6o8 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



church, and belongs to Sonderton Lodge, 

 No. 612, I. O. O. R, at Souderton. On 

 the 28th of June, 1879, Mr. Courter was 

 married to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Rice, who 

 was. born October 7, 1855, a daughter of 

 William H. and Matilda Rice. Jrler grand- 

 parents were George and Margaret (Hill) 

 Rice, and they were parents of four sons 

 and a daughter, namely : Haimah, Will- 

 iam, Charles, Moses H. and James. Will- 

 iam H. and Matilda Rice had eight chil- 

 dren, as follows : James Henry, who mar- 

 ried Emma Albright; Sarah Elizabeth, wife 

 of Mr. Courter; Elma Lucinda, wife of 

 Lemuel T. Jones ; Mary Etta ; Margaret 

 Jane; William Sanderling, who married 

 Melvina CroU ; Joseph Jones, who married 

 Annie Staley; and Emily H. 



Mr. and Mrs. Courter have become the 

 parents of five children : William Win- 

 field, who was born August 21, 1880; Abi- 

 gal Christian, born April 16, 1882 ; Lora 

 May, July 23, 1884; James Henry, February 

 2, 1886; and Emily Matilda, March 26, 

 i8go. The eldest daughter is now the wife 

 of Wallace .Slifer. 



ISAAC W. HOLCOMB, of Lambertville, 

 New Jersey, who has been for many years 

 one of the active, enterprising business men 

 of that city, is a native of Bucks county, 

 having been born in Plumstead township in 

 1844. He is a son of John and Rachel 

 (Walter) Holc'omb, and a lineal descendant 

 of John Holcomb and Elizabeth Wool- 

 ridge, who settled in 1705 on a large tract 

 of land on the Deldware, a portion of which 

 is now included in the city of Lambertville. 

 Both were of English parentage, and mem- 

 bers of the Society of Friends. John died 

 in 1743, at which date he was one of the 

 largest landholders in Amwell township. 

 He was one of the first justices of Hunter- 

 don county court. Of his three sons, Rich- 

 ard, the youngest, married a second time, 

 late in life, Ann Emley, of an old Jersey 

 family, and had a son John, who lived near 

 Lambertville and died in 1851 at an ad- 

 vanced age. 



John, son of the last named John, was 

 born near Lambertville, New Jersey, but 

 when a young man removed to the upper 

 part of Bucks county and learned the trade 

 of a stone mason, which he followed during 

 the active years of his life. He married 

 Catharine Trollinger, of German parentage, 

 who bore him fourteen children — six sons : 

 Samuel, who died in Trenton about 1892 ; 

 George, for nearly fifty years an employe 

 of the Pennsylvania railroad at Lambert- 

 ville, died in 1902 ; Jonathan, who died 

 young; John, see forward; Isaac, for many 

 years a resident of Buckingham, now a resi- 

 dent of Doylestown ; and Joseph, who died 

 in Plumstead, about 1889. Of the eight 

 daughters, four still survive ; Susan, widow 

 of Miles Chambers, of Doylestown ; De- 

 lilah, widow of Jeremiah Black, of Phila- 

 delphia ; Catharine, widow of Charles Hen- 



dricks, of Philadelphia; and Salome, a 

 widow living in Trenton, New Jersey. John 

 Holcomb, the father of the above children, 

 died in Plumstead about 1845, at the age of 

 sixty-two years. His widow, Catharine, 

 survived him many years. 



John Holcomb, the father of the subject 

 of this sketch, was born in Plumstead town- 

 ship about 1820, and died in Philadelphia. 

 He was a farmer, and followed that occu- 

 pation in Plumstead during the active years 

 of his life. He was twice married, his 

 first wife being Rachel Walter, a daughter 

 of Michael Walter, of Plumstead, a promi- 

 nent farmer, and for many years a justice 

 of the peace in Plumstead township. She 

 died in 1854, leaving five children, Cath- 

 arine, still living in Philadelphia; Isaac, the 

 subject of this sketch ; Hannah, widow of 

 Abel Atherholt of Philadelphia; Theodore, 

 now street commissioner of Doylestown ; 

 and Mary, who married Harry Walton, of 

 Warwick township and died about ten years 

 ago. John Holcomb married (second) 

 Pamela Hann, of Plumstead, and had two 

 sons and four daughters, who are residents 

 of Philadelphia. 



Isaac Walter Holcomb was the oldest son 

 of John and Rachel (Walter) Holcomb, and 

 was born in Plumstead township in 1844. 

 He was reared on the farm, attending the 

 public schools in the winter season. In 1862 

 he went to Lambertville, New Jersey, as an 

 apprentice to the milling trade under John 

 Groman, for many years a prominent miller 

 of that city. In September, 1864, Mr. Hol- 

 comb enlisted in Company B, Thirty-eighth 

 Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, and 

 served until the close of the war. Return- 

 ing to Lambertville, he entered Eastman's 

 Business College at Poughkeepsie, New 

 York, in October, 1865, and after his gradu- 

 ation returned to the mill as bookkeeper and 

 manager of the mill. In 1869 he entered 

 into partnership with Mr. Groman, which 

 continued until the death of the latter in the 

 spring of 1876. In July of that year he 

 formed a partnership with William B. 

 Niece, under the firm name of Holcomb & 

 Niece, and operated the mill until 1883, 

 when they formed a co-partnership with F. 

 F. Lear, who owned and opejated another 

 mill in Lambertville, under the firm name 

 of Lear, Holcomb & Niece, and the new 

 firm remodeled the Lear mill, with the latest 

 improved machinery for the manufacture of 

 flour, etc., and operated it on a large scale 

 until 1896, when the firm dissolved. In 

 July, 1896, Mr. Holcomb purchased a half- 

 interest in the flour, feed and grain business 

 of the Risdon Milling Company, of Ti;en- 

 ton. New Jersey, and remained with that 

 firm until January, 1900, when he purchased 

 the fiour flour, feed and saw mills of J. 

 Simpson Betts, in New Hope, Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania, which he has since 

 successfully operated. For over twenty-five 

 years one of the active and leading business 

 men of Lambertville, he took an active inter- 

 est in all that pertained to the city's best 

 interest ; was for a number of years a mem- 



