On the following 16th but little the worse for his journey. Sunday night, the 20th, he was taken with severe pains and a paralysis of the lower part of the body. The disease ran rapidly to a crisis, and he expired on the 27th, just a week after the attack. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, Louis Detrich, in that city, in the 72d year of his age, and after about forty years devoted service in the ministry. His remains were conveyed to his home, and on Thursday, May 1st, he was interred in the cemetery of the church he had helped to found so many years before. At his funeral there were in attendance nearly twenty ministers and an immense throng of sympathizing friends and neighbors. HON. BENJAMIN FRICK. A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted soul Benjamin Frick, a Senator of the State of Pennsylvania from Montgomery county, was born April 26th, 1796, in Coventry (now East Coventry), Chester county. The family is of Swiss origin, being among the early German emigrants of the Baptist persuasion who settled along the Schuylkill in Chester and Montgomery counties. Though not a member of the Dunkers or German Baptists, he usually attended their religious meetings, and lies buried in one of their cemeteries near where he was born. The names of his father and mother were John and Catharine. They lived and died in East Coventry, where Benjamin received a fair education, such as was common in country places sixty years ago. Having married Ellen Davis about 1831, he commenced the lumber business near the Schuylkill, continuing in it as long as he lived, at his place," Limerick Bridge," or, as subsequently called, Limerick Station, on the Reading railroad at or near the great bend of the river in that township. From early life Benjamin Frick was regarded as a man of great probity, firmness, and veracity. So when the question. of forming a new county from parts of Chester, Montgomery and Berks, with a seat of justice at Pottstown, came up, party lines were broken down around that borough and on the northern and western borders of the first two counties, and candidates were often carried against considerable party majorities. on both sides. Democratic party leaders in the lower sections of our county dreaded the loss of the heavy Democratic majorities in the "upper end," and so many of them would vote for a Whig who was opposed to the division. The latter party, knowing that this feeling was strong in the centre and east of the county, brought forward Mr. Frick in 1852, who, while popular with his neighbors, was moderately opposed to the organization of the new county of "Madison." He was thus nominated and run on that issue, and elected by 32 majority over John C. Smith, of Pottstown, his Democratic opponent. The Whigs had no need to regret their choice, for Mr. Frick, though no talker, was a very industrious and faithful member. During his term of service he helped to unearth much of the corruption and favoritism that had crept into the management of the public works. He was also the active coadjutor of Hon. Henry S. Evans, of West Chester, who was prominent in the effort to sell the canals and reduce the State debt. The following obituary, written by Mr. Evans in the Village Record of West Chester, on announcing his death, is but a just tribute to his efficiency and worth. After recounting his various public trusts, the Record says: "In local and township affairs, in settlements of estates, his practical good sense made him a valuable counselor. His manner was kind toward every one, courteous always, but always decided when decision was necessary. His prompt, almost intuitive judgment, and his lofty integrity, secured the confidence of his fellow-citizens in his worth, so that he was triumphantly elected Senator against an adverse party majority. The writer of this, who was his colleague, can bear testimony to his earnest and efficient devotion to every great interest of the Commonwealth. No one ever breathed a suspicion of the purity of the motives which incited him to action. He scorned the corrupt as he did corruption itself. He loved his State, and was jealous of its honors as of his own. As a Senator his voice was never heard in debate, but his influence was known and acknowledged by all. From his early education, long experience, and habits of reading, he was versed in the history of all the public measures and men of the State and country. He was not only hon est, but uniformly courteous and firm. Whatever was right had his support, and whatever was clandestine or wrong met his unqualified opposition. In the death of Mr. Frick the community have lost a useful and tried man, his friends one whose virtues will long be remembered. He has gone to his long home, leaving a bright example of the noblest work of God-an honest man. The foregoing is high testimony in these modern times, when legislators so often lend themselves to schemes of plunder and self-aggrandizement. Similar testimony to the foregoing appears about the same time in the Philadelphia Press, or possibly in the Norristown Herald. It says: "His excellent judgment, high-toned integrity, and strict attention to his duties as Senator and to the wants of his constituency, rendered his term one of especial notice. He went into and came out of office, and retained until the close of a long life the high regard of his fellow-citizens." His connection with the officials of the Reading railroad as a receiver and forwarder of freight, as office agent, and other duties, at Limerick Station, was long continued and cordial, and only severed by his increasing infirmities, in 1869. On acknowledging the receipt of