a certificate from 

 Flushing, ■ Long Island, to Falls Meet- 

 ing, 12 mo. 3, 1719. In 1720 he married 

 Mary, daughter of Stephen and Sarah 

 (Baker) Wilson, and had by her three 

 children: Stephen, Sarah and Robert. 

 Stephen Comfort married Mercy Croas- 

 dale, and settled in Middletown town- 

 ship, where he acquired several large 

 tracts of land. He died in 1772, leaving 

 sons Stephen, John, Ezra, Jeremiah, 

 Moses, and Robert; and daughters Grace 

 and Mercy. Stephen Comfort (2), mar- 

 ried Sarah Stevenson, and settled on his 

 father's farm on the Neshaminy, near 

 Parkland, and later purchased consid- 

 erable adjoining land, most of which be- 

 came the property of his son Samuel at 

 the death of his father in 1826. The other 

 children of Stephen and Sarah Comfort 

 were, Stephen, David and Jeremiah. 

 Samuel Comfort lived upon the Nesh- 

 aminy homestead until about 1850, when 

 he removed to the village of Attleboro, 

 where he died in i860, leaving children: 

 Mary Ann; Jesse; Elizabeth, wife of Jo- 

 seph Eastburn, and Samuel. He was a 

 prominent man in the community and 

 filled many positions of trust. 



Samuel Comfort Eastburn was reared 

 on the Middletown farm, and received 

 his education at the Langhorne Acad- 

 emy and at Westtown Boarding School. 

 He later took a course at Crittenden's 

 Commercial College, Philadelphia. He 

 engaged in railroad surveying for a few- 

 years, and then in the dry goods busi- 

 ness in Philadelphia, where he remained 

 for ten years. In 1880 he took an agency 

 for the Provident Life and Trust Com- 

 pany of Philadelphia, in the life in- 

 surance department, and has been con- 

 nected with it ever since, now holding" 

 the position of general agent for Cen- 

 tral Pennsylvania. Mr. Eastburn is an 

 enterprising and successful business 

 man. and has been closely identified with 

 most of the vast improvements in and 

 about his native town of Langhorne in 



