HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



471 



live in these two townships, with a num- 

 ber in Williams township, Northampton 

 county. Joseph Deemer, a native of 

 Durham, when a young man. located in 

 Hunterdon county. New Jersey, and 

 worked at "the forge," presumably Ex- 

 eter Forge. When the Revolutionary 

 war broke out he enlisted in the First 

 New Jersey Regiment and served 

 throughout the entire struggle, belong- 

 ing during that time to four of five dif- 

 ferent organizations. All trace of him is 

 lost soon after the restoration of peace. 

 Pertinent to this narrative is the fact 

 that after a lapse of eighy years an- 

 other Deemer, Edward by name, also a 

 native of Durham, enlisted in the New 

 Jersey regiment (the Thirty-first) and 

 served in the civil war. 



Dr. Henry M. Muhlenberg, the father 

 of the Lutheran church in America, fre- 

 quently made mention in his diary of a 

 Rev. Diemer, who preached at various 

 places during the Revolutionary war, 

 and with some he seems to have been 

 on intimate terms. It is to be inferred 

 from the diary that Mr. Diemer was 

 a Lutheran. The Deemers (Diemers) 

 were all originally, and nearly all con- 

 tinued so. members of the Reform 

 church, and if this Diemer was a mem- 

 ber of this branch (and of this there is 

 no assurance), he departed from the 

 faith of his kinsmen. This, however, 

 would not be a radical change, for the 

 gulf between the two denominations is 

 not broad. There were other changes, 

 too, for at a later day there were some 

 members of the family living in Will- 

 iams township who became ^Methodists 

 under the preaching of Bishop Asbury 

 and other pioneer ministers of that de- 

 nomination. After some of the family 

 had embraced IMethodism. those of the 

 family w-bo adhered to the ancestral 

 faith cut off all further intercourse with 

 them, and for more than a generation 

 the two branches acted the part of utter 

 strangers to each other. 



Some time after the removal of a por- 

 tion of the Deemer family from Mont- 

 gomery county to Durham, some of 

 those who remained in Providence re- 

 moved to the Susquehanna river and at 

 a later time to the Juniata, where fur- 

 ther knowledge of them ceases. As has 

 been stated, the Deemer family furnish- 

 ed at least one soldier to the Revolu- 

 tionary war, one to the Mexican war. 

 and quite a number to the Union during 

 the Civil war. Originally Federalists 

 in politics, they, in common with the 

 great mass of the settlers of German 

 extraction in the upper end of the coun- 

 ty, rebelled against the Federalist sys- 

 tem of taxation and became "JefFerson- 

 ian Republicans." and afterwards Demo- 

 crats, which, with few exceptions they 

 are to the present time. The Deemers 

 were always noted for industry and in- 



tegrity. From the middle of the eigh- 

 teenth century to the present time there 

 has scarcely been a period of ten years 

 when one or more Deemers were not em- 

 ployed in the iron furnaces at Durham. 

 In early years they did considerable 

 freighting over the mountains and down 

 the river, but to a large extent abandon- 

 ed this occupation when the canal had 

 been completed. While that waterway 

 was in course of construction they aided 

 the work, several of the Deemers serv- 

 ing under the afterward celebrated 

 George Law, who built the Durham lock 

 and acqueduct, and also the lock and ac- 

 queduct at the Narrows. 



Michael Deemer, a direct ancestor of 

 Elias Deemer, but whose ancestry is not 

 obtainable, was born in America, De- 

 cember 20, 1776, and died March 8, 1850. 

 He became an extensive landowner and 

 prominent citizen of Bucks county, mak- 

 ing his home in Kintnerville. Nocka- 

 mixon township, exercising considerable 

 influence in shaping the early policy of 

 the county and in promoting its ma- 

 terial upbuilding. Dorothea, his wife, 

 was born October 15, '1779, and died Oc- 

 tober 29, 1843. 



John Deemer (2) son of Michael 

 Deemer. resided in Durham township. 

 Bucks county, where he. too, followed 

 the occupation of farming. He had five 

 children, two sons and three daughters. 

 Edward Deemer, eldest son of John 

 Deemer, was born in the year 1834 on 

 the family homestead in Durham town- 

 ship, and died December 12. 1896. He 

 was reared to the occupation of the 

 farm, and at the time of the Civil war 

 responded to the countrj-'s call for 

 troops, enlisting in the Thirty-first New 

 Jersey Regiment, wnth which he re- 

 mained until the close of hostilities. 



Elias Deemer (3) a son of John Deem- 

 er, acquired his early education in the 

 public schools and under private in- 

 struction. When fifteen years of age he 

 entered upon his business career as a 

 salesman in a store in order to acquire 

 knowledge of and acquaint himself with 

 mercantile methods, and at the age of 

 twenty he had entire charge of commer- 

 cial enterprises. In the spring of 1859 

 he became bookkeeper, collector and 

 salesman for W. N. Treichler. of Kint- 

 nerville. who was an extensive manu- 

 facturer and dealer in lumber. In the 

 fall of i860 he went to Philadelphia, 

 where he entered a wholesale notion 

 house, and in 1861, following the inau- 

 guration of the Civil war. joined the 

 Union army, enlisting in the month of 

 August, as a member of Company E, 

 One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania 

 Volunteer Infantry, under the command 

 of Captain George T. Harvey and of 

 Colonel W. H. H. Davis, of Doyles- 

 town. Pennsj'lvania. However, in the 

 month of May, 1862, he was discharged 



