328 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



as Secretary Logan termed the great in- 

 flux of Ulster Scots about 1735. Whether 

 accompanied by his parents is not known. 

 Certain it is that he was accompanied by 

 a sister Elenor, who married Hugh Young 

 in 1737. and possibly by a younger brother 

 Samuel who settled in Plumstead in 1761. 

 Hugh Young purchased a tract of 195 

 acres in Wrightstown township, and in 

 June, 1744, conveyed ninety-seven and one- 

 half acres thereof to his brother-in-law, 

 Nathan McKinstry. Here Nathan Mc- 

 Kinstry and his wife Mary lived until 1753. 

 when he sold his Wrightstown farm and 

 purchased a tract of 202 acres in Bucking- 

 ham (now Doylestown) township, one 

 mile southeast of Doylestown^ where he 

 spent his remaining days, dying April 15, 

 1790, at the age of seventy-eight years. His 

 wife Mary survived him several years. 

 They were members of Neshaminy Pres- 

 byterian church, of which he was a trustee, 

 and both are buried there. Their children 

 were: Jane, born 1745, died July 15, 1797, 

 married James Kerr; John, died 1791 ; Sam- 

 uel, born 1748, died January 24, 1796; 

 Henry, born 1750, died November 28, 1804; 

 William; and Robert, born 1756, died July 

 25, 1834, married Mary Wier, sister to the 

 grandmother of General U. S. Grant. 



Samuel McKinstry, second son of Nathan 

 and Mary, born in Wrightstown in 1748, 

 died January 24, 1796, on the old home- 

 stead in Buckingham, which had been ad- 

 judged to him in 1791. His wife Mary 

 survived him twenty-two years, dying April 

 4, 1818, at the age of sixty-four years. 

 Samuel McKinstry had lived for a time 

 prior to his father's death in Hilltown town- 

 ship, but his later days w^ere spent on the 

 homestead, where his father had built him 

 a house. The children of Samuel and 

 Mary McKinstry were: Nathan; James, 

 Jane and Jesse, among whom the Buck- 

 ingham plantation was divided in 18 13. 

 Nathan took the present farm of Frank 

 Heaton, where he died in 1852 ; James the 

 farm now owned by Amos Worthington, 

 and Jane and Jesse thirty-four acres of the 

 present Doan farm. James conveyed his 

 farm to Jane in 1819, and she at her death 

 in 1822 devised it to her brothers Nathan 

 and Jesse. 



Jes.«e McKinstry, youngest son of Sam- 

 uel and Mary, born 1790, was the grand- 

 father of the subject of this sketch. He was 

 married prior to 1814 to Rachel Pierce 

 and resided on the old homestead in Doyles- 

 town township until April i, 1837, having 

 purchased the interest of his brother Nathan 

 in the lower farm in 1827. In 1837 he 

 sold the farm and after residing for one 

 year in New Britain purchased a farm on 

 the Durham road in Upper Buckingham 

 which he sold a year later and removed 

 to Pulmstead, where he died November 

 7. 185T. He was a member of Doylestown 

 Presbyterian church, to which he left a 

 legacy of forty dollars. His wife Rachel 

 died July 22, 1869. at the age of sixty- 

 eight years. Their children were : Harri- 



son, born March 5, 1814, died May 20, 

 1876; Sophia; Jane; Nathan; Mary; 

 Oliver; Alfred; Ezra; and John W., the 

 latter dying in 185 1, aged seventeen years. 



Oliver McKinstry, father of the subject 

 of this sketch, was born in Doylestown 

 township, in 1822, and died in Plumstead 

 township, August 2, 1902. His wife Louisa 

 Miller was born in New Britain township, 

 in 1827, and died in 1895. Oliver Mc- 

 Kinstry on his marriage settled on a farm 

 purchased for him by his father in 1846, 

 and conveyed to him in 1850, and spent his 

 whole life thereon, the farm being now oc- 

 cupied by his son Harry. Oliver and Louisa 

 McKinstry were the parents of live chil- 

 dren, four of whom survive, Harry, resid- 

 ing on the homestead ; Nannie, wife of 

 Frank L. Gordon, of Seattle, Washington ; 

 Ida, of Plumstead ; and George. 



George McKinstry was born and reared 

 on the Plumstead farm and acquired his 

 education at the public schools of that 

 township and the Doylestown high school. 

 He married in 1883 Mary R. Paist, daugh- 

 ter of James Monroe and Elizabeth (Con- 

 rad) Paist, of Buckingham, and for three 

 years conducted the Cowdrick farm near 

 Carversville. In 1886 he moved to a farm 

 in Buckingham, purchased for him by his 

 father, which he conducted for sixteen 

 years. In 1901 he purchased his present 

 home, a farm of sixty acres in Landisville, 

 and removed there in the spring of 1904. 

 To Mr. and Mrs. McKinstry have been 

 born five children : Ethel. Bernice P., 

 Clara F., Grace I., and Frances G., all of 

 whom reside at home. 



AMOS S. BERINGER, one of the 

 prominent and active business men of the 

 little borough of Silverdale, was born in 

 Hilltown near the location of the present 

 borough on October 22, 1868, and is a 

 son of Amos and Sophia (Sheip) Beringer, 

 both of German origin and descendants of 

 early settlers in that locality. 



Nicholas Beringer, the pioneer paternal 

 ancestor of Amos S., came to Pennsylvania 

 from Germany in the ship "Neptune." John 

 Mason master, arriving in Philadelphia, 

 September 24. 1754. He probably followed 

 the trend of German emigration into Bucks 

 by way of the present county of Montgom- 

 ery. The first authentic record we have 

 of him is in the list of non-a«sociators of 

 Hilltown township in 1775. On June 29. 

 1777, he purchased 140 acres of land in 

 Hilltown of John Penn, the deed for which 

 is still in the possession of the subject 

 of this sketch as well as a large portion 

 of the land therein represented. Nicholas 

 Beringer died on the Hilltown plantation 

 about October i, 1783. and his wife Eliza- 

 beth died in March, 1808. They were the 

 parents of three sons, John, Henry, and 

 George, and three daughters. Elizabeth, 

 wife of George Cramer, a cabinet maker 

 of Hilltown; Catharine, wife of Amos 



