656 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



he had aided in founding and in placing 

 upon a most substantial basis, and in 1897 

 removed to Eden, ^liddlctown township^ 

 Bucks county, where he purchased a large 

 tract of land and built upon it his present 

 handsome residence, surrounded with ample 

 grounds. It is, in fact, one 01 the most 

 beautiful and attractive homes of the lo- 

 cality, and the improvements which he made 

 upon his own property have led to further 

 building operations in the locality, and the 

 consequent rise in realty values, thus prov- 

 ing of direct financial benefit to the com- 

 munity. 



Indolence and idleness being utterly 

 foreign to him, Mr. Rumpf, with his 

 active energetic nature, could not content 

 himself with the absence of all aciive busi- 

 ness interests, and in 1898 he again entered 

 the field of commerce and manutacttire. 

 He built in Eden a cotton mill forty toot 

 front by four hundred and five feet in depth, 

 there being also a dye house, fifty by sev- 

 enty feet, together with the necessary boiler 

 and engine house. Here are manufactured 

 upholstery goods, fancy colored quilts, etc. 

 This mill, with its equipments (which are 

 in keeping with the most modern ideas and 

 improvements in that line) was transferred 

 in 1901 by Mr. Rumpf to his two sons, 

 Frederick and William, who had been duly 

 trained to this business by their father, and 

 the factory is now operated under the firm 

 style of Frederick Rumpf's Sons. They are 

 doing a very successful business and their 

 enterprise has been of marked commercial 

 benefit to the town. 



Mr. Rumpf has been married twice.. His 

 first wife was Clara Wagner, of Trenton, 

 New Jersey, a daughter of Xavier and 

 Paulina (Mock) Wagner, of Trenton, New 

 Jersey. They had two sons : Frederick, 

 Jr., born November 9, 1871; and William, 

 born June 18, 1875. They attended the 

 public schools of Philadelphia, and were also 

 graduated from the Pierce Business Col- 

 lege. In addition to this, Frederick attended 

 for a year and a half the celebrated textile 

 school -in Crefeld-on-the-Rhine. a school 

 instituted by the German government. He 

 was married June 28, 1894, to Agnes Pegge, 

 of Philadelphia, a daughter of Henry C. and 

 Mary Pegge. ' They have three, children : 

 Clara Agnes, born December 17, 1895 ; Hilda 

 Elenora, born February 26, 1901 ; and Alyse 

 Irene, born March 30, 1903. William Rumpf 

 was married August 24, 1897, to Miss Cath- 

 arine Elizabeth Keller, of Philadelphia, a 

 daughter of John and Elizabeth (King) 

 Keller. They also have three children : 

 William Frederick, born July 31, 1898; 

 Francis John, born November 28, 1900 ; and 

 Katharine Lorraine, born August 31, 1904. 



Frederick Rumpf lost his first wife 

 March 6, 1879. He married (second) June 

 7, 1880, Elizabeth Horner, of Philadelphia, 

 a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Bas- 

 sett) Horner. She has been a valued as- 

 sistant to her husband and a loving mother 

 to his children. By this marriage there is 

 one son, Gustavus Adolphus, born August 



10, 1885. He first attended the public 

 schools of Philadelphia, and on the re- 

 moval of the family to Attleboro he re- 

 sumed his school duties there, and is now an 

 advanced pupil in Pierce's Business College 

 of Philadelphia. He is a member of the 

 Episcopal church of Attleboro, being con- 

 firmed by Bishop Whitaker of Philadel- 

 phia. 



Mr. Rumpf and his sons Frederick and 

 William are Republicans in politics, and are 

 religiously of the Protestant faith. Mr. 

 Rumpf was a member of the first borough 

 council of Attleboro, and has been a mem- 

 ber continuously since, his public-spirited 

 citizenship finding tangible proof in his ef- 

 forts to promote the public good, progress 

 and upbuilding. He is a man of great 

 energy, of keen discrimination in business 

 affairs, and of marked capability in the 

 line of his life-labor. On the other hand, 

 he is equally progressive in citizenship, 

 well informed concerning state and national 

 policies, honest and intelligent in his labors 

 for the general good, and altogether a credit 

 to the citizenship of his adopted country. 



JAMES PATTERSON SAHTH. Among 

 the respected citizens of Bucks county, 

 James Patterson Smith, of New Hope, holds 

 an honored place. He is the son of James 

 Smith, an native of Baltimore, who as a 

 boy was taken by his parents to Philadel- 

 phia, where he learned the tailor's trade. 

 In 1812 heabandoned his trade and enlisted 

 in the patriot army, being one of those 

 who helped to construct the entrenchments 

 around Philatdelphia. Soon afterward he 

 came to Bucks county and settled in New 

 Hope, where for several years he worked 

 at his trade for Thomas Thompson. Later 

 he opened a shop for himself, which he con- 

 ducted during the remainder of his life. He 

 was elected to all the borough offices except 

 that of mayor, and was a member of the 

 Presbyterian church. He married Hannah 

 F. Strang, and they were the parents of two 

 children : Lydia, w^ho became the wife of 

 James B. Stockton, of New Brunswick, New 

 Jersey; and James Patterson, mentioned at 

 length hereinafter. Mr. Smith died at an 

 advanced age. He was distantly connected 

 with the Jones and Matthias families of 

 Bucks county. 



James Patterson Smith, son of James and 

 Hannah F. (Strang) Smith, was born May 

 28, 1829, in New Hope, and received his 

 education in the public schools of his native 

 town. His first employment was in the 

 capacit}' of assistant collector for the Canal 

 Company. He remained with the company 

 two years, and then accepted a position as 

 clerk in the shops of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road Company in Lamhertville. This posi- 

 tion he retained a little more thari thirty- 

 six years, and since his retirement has been 

 extensively engaged in the real estate busi- 

 ness. He is vice-president of the Amwell 

 National Bank of Lamhertville. For many 



