226 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



Eliza B. (Stover) Myers, the wife 

 of Christian M. Myers, is descended 

 from pioneer settlers in Bucks and 

 Montgomery counties, who have been 

 prominently identified with the settle- 

 ment and development of the native 

 resources of the county. Henry Stauf- 

 fer, (as the name Stover was then 

 spelled) Mrs. Myers' paternal ancestor, 

 was born and reared in Alsace or Man- 

 heim, Rhenish Prussia, and married 

 there in 1749, Barbara Hockman, and 

 accompanied by Christian, Daniel and 

 Ulrich Stauffer, probably his brothers 

 and Ulrich Hockman, his wife's broth- 

 er, sailed for Pennsylvania in the ship 

 "St. Andrew," Captain James Abercrom- 

 bie, from Rotterdam, arriving in Phila- 

 delphia on September 9, 1749. He lo- 

 cated in Bedminster township on the 

 Allen tract, where he purchased 213 

 acres of land June 12, 1762, having pre- 

 viously resided for a time among his 

 compatriots on the Skippack in Mont- 

 gomery county. The Bedminster home- 

 stead remained the property of his de- 

 scendants for nearly a century, having 

 been sold by Reuben Stover, a great- 

 grandson, in i860 to Joseph Sine. The 

 children of Henry and Barbara (Hock- 

 man) Stauffer, were: i. Ulrich, born 

 July 16, 1750, married Barbara Swartz, 

 and died on the homestead November 2, 

 1811. 2. Barbara, died young. 3. Henry, 

 born July 10, I754, married Elizabeth 

 Fretz, and settled near Bursonville, 

 Springfield township. 4. Jacob, see for- 

 ward. 5. Ralph, born June 10, 1760, died 

 November 7, 181 1, married Catharine 

 Funk; was a very prominent man, jus- 

 tice of the peace, member of assembly 

 and one of the first board of directors 

 of the poor of Bucks county. 



Jacob Stover, third son of Henry and 

 Barbara, born May 13, 1757, was reared 

 in Bedminster township. During the 

 war of the Revolution his father's team 

 and wagon was pressed into the service 

 of the continental army under General 

 Sullivan, and Jacob, a lad of sixteen 

 years, accompanied it in the Jersey 

 campaign, and endured many hardships. 

 He purchased the mill property now 

 owned by the subject of this sketch, 

 December 27, 1784, and resided there the 

 remainder of his life, 'dying April 28, 

 1844. He married (first) Elizabeth 

 Swartz, and had -by her one daughter, 

 Elizabeth, who married Philip Kratz. 

 He married (second) Catharine Stauf- 

 fer, daughter of Mathias and Anna 

 (Clemens) Stauffer, who kept an inn in 

 colonial times on their farm in Lower 

 Salford, Montgomery county, where of- 

 ficers of Washington's army were en- 

 tertained and sheltered by them after 

 the battle of Germantown. Mathias 

 Staufifer was a son of Christian Staufifer, 

 Jr., who died in Lower Salford in 1781, 

 and a grandson of Christian Stauffer, 

 a pioneer emigrant, who purchased 150 



acres at the present site of Harleysville, 

 Montgomery county, and died there in 

 1735, leaving a large family of children 

 of whom Christian, Jr., was the eldest, 

 and settled in Lower Salford in 1736. 

 Jacob and Catharine Stover were the 

 parents of eight children: Henry S., born 

 October 17, 1786, died at Erwinna, Aug- 

 ust 19, 1872, married Barbara Stout; 

 Mathias, born April 28, 1789, died June 

 4, 1S07; Anna, born 1791, married David 

 Worman, a tanner, at Parkerford, Ches- 

 ter county, Pennsylvania; Jacob, born 

 July 12, 1794, died March 30, 1856, mar- 

 ried Sarah Treichler; Abraham, died 

 young; Catharine, born August ^2, 1799, 

 married Henry Funk and removed to 

 Northumberland county; Jonas, born 

 February 27, 1802, died 1855, a miller 

 at Church Hill, Bucks county; Samuel, 

 see forward; and Isaac, born March 13, 

 1806, died January 21, 1876, miller at 

 Carversville, married Elizabeth Wismer. 

 Samuel Stover, father of Mrs. Myers, 

 was the seventh child of Jacob and Cath- 

 arine, and was born on the homestead, 

 near Pipersville, November 25, 1804, and 

 died there February 18, 1888. In 1836 he 

 purchased of his father the brick dwell- 

 ing erected in 1832, the mill and fifty 

 acres of land, and in the same year re- 

 built the mill. He continued to oper- 

 ate the mill during his active days, and 

 lived there all his life. He was a suc- 

 cessful business man, and upright and 

 conscientious in all his dealings. He 

 married in December, 1836, Anna Beid- 

 ler, born near Plumsteadville, Septem- 

 ber 12, 1808, died March 2, 1893, daugh- 

 ter of Jacob Beidler, and great-grand- 

 daughter of Jacob and Anna (Meyer) 

 Beidler, the latter daughter of Hans 

 Meyer, the paternal ancestor of the sub- 

 ject of this sketch, C. M. Myers. Sam- 

 uel and Anna (Beidler) Stover were the 

 parents of two children: Susan, born 

 June 19, 1839, died March 25, 1842; and 

 Eliza Beidler Stover, born February 22, 

 1844, the wife of Christian M. Myers. 

 She was educated in the public schools 

 of the township, both English and Ger- 

 man, and at Excelsior Normal Institute 

 at Carversville, in 1S61, Rev. Dr. F. 

 R. S. Hunsicker, principal, where Hon. 

 D. Newlin Fell was also a pupil. 



ISAAC PARRY. The name of Parry 

 is closely interwoven with the history 

 of eastern Pennsylvania, having been 

 established in this part of the state when 

 tlie country was still numbered among 

 the colonial possessions of Great Brit- 

 ain. The ancestors of Isaac Parry were 

 in comfortable financial circtmistances, 

 and at the time of the Revolutionary war 

 the homestead farm was foraged by 

 both armies. On one occasion some 

 British scouts made their way to the 

 farm and seeing some fat sheep caught 



