who know him. He is indeed reverenced and respected by the irreligious equally as by the members of other sects.'

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According to the custom of this plain and pious people, who hold that preaching is a gift emanating from the Divine Spirit, their ministers usually work at some secular employment. Mr. Reiner, who had learned his father's trade, therefore took up plowmaking, and is still engaged in making a very superior kind, well known as the "Reiner Plow." He also works the small patrimonial farm where he resides.

CHARLES KUGLER, Esq.

Mine eyes from tears by grace,

My feet from falling, Lord, keep for a space,

Till where none weep or fall I see thy face.-Mrs. M. J. Bittle.

One of "the best preserved" citizens of Montgomery county, now enjoying a green old age, is Charles Kugler, of Lower Merion, now in his seventy-fifth year. His eye is as bright, his countenance as animated and expressive of real life, as most men at their meridian-a remarkable illustration of the advantages of active, useful and sedate habits. He is the son of John and Harriet Kugler, and was born, where he now lives, February 5th, 1805. His grandfather was Paul Kugler, and his great-grandfather was a German emigrant who settled in eastern Pennsylvania in the early part of the last century. There are several branches of the family descended from this great ancestor scattered over Pennsylvania and surrounding States. John Kugler, whose wife's maiden name was Miller, died in 1815, when his son Charles was but ten years old. His widow lived till 1860, and at her demise was in her eighty-fourth year. Besides Charles, the subject of this notice, John Kugler left two daughters, the eldest, Eliza, a maiden lady, who was buried in 1875, at the age of seventy-five, and Sarah, intermarried with

***On several occasions I noticed at stores and shops, where lively young people come together of evenings to chat and have fun, that the appearance of Mr. Reiner in the company would elicit from them marks of respect, not born of fear, but of reverence, and which would instantly check their hilarity.”—A. H. Cassel.

Daniel Gunkle, a miller, of East Whiteland, Chester county. They have had eight children, one of them, Dr. William H. Gunkle, having been a surgeon in the Union army during the rebellion, and since practicing in West Whiteland till his death in 1875. .*

In youth Charles Kugler had but the benefit of a common school education. He, however, so profited by his opportunities as to acquire the rudiments as well as a fair mathematical training, sufficient to qualify him to practice surveying, and likewise all the routine of commercial transactions. He perfected himself in surveying under Alan W. Corson.

In 1840 he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Abraham and Catharine Levering, who died in 1845, leaving to his care three daughters. Kate H., the only one now living, is intermarried with Frederick Eckfeldt, of Washington, District of Columbia. After remaining widowed a number of years, Mr. Kugler was married to Harriet, daughter of Philip and Harriet Sheaf, of Delaware county. There have been born to them six children: Charles, who was educated at the Polytechnic College, Philadelphia; Anna Sarah, who has been well educated, and is studying medicine; Paul J., engaged in commercial pursuits in Philadelphia; Eleanor L., who was educated in the High School, Philadelphia; Mary Florence, who also attends. school in Philadelphia; the youngest, Hattie S., attends the free school of the locality.

Very early in life Mr. K. connected himself with the religious body now called "St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lower Merion," and he, perhaps more than any other person there, has labored many years to build it up to its present state of prosperity. His quiet efforts have been so closely identified with this church that we condense from a historical sermon delivered in 1860 by the pastor, Rev. T. T. Titus, the following notes of its organization and development to the present time:

"So early as 1765 German ministers occasionally preached here and baptized the children of settlers in Lower Merion, but until 1767 no communion service was held there. In that year a record is extant that forty-three persons held a sacramental service. A Lutheran church was soon after organized and land bought by William

Stadelman, Frederick Grow, Stephen Goodman, Christopher Getzman, George Baasler, and Simon Litzenberg, on which to erect a church and found a cemetery. In 1769 a small log-house of worship was built, and the first communion service in the new house held May 1st, 1774. From this time the church had a lingering existence, its pulpit being supplied by ministers of different denominations. In 1800, however, the people erected a new house of worship of stone, which was occupied as above stated till the English language had supplanted the German; but still it languished for want of stated preaching and regular church ordinances.

"In 1828 Rev. B. Keller had become pastor at Germantown, when Mr. Kugler, who had joined the society, interested himself to invite Mr. Keller to divide his ministrations with the church of Lower Merion, which he accordingly did. Very soon the distinctive interests of the congregation began to be looked after as never before. A Sunday school began to flourish, and Mr. Kugler procured the building of a stone enclosure along the south line of the church lot. Shortly after Rev. Jeremiah Harpel became the stated pastor, and at the first communion thereafter but eleven persons participated, Mr. Kugler being the only male communicant. From this time, however, under the energetic labors of Mr. Harpel, who became pastor in 1831, the church began to increase, and by 1833 the people set about erecting a new house of worship, Mr. Kugler, as before, taking the lead. The edifice, built of stone, was finished and dedicated as 'St. Paul's' in November, and the congregation continued to increase in numbers and influence till 1834, when Mr. H. resigned. In 1835 Rev. Charles Barnitz assumed the pastorate, and took up his residence in the neighborhood. He ministered also about four and a half years, till 1839, and added to it about fifty persons.

