422 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



strict!}' fair and impartial, llo is also sec- 

 retary of the board of School Directors 

 Association of Bucks County, serving since 

 1896, and is president of the Concord Per- 

 severance Company. The positions which 

 he has tilled have come to him in recogni- 

 tion of his ability and not because he has 

 been an active office seeker. In every posi- 

 tion that he has been called to lill he has 

 been found faithful and true to the duties 

 intrusted to him and his career has there- 

 fore been a creditable one. 



In 1868 Mr. Wilkinson was united in mar- 

 riage to JNIiss Hannah Elizabeth Lamueri, 

 who was born in Bucks county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in 184s, her parents being Charles 

 and Sarah (Alartindell) Lambert, both na- 

 tives of Bucks county. Her father was a 

 harness maker by trade and was respected 

 in both business and social circles. His 

 children were Emma, the wife of D. Ste- 

 wart; Jemima, the wife of E. Carhart ; and 

 Mrs. Wilkinson. The last named was a 

 successful school teacher prior to her mar- 

 riage. She has become the mother of two 

 sons, Howard, who wedded Sarah Spencer, 

 a daughter of Oren P. Spencer and resides 

 upon the old homestead; and Charles, who 

 married Sarah Twining and follows farm- 

 ing in Wrightstown township. Sarah Twin- 

 ing is a descendant from Stephen Twining 

 and Alary Wilkinson. 



WTLLIAM RENNER. Among the pron.- 

 , inent business and public spirited men of 

 the thriving borough of Perkasie is William 

 Renner, who has been identitied with its 

 business interests since its incorporation. 

 Mr. Renner was born in Rockhill township, 

 Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the year 

 1843. and is a son of John and Catharine 

 (Kramer) Renner, both natives of Rock- 

 hill township, and descendants of early Ger- 

 man settlers in Bucks county. Valentine 

 Renner, the pioneer ancestor of the family, 

 came to Pennsylvania from Germany nearly 

 a century and three-quarters ago, arriving 

 in Philadelphia in the ship "Johnson," of 

 London, Captain David Crockett, September 

 19, 1732. He was a young man, and was 

 accompanied by his wife Magdalena, and 

 an mfant daughter Catharina. Following 

 the trend of German-American immigra- 

 tion up the Schuylkill and its tributaries 

 into the neighborhood of the Skippack, and 

 thence hito Mil ford township, Bucks coun- 

 ty, where he resided for a time, in the year 

 1762 he purchased a farm in Bedminster 

 township, where he lived until his death 

 in 1781. He was a weaver by trade, and 

 followed that occupation in connection with 

 the tilling of the soil and clearing his farm 

 of 130 acres. The children of Valentine 

 (or Felty) and Magdalena Renner were: 

 John, Peter, Jacob, Henry, Adam, Clara, 

 Catharine, Magdalena, Michael, and Eliza- 

 beth. 



JACOB RENNER, eldest son of Valen- 

 tine and Magdalena, was a blacksmith by 



trade, and followed that vocation in MilforcS 

 township, Bucks count}-, where he remained 

 on the removal of his parents to Bedminster. 

 He purchased twenty-hve acres of land 

 there in 1767, and later purchased several 

 other small tracts adjoining. He died in 

 the winter of 1818-19, leavmg four sons: 

 Benjannn, Jacob, Henry, and Adam; and 

 one daughter, Susanna. 



Adam Renner, youngest son of Jacob, 

 learned the trade of a blacksmith with his 

 father, and in 1800 purchased a farm of 

 hfty acres in Hilltown township, near the 

 line of Rockhill, but sold twenty acres 

 thereof two years later. He followed his 

 trade at that place until his death in 1823. 



He married Elizabeth , and they were 



the parents of ten children, viz, : Henry, 

 also a blacksmith in Hilltown; Mary; 

 Elizabeth, who became the wife of George 

 King ; Hannah, who married Nathan 

 Thomas; Sarah, who married John Nace; 

 Samuel ; Catharine, who married Jacob 

 TroUinger; Enos; John and Lydia. 



John Renner, ninth child of Adam and 

 Elizabeth Renner, was born in Hilltown 

 township, Bucks county, in 1814. He was 

 but nine years of age at the death of his 

 father, and John Kramer was appointed his 

 guardian. He received a meagre education, 

 and early in life learned the trade of a 

 inason, which he followed until hfty-five 

 years of age, and then purchased a farm 

 in Hilltown, upon which he lived for a 

 number of years, and then sold it and re- 

 moved to Franconia township, Montgomery 

 county, Pennsylvania, where he still re- 

 sides. He married Catharine Kramar, who 

 bore him nine children : Sarah, Simon, 

 William, Elizabeth, Noah, Amanda, James, 

 John and Catharine. His wife Catharine 

 dying he married (second) Susanna Harr, 

 a widow, her maiden name being Frantz, by 

 whom he has two children, Frank and 

 Ella. 



WILLIAM RENNER was born in Rock- 

 hill township, and was reared in the town- 

 ship of Bedminster. At the age of sixteen 

 years he came to Hilltown township, where 

 he was employed for three years, in 1862,. 

 at the age of nineteen years, he enlisted in 

 Company I, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth 

 Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served 

 throughout the war in the Pennsylvania cav- 

 alry, serving under Sheridan in his many 

 raids, and, though in numerous engage- 

 ments, came out without a scratch. He was 

 mustered out at Harrisburg in 1865, and, 

 returning to Bucks county, followed farm- 

 ing and carpentering for three years, and in 

 1868 came to Perkasie and was employed, 

 in the mill of A. H. Hendricks, at South 

 Perkasie, for three years and for two years 

 with ]\lr. Moyer at the same business. In 

 1874 he started the feed and hay business at 

 Perkasie, and has been in that business ever 

 since. Air. Renner has always taken an 

 active interest in all that pertained to the 

 interest of the town, tilling the position of 

 school director for a number of years, and 

 also serving in other local positions. He 



