fine; naturally gentle, but earnest; his self-control remarkable! It is said that during the forty years of his legal life he was never in any forensic tilt betrayed into discourtesy to an opponent, but was ever the gentleman. In addressing a jury there was always a classic refinement of manner, a clearness of logic, a persuasiveness of tone, which took the listener over to his view of the cause. His candor, perspicuity, gentleness of enunciation, and elegance of diction, procured for him the sobriquet of the "silver-tongued."

He was an accomplished scholar, a reader of not only law but literature. In every department of law he was considered safe authority. His literary taste and aptitude for elegant composition were so well known that on most public occasions he was made chairman of committee on resolutions, drafting such papers with great skill and judgment and to public acceptance. Though well calculated to serve the people in a public position, he never sought preferment at their hands, and frequently declined proposals of that kind, preferring the practice of his profession, of which he was very fond. To the young members of the bar he was ever ready to lend a helping hand. Though not an office-seeking politician, he was ready on all occasions to serve his party, the old line Whigs, with his influence or to speak on great occasions. He was, however, run for Congress in 1836, and again in 1856 and defeated by Owen Jones. He was always decidedly anti-slavery in his instincts. When the rebellion broke out, being a strong Republican and denouncer of the rebels, he took an active part in raising and equipping a company of cavalry, of which he was elected and commissioned Captain. Accordingly, in the summer of 1862, when the State was invaded by General Lee, he felt it his duty, although well advanced in years and not in robust health, to respond to the call of the Governor, and marched to the border with his company, doing good service a few weeks while the danger by invasion existed.

Mr. Mulvany died of acute pneumonia May 18th, 1873. He is buried in Montgomery Cemetery.

HON. JACOB S. YOST.

A man of ideas, of will and of talent, a gentleman by birth, a Democrat from conviction.-Parton.

Jacob S. Yost, the son of John and Anna Maria Senewell Yost, was born in Pottsgrove township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, July 29th, 1801, on the Yost farm, which has been in the possession of his ancestors and of himself and family for one hundred and ten years. He was descended from an old German stock, who emigrated from the Rhine to this country a century and a half ago.

Jacob S. Yost had a large, active brain, which gave him a desire for more education than he could procure in his native place. Accordingly after the death of his parents (his father dying July 13th, 1819, and his mother September 3d, 1822) he went to the old Fourth Street Academy in Philadelphia, where he studied the higher branches of mathematics and surveying, and prepared himself by a course of study for an active business life. He was married in 1826 to Ann M. Childe, of Pottstown, by whom he had four children, Anna Maria, Thomas W., Jacob A., and Annie R. The latter three still survive. The sons reside in Philadelphia, and the daughter, who is married to George H. Gillet, lives at New Lebanon Springs, New York.

Mr. Yost, as his father and grandfather, was bred a farmer, and remained in that occupation many years, becoming in due time the owner of the old family homestead. His intelligence and activity soon brought him prominently before the people, and his kindly disposition and genial manners made him a favorite with his party. Accordingly the Democratic party took him up in 1836 and elected him, with Henry Longaker and Samuel E. Leech, to the Assembly. To this post he was re-elected three times. During this period occurred what was called "the buckshot war," which originated in the charge by Stevens and the leaders of Ritner's administration that "Porter had been elected by fraud," and suggesting that "the election be treated as a nullity." It was also proposed that Whigs should go to Harrisburg armed with guns loaded with "buck

shot" to prevent Porter's inauguration. This, however, was only the vaporings of a few heated partisans. Still, in history, it has attained the dignity—or indignity—of “a war.”

Closing his service in the State Legislature in 1839, he was taken up in 1842 to succeed Hon. Joseph Fornance in Congress, and took his seat March 4th, 1843. To this post he was re-elected in 1844.

Having lost his wife some years before, Mr. Yost while at Washington formed the acquaintance of Mary A. Harrington, of Troy, New York, whom he married on December 26th, 1844. At the close of his second Congressional term he returned to the family mansion at Pottstown with his accomplished lady, who was intelligent, pious, and capable of assisting him in all his business affairs, public or private.

Mr. Yost during and after his Congressional service continued an active promoter of all the measures of his party. On the accession of Mr. Buchanan to the Presidency he was appointed in 1857 United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which office he held till the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861.

