494 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



lution. Jonah, born 1754 or 1755, married 

 Sarah Freeman, daughter of Richard ; Cath- 

 , arine, married Charles Miller, and settled 

 in Northampton county ; Asa, born Febru- 

 ary, 175H, married Martha James, daughter 

 of Abel and Mary (Howell) James, of 

 New Britain, was a soldier in the Revolu- 

 ton; Sarah, born 1760, married Patrick 

 Maitland, and settled in Buffalo Valley, 

 (Union county, Pennsylvania) ; Abel, born 

 1762, married Mary James, another daugh- 

 te- of Abel and Mary (He well) James and 

 settled in Shenandoah Valley; Anna, twin 

 Oi Abel, married Joseph Mathias. 



Job Thomas, eldest son of Thomas and 

 Mary (Williams) Thomas, was born on tlie 

 old homestead in 1751. Though two of his 

 brothers were soldiers in the Revolutionary 

 army, he held aloof from the patriot cause, 

 and had little faith in its ultimate success. 

 In 1774 his father and mother conveyed to 

 him 150 acres of the 500 acre tract pur- 

 chased in 1750, and he later heired tifty 

 acres additional, and lived thereon until 

 1793, when he sold it and removed to the 

 Buffalo Valley with a part of his family, 

 and later to Shamokin, where he was killed 

 by a falling tree in^June, 1798. His widow 

 and family returned to Hilltown, where the 

 former died June 30, 1819. Job and Re- 

 becca Bates were the parents of eight chil- 

 dren, as follows: i. Thomas, married 

 Mary Mathias. 2. Abiah, married Sarali 

 Ashton. 3. Ruth, never married; 4. Aaui, 

 married Morgan Custard. 5. Zillah, mar- 

 ried Eber Thomas, son of Manasseh. 6. 

 Sarah, married Richard Heacock. 7. Mary, 

 married Owen Rowdand. 8. Ann, married 

 Issachar Thomas, son of Elias and grand- 

 son of Ephraim Thomas, third son of Elder 

 WiUiam Thomas. Ephraim had heired from 

 his father a portion of the 300 acres pur- 

 chased by Elder William Thomas in 1723, 

 and upon which his father had erected him 

 a house in 1740, and this tract descended to 

 his son Elias, and through him to Issachar, 

 and from him to his son Levi, who lived 

 thereon until his death in 1886, being then 

 the last survivor of his name as a land- 

 owner in Hilltown. Levi Thomas devised 

 the old plantation for life to Oliver ]M. 

 Thomas, the subject of this sketch, he be- 

 ing the grandson of his mother's brother 

 Abiah Thomas. 



Abiah Thomas, second son of Job and 

 Rebecca (Bates) Thomas, married Sarah 

 Ashton. He was a farmer for many years 

 in ^Montgomery township, Montgomery 

 county, and had two sons, Alfred and Hi- 

 ram, the former of whom died in Phila- 

 delphia in 1882. 



Hiram Thomas, second son of Abiah, was 

 born in Hilltown, Bucks county, but was 

 reared in iMontgomery county. He was for 

 several years a school teacher in Hatfield 

 and other parts of Montgomery county, and 

 later a farmer in Montgomery tow^nship. 

 He died in Lower Providence township, 

 Montgomery county. His wife was Pru- 

 dence Roberts, daughter of John Roberts, 

 and of Welsh descent, and they were the 



parents- of six children, as follows: Eliza, 

 Kate; Oliver M., Alfred, Sarah J., wife 01 

 Nathan R. Wamsher ; and Robert. 



OLIVER iM. THOMAS, eldest son of 

 Hiram and Prudence (Roberts) Thomas, 

 was born in ^Montgomery county, July 25, 

 1836, and was educated at the public schools 

 of Gwynedd township. Early in life he 

 learned the trade of a blacksmith, which he 

 followed for thirty-two years. In 1886 he 

 was devised the farm on which he now re- 

 sides in Hilltown, for life, by his cousin 

 Levi Thomas, and has since resided thereon. 

 In religious matters he holds to the faith 

 of his ancestors for many generations, and 

 is a member of the Baptist church. In 

 politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Thomas 

 married November 25, i860, Elizabeth Fens- 

 termacher, of Lower Providence township, 

 Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and they 

 have been the parents of three children : 

 Samuel, who died at the age of three years ; 

 Hiram Brook, who died at the age of ten 

 months ; and Eliza Katharine, who died at 

 the age of nine years. 



THE HENDRICKS FAMILY, of Bucks 

 county, is one of the oldest in Pennsyl- 

 vania, its progenitors forming part of that 

 little colony that emigrated from the dis- 

 trict of the Lower Rhine, in Rhenish 

 Prussia anjl Westphalia, and founded Ger- 

 mantown in 1684-5. There under the lead- 

 ership of the gifted Pastorius they founded 

 the first Mennonite congregation in ^.mer- 

 ica, established schools, and a little later 

 a printing press, and gave a tremendous 

 impetus to the growth of religious freedom. 



Gerhard Hendricks, of Kreigsheim, a 

 little village on the Rhine, with wife Sytie, 

 sons Wilhelm and Lendert, daughter Sarah 

 and servant Heinrich Frey, came to Penn- 

 sylvania in the "Frances and Dorothy" Oc- 

 tober 12, 1685, with Peter Shoemaker and a 

 number of others who became prominent 

 in the affairs of not only the German settle- 

 ment on the Schuylkill, but of the province 

 of Pennsylvania. Prior to the organization 

 of the Mennonite congregation many of 

 those who were later Mennonites, affiliated 

 with the Friends and took part in their re- 

 ligious meetings. Among these were Ger- 

 hard Hendricks and the Opden Graf broth- 

 ers from Crefeld, who, with Hendricks, 

 signed the famous protest against human 

 slavery that was presented first to the Ger- 

 mantown Friends Meeting in 1688. and by 

 them forwarded to the monthly quarterly 

 and yearly meetings of the society. Sarah, 

 the daughter of Gerhard Hendricks mar- 

 ried Isaac Shoemaker. 



September 28. 1709. the colonial assem- 

 bly passed an "Act for the better Enabling 

 the Divers Inhabitants of the Province of 

 Pennsylvania, to Hold and Enjoy Lands, 

 Tenements and Plantations in the same 

 Province." by which over eighty of tlie then 

 German residents of Germantown and vicin- 

 itv were naturalized. The list is headed by 



