224 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



ville, where he practiced his profession 

 until the breaking out of the war in 

 1861, when he organized a company of 

 which he was commissioned captain, 

 and it was assigned to the Pennsylvania 

 Reserve Corps. In the autumn of 1862 

 he was appointed surgeon of the ii8th 

 Corn Exchange Regiment, Pennsylvania 

 Volunteers, and subsequently became 

 surgeon-in-chief of the field hospital and 

 filled that position to the close of the 

 war. 



At the return of peace he again lo- 

 cated at Applebachsville and resumed 

 his professional work. In 1866 he was 

 appointed assistant assessor of internal 

 revenue and remoyed to Quakertown, 

 Bucks county, where he has ^ince re- 

 sided. In 1870 he organized the Quak- 

 ertown Savings Bank, was made its 

 cashier, and filled that position until 

 the bank closed out its successful career 

 in 1877, by paying out .to its stockhold- 

 ers four dollars for every one dollar in- 

 vested. The Quakertown National Bank 

 was then organized, and Dr. Thomas 

 became its president, and has filled that 

 position ever since. Like its predeces- 

 sor, the Quakertown National Bank, 

 with Dr. Thomas at its head, has been 

 one of the most successful banks in 

 Bucks county, and has always stood in 

 the first rank of financial institutions. 

 In 1904 the Quakertown Trust Company 

 was organized, and the veteran finan- 

 cier Dr. Thomas was one of its prom- 

 inent promoters and sponsers, and is 

 still intimately identified with the conduct 

 and management of this institution. Jonas 

 S. Harley is its president. 



Though he has not been in active 

 practice of his profesion for manj^ years, 

 he is still considered one of the able 

 physicians of Upper Bucks, and is fre- 

 quentlj^ called in as a consulting physi- 

 cian. Politically Dr. Thomas is an ar- 

 dent Republican, and has always taken 

 an active interest in the success of the 

 party in whose principles he believes. 

 In 1878 he was elected to the state sen- 

 ate by a handsome majority, though at 

 that time the county was strongly Dem- 

 ocratic. He has served as delegate to 

 state and national conventions, and has 

 filled a number of local positions. In 

 the midst of an extraordinary busy life 

 Dr. Thomas has found time to devote to 

 science and literature, and is one of the 

 best versed men in the county on orni- 

 thologj' and natural history. In con- 

 nection w'ith his former colleague. Dr. 

 I. S. Moyer, of Quakertown, he prepared 

 the catalogue of the flora, birds and 

 mammals of Bucks county for General 

 W. W. H. Davis's first edition of the 

 History of Bucks County. He is past 

 master of Quakertown Lodge, No. 512. 

 F. and A. M., and is also a member of 

 the chapter, commandery and other high 

 branches of the Masonic fraternity, as 

 well as a member of Quakertown Lodge, 



No. 714, I. O. O. F. He belongs to- 

 Peter Lyle Post, G. A. R., No. 145, and 

 to the Loyal Legion of the United 

 States. L)r. Thomas married, April 3, 

 i860, Sarah Ott, daughter of Samuel and 

 Eliza (Fluck) Ott, and they are the 

 parents of one son, Byron, who has been 

 for many years teller of Quakertown 

 National Bank. Dr. Thomas is one of 

 the best known and most highly re- 

 spected men in Bucks county. 



CHRISTIAN M. MYERS. Among 

 the descendants of the early German 

 settlers on the virgin land of Bedmin- 

 ster, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, when 

 it was still a wilderness and the haunt 

 of the red men, is Christian M. Myers, 

 still a resident of the township where 

 his ancestors settled over a century and 

 a half ago. 



Hans Meyer, the pioneer ancestor and 

 great-great-grandfather of Christian M. 

 Myers, emigrated from Germany or 

 Switzerland, about the year, 1718, and in 

 1729 purchased a plantation in Skippack 

 township, Philadelphia (now Montgom- 

 ery) county, in that part later incor- 

 porated into Upper Salford township, 

 still in the occupancy of his great-grand- 

 son. Hans Meyer was a Mennonite and 

 one of the pioneer settlers in that lo- 

 cality. He was married before emi- 

 grating to America, and brought with 

 Iiim his eldest son Henry, then but a 

 year old. Six other children were born 

 to him in Pennsylvania, viz.: John, the 

 great-grandfather of the subject of this 

 sketch; Barbara, who married John 

 Fretz, another pioneer in Bedminster; 

 Jacob, who enlisted in the colonial war 

 of 1756, and never returned; Elizabeth, 

 who married Christian Stover; Anna, 

 who married Jacob Beidler. and became 

 the ancestress of ]\Irs. Christian M. 

 Myers; and Hester, who married Nich- 

 olas Lear. 



John Meyer, born about 1720, settled 

 in Bedminster township soon after at- 

 taining manhood, on land owned by 

 William Allen, Esq., which he later pur- 

 chased. In 1762 he purchased a farm of 

 two hundred acres in Plumstead township 

 where he resided the remainder of his 

 life. He was a farmer and blacksmith 

 by occupation, and a member of the 

 Mennonite congregation at Deep Run. 

 He married a widow Nash, whose maid- 

 en name was Sensenich. and they were 

 the parents of six children, Henr\-. 

 Abraham, and Christian, all of whom 

 learned their father's trade and followed 

 it in connection with farming in Plum- 

 stead: Hester and Marj% who lived to an 

 advanced age, but never married; and 

 Barbara, who married Charles Dyer. 



Christian flyers, son of John, and the 

 grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 

 was born on the old Plumstead home- 

 stead, April 24. 1772, and later pur- 



