HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



85 



November 7, 1821. They resided on a por- 

 tion of the old homestead and raised a 

 family of eight children, viz : Isaac ; Abra- 

 ham; Jacob B. ; Samuel; Sarah, who mar- 

 ried Charles Leidy ; Anna, who married 

 Isaac Drumbore ; Mary Magdalen, who 

 married Jacob Groff; and Elizabeth, who 

 married Enos Kile. 



Jacob B. Stout, the father of Judge Stout, 

 was born at Perkasie, November 8, 1814, 

 and died near there in April, 1896. He mar- 

 ried Amanda, daughter of Michael Head- 

 man. They resided for a time at the ola 

 Headman Pottery in Rockhill, but returned 

 later and purchased a farm adjoining the 

 old Perkasie homestead, where the re- 

 mainder of their lives were spent. The 

 children of Jacob and Amanda Stout were : 

 Maria, who married Tobias Weil ; Emma, 

 who married George W. Kratz ; and Mah- 

 lon H., the subject of this sketch. 



Judge Stout spent his boyhood days on 

 the Rockhill farm and attended the -public 

 schools of the neighborhood and the First 

 State Normal School at Millersville, and 

 taught school for four years. He after- 

 wards entered Franklin and IMarshall 

 'College, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 

 which he graduated in 1878. He at once 

 took up the study of law in the office of 

 Adam J. Eberly, Esq., at Lancaster, and 

 was admitted to the Lancaster county bar 

 April 4, 1880, and to that of his native 

 county in ]\Iay of the same year. After 

 two years of practice at Doylestown he lo- 

 cated in 1882 at Flulmeville, opening a law 

 office there and having a branch office at 

 Bristol. He was also a justice of the peace 

 at Hulmeville. In 1886 he came to Doyles- 

 town and formed a law partnership with 

 cx-Judge Richard Watson, under the firm 

 name of Watson & Stout, which continued 

 until the death of Judge Watson in 1894. 

 Mr. Stout was elected district attorney of 

 Bucks county in 1888, and was unanimously 

 nominated by his party to succeed himself 

 three years later, but was defeated at the 

 polls by the' late Paul H. Applebach, the 

 ■candidate of the then dominant party. 



Mr. Stout was married November 13, 

 1894, to Miss Harriet Miller, of Downing- 

 town, Pennsylvania. In 1898, his wife's 

 health failing, he sacrificed his business and 

 removed with her to Pasadena. California, 

 with the hope of saving her life. While 

 there he was admitted to the bar of that 

 state and practiced law at Pasadena. His 

 -wife died December 24, 1899, and their in- 

 fant son Max on December 25, 1898. 



Mr. Stout returned to Doylestown in the 

 spring of 1900, and again took up the prac- 

 tice of law. In 1901 he formed a partner- 

 ship with Harvey S. Kiser, Esq., under the 

 firm name of Stout & Kiser, which con- 

 tinued until the elevation of Mr. Stout to 

 the bench. He was elected president judge 

 in November, 1903, and entered upon the 

 duties of his office in January, 1904. Judge 

 Stout has always been a close student, and 

 as a lawyer had the reputation of being one 

 of the best counsellors at the bar, and his 



administration of the high office to which 

 he has been elevated merits the trust re- 

 posed in him by the large majority of voters 

 who elected him. His calm and even tem- 

 perament, his uniform courtesy, his sterling 

 common sense, his devotion to principle and 

 right, and his unquestioned knowledge of 

 the law, have made his administration 

 popular with all classes. 



JOHN C. SWARTLEY was born in 

 Franconia township, Montgomery county, 

 Pennsylvania, September 14, 1865, and is a 

 son of Jacob S. and Elizabeth (Cassel) 

 Swartley, both of whom are descendants 

 of early German settlers in that locality 

 of the Mennonite faith. 



John Schwardley, the pioneer ancestor of 

 the subject of this sketch, was born in Ep- 

 pingen, in Necker, grand duchy of Baden, 

 Germany, in the year 1754. At the age of 

 eighteen years, accompanied by his younger 

 brothers, Jacob and Philip, he emigrated 

 to Pennsylvania, arriving in Philadelphia 

 September 30, 1772, in the ship, "Minerva," 

 Captain James Johnston, from Rotterdam. 

 He soon after found a home among his 

 compatriots in Franconia township, where 

 he married Magdalena Rosenberger, born 

 December 18, 1759, daughter of the Rev. 

 Henry Rosenberger, Mennonite minister at 

 Franconia, and grand daughter of Henry 

 Rosenberger, the pioneer ancestor of the 

 Rosenberger family, who had taken up a 

 large tract of land in Franconia in 1728. 

 Rev. Henry Rosenberger was born Decem- 

 ber 2, 1725, and died in 1809. He married 

 in 1745 Barbara Oberholtzer, born in 1726, 

 died February 3, 1765, daughter of Jacob 

 and Barbara Oberholtzer, (or Overholt), 

 who were early settlers in Bedminster 

 township. Bucks county, where Jacob pur- 

 chased land in 1749. Rev. Henry and Bar- 

 bara (Oberholtzer) Rosenbergeir were the 

 parents of eight children, five of whom sur- 

 vived and left descendants, viz : Anna, who 

 married (first) Michael Leatherman and 

 (second) John Loux, both of Bedminster; 

 Elizabeth, married Mark Fretz ; Barbara, 

 married Daniel Rickert ; all of Bucks 

 county ; Magdalena, above named ; and Sar- 

 ah, who married Philip Schwardley, the 

 youngest brother of John Schwardley, above 

 named. John and Magdalena Schwardley 

 lived and died on a portmn of the Rosen- 

 berger homestead in Franconia, still in the 

 tenure of iheir descendants, and were the 

 parents of nine children, viz : John, Jacob, 

 Samuel, Abraham, Joseph, Henry, Philip 

 R., Elizabeth and Mary. 



Philip R. Swartley, son of John and 

 Magdalena, was born on the old homestead 

 in Franconia, January 2, 1795, and died 

 there July 30, 1880. He married Annie C. 

 Shoemaker, and their son Jacob S. Swart- 

 ley, born in 1821, died 1867, was the father 

 of the subject of this sketch. He was born 

 and reared on the old homestead in Fran- 

 conia, and followed farming and milling 



