The younger brother, General John Henry, the well known lawyer of the Norristown bar, born in 1810, was admitted to practice in May, 1836. He was married to Mary J., daughter of William Mintzer, of Pottstown, and they had six children of whom all but three are deceased. Of these William M. was married to Elizabeth W. Rutter, David P. to Caroline Nichols, and John Henry to Laura Whitaker. General J. H. Hobart

was District Attorney of our county, being elected in 1855, and is still practicing his profession in Norristown. His wife died in 1858.

JOHN D. APPLE, Esq.

The gay will laugh

When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase

His favorite phantom.-Bryant.

John D. Apple was born in the city of New York, in 1808. He was the son of English emigrants to this country, and both his father and mother died soon after their arrival in America. Their son John D. came to Pennsylvania, and under the then existing apprentice laws of the State was bound out to learn the trade of a blacksmith, serving until he was twenty-one years of age. Instead of following his trade he educated himself till competent to teach school, after which he settled in the upper end of Montgomery county, where he soon became a prominent citizen and was elected a Justice of the Peace, holding that office for many years. In 1834 he was married to Sarah Bitting, and they had born to them five children, two sons and three daughters, namely: J. Wright, Lewis C., Mary, Hannah, and Jane.

John D. Apple, Esq., was for many years the most prominent Democratic politician in that section of the county, and the intimate and personal friend of Hon. John B. Sterigere, whose active adherent he was till the latter's death in 1852. Mr. Apple was a self-made man, a great reader, and by rea

son of his wide information on nearly all subjects, wielded a great influence among his neighbors and friends. His reading was extensive and his memory so retentive that he rarely forgot anything he had once mastered. He died April 9th, 1862, aged 54 years. He was a large-hearted, popular, and useful

man.

We append a notice of his son,

scent.

J. WRIGHT APPLE, ESQ.,

who was born December 30th, 1845, in Marlborough township, Montgomery county. His mother was of German deAfter receiving a good primary training in the public schools of the locality, he was sent to Frederick Institute and Freeland Seminary (now Ursinus College) to complete his education. After this, in 1867, he commenced the study of law in the office of George N. Corson, Esq., and was admitted to the bar on the 17th of August, 1869. For a young man he soon acquired a large practice, and on the 1st of January, 1876, was appointed Solicitor for the County Commissioners. At the general election in 1877 he was chosen District Attorney for three years. Very soon after entering upon the discharge of the duties of this office it was his business to assist in the second trial of Blasius Pistorius before the courts of Philadelphia, where the case was carried on a change of venue. He assisted Henry S. Hagert, Esq., District Attorney of Philadelphia, and the case was managed so well as to secure a second conviction of the prisoner.

Since Mr. Apple qualified as Commonwealth's attorney, he has directed the prosecutions in the Quarter Sessions with great industry and judgment, attending in the meantime to cases that need his attention as they arise under the purview of the Coroner. In the management of the Commonwealth's business he is faithful to the State, courteous to his brethren of the bar, and as he is talented, energetic, and industrious in his habits, doubtless has a promising future before him.

His younger brother, Mr. L. C. Apple, has been reappointed (January, 1879) Deputy Prothonotary of the county.

CHARLES FRONEFIELD, M. D.

There is no death! The stars go down

To rise upon some fairer shore;
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown

They shine forevermore.-Lord Lytton.

The Fronefields, like many others recorded in this volume, are of that sturdy German stock which emigrated to eastern Pennsylvania about the middle of the last century. The progenitors of this family are traced to Germany or Switzerland, and their descendants are widely scattered over our country. The genealogy of Charles Fronefield is reckoned from his grandfather, John Fronefield, who settled near Evansburg, in Lower Providence township, Montgomery county, where he married Mary Umstead, by whom he had the following named children: Jacob, John, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Mary, who married respectively Elizabeth Hallman, Edith Wolmer, William Ziegler, Philip Yahn, and John Heiser. The children of the above named Jacob and Elizabeth Hallman Fronefield were Rachel, Mary, William, Ann, Elizabeth, Harriet, and Charles, the subject of this memoir. The children of John and Edith Wolmer Fronefield were Jacob, Jesse, George, and Joseph.

