460 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



House at New Hope, and conducted the 

 same until 1873. In that year he was 

 elected on the Democratic ticket to the 

 sheriffalty of Bucks county — the only 

 instance in the history of the county 

 where father and son held the same office. 

 At the expiration of his term in 1876 he 

 engaged in the coal and lumber business 

 at Doylestown. In 1878 he bought the 

 old Cowell House in that place, which 

 he sold five j-ears later, and took pos- 

 session of the Fountain House, where 

 he remained ten years. In 1893 he was 

 appointed by President Cleveland to 

 the postmastership of Doj-lestown, the 

 county seat. At the expiration of his 

 term in 1897 he took possession of the 

 historic Red Lion Inn in Bensalem, 

 Bucks county, where he remained until 

 May I, 1904, when he became proprietor 

 of the General Wayne Hotel in Holmes- 

 burg, Philadelphia. Nature endowed him 

 with a genial disposition which fitted 

 him in a remarkable degree for a suc- 

 cessful hotel man, and it can be truth- 

 fully said that he has always kept an or- 

 derly and highly respectable house, 

 against which there has never been a 

 breath of suspicion, and by so doing 

 has gained for himself hosts of friends 

 among all classes of society. Mr. Purdy 

 is a member of the Masonic order, affil- 

 iated with Frankford Lodge, No. 292, 

 and he is a member of the Improved Or- 

 der of Red Men at Doylestown. 



November 16, 1854, Mr. Purdy mar- 

 ried Sarah koberts, of Somerton, Penn- 

 sylvania. She was born November 16, 

 1833, a daughter of John and Rebecca 

 Roberts, the former of Welsh and the 

 latter of Dutch descent, being the daugh- 

 ter of James Vansant, whose ancestors 

 came from the Netherlands in 1660. 

 James Vansant's father, also named 

 James, was a soldier of the American 

 revolution. To John Mann and Sarah 

 (Roberts) Purdy were born five chil- 

 dren: 



1. Rebecca, born at Somerton, Sep- 

 tember s, 1855. She was educated in the 

 public schools and Doylestown Sem- 

 inary. In 1883 she married Levi L. 

 James, a prominent lawyer and former 

 district attorney, of Doylestown, by 

 whom she had two children: Samuel 

 Polk James, born October 6, 1883, and 

 Grace Vansant James, born May 30, 

 1887, both now living with their mother 

 in Doylestown. May 4, 1890, Mr. James 

 died, and in 1892 his widow married an- 

 other prominent lawyer of Doylestown, 

 and former congressman, Robert M. 

 Yardley. No children resulted from 

 this union. Mr. Yardley died December 

 9. 1902. 



2. Thomas Purdy, born in Somerton, 

 May 29, 1857. He was educated in the 

 public schools, at Doylestown Seminary 

 and the West Chester Normal School. 

 He taught school in Bucks county, Penn- 

 sylvania; Steuben ville, Ohio; and Cape 



May Court House, New Jersey, covering 

 a period of about ten years. In 1887 he 

 gave up school teaching and entered the 

 employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 Company as ticket agent in Philadel- 

 phia, and after several promotions be- 

 came passenger agent of the Long 

 Branch division of that road, with head- 

 quarters at Newark, New Jersey, and 

 is now (1904) occupying that respon- 

 sible position. In the railroad world, as 

 elsewhere, he enjoys an enviable repu- 

 tation. In politics he is a Gold Dem- 

 ocrat. He is connected with the Ma- 

 sonic and Royal Arcanum orders. June 



2, 1877, he married Ella Virginia, born in 

 1857, daughter of Edward and Lydia 

 Yost, of Doylestown, both of German 

 extraction. Of this marriage were born 

 six children: i. Edward Yost, born in 

 Steubenville, Ohio, 1878; 2. Jay Victor, 

 born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1880; 



3. Cora May, born at Cape May Court 

 House, New Jersey, 1882; 4. Florence 

 Coney, born in Philadelphia, 1886; 5. 

 Harry Roberts, born in Philadelphia, 

 1889; 6. Russell Wray, born in Phila- 

 delphia, 1892. None of the children are 

 married, and all live at home with their 

 parents in Metuchen, New Jersey. Ed- 

 ward and Jay Victor both volunteered 

 in the United States army during the 

 war with Spain, and at the conclusion 

 thereof were honorably discharged. This 

 action on their part affords evidence that 

 patriotism and military ardor yet mark 

 the Purdy blood. The former named is 

 employed by the^Pennsylvania Railroad 

 Company as ticket agent in New York 

 city. West Twenty-third street; the lat- 

 ter is in the art department of the New- 

 ark (New Jersey) "Daily Advertiser." 



3. Harry Roberts Purdy, born in 

 Somerton, February 13, 1859. He at- 

 tended the public schools of Somerton 

 and New Hope, and the Doylestown 

 Seminar^^ until 1876. when he entered 

 Dr. George T. Harvey's drug store at 

 Doylestown, in which he worked for 

 three years. He then went to New York 

 city and was graduated from the New 

 York College of Pharmacj^ in 1882. 

 From 1882 to 1887 he was apothecary to 

 the Bloomingdale Asylum, New York 

 city, and gave up pharmacy for medi- 

 cine. He entered Bellevue Hospital 

 Medical College and was graduated with 

 the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 

 1890, since which time he has been en- 

 gaged in medical practice. From 1892 

 to 1899 he was assistant to the chair of 

 diseases of children in his alma mater, 

 and at the same time was visiting phy- 

 sician to the out-door department of 

 Bellevue Hospital, as well as to the out- 

 door department of St. Mary's Free 

 Hospital for Children. He is a mem- 

 ber of the New York County. New York 

 State and American Medical Associa- 

 tions, of the New York Count}'- Med- 

 ical Societv. is fellow of the New York 



