For

grown, therefore, he was capable of teaching all the common mathematical branches, as well as the other studies usual in high schools. He was thus early a self-taught scholar, and teacher also, a profession to which he devoted himself. several years he taught a day school belonging to Friends at Plymouth Meeting, and afterwards, for many years, a boarding and day school in his own house, in Whitemarsh, his reputation as a teacher being so high that he drew many students from Norristown and other places. About middle life, however, he abandoned teaching as a profession, and having a large farm and nursery of trees and shrubs, he divided his time between these and land surveying, an art in which he was regarded as the most accomplished in the county. His reputation in this department was so eminent that he was often called to distant places, and employed wherever there were difficult lines to run that required extra skill and accuracy to determine true boundaries. In this calling he was not relieved from service till infirmities and advanced age compelled him to decline. He was also for very many years, because of accuracy in accounts, excellence of judgment, and high character for integrity, employed by neighbors and acquaintances to write wills, deeds, and draw agreements for them. He was frequently appointed executor by testators or chosen administrator of those dying intestate.

In early life Alan W. Corson was married to Mary, daughter of Laurence Egbert, of Plymouth, and they had born to them the following children, seven of whom grew to adult age: Hannah, intermarried with James Richie; Sarah, married to Isaac Garretson; Martha, the wife of Isaac Styer; Elias Hicks, whose life and family history appear elsewhere in this volume; Laurence E., married to Mary, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Johnson; Dr. Joseph; and Luke, who is an extensive farmer living in Nebraska.

The living children of the above grandchildren of Alan W. Corson are the following: James and Hannah Richie have two daughters, Helen and Emily. Isaac and Sarah Garretson have five children-Mary, intermarried with William Livezey; Joseph, Alan, Anna, and Eliza. The children of Elias H. are given

elsewhere. Laurence E. Corson, who for many years was an eminent surveyor, justice of the peace, and conveyancer in Norristown, left three children-Alan (who is now justice, surveyor, and conveyancer in Norristown, as his father was), Sallie, and Norman. Dr. Joseph, who studied with his uncle, Hiram, graduated at the University, and till the breaking out of the rebellion practiced at Portsmouth, Ohio; was surgeon of an Ohio regiment, and died soon after his return; was married to Martha Cutler, and his widow and one son, Edward, live at that place. Luke, who is the only son living, has one child, Alan.

Alan W. Corson's eldest daughter inherited her father's love of natural science, and more than thirty years ago furnished the Montgomery County Cabinet of Natural Science a valuable herbarium. She stands very high as a botanist, and the vast collection of rare specimens in that science she has gathered and prepared, as also her museum of salt and fresh water shells, have made her justly celebrated among her acquaintances. She has two daughters, one the wife of Dr. John Graham, of Philadelphia, and the other married to a gentleman named Perkins, of the same city.

A notice of Alan W. Corson would not be complete without a further reference to his brothers and sisters, the other children of Joseph Corson (who left a large family), nearly all of whom were well educated, and possessed commanding talents and marked moral characteristics. The author will be pardoned for saying that they exhibit family peculiarities reminding him of some of the time-honored clans of Scotland. The Corsons will arraign each other, sometimes sharply; but to the outside world they are a unit. This results from the very commendable and warranted pride of family, or esprit du corps, as the French phrase it. Almost all the race possess a keen, jocular, and sarcastic turn of mind, and some of them a talent for mimicry and critical badinage peculiarly French. The author may also add that he has no knowledge of any man of the county from whom are descended so large a number of cultivated and distinguished offspring, both in the male and female branches, as are descended from Joseph Corson.

Joseph Corson's next eldest child to Alan W. was Mary, intermarried with Charles Adamson, of Schuylkill, Chester county, who died recently at the age of 85. She was the mother of Thomas Adamson, who for many years held the position of United States Consul at Pernambuco, Brazil, and is now in a similar position at Rio Janeiro. In these posts he has won an enviable fame with American seamen navigating those waters. A sister of Thomas, Dr. Sarah R. A. Dolly, studied medicine -being one of the first women in the United States to graduate-and has, in connection with her husband, Dr. Lester A. Dolly, a large practice in Rochester, New York. Another sister is married to Elijah F. Pennypacker, Esq., of Phoenixville. The youngest son, Charles, also lives at Phoenixville.

The third child was Sarah, the wife of Thomas Read, late of Norristown, whose family is mentioned in connection with the sketch of Dr. L. W. Read, found on another page of this book.

