666 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



edge he had acquired clearly and concisely 

 to those under his control. Upon the death 

 of his father he succeeded him as secretary 

 of the Line Lexington Fire Insurance Com- 

 pany, which position he still holds. He 

 pertorms all tlie duties of good citizenship, 

 and is a tirm advocate of the prmciples ot 

 Republicanism. Mr. Price was united in 

 marriage to Mary Ann Ackerman, daugh- 

 ter of Henry Ackerman, of Berks county, 

 Pennsylvania, and the issue of this union 

 was one child, Mary, wife of E. K. Mussel- 

 man, of Lansdale; they are the parents of 

 one daughter, Florence Musselman. 



ALBERT W. PRESTON. Amor Pres- 

 ton was among the earliest of the English 

 settlers in Ptnn's Colony, and lived lor a 

 time in Bristol township, J^ucks county. He 

 was a tailor by trade, and, adapting his 

 vocation to the rude materials and cus- 

 toms of the people whose lot was cast on 

 the extreme borders of civilization, became 

 an expert in fashioning civilized clothing 

 out ot the deer skins turnished by the In- 

 dians, who were then very plentiiul in the 

 country. He became very friendly with the 

 aborigines, and when his house in the woods 

 was burned he was persuaded by the In- 

 dians to remove with them ■ farther back 

 in the woods, near their Indian town ot 

 HoUecunk, in the Buckingham valley, near 

 the present village of Holicong. Here, 

 far from any white neighbors, he and his 

 wife lived for several years, and saw their 

 red neighbors and friends gradually dis- 

 appear as the people of their own race filled 

 up and cleared the surrounding country. 

 Nathan Preston, whose brother Paul was 

 the great-great-grandfather of the subject 

 of this sketch, was said to have been the 

 first white child born in Buckingham town- 

 ■ ship. He was nursed by an Indian woman, 

 who many years afterward journeyed back 

 from the wilderness to pay a visit to her 

 white friends, when an old white haired 

 woman, nearing the century mark. The two 

 Preston boys, Nathan and Paul, were 

 reared among the Indians and learned to 

 speak their language before their own. 

 Nathan married Mary Hough, in 1737, and 

 settled near Doylestown, where he died 

 about 1778, without male issue. 



Paul Preston, notwithstanding the rude 

 surroundings of his birth, acquired an ex- 

 cellent English education and became an 

 eminent mathematician and surveyor as well 

 as an accomplished linguist, keeping up his 

 studies through his whole life. In 1753 he 

 purchased a farm of fifty acres in Bucking- 

 ham, where he lived until 1792, when he 

 purchased a farm of 130 acres in Plumstead, 

 near Gardenville, on the Durham Road, 

 where he died in 1806 at .the age of eighty- 

 four years. He married. November 21. 

 1753, Hannah Fisher, daughter of JohiKand 

 Mary (Scarborough) Fisher, and they were 

 the parents of seven children, viz. : De- 

 borah, who died unmarried ; Samuel, born 



1756, died in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, 

 in 1834, was the first associate justice or 

 that county ; Ann, who died unmarried ; 

 Naomi, who married James Price; 

 Euphemia, who never married; Paul and 

 Silas. Paul Preston was treasurer of Bucks 

 county, 1 768- 1 771. 



Silas Preston, youngest son of Paul and 

 Hannah (Fisher; Preston, was born in 

 Buckingham and removed with his father 

 to Plumstead. Atter his father's death he 

 acquired title to the greater part of the 

 homestead, whereon he lived his whole life. 

 He married, April 6, 1796, Margaret Good, 

 of Plumstead township, and they were the 

 parents of two children — Sarah, wife of 

 ihomas Brown; and Nathan Preston, the 

 grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 

 Nathan Preston was likewise a lifelong 

 resident of Plumstead. He married .Mar- 

 tha Stradiing and reared a large family, 

 several of whom are still living in Solebury 

 township. 



Joseph G. Preston, son of Nathan and 

 Martha, was born in Plumstead township 

 in 1832, and was reared to agricultural pur- 

 suits, acquiring his education at the public 

 schools. At the age of twenty-one years 

 he removed to Lumberville, where he was 

 employed for a number of years as a saw- 

 yer in the mills. He later followed the 

 butchering business for a short time. In 

 1862 he removed to a farm belonging tcv 

 his wife's mother, near Peter's Corner, 

 where he resided for the greater part of 

 his life. He was constable and tax col- 

 lector of Solebury township for twenty 

 years, and took an active part in all that 

 pertained to the best interests of the com- 

 munity in which he lived. In politics he 

 was a Republican, and took an active part 

 in the councils of his party, serving for 

 many years as a member of the county 

 committee and representing his district in 

 congressional and state conventions. He 

 was at one time the nominee of his party 

 for a seat in the legislature, but was de- 

 feated at the polls by a small majority, al- 

 though the usual Democratic majority was 

 much larger. In religion he conformed to 

 the tenets of the Society of Friends, in 

 which faith all his ancestors in America 

 had been reared and lived. In early man- 

 hood he married Elmira Walton, of Sole- 

 bury, and they were the parents of four 

 children, all of whom are still living : Al- 

 bert W. ; Anna, wife of Howard P. Evans, 

 of Philadelphia; Harrj-, a resident of Phil- 

 adelphia; and Emma, wife of Charles Case, 

 also of Philadelphia. Mr. Preston died at 

 Center Hill in October, 1901. 



Albert W. Preston was born in Solebury 

 township. He was reared on the farm and 

 attended the public .schools. - -t the age of 

 twenty-one he found employment, first in 

 the Carversville and later in the Solebury 

 creamery, where he learned the process of 

 making cheese and butter, and became 

 proficient as a creamery operator. He was 

 for sixteen years superintendent of the 

 Solebury creamery, and made it profitable 



