HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



639 



known as Deshler's Fort, from the fact that 

 it was used by the inhabitants of the sur- 

 rounding country as a place of refuge from 

 the Indians. He married Catherine Fogel, 

 and their son James was born in iSor, on 

 the homestead. He married Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Peter and Teresa (Van Bus- 

 kirk) Grimm. The latter was the daugh- 

 ter of the Rev. Jacob Van Buskirk, who 

 was born February 11, 1739, in New Jer- 

 sey, and worthily filled the pastorate of 

 St^ John's Lutheran churchy North Walt- 

 Pennsylvania. His death occurred Aug- 

 ust 5, 1800. 



Mr. and Mrs. Deshler were the par- 

 €nts of the following children: i. j\Iary 

 Catherine, died unmarried. 2. Jacob, mar- 

 ried Sarah Trumbauer, of Lehigh county, 

 and died 1885. 3. Anna Caroline, born 

 July 18, 1825, and received her primary ed- 

 ucation in the subscription schools, after- 

 ward attending a school at Easton pre- 

 sided over by the Misses Lorrence, and 

 also the Quakertown Friends' school. She 

 became the wife of John Hiram Kaull, as 

 mentioned above. 4. Eliza Ann, born April 

 29, 1832, married Ephraim, son of Jacob 

 jSiickley, of Whitehall township, Lehigh 

 county. 5. David James Franklyn, born 

 in August, 1828. 6. Peter W. H., born Janu- 

 ary 16, 1843, died in 1891. 



EDWARD TITUS SLACK, of Buck- 

 ingham, is a representative of a family 

 that have been residents of Bucks county 

 for over a century and a half. He w^as 

 born at Pineville, September 16, 1843, and 

 is a son of Albert and Elizabeth W. (Fell) 

 Slack, both natives of Buckingham town- 

 ship, Bucks county. The first American 

 progenitor of the Slack family was Hen- 

 drick Cornelius Slecht, who emigrated 

 from Holland in 1652 and settled on Long 

 Island, near the present site of Brooklyn. 

 He was a landowner at Flatbush in 167^. 

 and a member of the Dutch Reformed 

 church at Brooklyn in 1677. His will was 

 dated September 23, 1690. He married 

 Elsje Barentse Lieveiing, who bore him at 

 least five children: Jacomyntje, who mar- 

 ried Jan Elting and settled at New Paiz, 

 New York;\Barendt, who marn^d Hilletje 

 Jans, at Brooklyn, ]\Iay i, 1692* Cornelius, 

 who married Johanna Van de Water, ana 

 settled at Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville, 

 New Jersey, about 1710; Anna Catharine, 

 who married George Hafte ; Abraham ; and 

 - Johannis, who married Catharine Jacobse 

 Bergen. The children of the latter settled 

 in Southampton, Bucks county, where his 

 sons Jacob and John were landholders be- 

 fore 1750. Two of his daughters married 

 Van Pelts, and have left numerous de- 

 scendants. 



John Slack, who married Jane Winder, 

 daughter of Thomas Winder, of Hopewell, 

 about 1738, and settled in Lower Make- 

 field township, Bucks county, wa? a son of 

 one of the three brothers above namea. 



Tradition names Cornelius, of Maidenhead, 

 as the ancestor, but no baptismal record of 

 a son John has been found. John, son of 

 Barendt, was baptised October 30, 1698, 

 and was possibly the John of Lower Make- 

 field who in his will dated 1785, mentions 

 the fact that he is "far advanced in age." 

 John and Jane (Winder) Slack, were the 

 parents of seven sons — Cornelius, Thomas, 

 Joseph, Timothy, Noah, Philip and John. 

 Of these, Cornelius, the eldest, marriea 

 Elizabeth Spear, February 5, 1765, and set- 

 tled on land conveyed to him Tjy his fath- 

 er, in Lower JNIakefield, where he died in 

 1810. His children were: 'Jane, who mar- 

 ried Lamb Torbert ; "John ;^ Anna, who mar- 

 ried Joseph Johnson; "Pamela, who mar- 

 ried Joshiah Briggs;- "David; Mary; Will- 

 iam; Elizabeth; Cornelius; DeboTah, and 

 Elias. 



David, the fifth child of Cornelius and 

 Elizabeth (Spear) Slack, married Jane 

 Worthington, of Buckingham, and settled 

 in that township near Wycombe, in 1818. 

 In 1837 he purchased a farm in Northamp- 

 ton township, and lived there for about 

 ten years o^ more when he returned to 

 Buckingham. He died in Wrightstown, 

 August 30, 1863. The children of David and 

 Jane (Worthington) Slack were: Albert, 

 Joseph C, George, and Mary. 



Albert Slack was born in Buckingham, 

 on the farm now owned by Wilson M. 

 Woodman, near Wycombe. He learned 

 the trade of a blacksmith with Benjamin 

 Fell, at Pineville, whose daughter Eliza- 

 beth W., born 7 mo. 3, 1819, he married 

 later. He followed his trade until 1844, 

 when he purchased a farm in Northampton, 

 which he conducted until 1855, when he 

 returned to Buckingham and purchased the 

 farm upon which the subject of this sketch 

 still resides at Wycombe, and resided there- 

 on until his death in 1866. He was an in- 

 dustrious and frugal man and acquired a 

 competence. In politics originally a W'hig, 

 which party his father had joined in 1836, 

 when President Jackson refused to re- 

 charter the United States Bank, he became 

 an active "Know Nothing" at the organiza- 

 tion of that party in 1853, and was later a 

 Republican and a member of the Union 

 League. His wife was a daughter of Ben- 

 jamin and Eliza (Watson) Fell, and a de- 

 scendant of Joseph Fell, of Longlands, 

 Cumberland, England, who settled in 

 Buckingham in 1707, an account of whose 

 descendants is given elsewhere in this 

 work. Albert and Elizabeth W. (Fell) 

 Slack were the parents of six children, 

 viz. : Emily F., who married Jesse John- 

 son, and is now deceased; Edward Titus; 

 Jane E., widow of Thomas T. Pool, now 

 residing in Doylestown; iMarietta, single, 

 residing with Jane E. ; George W., a gro- 

 ceryman in Philadelphia; and Benjamin 

 Howard, of Willow Grove. 



The subject of this sketch, though born 

 in Buckingham, spent his boyhood days in 

 Northampton township, where he acquired 

 his education at the public schools. At the 



