5i8 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



in Buckingham he removed thereon three 

 years later. In 1826 he sold his farm and 

 removed to the village of Greenville, where 

 his son Yeamans Henry, as the Cajjtain 

 was first known, was born April 20, 1831. 

 The other children were.: Mary; Hannah, 

 married John Roberts; Rachel D., Timothy, 

 Phineas, and Thomas Elwood. In 1840 

 Yeamans Pickering removed with his fam- 

 ily to Lower Makefield township, where 

 he remained until 1861, when he removed 

 to Newtown borough. He died in New- 

 town,^ October I, 1862. 



The boyhood days of Captain Pickering 

 were spent on his father's farm in Lower 

 Makefield. When the war alarm sounded 

 in April, 1861, he at once enlisted in Com- 

 pany F, Twenty-fiflh Regiment Pennsyl- 

 vania Volunteers, Captain Henry M'Cor- 

 mick, and was mustered into service May 

 2, 1861, for three months. The Twenty- 

 fifth was one of the first five regiments of 

 Pennsylvania Volunteers, and the first to 

 report for service at Washington. It was 

 kept on duty at the Capital until June 28, 

 1861, when five companies, including com- 

 pany F, were ordered to join Colonel 

 Charles P. Stone at Rockville, Maryland. 

 They participated in the skirmish at Har- 

 per's Ferry, and suffered the hardships of 

 Camp Misery. They were finally assigned 

 to the Seventh Brigade, Third Division, 

 under General Robert Patterson, and 

 marched to Bunker Hill, July 15th. On 

 the termination of their term of service 

 they were highly praised by their command- 

 ing general. They were mustered out of 

 service at Harrisburg, July 26, 1861. 



Returning to Bucks county. Private Pick- 

 ering at once enlisted in the One Hundred 

 and Fourth Regiment, then being recruited 

 at Doylestown by Colonel W. W. H. Davis, 

 and was commissioned captain of Company 

 K, September 20, 1861. With his regi- 

 ment he served in the Army of the Potomac, 

 at the siege of Yorktown, the battles and 

 skirmishes on the Chickahominy, at Fair 

 Oaks, James River, White Oak Swamp, 

 Carter's Hill, and Malvern Hill, where, 

 as is well known, the One Hundred and 

 Fourth was always in the thickest of the 

 fight. When the regiment was trans- 

 ferred to Carolinas, Captain Pickering 

 was appointed Inspecting Officer of Davis' 

 Brigade, at the siege of Charleston, 

 and, when Colonel Davis was placed in 

 command of all the United States forces 

 on Morris Island, General Gilmore ap- 

 pointed Captain Pickering inspector of all 

 the forces on the Island. When General 

 Davis was ordered to the command of the 

 forces' at Hilton Head, Captain Pickering 

 was retained upon his staff. He earned and 

 retained the reputation of a good officer 

 and a brave soldier. 



Just prior to the breaking out of the 

 war, Captain Pickering had studied den- 

 tistry at Newtown, with Dr. Trego, and 

 on his return from the war he removed 

 to Erie, Pennsylvania, and began the prac- 

 tice of his profession. When the oil fever 



broke out. Captain Pickering contracted the 

 disease and went to Titusville, Crawford 

 county, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the 

 refining of crude oil. He was the head of 

 the firm of Pickering, Chambers & Co., and 

 known as the Keystone Refinery, all the 

 members of the firm being brothers-in-law> 

 Being early on the ground, and of shrewd 

 business capabilities, he amassed a comfort- 

 able fortune. Becoming somewhat broken 

 in health, he returned to Bucks county and 

 located at Langhorne in 1890. He died 

 May 24, 1892, aged sixty-one years. 



He was married October 16, 1861, to Anna 

 J., daughter of John and Mary (Hough) 

 Barnsley, now living in Newtown borough. 

 Their children are : Russel, of Newtown ; 

 and Mary, wife of Major Charles Stuart 

 Spong, of the English army, now stationed 

 at Carlo, Egypt. 



PETER L. KREISS, M. D., of South, 

 Perkasie, was born in Lower Salford town- 

 ship, Montgomer)- county, Pennsylvania, 

 November 12, 1857, and is a son of Peter 

 and Elizabeth (Leindecker) Kreiss, both 

 natives of Germany, who emigrated to 

 America soon after their marriage and set- 

 tled in Lower Salford township. Peter 

 Kness, Sr., died in Lower Salford when 

 Dr. Kriess was a child, leaving four young 

 children, viz : Henry L., of Allentown,. 

 Pennsylvania, who married Catharine 

 Kline, of Lower Salford ; Mary L., of 

 Schwenksville, Montgomery county ; Will- 

 iam, since deceased; and Peter L., the sub- 

 ject of this sketch. Elizabeth Kreiss, the 

 widow of Peter, married (second) Joseph 

 Steigner, of Kulpsville, Montgomery coun- 

 ty, who is still living in Montgomery coun- 

 ty, with a daughter by a former marriage. 

 During the later years of her life Mrs. 

 Steigner and her husband resided with her 

 son. Dr. Peter L. Kreiss, at South Perka- 

 sie, where the former died in 1903 at the 

 age of eighty-three years. 



Dr. Kreiss, after the death of his father, 

 was reared at Silverdale, Bucks county, in 

 the family of Christian Moyer. He worked 

 on the farm for ]Mr. Moyer until eighteen 

 years of age, and then entered the general 

 merchandise store of Jacob C. ' Wismer, 

 at Silverdale, as a clerk, where he remain- 

 ed for three years. Choosing the medical 

 profession as his life work, he entered 

 Hahnemann Medical College of Philadel- 

 phia, from which he graduated in iSSr,, 

 and on April i, of that year located at Sil- 

 verdale and began the practice of medicine. 

 After two years' practice at Silverdale he 

 removed to Florida, Lancaster county, 

 Pennsylvania, where he practiced until 

 February, 1886, when he located at Man- 

 heim in the same county, where he followed 

 his chosen profession until April, 1891, 

 when he removed to South Perkasie, Bucks 

 county, where he purchased a small farn> 

 of Frank Wolfinger, and has since followed 



