HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



553 



He has been a member of the local school 

 "board for nineteen years, and has recently 

 been re-elected for a term of three years, 

 acting for many years as secretary of the 

 hoard. He is one of the trustees of the 

 Forest Grove Presbyterian Church and 

 Cemetery, having acted as president and 

 secretary of the board of trustees continu- 

 ously since 1868. He is a member of North- 

 ern Star Lodge, No. 54, I. O. O. F., at 

 at Richboro ; of Curtis Encampment, No. 

 77, of Newtown ; and of Penns Park 

 Council, No. 973, Jr. O. U. A. M. 



Dr. Hellyer married, June 28. 1868, Fanny 

 E. Olmstead, daughter of Silas C. and 

 Elizabeth T. ("Squires) Olmstead, of 

 Niagara county. New York. Mr. Olmstead 

 was a well known farmer and merchant 

 miller, operating for many years a large 

 mill near the Suspension Bridge, Niasara 

 Falls, and shipping his product to the New 

 York markets via the Erie canal. Mrs. 

 Hellyer is a graduate of Ingham Univer- 

 sity, and was for several years a teacher of 

 music, teaching at the Carversville Normal 

 Institute and at the Bellevue Female Semi- 

 nary at Langhorne, Bucks county. 



To Dr. and Mrs. Hellyer have been born 

 eight children, of whom five survive : Edwin 

 F., now a druggist at Newtown. Pennsyl- 

 vania ; Grace E., wife of Edwin Naylor, of 

 Warwick, Bucks county, Pennsvlvania ; H. 

 Arthur, an instructor in a Philadelphia 

 business college; Harold, who fills a like 

 position in Philadelphia; and George W.. 

 principal of the Richboro High School. All 

 these children are graduates of the West 

 Chester Normal School, and have received 

 every advantage in the way of a first-class 

 English education. 



of the Warwick Creamery. On April i, 

 1904, he purchased his present home in 

 Forest Grove, where he is living a re- 

 tired life. Mr. Kunser was never mar- 

 ried. In politics he is a Republican, and 

 in religion a Presbyterian. 



HENRY KUNSER, of Forest Grove, 

 was born in Warwick township, Bucks 

 county, December 14, 1844. being a son 

 of Michael and Susan (Fly) Kunser, and 

 a grandson of Andrew Kunser, a Penn- 

 sylvania German, who resided, for many 

 years on the York road between Bridge 

 Valley and Jamison, where he died in 

 1863, aged eighty-three years. Michael 

 Kunser was reared in Buckingham, and 

 learned the trade of a weaver, which 

 vocation he followed all his life in con- 

 nection with the care of his little farm 

 of sixteen acres at Bridge Valley. He 

 was born November 19, 1809, and died 

 December 23, 1891. His two children 

 were Andrew S., deceased, and Henry. 



Henry Kunser was reared in Warwick 

 township, acquiring his education at the 

 public schools. At the age of sixteen 

 years he left home and lived for two 

 years with his grandfather, Andrew 

 Kunser, and then went to live with John 

 B. Opdycke, of Warwick, which he con- 

 tinued to make his home for over forty 

 years, twenty years of which were em- 

 ployed in working upon the farm, and 

 the last twenty years as superintendent 



JOSEPH H. PAIST, of Mechanics- 

 ville, Buckingham township, Bucks 

 county, was born in Buckingham town- 

 ship, December i, 1862, and is a son of 

 James Monroe and Elizabeth (Connard) 

 Paist, and a grandson of Jonathan and 

 Sidney (Bradshaw) Paist. 



Jonathan Paist married in 1805 Sidney 

 Bradshaw, daughter of David and Eliza- 

 beth (Carver) Bradshaw, of Bucking- 

 ham, and lived for two years in Plum- 

 stead township. On April i, 1808, he 

 purchased the farm in Buckingham 

 where the subject of this sketch was 

 born, and spent the remainder of his life 

 there, dying in 1870. His wife Sidney, 

 who was born in Buckingham 4 mo. ID, 

 1784, died ten years earlier. They were 

 the parents of four children: Minerva S., 

 who married George W. Scott; David 

 Bradshaw. who was a blacksmith at Me- 

 chanicsville for some years, and later re- 

 moved to Iowa, where he died in 1881; 

 J. Monroe; and Eliza, who died unmar- 

 ried. 



James Monroe Paist was born on the 

 farm where he spent his whole active 

 life, February 5, 1819, purchasing of his 

 father, April 8, 1861. This farm was 

 part of 500 acres purchased by William 

 Cooper in 1700, and the first Friends' 

 meeting in Buckingham was held there, 

 prior to the erection of the meeting 

 house at its present site. It was later 

 the residence of Jacob Holcomb, a prom- 

 inent member of Buckingham Meeting. 

 J. Monroe Paist married Elizabeth Con- 

 nard. daughter of Andrew and Mary 

 (Seiner) Connard and they were the pa- 

 rents of five children, three of whom sur- 

 vive, viz.: Andrew C. ; Mary R., wife of 

 George McKinstry, of Buckingham; and 

 Joseph H., the subject of this sketch. 

 Both the father and grandfather were 

 members of the Society of Friends. 

 Elizabeth Connard Paist died Septem- 

 ber 5, 1898 aged sixty-seven years. After 

 her death J. Monroe retired from active 

 life, and lived with the subject of this 

 .-sketch on an adjoining farm recently 

 purchased, where he died. 



Joseph H. Paist was born and reared 

 on the home farm, and- acquired his edu- 

 cation at the public schools and at the 

 Hughesian School. On January 8. 1887, 

 he married Emma F. Keller, daughter of 

 Isaac and Lucy Ann (Fluck) Keller, and 

 the following spring took charge of the 

 farm upon which he still resides, then 

 the property of his father, but since pur- 

 chased by him. In politics IMr. Paist is a 

 Republican, but has never held or sought 



