476 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



gree of Bachelor of Arts, and later receiv- 

 ing the degree of A. M. at the same insti- 

 tution. He taught school for a short time 

 in Bucks county, and in i8gi entered the 

 office of the "Riegelsville News," but soot, 

 after connected himself with the editorial 

 stafif of the "Easton Argus," where he re- 

 mained until March i, 1903, when he pur- 

 chased the "Bucks County (Weekly and 

 Daily) Republican," published at Doyles- 

 town, which he has since conducted with 

 success. Mr. Jordan married, in 1892, 

 Dora Snyder, daughter of William H. and 

 Annie E. Snyder, of Easton, Pennsylvania, 

 and they are the parents of two children — 

 Glenn Catharine and Alexander Weikel 

 Jordan. 



WILLIAM' CHAFFEE RYAN, lawyer 

 and referee in bankruptcy, Doylestown, was 

 born in New Hope, Bucks county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, June 15, i860, and is the son of 

 John and Lydia (Moore) Ryan, both na- 

 tives of Hunterdon county, New Jersey. 

 He spent his boyhood days in his native 

 town, and attended the high school there 

 until 1878, when he accepted a position as 

 clerk in the office of the Lambertville Spoke 

 Manufacturing Company, which he Ailed 

 until August, 1882. In September, 1882, 

 he entered the office of Hugh B. Eastburn, 

 Esq., at Doylestown, as a student at law, 

 and was admitted to the bar, of Bucks 

 county September 15, 1884, and located at 

 Doylestown. In 1887 he formed a law- 

 partnership wtih the late Hon. Robert M. 

 Yardley, member of congress from the 

 Bucks-Montgomery district, which was con- 

 tinued until 1890. In 1891 Mr. Yardley 

 was made receiver of the Keystone National 

 Bank, Philadephia, and Mr. Ryan became 

 assistant receiver; and in 1894, Mr. Yard- 

 ley having also been made receiver of tile 

 Spring Garden Bank, Mr. Ryan becanje 

 assistant receiver of that institution aild 

 continued in the work of 'closing out the 

 affairs of both banks until 1898. Return- 

 ing to the active practice of law at Doyles- 

 town, he was appointed referee in bank- 

 ruptcy by the United States District Court 

 for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 

 in July, 1898, a position he still fills (1904). 

 He has been admitted to practice in the 

 state and federal courts, including the su- 

 preme court of the United States ; is a 

 member of the County and State Bar Asso- 

 ciations and of the National Association o? 

 Referees in Bankruptcy. Mr. Ryan stands 

 high in the practice of his profession, and 

 has acted as coun.sel in many important 

 cases. As chief counsel he conducted the 

 defence of Wallace Burt, the half-breed 

 rnurderer of the Rightlys, in 1894, in connec- 

 tion with Howard I. James, Esq. He 

 represented the borough of New Hope in 

 the important contest against the Western 

 Union and Postal Cable Telegraph Com- 

 panies over an ordinance Imposing license 

 fees on Uie telegraph companies for the 

 maintenance of poles and wires within the 



borough limits, and carried the case through 

 the state and United States supreme courts. 

 The latter court sustained the contention 

 of the borough, in 1903. in the case of the 

 Western Union Company, (187, U. S. 419), 

 but 10 some extent modified its decision 

 in the case of the Postal Telegraph and 

 Cable Company, in 1904 (192, U. S. 55), 

 though it sustained the contention of the 

 plaintiff, viz. : the right of the borough to 

 enact and enforce such an ordinance if 

 the rates imposed be reasonable. The cases 

 were therefore important, involving a con- 

 stitutional question of great interest. Mr. 

 Ryan argued both cases in the several 

 courts. 



In politics Mr. Ryan is a Republican and 

 has often taken the stump in political cam- 

 paigns. He has also been frequently called 

 upon to deliver addresses upon formal oc- 

 casions. In the practice of his chosen pro- 

 fession, to which he is thoroughly devoted, 

 he is active, earnest and successful, both as 

 a counselor and advocate, frequently ap- 

 pearing before the courts in the trial of 

 civil and other causes. Mr. Ryan was mar- 

 ried April 18. 1889. to Katherine Grimes, 

 and has one daughter, Helen Lydia Rvan. 



E. WESLEY KEELER, of Doylestown, 

 attorney and counselor at law, was born in 

 Buckingham township, Bucks county, Feb- 

 ruary 13. 1853, son of Eli K. and Anna F. 

 (Reeder) Keeler. His grandfather, John 

 Keeler, was born in Tinicum township, 

 Bucks county, and was a son of Baltzer 

 Keeler, an early settler in that township, 

 who lies buried in the old graveyard near 

 Lower Tinicum church. John Keeler mar- 

 ried Ann Heaney, a granddaughter of Peter 

 De Roche, a Frenchman, supposed to have 

 come to America with the French troops 

 during the Revolution, and settled in Tini- 

 cum. John Keeler died a comparatively 

 young man, but his widow, "Nancy" Keeler, 

 lived to be over one hundred years old. 



Eli K. Keeler was born in Tinicum town- 

 ship in 1820, and died in Plumstead town- 

 ship, March 10, 1897. He married in 1850 

 Anna F., daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth 

 Fell Reeder, of Buckingham (see Reeder 

 family' in this work), and settled first on the 

 Stavely farm in Solebury township, where 

 was born his eldest child, a daughter, who 

 died in infancy. Two years later he re- 

 moved to Buckingham township near the 

 Doylestown township line, where Emmor 

 Tomlinson lately lived, where the subject 

 of this sketch was born. On April i, 1857, 

 he removed to a farm in Plumstead, north- 

 east of Danboro, where the remaining 

 years of his life were spent. ' His wife, 

 Anna F., died December 29, 1901. Their 

 children were : Louisa, died in infancy ; E. 

 Wesley, the subject of this sketch: Anna 

 Mary, living in Plumstead. unmarried; 

 Sarah Jane, widow of Edmund M. Price, 

 of Lahaska, now living in Philadelphia; 

 Caroline, uimiarried ; Lizzie R.. wife of 

 Joseph II. Meyers, of Plumstead; Charles 