his resignation at that time, the Treasurer of the company, S. Bradford, Esq., says: "I regret that the infirmities of advanced age should have rendered it necessary for you to retire from the service of the company. I have highly appreciated your long and faithful services, and trust that the satisfaction experienced by a well spent life may afford you all the happiness which such a course always insures." If further testimony of Mr. Frick's judgment, capacity to serve others, and of his incorruptible integrity, were needed, it may be added that he held the office of postmaster twenty years, and in 1836 was chosen Secretary of the Perkiomen and Reading Turnpike Road Company, a position he held thirtyfive years, till 1871, when death canceled the trust. He was at one time a director in the Pottstown Bank, and for six years held a like position in the Bank of Montgomery County, at Norristown. He was also for a long time local business agent of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, to the full satisfaction of its directory, as shown by the extract copied above. The children of Benjamin and Ellen Frick now living are: Catharine, now Mrs. Sisler, of Pottstown; James, also living in that borough; and Charles, who succeeded to the business and homestead of his father at Limerick Station. Mr. Frick's health had been rapidly declining for some time, when, October 4th, 1871, he passed away, aged 75 years, 5 months, and 6 days. In stature he was tall and bony; hair and complexion dark; features elongated, indicating moral and mental force of a high order. We cannot close this notice of a citizen whose life is a legacy to the community better than by transcribing a letter written by himself in answer to a relative (probably a cousin) in reference to the history of the family: LIMERICK BRIDGE, March 10th, 1864. Colonel Facob Frick: Dear Sir-Your favor of the 22d ultimo was duly received, and I deferred answering it, with the intention of first visiting the late home of my clder sister to consult and compile a more full family record than I have; but various causes seem to postpone my intended visit. Your ancestor, I presume, is the Conrad Frick mentioned in the third volume of Colonial Records. I cannot claim so near an affinity to him as I wish. My grandfather's name was Jacob, and he died in 1799, aged 82. He and his brother John, four years his senior, came into this country about 1740 from Switzerland. John Frick never married, but settled in Bucks county, where he acquired a farm, and died in 1794, aged 81 years. My grandfather, on marrying, settled about one mile east of Pottstown, where my father was born; but in his early boyhood they moved to Chester Valley, about two miles from the Valley Forge camp ground, where they lived during the Revolution, near the scene of the Paoli massacre, their place affording an encampment for some days for the British and Hessians after the battle of Brandywine. The most thrilling incidents of that time that I ever heard were from the lips of Aunt Christina, who died twelve or fifteen years ago, her descendants possessing the old homestead until five years since, when it passed into the hands of strangers. Grandfather had three sons, of whom only John (my father) left descendants. Jacob, the oldest, was drowned when about 21 years old, and David, a younger brother, died at the age of 12. My father had six sisters, all of whom left families, and some quite numerous ones. They are scattered over most of the States of the Union (all the Western ones), including Missouri and Texas, and some even in Brazil and Mexico. father left four sons and four daughters, of whom my youngest sister My (Mrs. George Baugh) and myself are the only survivors. They all have descendants except my oldest brother, who died childless. I am within a month of being 68 years old, and have been a widower nearly twenty-eight years; have had nine children, of whom but four are living. One of the deceased left three children. BENJAMIN FRICK. CALEB P. JONES. The reasoner, he who deeply searched the origin of things, and talked of good and evil, much of causes and effects.-Course of Time. The Jones family is one of the most numerous and respectable in eastern Pennsylvania. The following is the genealogy of the family under consideration, as given by our subject's surviving brother and sister, Nathan H. Jones and Hannah M. Ogden, still residing in that classic homestead which Washington occupied as headquarters during the long, dreary winter just one hundred years ago. About the year 1700 John Evans, with his wife, son and two daughters, emigrated from Wales to Chester county, settling near the forks of the Brandywine, in East Bradford township. The son, according to a custom among Welsh people, received the surname of his father reversed, and was called Evan Jones. He married Sarah Woodward, and died in 1773. Of this marriage was born John Jones, who intermarried with Rachel Hayes, and they were the parents of James Jones. The latter married Ann Pusey in 1806. The descendants of this connection were Caleb Pusey Jones (the subject of this notice), Nathan H. Jones, and Hannah, intermarried with Thomas Ogden, the last now many years deceased. Both Nathan H. and Hannah, as has already been stated, still reside on the Valley Forge property, the latter in the very house Washington occupied as his headquarters, and her brother in another mansion near by. The genealogy of the maternal ancestry, the Pusey family, is thus given: It came from Wantage, Berkshire, England, along with William Penn. Caleb Pusey, the elder, brought with him a nephew, Caleb Pusey, who was married in 1712 to Ann Car |