Mr. Yost's last tour of public duty was rendered conspicuous by the contested slave cases from Lancaster county and their return to their owners. From this time Mr. Y. partially retired from public life, only representing his district, when called upon, in its county and State conventions, where, through his great tact and many personal friends, he often secured the success of particular candidates.

Mr. Yost early in life had connected himself with the German Reformed church, it being the denomination of his ancestry. He withdrew from it in 1849, however, to unite with the Presbyterian, of which church the second Mrs. Yost was a member. With a few others, Mr. Yost, in that year, joined and organized the first Presbyterian church of Pottstown, becoming its first ruling elder. Religiously inclined by nature, he now became a very devoted member of the church and active in promoting its work. He was a man of wide information, clear judgment, a judicious manager of business, and domestic in all his ways, regarding home as the most attractive

spot in the world. He had large business operations on hand at the time of his death, and was the owner of very valuable property, but the revulsion that began in 1873 has greatly diminished his estate. He died at his residence in Pottstown,

in the full hope of redemption by the blood of Christ, March 7th, 1872, aged 71 years. His excellent widow still survives. him, and occupies the family mansion.

ROBERT T. POTTS.

So fades a summer cloud away,

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er,

So gently shuts the eye of day,

So dies the wave along the shore.-Barbauld,

Robert Towner Potts, son of Zebulon and Martha Potts, was born at the Potts homestead, Plymouth township, January 11th, 1790. His father was the first Sheriff of Montgomery county after its organization, and was re-elected for the years 1785-6.

Robert T. Potts' brothers and sisters were: Joseph, William, Daniel, Ann, Alice, Esther, and Martha. William still lives. at an advanced age with his son-in-law, Evan D. Jones, at Conshohocken. Robert T. Potts married Mrs. Elizabeth McCalla Weaver, the daughter of Daniel Hitner, Sr., of Marble Hall.. She was a young widow, the mother of two sons, Abraham and William Weaver. Robert T. and Elizabeth Potts had born to them the following children: Henry Clay, Ellen E.,. E. Channing, Martha T., and William W. The last is intermarried with Ella H., daughter of Dr. George W. and Abby Holstein, of Bridgeport; Henry C. died in 1851; Ellen E. was intermarried with Robert Lewis Rutter; E. Channing is married to Caroline E., daughter of Abraham R. and Caroline E. Cox, of Norristown; Martha T. was intermarried with Dr. Charles Shafer, of Philadelphia, and died March 13th, 1878. E. Channing and Carrie Potts have buried a daughter, Caroline E.

We turn now to record the business life of Robert T. Potts, the proper subject of this memorial. He began as store-boy

with Harman Yerkes, and after being grown went to Philadelphia in the employ of Isaac Lawrence, then engaged in the dry goods business, afterwards entering into partnership. He continued with him some years. Lawrence dying, however, Mr. Potts took the stock and associated with him William V. Reynolds, afterwards also taking in James B. McFarland, and the wholesale trade was thence conducted under the firm title of Potts, Reynolds & Co. This concern continued for several years, till 1840, when Mr. Potts drew out and removed to Swedeland on a hundred-acre farm of valley land on the river, at Swedesburg, where he lived till his death, which took place December 13th, 1873, in his 83d year. His wife had died in 1850.

Robert T. Potts was a man of great probity and public spirit, a life-long Whig and Republican, and in 1840 was nominated and run for Congress. His business capacity was of the first order, and he acquired a large estate, having a half ownership of the Cedar Grove marble quarries. In person Mr. Potts was tall and stoutly built, light complexion and hair, and of very dignified yet sprightly demeanor, enjoying remarkably good health all his life.

A further notice of his son, E. Channing Potts, who is the representative and successor to his name and business in this locality, will not be an inappropriate conclusion. He has had the best educational advantages short of a college course, having attended Friends' school at Conshohocken, Strode's near West Chester, Bleck's seminary at Bethlehem, and Elmwood and Treemount seminaries at Norristown. He began business in 1857 as clerk at Swedes' Furnace, and afterwards operated the Cedar Grove marble works in Whitemarsh, associated with his father and Nathan Hallowell, under the firm name of Potts, Hallowell & Co. In 1864 he bought out his partners and took in Mr. Solomon Gilbert, and continued as Potts & Gilbert. They dissolved the firm in 1869, and he built large steam marble-sawing works at Spring Mill, where he prepares and ships great quantities of blue and clouded marble for Philadelphia and distant markets. His mills are capable of turning out from