HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



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gether with the names of the school board, 

 teachers and akmini. The course of study 

 outlined by Mr. Martindell has been re- 

 vised and extended a number of times by 

 him. The Hulmeville High School Cir- 

 culating Library of Middletown District 

 was started with a fund donated by Prin- 

 cipal Martindell, and by a special act of 

 legislature .the public schools in which he 

 labors are under the concurrent jurisdic- 

 tion of Hulmeville borough and Middle- 

 town township. In connection with his 

 school work he has been allied with the 

 University of Pennsylvania, and is still 

 ■doing university work. 



In 1898 Mr. Martindell was appointed 

 a member of the committee on teacher's 

 permanent certificates, receiving this ap- 

 pointment from Nathan C. Schaeffer, State 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction. "The 

 Bucks County Teacher's Institute Journal," 

 published monthly from 1891 to 1894, was a 

 publication in the interests of the public 

 schools of Bucks county, and Mr. Mar- 

 tindell served in the capacity of treasurer 

 of the publishing committee. He has taken 

 an active part in the local history work of 

 the county, and is a member of the Bucks 

 County Historical Society. In politics he 

 is a staunch advocate of the principles of 

 the Republican party. In 1891 he was 

 ■elected auditor of Hulmeville borough, re- 

 elected to the same office in 1903, in which 

 Tie is now serving, and in 1900 was elected 

 a member of the council of the borough. 

 Principal Martindell's personality has won 

 for him many friends both in and out of the 

 lines of pedagogy. 



December 31, 1896, Mr. Martindell mar- 

 Tied Ida Elizabeth Brown, of Middletown, 

 daughter of Andrew Jackson and Char- 

 lotte Mildred (Vandergrift) Brown, grand- 

 daughter of Israel and Sarah (Hellings) 

 Brown, and great-granddaughter of John 

 Brown. Israel Brown (grandfather) was 

 •commissioned in 1842 by Governor David 

 E.. Porter major of the Second Battalion 

 ,of the Forty-second Regiment of the mil- 

 itia of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 

 in the First Brigade of the Second Division, 

 for the counties of Bucks and Montgomery. 



JONAS GOTWALS, of Plumstead, 

 Pennsylvania, is the son of Daniel and 

 Sarah (Fretz) Gotwals. and was born July 

 25, 1850, at Dublin, Pennsylvania. The an- 

 cestors of the Gotwals family came from 

 Switzerland several generations ago. His 

 mother's family were of German descent. 

 His grandfather was a shoemaker and also 

 carried on farming. He lived in Montgom- 

 ery county until his marriage, when he re- 

 moved to Plumstead township, where he 

 carried on his trade. He was supervisor of 

 liis township for nearly twenty years. He 

 and his wife had five children : Mary, 

 T)aniel. Esther, Catherine and Sarah. Their 

 ■son Daniel at nineteen years of age began 

 ■school teaching, continuing for four years, 

 ■when he married. In 1845 he engaged in 



mercantile business, and was so engaged 

 until 1884, when he gave it over to his son 

 Jonas. In 1880 he bought the letters patent 

 for the perfection spring bed, and made 

 a great success of it. He was a director 

 in the Doylcstown National Bank for more 

 than a quarter of century. He married 

 Sarah Fretz, February 29, 1844, by whom 

 he had nine children, including . Franklin, 

 Jonas and William. Daniel Gotwals, the 

 father, died in 1895. 



Jonas Gotwals was educated in the Ex- 

 celsior Normal School at Carversville, and 

 upon reaching manhood engaged in mer- 

 cantile business with his father at Garden- 

 ville. In 1888 the father retired and Jonas has 

 continued the business, also the business ai 

 Danboro from 1875 to 1880. In 1892 he 

 established the creamery business at Garden- 

 ville, and four years later built and estab- 

 lished what is known as Curry Hill Cream- 

 ery, operating both until 1901. H^ mar- 

 ried Miss Martha, daughter of Samuel 

 Lowder, in 1871. They have three chil- 

 dren: Florence, Daniel and Samuel. Politi- 

 cally Mr. Gotwals is a Republican. 



JOHN B. MOLLOY, an enterprising 

 and successful farmer of Buckingham, was 

 born in Northampton township, Bucks 

 county, April 29, 1854, a son of Nicholas 

 E. and Fannie J. (Stradling) Molloy. 

 Nicholas E. Molloy was born on the ocean 

 when his parents were on the way to Amer- 

 ica from Ireland, in 1817. At the age ox 

 six years he was taken charge of by David 

 Shipps, of Northapmton township, and was 

 reared in his family. Soon after arriving 

 at manhood he purchased a farm in Nor'^h- 

 hampton, near Richboro, on which he re- 

 sided for a number of years, and then sold 

 it and removed to Wrightstown, where nt 

 resided for two years, and then removed 

 to the old Lacey farm, in Buckingham, on 

 the Wrightstown line, the birthplace of Gen- 

 eral John Lacey, living in the house erect- 

 ed by the Lacey family about 1706, now 

 torn down. He purchased this farm in 1878, 

 but had previously purchased and removea 

 upon an adjoining farm, now occupied by 

 his son Harry F. Molloy, where k« died in 

 August, 1880, aged sixty-three years. Mr. 

 Molloy was an industrious and successful 

 man and was highly respected in the com- 

 munity. For over thirty years he ran a 

 commission wagon to Philadelphia, carry- 

 ing his own and his neighbor's country 

 produce to the Philadelphia market. He 

 was a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge and 

 encampment. Nicholas and Fannie J. 

 (Stradling) Molloy were the parents of 

 three children : Harry F., the present re- 

 corder of deeds of Bucks county, and a 

 popular merchant at Pineville: Anna, wife 

 of W. Harry Rockafellow, of Buckingham; 

 and John B. Molloy. 



John B. Molloy was reared on the farm 

 and attended the public schools. At the 

 age of nineteen years he apprenticed him- 

 self to Aaron Kratz, at Plumsteadville, to 



