HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



695 



first marriage engaged in farming there 

 for a number of years. Subsequent to 

 his second marriage he resided for a 

 number of years in Philadelphia, where 

 he was engaged in the jewelry and 

 watch-making business on the Frank- 

 ford road. While never serving an ap- 

 prenticeship, he was a natural mechanic, 

 and could use any tool or do almost any 

 constructive work. From Philadelphia 

 he removed to Stockton, New Jersey, where 

 he was engaged in the same business for 

 four or five years, when he returned to 

 Penns Park and continued in the same 

 line up to the time of his death. He was 

 a Republican in politics. He was a broad 

 reader, a deep student and the possessor 

 of marked mechanical ingenuity. He 

 was the inventor of an automatic rail- 

 road switch, a model of which nc 

 sent to the Czar of Russia and re- 

 ceived from him in return a valuable 

 medal. He was also the builder in his 

 early years of an electric battery and 

 numerous other machines prior to the 

 advent of electricity. All this he did in 

 young manhood, when upon the farm. 

 Mahlon H. Reeder was married twice. 

 At Penns Park he wedded Miss Mary 

 Twining, and theij children were: Hus- 

 ton T., of Helena, Montana; Lewis A. 

 Reeder and George W., deceased ; Willis 

 W., who is engaged in the real estate 

 busines in Philadelphia; Abraham and 

 Stephen, both deceased; and Maria 

 Louisa, deceased. After the death of his 

 first wife, Mahlon H. Reeder married 

 Eliza T. Keyser, and of their two chil- 

 dren Frank K. is the survivor. 



Frank K. Reeder was born in Phila- 

 delpliia. July 4, 1861, and was seven 

 years of age at the time of the family's 

 return to Penns Park. His education 

 was acquired here and in the schools of 

 Philadelphia, and when in his sixteenth 

 years he accepted a position in a grocery 

 store of the latter city. A year later he 

 became one of the office force in the em- 

 ploy of Frank Siddall. a soap manufac- 

 turer, and later returned to Wrightstown 

 township, Bucks county. During the 

 follownng year he was emploj^ed by W. 

 B. Hagaman, a well known merchant of 

 Wrightstown, and later worked a year 

 for Lewis Hagaman, at Rushland, at the 

 time of the building of the railroad 

 through the town. In 1892 he was asked 

 by W. B. Hagaman to take charge of 

 his branch store at Penns Park, which 

 business he has since managed very suc- 

 cessfully. He was appointed postmaster 

 the same year, and has since acted in that 

 capacity. He has a wide and favorable 

 acquaintance in Penns Park both as a 

 business man and citizen. Mr. Reeder 

 votes with the Republican party, and be- 

 longs to several fraternal organizations, 

 being a member of Newtown Lodge, No. 

 427, F. and A. M.; Siloam Lodge, No. 

 265, L O. O. F. ; and Penns Park Council 

 No. 973, Junior Order United American 



Mechanics. On the 4th of July, 1892, 

 Mr. Reeder was united in marriage to 

 Mrs. Emma Twining, a daughter of Wal- 

 ton T. Worthington, of Penns Park, and 

 they have one daughter, Florence 

 Reeder. 



JACOB WILLARD, of Southampton, 

 Bucks county, was born near Hulmeville, 

 in Bensalem township, Bucks county, in the 

 year 1838, and is a son of Lewis and Sophia 

 (Bursk) Willard, and a grandson of Jacob 

 Willard, whose wife was a Carey. Jacob 

 Willard had three children, viz. : Fannie, 

 who married Asa Everett, and had a large 

 family of children; Julia Ann, who married 

 Peter Bird, of New Jersey, and removed 

 to Illinois; and Lewis. Lewis and Saphia 

 were the parents of six children: Elizabeth, 

 Beulah Ann, Mary, Jacob, Hannah, and 

 Theodore. 



Jacob Willard was reared on a farm pur- 

 chased by his father about 1835, and was 

 educated at the local schools. He was 

 reared to the life of a farmer, and has 

 never followed any other vocation. He and 

 his sister Mary inherited the old homestead, 

 which he continued to conduct until 

 recently, when he retired from active busi- 

 ness, and is now living near Feasterville, 

 Southampton township. He married 



Phoebe Ann, daughter of Michael and Ann 

 (Roads) Stevens, and granddaughter of 

 John and Sarah (StoothoffJ Stevens. 



MICHAEL SHOLL TRUMBAUER, 

 a prosperous farmer of Bucks county, 

 was there born in the old Trumbauer 

 homestead, near Richland township, De- 

 cember 7, 1850. Plis grandparents were 

 John and Elizabeth (Baum) Trum- 

 bauer, both deceased. His father was 

 John Trumbauer, who in 1843 married 

 Elizabeth Sholl, daughter of Michael and 

 Lydia (Donahue) Sholl, of Montgomery 

 county, Pennsylvania, and the following 

 children were born to them: Henrv S., 

 1845; Milton S., 1848; Michael S., '1850, 

 mentioned at length hereinafter; Levi 

 S., 1853; Lydia A. S., 1855; Mary Eliza- 

 beth S., 1859; and Sarah Jane S.. 1861. 

 For twelve years Mr. Trumbauer fol- 

 lowed the occupation of shoemaking. He 

 was a Democrat in politics and a member 

 of the Lutheran church. 



Michael Sholl Trumbauer received his 

 education in the district school, which he 

 attended until his eighteenth year, as- 

 sisting his father on the farm during his 

 spare time. From 1897 to 1900 Mr. 

 Trumbauer attended school in Bedmin- 

 ster and Milford townships, thus acquir- 

 ing a good, practical education. He fol- 

 lowed farming for a time with his 

 brother, having purchased a tract of land 

 of about forty acres, and was attended 

 with considerable success. In 1898 Mr. 

 Trumbauer removed to Quakertown, 



