HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



169 



known as "Jersey Bill}'," to distinguish 

 him from his cousins of the name. Here 

 the Atkinson children were reared. Ben- 

 jamin, the eldest, married Jane Adams 

 and died in 1816, leaving a family of six 

 children. Thomas was a captain of a 

 company in the war of 1812. Ezekiel, 

 the youngest, married and removed to 

 Drumore township, Lancaster county, 

 where he purchased land in 1818, and 

 died in 1842. 



Mahlon Atkinson, the grandfather of 

 the subject of this sketch, was born and 

 reared in Byberry, but removed with his 

 father to Drumore, where he purchased a 

 farm of fifty-two acres in 1822. He died 

 four years later, in August. 1826. His 

 widow, Martha, returned to Byberry with 

 her five children, Mary, Howard H., Vio- 

 letta, Angelina, and Mahlon R., the lat- 

 ter born a few months after his father's 

 death. Martha, the wife of Mahlon At- 

 kinson, was a daughter of Daniel T. and 

 Mary (Willett) Walmsley, and a grand- 

 daughter of General Augustin and Eliza- 

 beth (Hicks) Willett. General Willett 

 was one of the first soldiers of the Rev- 

 olution to enter active service; he was 

 commissioned as a caption in the First 

 Pennsylvania Battalion, raised under act 

 of Congress of October 12, 1775, for the 

 expedition against Canada, on October 

 27. 1775, and suffered the terrible priva- 

 tions and hardships of that disastrous 

 campaign of nearly a year on the fron- 

 tiers of Canada. Elizabeth Hicks, wife 

 of General Willett, was a daughter of 

 Gilbert and Mary (Rodman) Hicks, and 

 a descendant of Robert Hicks, the Pil- 

 grim Father, who came to Plymouth, 

 Massachusetts, in the "Fortune" in 1621, 

 from Southwark. London. England. He 

 was a leather dresser in Bermonfdey 

 street, Southwark, and had been twice 

 married, his first wife being Elizabeth 

 Morgan, by whom he had four children, 

 Thomas. Elizabeth. John and Stephen. 

 His second wife was Margaret Winslow, 

 who with her four children, Samuel. Eph- 

 raim, Lydia and Phebe, followed her 

 husband to Plymouth in the ship "Ann," 

 arriving in June, 1722. and they settled 

 at Duxbury. The sons John and Stephen 

 removed to Long Island in 1642. The sub- 

 sequent history of the descendants of John 

 Hicks is given elsewhere in this work, un- 

 der the title of "The Hicks Family." 



Mahlon R. Atkinson was born at B3'- 

 berry Cross Roads, where his mother had 

 taken up her residence with her relatives 

 after the death of her husband, on Feb- 

 ruary I. 1827. He learned the trade of a 

 house painter, and early in life removed 

 to Southampton township, Bucks county, 

 near Davisville, where he followed his 

 trade during the active years of his life, 

 removing later to Ivyland. He died at 

 the residence of his son, Lawrence Rush 

 Atkinson, at Hatboro. October 17, 1904. 

 His widow, who was Mary Ann Wood, 

 survives him. They were the parents of 



ten children, viz. : S. Emma, who died 

 unmarried in 1898; Charles S., of Doyles- 

 town; Howard W.: Violetta, wife of Will- 

 iam Kline, of Philadelphia; Lawrence 

 Rush, of Hatboro; Matilda, wife of 

 Courtland Yerkes, of Willow Grove; 

 Anna, deceased; Joshua J., and Harry 

 B. of South Amboy; and A. Louisa, wife 

 of Albert Hohensack, of Ivyland. 



Howard W. Atkinson was born at 

 Davisville. November 22, 1853, and at 

 the age of eight years went to live at 

 Huntingdon Valley, where he remained 

 until the age of sixteen years, when he 

 reurned home and learned the trade of a 

 house painter, which he followed for fif- 

 teen years. In 1876 he removed to 

 Doylestown. where he carried on paint- 

 ing, eniploying twelve to fifteen men. In 

 1884 he began the business of an under- 

 taker, which he has since conducted at 

 Doylestown with success. In 1891 he 

 opened the summer resort known as Oak- 

 land, just outside the borough of Doyles- 

 town, formerly occupied by the Doyles- 

 town English and Classical Seminary, 

 which has become one of the popular in- 

 stitutions of the neighborhood under the 

 conduct of Mr. Atkinson and his ex- 

 cellent wife. Mr. Atkinson married, 

 March 9, 1885. Emma Wilson, of Doyles- 

 town. and they are the parents of four 

 children: Mary, Julia, Augistina, and 

 Frances. 



HON. HENRY G. MOYER. of Perk- 

 asie. Bucks county, Pennsylvania, for 

 many years prominent in the business 

 and official circles of Bucks county, was 

 born in Hilltown, Bucks eounty, August 

 28, 1848. and is a son of the late Henry 

 A. and Sarah (Gerhart) Moyer, of Hill- 

 town, and is descended from early Ger- 

 man settlers on the Skippack, nearly two 

 centuries ago. The name of Moyer, 

 Meyers. Myers,. now almost as common 

 in Bucks county as Smith, was origin- 

 ally spelled Meyer, and the present bear- 

 ers of the name are descended from sev- 

 ral German emigrants of that name who 

 settled in what is now Montgomery 

 county, in the first quarter of the eigh- 

 teenth century, from whence their de- 

 scendants migrated into Bucks county 

 in the second and third generation. 



I. Christian Meyer, the paternal an- 

 cestor of this sketch, was a landowner in 

 Lower Salford township, Montgomery 

 county, as early as 1719. and possibly 

 some years earlier, and was one of the 

 founders of the earliest congregations 

 of Mennonites in that locality. All the 

 earlier generations of the family be- 

 longed to that sect, though many of 

 their descendants now belong to othej 

 denominations. Christian Meyer died 

 in June, 1757. leaving three sons. Chris- 

 tian, Jacob and Samuel, the last of whom 

 settled in Hilltown: and daughters Eliza- 



