HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



533 



newed his course in the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, and at his graduation in 1852 

 made "Typhoid Fever" the subject of his 

 thesis, which was highly commended by 

 Sir Benjamin Brodie, of Edinburgh, Scot- 

 land. During the civil war he passed a suc- 

 cessful examination as surgeon, and held 

 a certificate marked "very distinguished," 

 but, yielding to his father's Quaker prin- 

 ciples, declined an appointment, but from no 

 lack of patriotism, as was evidenced by his 

 ministering freely of his knowledge, time 

 and money in the city hospitals and in the 

 homes of his townsmen who were doing 

 duty on the battle field, until the conflict 

 was ended. 



Dr. Heston was a lineal descendant of 

 Zebulon Heston, who came to Eastham, 

 Barnstable county, Massachusetts, from 

 Heston Parish, on the Midland road, six- 

 teen miles out of London, in 1684. He re- 

 moved to Burlington county, New Jersey, 

 and was very active in building the first 

 Episcopal church in New Jersey, near Tren- 

 ton, deeding the land and contributing gen- 

 erously in finance toward the erection of the 

 house of worship. His sympathies, which 

 had been aroused for Friends while in 

 New England by the unjust persecution of 

 the Quakers, led to his becoming a member, 

 and in 1707 -he removed to Fallsington, 

 Bucks county, and later (in 171 1) he trans- 

 ferred his certificate to Wrightstown, hav- 

 ing purchased 211 acres in Upper Make- 

 field, where he continued to reside until 

 his death in 1720, and was interred in the 

 old burying ground at Wrightstown. Hav- 

 ing purchased one hundred acres of land at 

 what is now known as Hestonville, his 

 grandson Edward located there and was 

 noted for his ability legally and financially, 

 and was a well known revolutionary patriot, 

 winning the title of colonel. His brother, 

 who established the Heston Glass Works, 

 now known as Glassboro, also held the same 

 commission as Colonel Thomas Heston in 

 the army. 



Dr. Heston on his mother's side was a 

 direct descendant of Llewellyn, King of 

 Wales, and had in his home the family 

 •coat-of-arms, to which he was entitled from 

 the Thomas castle in Wales. Dr. Heston's 

 father was a shrewd business man in his 

 day, and was largely engaged in mercantile 

 enterprises in Newtown. He was an ex- 

 tensive owner of coal lands in the Shamo- 

 kin Valley, and a pioneer in the Middle 

 coal fields, for many years president' of the 

 Locust Mountain Summit Improvement 

 Company. The development of .these coal 

 fields made him a man of great wealth. 



In 1853 Dr. Heston married ^liss J\L 

 Amanda Duncan, then a talented and promi- 

 nent teacher, who has distinguished her- 

 self from a literary point of view, being a 

 gifted speaker, fine conversationalist, in- 

 terested in all good, active in the Forestry 

 Association of Pennsylvania and ranks as 

 the oldest graduate of the Philadelphia 

 High and Normal School for Girls. Their 

 married life of half a century was very 



congenial. The Doctor relied on her in 

 all business transactions, and made her his 

 confidant in all matters pertaining to 

 finance. There were no children born of 

 the marriage. 



In 18S5. owing to poor health. Dr. Heston 

 relinquished his practice in favor of Dr. 

 J. Aubrey Crewitt, of Huntingdon, whom 

 he always highly esteemed and in his 

 dying moment said "that man has been a 

 son to me in alleviating my suflFerings." 

 The Doctor never lost interest in his pro- 

 fession. As one of his brother physicians 

 (Dr. Charles Smith) wrote, "Dr. Heston 

 will always stand out as a unique per- 

 sonality, doing harm to no one, kindly to 

 all. a big heart, strikingly benevolent and 

 charitable in suspecting poor but needy 

 places, never letting his right know what his 

 left hand did, as a physician, forceful, posi- 

 tive and progressive, in fact, I never met an 

 elder medical man, as I of a younger gen- 

 eration would say, who more fully kept 

 awake to all that was new in his pro- 

 fession." 



The Doctor was a gifted writer, a fine 

 English as well as classical scholar, reading 

 his Greek Testament a week before his 

 death as well as his English, a thorough 

 chemist, even in his college days the origina- 

 tor of numerous prescriptions that would 

 have made a fortune, but pride in his alma 

 mater forbade all secrecy that leads to 

 quackery. He was a prominent local his- 

 torian, well informed in botany, geology, 

 niineralogy, ichthyology, and particularly 

 so in conchology. In a w'ord, he was 

 at home in the field of science, and the 

 study of nature was his pleasure. Caring 

 nothing for social life, yet there was a rare 

 hospitality in his home, and he was a genial 

 and charming host. 



For more than a year he had been a quiet 

 uncomplaining sufferer from the results of 

 la grippe in the form of insomnia and acute 

 Bright's disease. He died as he lived, 

 honored and beloved by all who knew him, 

 leaving a large circle of friends to mourn 

 his loss. His philanthropic and charitable 

 deeds will be missed by many in his com- 

 munity, to whom .he was always ready 

 and willing to extend help from his well- 

 filled purse and larder. The funeral services 

 in the home where he had lived for seventy- 

 five years were largely attended. The 

 casket designed as his last resting place 

 was a handsome work of art in solid 

 mahogany, richly carved, while the floral 

 offerings were of unique and original de- 

 sign. 



Dr. Heston was a birthright member of 

 the Society of Friends, and Evan L. Worth- 

 ington's remarks on this last occasion were 

 appropriate to the life of the deceased who 

 had solved the mystery of death without 

 a fear, and borne the testimony that he had 

 made his peace with God. The INIasonic 

 fraternity, of which he had been a member 

 fifty years, rendered their burial ceremonies 

 in a most impressive manner at the grave 

 in Newtown cemetery. 



