HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



605 



has occurred in his neighborhood since he 

 attained his majority at which he has not 

 cast his ballot, but, from the time of his 

 nomination imtil after the vote was re- 

 corded, he was confined at his home by a 

 serious illness. He received the appoint- 

 ment of collector of internal revenue for 

 the fifth district of Pennsylvania in 1865, 

 and was again honored by his party in 

 1878 by being made its candidate for the 

 congressional nomination for the sixth 

 district of Pennsylvania, comprising Bucks 

 and Montgomery counties. He had a ma- 

 jority in his own county, but was defeated 

 in IVIontgomery county. In 1886, at the 

 earnest solicitation of many members of his 

 party in Bucks county, he was again a 

 candidate for nomination, and had a plu- 

 rality of delegates from the home county 

 on the first ballot, but after that he with- 

 drew his nomination as a candidate. In 

 1862, at the request of Governor Curtin, he 

 superintended the enrollment of the Bucks 

 county militia, and was a most earnest 

 and helpful advocate of the Union cause 

 throughout the period of hostilities. In 

 1864 he represented the fifth district of 

 Pennsylvania in the national convention 

 which re-nominated Abraham Lincoln for 

 the presidency, and he was also a delegate 

 to the national convention of 1868, when 

 General U. S. Grant was made its standard 

 bearer. He has frequently been chosen as 

 a delegate to the state convention, and his 

 opinions have carried weight in the coun- 

 cils of his. party. In recent years he has 

 largely retired from business and political 

 activities, and, in the enjoyment of a well- 

 earned rest, occupies the old Yardley man- 

 sion, which since 1728 has been one of the 

 landmarks in Lower Makefield township. 

 His interest in the welfare of his county, 

 state and nation has been deep and sincere, 

 . and few men outside of office have exerted 

 a stronger or more beneficial influence in 

 political circles in the state than has Al- 

 gernon S. Cadwallader. Fearless in con- 

 duct and stainless in reputation, he has 

 stood as the champion of all that he has 

 believed to be for public progress and im- 

 provement, his course prompted by hon- 

 orable motives, and guided by considerate 

 action in all his relations with his fellow 

 men. 



In 1853 ]\Ir. Cadwallader was married to 

 Susan Josephine Yardley, the eldest daugh- 

 ter of William and Sarah (Hart) Yardley. 

 Their children were nine in number: 

 Lydia Yardley, born December 11, '1853, the 

 wife of George Warner, Jr., of Philadel- 

 phia ; William Y., born July 28, 1855, who 

 married Carrie E. Lansing, of Trenton, New 

 Jersey ; J. Seymour, born November 9, 1856, 

 died April 9, 1877, in his twenty-first year; 

 Letitia S., born August i, 1858, the wife 

 of Edmund R. Willets, of Trenton, New 

 Jersey; Thomas Sidney, born January i, 

 1861, who married Ida R. Weeks, of Mill- 

 ersville, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania ; 

 Augustus J., born August 11. 1863; Sarah, 

 born March 15, 1865, the wife of George 



F. Craig, of Philadelphia ; Mary Anna, born 

 January 9, 1867, wife of Malcolm Franklin, 

 of Philadelphia; and Helen Marr, born 

 September 5, 1874. the wife of E. Y. Barnes, 

 of Richmond, Indiana. 



ABEL G. HALDEMAN, of Line Lex- 

 ington, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was 

 born in the township of Upper Providence, 

 [Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, April 5, 

 1858, and is a son of John and Euphro- 

 zena (Gander) Haldeman. The Haldeman 

 family is of German origin, its American 

 progenitors being among the early German 

 emigrants who settled in what is now Mont- 

 gomery county, from whence some of their 

 descendants migrated into Bucks county 

 and settled in New Britain township prior 

 to the Revolutionary war. The branch of 

 the family to which the subject of this 

 sketch belonged, however, remained in 

 Montgomery county. 



John Haldeman, the father, was born in 

 Montgomery county, near Slunk's mill, in 

 1790, and died in 1869, at the age of seventy- 

 nine years and one month. He was for 

 many years a manufacturer of grain cradles 

 and, being the only one in that section, sup- 

 plied the farmers for miles around with 

 these useful agricultural implements prior 

 to the days of improved harvesters. He 

 was a skilled mechanic and operated a 

 turning lathe of his own manufacture. John 

 Haldeman was twice married. By his first 

 wife, whose maiden name was Eisenberg, 

 he had eight children: Henry, Christian, 

 Samuel, Jacob, Joseph, Mary, Ruth, and 

 Abraham, the latter dying in infancy. After 

 the death of his first wife he remained a 

 widower for twenty years, and then took a 

 second helpmate, Airs. Euphrozena Denner, 

 widow of Rufus Denner, who was already 

 the mother of four children by her former 

 husband, three girls and a boy. By this 

 second marriage he was the father of five 

 children; Isaac, who died in infancy; Abel 

 G., the subject of this sketch; Lydia, Annie, 

 and Reuben. 



ABEL G. HALDEMAN was reared in 

 Upper Providence township, and acquired 

 his education at the public schools of thav 

 township. At the close of his school days 

 he learned the trade of a tinsmith with 

 Isaac H. Tyson, in Skippack township. On 

 closing his apprenticeship he went to 

 Spring City, Chester county, where he fol- 

 lowed his trade as a journeyman tinsmith 

 until 1879, when he located at Centre 

 Square, Montgomery county, erected a 

 building and started into business for him- 

 self. Five years later he purchased the gen- 

 eral merchandise store there of J. R. Yost, 

 whiph he conducted for nine years, filling 

 the position of postmaster for that period. 

 In 1894 he rented the property, which he 

 still owns, and removed to Line Lexington, 

 Bucks county, and opened a tin and stove 

 store, which he has since successfully con- 

 ducted. He is a member of the Reformed 