Joseph Corson's next child was Joseph, intermarried with Ann Hagy, and by whom he had the following children: Hiram, Hannah, Isabella, Humphrey, Clara, and Howard. Of these the first named is a very distinguished and well known scholar, having been at one time a professor in Girard College at Philadelphia, St. John's College at Annapolis, and now of language in Cornell University. He was recently invited by the New Shaksperian Society of London, England, to deliver the annual address before them, an honor never before tendered an American. Isabella, a sister of Hiram, is the wife of George A. Lenzi, a very gifted artist of Norristown. Clara, the youngest sister, is intermarried with a son of Rev. Mr. Scholl, formerly of Norristown. Howard, the youngest child, is dead.

The next son of Joseph Corson, Sr., was Charles, who is commemorated in the sketch of his son, George N. Corson, Esq., elsewhere recorded in this book.

Next comes George Corson, Sr., who all his life lived at Plymouth Meeting, first as a merchant, and afterwards as a farmer and extensive manufacturer of lime. He was justly distinguished for high moral qualities, being a most untiring antislavery and temperance reformer while he lived. He was mar

ried to Martha, daughter of Samuel Maulsby, of Plymouth. His eldest son, Samuel M., studied law, and practiced some years in Philadelphia, but has resorted to teaching and literature as more congenial to his taste. A brother, Elwood, is the well known physician of Norristown, who, to his reputation as a doctor, has added botany as a special study. A sister, Helen, who after years spent in the School of Design at Philadelphia, and two years under private instructors in France in the study of art, returned to Plymouth, but is now pursuing her profession again in Paris. Another daughter of George is Ida, who, after graduating at Vassar College, taught mathematics in a popular school in Philadelphia, and is now residing with her uncle, Surgeon George Maulsby, of the United States Navy, in Washington, District of Columbia.

After George Corson, who died in 1860, in his 58th year, comes Hiram, without doubt the most celebrated physician in the county. Reference is elsewhere made to him at length.

The youngest of Joseph Corson's family is William, who studied medicine and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to practice in 1831. He has long been at the head of the profession in Norristown, having a very large practice. He is an enthusiastic devotee to everything that relates to it, besides being a man of enlarged public spirit. He and his brother Hiram were mainly instrumental in organizing the Montgomery County Medical Society, and are also members of the State society.

During the late war Dr. William Corson was appointed by Dr. H. H. Smith, Surgeon General of the State of Pennsylvania, in connection with Dr. Green, of Easton, and Dr. Worthington, of West Chester, members of his examining board convened at Harrisburg. Subsequently he was appointed to fill the position of examining surgeon, or medical officer, of the Sixth district during the drafts. This was a post of great responsibility, demanding good judgment and high moral cour

age.

Since the conclusion of the war he was appointed examining surgeon under the pension laws of the United States. At present he has the position of commissioner in the board appointed to superintend the building of the Warren Hospital for

the Insane. Though naturally diffident, retiring, and not seeking official responsibilities, he has frequently been chosen to sit on public committees, and has contributed at different times some valuable papers to the medical literature of the day.

With few exceptions the whole Corson race have been cultivated in mind and notorious for their love of free thought. True to their Huguenot origin, they have been outspoken for freedom-the deadly foes of slavery; and most of them being life-long teetotallers. As the phrenologists say, the moral instincts have predominated over those strictly religious, Alan W. being nearly the only one of the male members of the family who has assumed the strict garb and life of Friends, although most of them adhere to the society's teachings. Alan is justly noted for his doctrinal unity with those who hold the views of Elias Hicks, and for the conscientious fulfillment of every precept of christian morals.

Alan W. Corson's mind received a strong religious bent at a very early age, and his conscientiousness and truthfulness have been controlling characteristics during his long life. He has been all his days an ardent lover of nature. Many years ago, with his cousin, John Evans, he used to make annual excursions to the lowlands of Delaware, Maryland, the sandy pine woods of New Jersey, and even to the Adirondacks, for specimens of botany, geology, mineralogy, and entomology, and in search of other scientific matters.

MAJOR WILLIAM H. HOLSTEIN.

The time of life is short;

To spend that shortness basely 'twere too long

If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.-Shakspeare.

William H. Holstein is the eldest surviving son of Colonel George W. Holstein, of Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, and was born February 17th, 1816. His brothers and sisters, with their intermarriages and offspring, are the follow