HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



20I 



sinus College) at Collegeville, Montgom- 

 ery county. In 1864 he entered the min- 

 istry and became the pastor of East 

 Swamp, West Swamp, and Flatland, 

 Mennonite congregations, to which he 

 has since ministered. He has from a 

 youth been one of the active leaders and 

 teachers in the doctrine of the Mennon- 

 ite church, bringing to bear upon this 

 work, as upon all that he has under- 

 taken, an energy, earnestness and fidelity 

 to principle that has characterized his 

 whole life. He has filled many promi- 

 nent positions in the church, being for 

 many years president of the general 

 triennial conference, and a prominent 

 member of the foreign missions and 

 publication boards of the church. He 

 was for fifteen years editor of the "Men- 

 nonitche Friedensbote," a church paper 

 published at Milford Square, and for 

 inany years associate editor of the 

 "Christliche Bundesbote," a paper pub- 

 lished in the interest of the Mennonite 

 church at Berne, Indiana. He has also 

 teen for man^v^ years one of the editors 

 of "The Mennonite," an English church 

 paper published in Philadelphia. 



He married, October 16, 1858, Fannie 

 Weinberger, born March 11, 1834, daugh- 

 ter of Joseph and Mary (Shelly) Wei- 

 berger. and also a descendant of Abra- 

 ham Shelly, Sr.. her mother being a 

 great-granddaughter of Jacob Shelly, 

 son of the pioneer, Abraham. This uni- 

 on was blessed with the following chil- 

 •dren: Mary Elizabeth, wife of Isaiah T. 

 Clymer. of Quakertown; Adeline, wife 

 of Uriah S. Staufifer, editor of "Quaker- 

 town Free Press"; Joseph W.; IMenno 

 and Oswin. 



The Shelly family have nearly all been 

 -farmers and from their arrival in Amer- 

 ica, have nearly all been adherents of the 

 Mennonite church, and true to the ten- 

 •ets of that faith, have taken little part 

 in active politics or afifairs of State, 

 though taking an active interest in lo- 

 cal afifairs. in their respective neighbor- 

 hoods. They have almost invariably 

 given their political support to the old 

 AVhig and later to the Republican party. 

 Joseph W. Shelly was born on the old 

 Michael Shelly homestead (purchased by 

 liis great-great-great-great-grandfather 

 in 1740) ]\Iarch 25, 1864. He received 

 his early education at the public schools 

 of his native township, and the Quaker- 

 town High School, and finished his ele- 

 mentary education at Ursinus College. 

 On leaving college he taught school at 

 Quakertown. in the meantime entering 

 liimself as a student at law in the office 

 of the late Charles F. Meyers, Esq., at 

 Doylestown. He was admitted to the 

 Bucks county bar December i. 1890, and 

 formed a partnership with his precept- 

 or, which continued for five years, since 

 which time he has practiced alone. He 

 w-as admitted to practice in the supreme 

 court of Pennsylvania in 1893. Mr. Shel- 



ly is a Republican in politics, and has 

 from the time of attaining his majority 

 been actively identified with the organi- 

 zation of his party, serving as secretary 

 of the county committee for several 

 years, and as its chairman for six years. 

 He is also a member of the Union Re- 

 publican Clul) of Philadelphia. He was 

 elected to the office of district attorney 

 of Bucks county in 1900, and was re- 

 elected in 1903, being the only liv- 

 ing member of the bar to serve 

 two terms in that office, the only other 

 instance of a re-election being that of 

 the late Nathan C. James, re-elected in 

 1857. As prosecuting attorney of the 

 county, Mr. Shelly has made a good rec- 

 ord, and he enjoys the confidence and es- 

 teem of the court and his fellow mem- 

 bers of the bar. In religion he conforms 

 to the faith of his ancestors for many 

 generations, and is a member o^f the 

 Mennonite Church. 



DR. OLIVER STOUT. Jacob Stout, 

 the pioneer ancestor of the subject of 

 this sketch, was born in Germany, Rhine 

 Province, in the year 1710, and. came to 

 Pennsylvania in the ship "Samuel." ar- 

 riving in Philadelphia on August V30, 

 1730. He was accompanied by two broth- 

 ers. John and Abraham Stout, of 

 whom little is known. Jacob Stout locat- 

 ed in Bucks county near the present site 

 of Perkasie, where John Lacey_ (who 

 had emigrated from Germany with his 

 wife Anna, nee Miller, in the ship "Ad- 

 venturer" in 1732) had purchased a tract 

 of two hundred acres in I735- Lacey 

 died in 1738. and in 1739 JacoH Stout 

 married the widow Anna. He probably 

 remained on the Perkasie plantation 

 with his wife and her two sons by La- 

 cey. for the next ten years and later 

 came to what became Williams town- 

 ship. Northampton county, where he 

 purchased a tract of 2^3 acres on Sep- 

 tember 9. 17^0, which remained the 

 propertv of his descendnnts for several 

 2-enerations. descending through his son, 

 Isaac Stout, the father of the famous 

 physician and surgeon. Dr Abraham 

 Stout. Jacob Stout was a potter by 

 trade, and seems to have followed that 

 vocation both at Durham and at Perka- 

 sie. How long he remained at the for- 

 mer place does not appear, but in 1753 

 he purchased a mill property and tract 

 of land at Church Hill, in Rockhill 

 township. In 1759 his step-sons, John 

 and Henry Lacey, having come of age, 

 Jacob Stout conveyed to them 266 acres 

 in Hilltown. which he had purchased 

 in 1757. and they in turn conveyed to 

 him the 200 acres in Rockhill, originally 

 taken up by their father. This tract em- 

 braced a large part of the present bor- 

 ough of Perkasie, and it remained the 

 residence of the ancestors of the sub- 



