erected the upper end of the present Montgomery House, and his eldest son, the father of Henry Freedley, Esq., of Norristown, kept a store within it at an early day.

Henry Freedley, Sr., and his wife Catharine, had the following children: Henry, intermarried with Sophia Kline; Mary, with Richard Davis; Susanna, with Samuel Jacoby; Elizabeth, with George Prince; Jacob, with Susan Jacoby, and afterwards with Mrs. Dickinson, of Philadelphia; Catharine, with Matthew Neeley; Dr. Samuel, with Mrs. Heckly. John, the subject of this notice, left one son, Edwin T. Freedley, Esq., the author of several treatises on business. John had worked at the business of his father, but soon turned his mind to reading and intellectual pursuits. He did not, however, commence the study of law till near his twenty-fourth year. Having a robust, well knit physique, and a well developed brain, he soon mastered the science, and was admitted to the bar August 16th, 1820. Graduating in his profession at a time when the older lights, Hon. Levi Pawling, Philip S. Markley, Benjamin Evans, John Henderson, and others, were withdrawing from practice, Mr. Freedley rose rapidly, and within a dozen years was at the very head of the bar, his chief competitors being Philip Kendall, D. H. Mulvany, John B. Sterigere, and Joseph Fornance. He never attained great distinction as a criminal lawyer, though generally engaged in the most important trials, but gradually obtained a hold on most of the heavy real estate causes that came into court. This was doubtless what led him to engage in land speculations, in which he was largely embarked for many years. From the time he was fairly in practice till within a short period of his death, much valuable property near Norristown, which passed through the Sheriff's sales, came into Mr. Freedley's possession. Whenever there was a clear speculation in prospect, Mr. F. was most frequently the purchaser. This was what brought into his hands the Matthias Holstein estate. Subsequent to 1830 he also bought the property of Letitia Thomas, deceased, embracing the Rising Sun, Montgomery House, and all the front from Swede street to Strawberry street. About the same time also, in conjunction with Colonel James Bush, he bought the old Swedes'

Ford tavern property, covering much of the land now forming the site of Bridgeport. All these he sold at large advances on cost, for his rule was the correct one, "Always be ready to buy and ever on hand to sell." Thus, when a monetary crisis came, he had the profits of his sales and not the property in hand, as had very many about Norristown in 1857 who pursued the opposite course of buying lots but never selling them

About 1840 he remodeled the fine two-story mansion that had belonged to the Egypt Mill property, and which he had bought of Major Holstein, at the southwest corner of Main and Mill streets, tearing out the stone front, building it up with brick, and raising it a story, as it stands now. He fitted it up for a residence for himself, and occupied it a year or two, but true to his rule, finding a purchaser in General William Schall, of Green Lane Forge, he sold it and returned to boarding again. It is impossible at this late day to recall his extended business operations, though it is remembered that he owned white marble quarries in Massachusetts, and was in partnership with Charles Heebner in a marble-sawing mill at Conshohocken, which did a very heavy business.

He was for a long time a director and heavy stockholder in the Bank of Montgomery County, which enabled him to command money for his land speculations. He was also willing

to use his capital at times to further enterprises of a public nature. In connection with Davis Henderson, Jacob Freedley, Mordecai R. Moore, and Merchant Maulsby, he invested in a stock of thirty thousand dollars, in "Samuel Jamison's: Spinning Mill," a limited corporation, which started about 1840. The first named person invested ten thousand dollars ;; each of the others five thousand.

Mr. Freedley always voted with the Whigs, and though not an active politician, often made speeches at the great gatherings of the party. In 1846 he was taken up for Congress in the district composed of Montgomery and Delaware counties;. and re-elected in 1848 during the famous Free Soil contest between Taylor, Cass, and Van Buren. At the conclusion of his second term he was nominated the third time, but defeated by Hon. John McNair. In Congress Mr. Freedley was a

faithful representative and a warm advocate and defender of the policy of protecting American manufactures by a tariff. He also generally sustained Northern anti-slavery views by his votes, though during the long contest pending the passage of what were called the Compromise measures, he failed to respond at the critical moment, and the bill became a law.*

Shortly after Mr. Freedley's return from Washington his health failed him, and to have the benefit of the treatment of his brother, Dr. Samuel Freedley, who was then as now a practicing physician in Philadelphia, he removed to that city and remained under his care till he died, December 8th, 1851, aged 58 years. He made a will for the disposal of his estate, and named Benjamin F. Hancock, and his nephews, Samuel F. Jacoby, Samuel Prince, and Henry Freedley, Esq., executors. His effects consisted of real estate, bank and other stocks, and amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars, which he left mainly to his nephews and nieces and son, making a legacy to each of about eight thousand dollars.

In person Hon. John Freedley was under medium height, stoutly built, with black hair and florid complexion, a man of dignity and manly deportment; and while he had the reputation of a shrewd, close dealer, was charitable to the poor and just and honorable in all his business transactions.

His remains are entombed in Montgomery Cemetery, over which is erected a marble obelisk elaborately chiseled and lettered with a record of his life and public services.

