6i4 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



longs to the Masonic lodge of Quakertow::, 

 and he and his family are members of the 

 old Blue Church (Mennonite) of Rockhill 

 township. 



He was married in 1873 to Miss ^lary 

 Ruih, a daughter of ir^eter and Mary 

 (,Delp) Ruth. Her father was one of the 

 settlers of Rockhill township, and a rep- 

 resentative of one of the oldest families 

 of Bucks county. The young couple began 

 their domestic life at Souderton, where they 

 remained until establishing their home at 

 Quakertown. Their children are as fol- 

 lows : Preston Ruth, who married Lillian 

 Hohein, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by 

 whom he has two children : JMuriel and 

 Jennieve. They reside at Schuylkill Haven, 

 in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, where Preston 

 R. Souder is conducting the Grand Hotel. 

 The younger members of the family are 

 Lillian and Mabel Souder. 



THE BURSON FA^IILY. Bucks coun- 

 ty cherishes with, faithful affection the 

 names of her founders and pioneers, and 

 when, as sometimes occurs, their descend- 

 ants have migrated from the ancestral 

 home and amid other scenes and different 

 surroundings have maintained and increasea 

 the traditional reputation of the race, the 

 old county still follows their fortunes and 

 rejoices in their success. Such has been 

 the case with the Burson family, which 

 traces its history through the following 

 generations : 



Joseph Burson (i) was born in London, 

 England, and was a member of the So- 

 ciety of Friends. In order to escape the 

 persecution to which the followers of 

 George Fox were then subjected, he emi- 

 grated with his wife to Pennsylvania in 

 1681, and made his home in Bucks county, 

 where he became a landowner. He was one 

 of the founders of Quakertown and assisted 

 in organizing the Richland Meeting. 



Joseph Burson (2), son of Joseph (i), 

 married Mary Potts, in honor of whose 

 family Pottstown received its name, and 

 they were the parents of the following 

 children: i. Sarah; 2. Benjamin, men- 

 tioned at length hereinafter; 3. James, who 

 married Sarah Price, and was the father 

 of seven children; Isaac, David, Josepn, 

 Edward. James, Mary Ann and Sarah. 



Benjamin Burson (3), son of Joseph 

 (2), and Mary (Potts) Burson, was born 

 in Bucks county. He married Sarah Dickey, 

 and they were the parents of a son, James 

 Burson (4), who married Jane Oilton. 

 Their son Joseph Burson (5), married his 

 second cousin, ^largaret Burson, whose 

 ancestry is traced as follows. Edward Bur- 

 son, mentioned above as the fourth child 

 of James and Sarah (Price) Burson, was 

 born in September, 1756. in Bucks county, 

 and in 1778 married Elizabeth Blackledge, 

 a member of an old Pennsylvania family, 

 the genealogy of which is traced as fol- 

 lows :■ William Blackledge was born in 



Oxford, England, was a Friend in relig- 

 ious belief, and with his wife emigrated to- 

 Pennsylvania in 1682. He settled in Bucks 

 county, and was one of those instrumental 

 in building up Quakertown. He and his 

 wife were the parents of four children: 

 Isaac, Thomas, William, and Elizabeth. 

 Of these, Thomas married Margaret 

 Wright, and they were the parents of seven 

 children : Enoch, Levi, Isaac, Thomas, 

 Elizabeth, Martha, and Margaret. Of this 

 number, Elizabeth, who was born Octo- 

 ber 26, 1758, became the w^ife of Edward 

 Burson, as mentioned above. Edward and 

 Elizabeth (Blackledge) Burson went in 

 1778 to Greene county, Pennsylvania,, 

 where they made their future home. The 

 following children were born to them : 

 James, David, Levi, Joseph, Isaac, Abra- 

 ham, Sarah, Thomas, Margaret, Elizabeth, 

 and Dinah. Margaret, the eighth of these 

 eleven children, becam° the wife of hei 

 second cousin, Joseph Burson (5), as men- 

 tioned above. Mr. Burson, the father of 

 the family, died February 9, 1841, and his- 

 wife on July 26, 1853. Like her husband, 

 she was a native of Bucks county. 



Joseph Burson (5) and Margaret (Bur- 

 son) Burson, emigrated to Ohio, and in 

 1826 settled in Noble county. Their means 

 were large and they were the owners of one 

 of the most spacious and beautiful resi- 

 dences in the state. This old home is sit- 

 uated near Kennonsburg, and remains much 

 the same as it was seventy-five years ago, 

 being now occupied by Stephen and Minerva 

 (Burson) Williams, daughter and son-in- 

 law of the original owners. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Burson were the parents of the following 

 children : Edward, mentioned at length 

 hereinafter, and James, twin sons ; Thoma,s, 

 Jane, Elizabeth, Minerva, mentioned above, 

 and ^Margaret. 



Edward Burson (6), son of Joseph (5) 

 and ^Margaret (Burson) Burson, was born 

 September 30, 1824, in Jefferson county, 

 Ohio, and was a member of the Society of 

 Friends. He married Patience Ann Mc- 

 Burney, born in 1823, in Belmont county, 

 Ohio, and their family consisted of five- 

 daughters: Isabel, Margaret. Rachel, 

 Mary and Elizabeth. These children were 

 early deprived of their mother's care, Mrs. 

 Burson dying June 16, i860, at the age of 

 thirty-seven. She w?."^ a member of the 

 United Presbyterian church. The death 

 of Mr. Burson occurred June 12, 1900. He 

 and his wife are both buried in the church- 

 yard at Kennonsburg. Margaret, the sec- 

 ond of their five daughters, was born Janu- 

 ary 16, 1851, at Terre Haute, Indiana, and 

 became the wife of John Sellers Braddock. 

 John Sellers Braddock is a lineal descend- 

 ant' of Raphael Braddock, of Maryland, 

 who served in the French and Indian war 

 under the command of his cousin, Gen- 

 eral Edward Braddock, and afterward m 

 in the American Revolution. John Sellers 

 Braddock was born December 13, 1844, in 

 ]\Iount Vernon. Ohio, where he received 

 his education in tlic public schools. He is 



