4i8 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



cesses of manufacture tlien in vogue. 

 Shortlj' after the death of his father in 

 1883, he assumed the management of tlie 

 factory, and has continued to conduct it 

 and the various plants hitcr added to tlie 

 present time. The house has kept pace 

 with the rapid development and im- 

 proved methods of manufacture in their 

 line of business, and has vastly increased 

 its capacity and output, from twenty-'tive 

 dozen skins in 188,3 to over eight hun- 

 dred dozen per day, representing an 

 output of two and a half million dol- 

 lars, and filling orders from England, 

 Scotland, Germany, France, Italy, Aus- 

 tralia, Constantinople, as well as from 

 all the South American countries. Mr. 

 Mathews has discovered and introduced 

 some very important improvements in 

 the treatment of skins for the manu- 

 facture of patent leather and other 

 products of his factory. 



On October 16. 1884. Mr. Mathews 

 was united in wedlock with Clara L. 

 Brunner, daughter of Samuel and Anna 

 (Leatherman) Brunner, of Philadelphia, 

 both of whom were natives of Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania. The Brunner 

 family are of German origin, many of 

 the name having migrated to Pennsyl- 

 vania between the years 1727 and 1780. 

 The branch of the family to which Mrs. 

 Brunner belonged were early settlers in 

 Montgomery county, from whence they 

 migrated into New Britain and Bed-, 

 minster townships, Bucks county. 



Jacob Leatherman, the maternal an- 

 cestor of Mrs. Brunner, was a native of 

 Germany, and emigrated to America, 

 arriving at Philadelphia in the ship 

 "Lydia," September 20. 1741. accom- 

 panied by his wife Magdalena and two 

 sons, Jacob and Abraham, the latter less 

 than two years of age. They settled in 

 Bedminster township, Bucks county, 

 shortly after their arrival, where six 

 other children were born to Jacob and 

 Magdalena. The father died in 1763. 

 Jacob Leatherman, the eldest son of 

 Jacob and Magdalena, born in Germany, 

 did not marry until late in life, his wife. 

 Esther Overholt, being twenty years 

 his junior. She was born July 27. 1762. 

 and died October 7, 1816. Jacob Leath- 

 erman died in 1805. aged about seventy 

 years. 



Joseph Leatherman, son of Jacob and 

 Esther (Overholt) Leatherman, was 

 born in Bedminster. February 14, 1786. 

 and died there April ti. t86o. He mar- 

 ried. November 12, 1811. Sarah Meyers, 

 born May 5. 1788. died September 10, 

 'i^?i?,< daughter of Christian and Mary 

 (Landis) Meyer, the former of whom 

 was born March 27. 1763. in Franconia 

 township, Montgomery county. _ Penn- 

 sylvania, and was a son of Christian and 

 Susanna TDetweiler) Meyer, and grand- 

 son of Christian and Magdalena Meyei. 

 the pioneer ancestors of the family. Jo- 

 seph and Sarah (Meyers) Leatherman, 



were the parents of eleven children, of 

 whom Jacob M., the eldest, was born 

 January 14, 1813, and died August I, 

 1876. He married, October 3, 1837. Sarah 

 Bishop, born March i. 1817. daughter of 

 Jacob and Anna (Fretz) Bishop, of New 

 Britain township, Bucks county. Jacob 

 Bishop was the son of a German emi- 

 grant by name of Bischoff, (sometimes 

 spelled Bischofifberger) and was reared 

 in the family of Joseph Fretz, in Bed- 

 minster, whose daughter Anna he sub- 

 sequently married. He located in New- 

 Britain after his marriage, and died there 

 December 15, 1832. Anna (Fretz) Bis- 

 hop was born February 29, 1788, and died 

 in 1865, and was a descendant of the 

 Fretz family of Bedminster, an accourt 

 of which is given elsewhere in this vol- 

 ume. Anna Leatherman, daughter of 

 Jacob M. and Sarah (Bishop) Leather- 

 man, was born in Bedminster township, 

 November 10, 1839. and married Samuel 

 C. Brunner, December 25, i860. He died 

 several years ago,, and she married sec- 

 ond John Piercy of Philadelphia. 



Charles J. and Clara L. (Brunner) 

 Mathews, are the parents of one child 

 Alyse, born July i. 1894- Mr. and Mrs. 

 Mathews have resided for several years 

 in Langhorne Manor borough. Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania, where they oc- 

 cupy a handsome home. 



ARTEMUS ROSENBERGER. Among 

 the representatives of the sturdy Ger- 

 man emigrants who early in the sev- 

 enteenth century found an asylum from 

 religious persecution in Penn's colony, 

 and a few decades later settled the upper 

 portion of Bucks county, is Artemus 

 Rosenberger, of Hilltown, Bucks county. 

 He is a son of Jacob D. and Eliza 

 (Swartley) Rosenberger, and was born 

 in Hilltown May 10, 1863. 



Henry Rosenberger. the emigrant an- 

 cestor of the subject of this sketch, was 

 among the earliest of the German immi- 

 grants to settle in Franconia township. 

 Montgomery county, having purchased 

 land there in 1729. part of which is still 

 in the tenure of a descendant. IMichael 

 Swartley. His son, Daniel Rosenberger. 

 who accompanied his parents from Ger- 

 many, purchased land in Hatfield. Mont- 

 gomery county, near Hockertown. in 

 1740, and here his son Isaac Rosen- 

 berger was born, November 30. 1751. The 

 latter married Christiana, an adopted 

 daughter of Rev. John Funk, of Hat- 

 field, and their son Henry, born in Hat- 

 field. October i. 177.^. w^as the grand- 

 father of the subject of this sketch. Isaac 

 Rosenberger purchased in 1790 one hun- 

 dred aci-es in Hilltown, where the subject 

 of this sketch now lives, and here Henry 

 settled in 1803. purchasing the farm of 

 his father in 1810. He erected the pres- 

 ent large stone house in 1812 and the 