*The writer, then taking a deep interest in the anti-slavery question, remembers spending a whole day looking up Mr. Freedley's record on the passage of that famous act which was to "give peace to the country," and "end agitation in Congress and out of it." The bill was a monstrous omnibus, that provided for the admission of California as a free State; the assumption of the Texas State debt, or, what was the same thing, the payment of ten millions to that State for its wild land; and the passage of a fugitive siave law that made every Northern man a contingent slave-catcher. The last two features were very distasteful to the people of the free States, and representatives were careful not to place themselves on the record in favor of the bill. Accordingly, as there was a clear majority in the House against its passage on the first call of the yeas and nays, the bill was lost; but by a motion to reconsider, a number of members, Mr. Freedley among them, failed to respond. So the bill was called up again, in violation of the House's own rules, and on the final trial it was suffered to pass as a "compromise." The multiplication of motions pending the main question was so great, and the contest lasted so many days, that it was very hard to determine what Northern representative had yielded to the pretended "necessity" which our great statesmen, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and others, had gotten up as a last "offering to peace.' It was alleged byMr. Freedley's friends, however, that he was accidentally and unintentionally absent at the momentous time. But whether so or not, many refused to vote for him the third time on that account, and he failed of being returned again.

FRANKLIN DERR.

As a tradesman, I took care not only to be really industrious and frugal, but also to avoid every appearance of the contrary. I was plainly dressed, and rarely seen in any place of public amusement.-Franklin's Autobiography.

Of all the business men that have distinguished Norristown during the past fifty years, no one has been more eminent in most respects than Franklin Derr, who came here from the "Swamp" a poor boy to learn the trade of a stone-cutter. His career and success have been the more remarkable from the fact that his immediate predecessors in the calling failed to "make it pay." Alexander Ramsey, Morton Kelsey and John Niblo in turn had failed even to sustain themselves or make a living by the mallet and chisel. But they lacked habits of sobriety and patient industry, which, as in Mr. Derr's case, are sure to yield their reward in due time.

The name of Derr, by its etymology, is manifestly German, but when or whence the family emigrated to this country we know nothing beyond the fact that Franklin Derr's grandfather was settled at Shamokin, Pennsylvania; that his christian name is believed to have been John, and his wife's maiden name Rushough; that from that place his son John (Franklin Derr's father) came to work for Jacob Schneider, who was a tanner living in the upper end of our county. After laboring some time at his trade with Mr. Schneider, he married his daughter Elizabeth, and sister of Henry and Isaac Schneider, of New Hanover. Shortly afterwards, with a very small capital, he and his wife removed to Hamburg, Berks county, where he purchased fifty acres of land and started a tannery, which business, in connection with farming, he followed till the time he died, May 24th, 1827, aged 53 years, I month, and 13 days. His wife survived him about two years, dying August 11th, 1829, aged 46 years, I month, and 25 days. John and Elizabeth Derr were exemplary, hard-working people, and had twelve children, none of whom had come of age at the death of the father in 1827. Having so large a family for which to provide, he left but a limited estate, that did not divide an inheritance above five hundred dollars to each, and the children were soon scattered.

Franklin Derr was born at Hamburg, Berks county, July 1st, 1815, and at the age of twelve years came to live with his uncle, Henry Schneider, a farmer of New Hanover (usually called "Swamp"), where he remained, enjoying limited opportunities of education, till old enough to learn a trade. About the year 1832 or 1833 he came to Norristown and apprenticed himself to John Niblo, who then followed the marble-mantel and stone-cutting business, on the lot now occupied by the Arcade Buildings, Nos. 40 to 48 East Main street. Here he served faithfully nearly four years, and some time after being free formed a partnership with his late master under the firm name of Niblo & Derr, but which continued a short time only. Niblo, being somewhat of a sporting character, did not prosper financially, and left suddenly. Mr. Derr then took into partnership his cousin, Simon Schneider, and a live firm went to work with a will. Soon after getting started Mr. Derr married Sarah Ann, daughter of Henry Kerr, of Norristown. He and his partner then proceeded to build themselves two uniform brick dwellings on Swede street. In a short time after Mr. Schneider's health gave way, and he died of consumption, leaving Mr. Derr alone in the business, which he pushed from that time forward with redoubled vigor.

The site of the stone-yard being wanted by Mr. Sower, the proprietor, for building purposes, Mr. Derr about 1842 traded his dwelling on Swede street with David Heebner for his large house and open lot near Barbadoes street, where he removed his yard, and had ample room for an increasing business. To this he purchased about 1844 the adjoining lots on the west of his line, and erected a number of frame stores. He also bought some unoccupied front below him, with adjoining dwellings. These subsequent purchases increased the frontage on Main street to two hundred and fifty feet by three hundred feet on Penn street. The frame stores before mentioned are now being replaced by permanent brick structures by the heirs.

Very soon after getting established here, Mr. Derr, by giving close attention to business, fulfilling contracts with promptness, by energy and advertising his work, obtained orders for mantels, house and tomb work from distant places.