Charles Fronefield was born June 14th, 1809, in Evansburg, and while still a child was baptized by the rector of St. James', of that place. When young he enjoyed only the benefit of a common school education, but being of a studious turn of mind, ambitious and persevering, he was sufficiently advanced at an early age to enter upon the study of medicine, which was his chosen profession, and graduated with high honors from the University of Pennsylvania in March, 1829, being then in his twenty-first year. Having worthily obtained a diploma, he settled at Harleysville, Lower Salford township. He had in this neighborhood several able competitors of long standing, but his abilities soon being recognized, together with his energy and public spirit, quickly brought him into prominence, and for many years he enjoyed a lucrative practice. Dr. Fronefield was preceptor to a large number of students of medicine, among whom may be mentioned Drs. Heist, Sloanaker, Smith,

Spare, Royer, Heckel, Hough, Poley, Lambert, Moyer, Isett, Geiger, Scholl, and others.

In 1837 he married Rosa Linda Riker, who bore him four children, Isadore, Charles, Catharine M., and Rosa Linda. His wife died in 1846, nine years after their marriage. In 1848 Dr. Fronefield moved to Philadelphia and formed a copartnership with Dr. Breinig to carry on the drug business, still devoting a portion of his time to the practice of medicine. He sought this change as a relief from the labors of a country practice, and as necessary on account of a bronchial affection. In 1850, four years after the death of his wife, he was married to Wilhelmina C. Scholl, who now (1879) survives him. The children by this union were Mary S., Henry S., and Horace.

Dr. Fronefield was a man of great firmness and decision of character, fixed and decided in his convictions on all matters of duty, though at the same time always liberal and progressive in his views. His disposition was social and genial towards all with whom he came in contact. He was a kind husband

and father, a devoted friend, and a benefactor to the unfortunate. Many instances could be related of his kindness of heart and attention to the suffering poor where duty had called him, giving freely of his time and means to relieve their sickness. and destitution. His life was a busy and active one, constantly employed in what seemed present duties. He had a highly cultivated mind, and was a writer of no mean order. He was a frequent contributor of both poetic and prose compositions. to the Norristown Herald and Free Press and other periodicals, all his writings having that peculiar freshness, vigor and love of freedom which characterize "live men." He was a prominent Odd Fellow and Free Mason, and greatly respected in both those orders. His death, which resulted from typhoid fever, occurred August 6th, 1865, when he was 56 years old. "He was not ashamed, if it should be God's will, to live; and he was not afraid, if God should so order, to die." There were many flattering tributes paid to his memory at the time of his death.

"E. W. H.," in an obituary notice of him in the Philadelphia Ledger of August 10th, 1865, says:

"He was a man cast in Nature's finest mould, his very countenance beaming with kindness. He was a good neighbor, an upright citizen, an ardent patriot, a sincere friend, a lover of the Bible, and a believer in the doctrines of Jesus. In his honorable profession, the thousands whom his skill and proficiency have benefited bear testimony that by diligent study and investigation, and from the ample store-house of his own extensive field of observation, he had made himself deservedly eminent. He was withal modest and unobtrusive, always deeming others better than himself. He led a 'quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty'; was generous to a fault; sorrowed with the sorrowing; rejoiced with the rejoicing. He was, in the word's best and truest sense, a gentleman; not a courtier with artificial mien, but gentle and manly-the enemy of nothing on earth save of wrong and wrong-doing, and the friend always of all that was noble and right, and just and true. Other forms and faces, and words and deeds, may fade from our memory, but the recollection of the virtues and excellencies of Dr. Charles Fronefield, the beloved physician,' will remain fresh and green whilst life endures."

MAJOR GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK.

War is a terrible remedy-nevertheless, a remedy.-Kossuth.
Cowards die many times before their death;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, son of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Hancock, was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, February 14th, 1824. His parents removed to Norristown, in that county, in 1828, where his father engaged in the study of the law, and subsequently commenced the practice of that profession at the Montgomery county bar. Our subject received his early education in Norristown, attending the academy there, which was then conducted by Eliphalet Roberts, and subsequently pursued his studies under Rev. Samuel Aaron. By appointment of the Secretary of War, through Hon. Joseph Fornance, our member of Congress, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on the 1st of July, 1840, and was a cadet at the same period with Grant, McClellan, Franklin, John F. Reynolds, Burnside, Reno, and William F. Smith.