"His successor was Rev. Edwin Town, who had charge two and a half years, and left in 1842. The pulpit was then vacant until the autumn of 1844, when Rev. Nathan Cornell was called, who labored about the same length of time, adding some twenty-four to the communion. In 1851 Rev. William D. Roedel was settled there, and the congregation built a parsonage. He labored four years, adding seventeen to the membership.

"The church having grown strong and prosperous, with a membership of nearly seventy-five, a new edifice (the fourth since the organization of the church) was decided upon, and erected in 1873 on a new site donated by Mr. Kugler. In design and convenience it is fully up to the times. It was dedicated in December, 1875."

Mr. Kugler, at a very early day, also began to labor in the Sabbath school, having now filled that honorable and useful position over fifty years. For a long period, too, he was a trustee and a member of the church council. For thirty years, on behalf of the congregation, he has represented the Synod of eastern Pennsylvania in the General Synod of the Lutheran

Church, and for sixteen years also has been President of the Lutheran Publication Society of Philadelphia.

In 1834 Mr. K. was elected a school director, re-elected continuously till 1870, nearly forty years, and during the incipient period of the school law he earnestly defended the enactment and its beneficent workings against the prejudices that opposed its adoption. He might, therefore, with great justice and propriety, be regarded as the putative father, or at least the early and continued patron, of free school education in his neighborhood. Charles Kugler is what might be denominated a born Democrat, and acted with that party till 1861, when he thought many of them gave aid and comfort to the rebellion. He was accordingly nominated and elected to the Legislature by his Democratic fellow-citizens, and served during the sessions of 1842-3 and 1843-4 with great credit to himself and acceptance to his party. Being a surveyor and scrivener, accustomed to transacting legal business, he was often elected either assessor or assistant assessor, and has served his fellow-citizens in numerous private trusts, such as executor, guardian, and the like. During the closing years of the war he voluntarily and without compensation, and simply as a patriotic and charitable duty, came to Norristown, collected the bounty appropriated by the county for the support of soldiers' families in his neighborhood, and paid over the money, thus saving them the expense and trouble of coming for it themselves.

In 1861, believing that the Democratic party, as a party, was not as earnest in defence of the Union as the opposition, he severed his connection with it, and has ever since acted with the Republican, which he has often represented in county > conventions, and on one or more occasions has presided over those bodies with great dignity and judgment. Mr. Kugler

was the President of the first Union county meeting called at Odd Fellows' Hall, Norristown, to sustain the war, just after the fall of Fort Sumter, and doubtless was selected because of his known Union sentiments as a Democrat. Mr. K. lives in an ancient mansion (the family homestead) on the Lancaster turnpike, at Ardmore, and besides the property on which he resides, owns a small farm of seventy-five acres near by.

Mr. Kugler is a man of widely extended information and superior judgment; hence the use his brethren, fellow-citizens and neighbors have made of his time and talents. Besides, he is of that quiet temperament, unbending integrity, and abstemious habits, that give assurance of a life well spent.

THOMAS RUTTER.

THE RUTTER FAMILY.

Oh, all important time! through every age

Though much and warm the wise have urged, the man

Is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour.-Night Thoughts.

One of the most ancient, respectable and influential families in eastern Pennsylvania is that which we have placed at the head of this page. The orthography would indicate a German origin, but Thomas Rutter, a Quaker, is recorded to have come to the colony with Penn in 1682. He was, therefore, probably English. He was married, by Friends' ceremony, to Rebecca Staples, at Pennsburg, Bucks county, on the 10th of Eleventhmonth, 1685. For a time they settled in Bristol township, he being a man of intelligence and energy, and a preacher among them until the schism, headed by George Keith, which took place in 1691, when he seems to have adopted Baptist views, and was baptized (immersed) by Rev. Thomas Killingworth, continuing afterwards to preach as a Baptist for some years.

In 1705 or 1706, when Pastorius resigned the office of Burgomaster of Germantown, Thomas Rutter, who then lived there, was chosen in his stead. Whether he entirely abandoned the "ministry of the word" about this time is uncertain; but it is recorded that in 1717 he removed to the Manatawny region, and commenced to mine and smelt iron ore, of which business he must have had some knowledge in the old country. The following is the record found in one of Jonathan Dickinson's letters, in the Logan manuscripts, about that

time:

"This last summer one Thomas Rutter, a smith, who lived not