5^4 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



cation at the public schools there. As a 

 boy he was employed about his father's 

 farm, store and lumber \ard, and on arriv- 

 ing at manhood farmed on his own account 

 for six years. In 1872 he located at Col- 

 mar Station, on the Doylestown branch of 

 the N. P. R. R., and engaged in the flour, 

 feed, hay, coal and phosphate business. In 

 1881 he took as a partner in the business 

 his younger brother, Charles R., and they 

 continued to carry on the business there un- 

 til the spring of 1905, and both still re- 

 side there. In addition to building up a 

 very large busuiess at Colmar, they in 1885 

 erected a hay press and warehouses at 

 Doylestown, where they handled large 

 quantities of hay and straw. Two years 

 later they established a like plant at Buck- 

 ingham Station, to which was later added a 

 cider making plant. Both the last named 

 plants, (Doylestown and Buckingham) are 

 still in succe'ssful operation. The two 

 brothers, Isaac R. and Charles R. Rosen- 

 berger, are well and favorably known in 

 central Bucks and Montgomery counties 

 as business men of high standing and cour- 

 teous and broad maided gentleman. , 



Isaac R. Rosenberger was with Harry J. 

 Shoemaker, Esq., of Doylestown, the pro- 

 jector of the Doylestown and Easton Elec- 

 tric Railway, and it is due to their untir- 

 ing zeal and personal sacrifice of time and 

 money that the road was built, and Mr. 

 Rosenberger was the first president of the 

 company. He was married December 4, 

 1866, to Harriet Brunner, daughter of Will- 

 iam Brunner, of Chalfont. She was_ born 

 February 16, 1848. Her grandfather, Henry 

 Brunner, was a farmer near the county 

 line in New Britain, and her maternal an- 

 cestors, the Clymers, were prominent resi- 

 dents of the same locality. The children 

 of Isaac R. aiid. Harriet (Brunner) Rosen- 

 berger were; Mary Alice, born April 12, 

 1868, died September 29, 1881; Harring- 

 ton B., the subject of this sketch; Flora 

 Estella, born June 4, 1871, died June 20, 

 1876; Ella Blanche, born March 4, 1873, 

 now the wife of Wilson H. Godshall, of 

 Lansdale ; Charles Grant, born December 

 4, 1874; and William, born September 20, 

 1878, both now in the employ of a ~con- 

 tracting firm as engineers, and located at 

 Columbia, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. 



Harrington B. Rosenberger was reared 

 at Colmar, and acquired his education at 

 Doylestown Seminary, West Chester Nor- 

 mal School, and the College of Commerce, 

 Philadelphia. He came to Doylestown in 

 1891 and took charge of his father's busi- 

 ness established there, or bailin"- and ship- 

 ping hay and straw, and continued to man- 

 age it for his father until March, 1905, when 

 he purchased the plant and now conducts 

 the business for himself. 



Mr. Rosenberger married, June 6, 1900, 

 Elizabeth H. Moore, daughter of John S. 

 Moore, now of Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

 Their only child, John, was born September 



25, 1901. Mr. Rosenberger is a member 

 of Doylestown Lodge, No. 245, F and A. 

 M., and Aquetong Lodge, No. 193, I. O. 

 O. F., of Doylestown. 



JOSEPH' ANDERSON ELLIS, of 

 Buckingham, was born in Buckingham 

 township, Bucks county, in May, 1836, a sort 

 of Charles and Martha (Conrad) Ellis, the 

 former of Welsh and the latter of German 

 descent. The Ellis family were among the 

 earliest settlers in Chester county. The 

 ancestors of the suliject of this sketch re- 

 sided for several generations in the neigh- 

 borhood of Bryn Mawr, which is said ta 

 have derived its name from their home in 

 Wales. 



Rowland Ellis, grandfather of the subject 

 of this sketch, was a son of William Ellis. 

 He married Lydia. daughter of David 

 Gilbert, of Buckingham, and at the death of 

 the latter in 1802 they became the owners of 

 108 acres of land, part of 500 acres whereon 

 Joseph Gilbert, the great-grandfather of 

 Lydia, had settled in 1702, near the village 

 of Buckingham, now owned by Joseph L. 

 Shelly. Rowland Ellis was a tailor by trade, 

 and prior to settling on the Buckingham 

 farm followed his trade in Philadelphia. 



Charles Ellis, father of Joseph A., was 

 born in Buckingham, October 30, 1801, and 

 died there August 17, 1874. He was a 

 tenant farmer in Buckingham for thirty-one 

 years, and then purchased a farm in lower 

 Buckingham, where he died. He married 

 ^lartha Conrad, of Buckingham, whose an- 

 cestor, Tuneis Kunders, came from Krei- 

 sheim. on the upper Rhine, over two centu- 

 ries ago. Eight children were born to this 

 marriage, of whom only three survive ; John 

 C, of Trenton, New Jersey ; Henry, of White 

 Earth. North Dakota; and the subject of 

 this sketch. William Ellis, another son, 

 who was for many years a resident of 

 Buckingham, died a few years since. 



The subject of this sketch was reared on 

 the farm in Buckingham, and acquired his 

 education at the public schools. On January 

 26. 1871. he married Caroline, daughter of 

 James C. and Mary Elizabeth (Garges) 

 Fell, of Buckingham. He resided on his 

 father's farm for four years, and for six 

 years each on the farms of John Rich, in 

 Upper Buckingham, and the William 

 Staveley farm in Solebury. In 1887 he re- 

 moved to his present farm, where he has 

 since resided. Mr. and I\Irs. Ellis have 

 been the parents of two children. Charles 

 Howard, deceased ; and G. Thompson, who 

 resides with them and conducts the farm. 

 G. Thompson Ellis .married Helen Yerkes, 

 daughter of Jonathan and Anna Mary 

 (Goss) Yerkes. of Buckingham, by whom 

 he has one child, Anna. 



In politics Mr. Ellis is a Democrat. The 

 family are members of the Presbyterian 

 church. He is a member of Neshaminy 

 Lodge. No. 139, Knights of the Golden: 

 Eagle. 



