HARVEY SHAW.

Silence to passion, prejudice and mockery, is the best answer, what resistance inflames.-William Penn.

and often conquers

Harvey Shaw, son of Aaron and Susanna B. Shaw, was born in Plumstead township, near Doylestown, August 30th, 1812. He remained on his father's farm until fourteen years of age, when he was placed in the store of Yardley & Jones, at Newtown, and continued there four years. He then accepted a situation in the counting-room of his co usin, Elias Shaw, who was largely engaged in the flour and general commission business in the city of Baltimore, and remained with him about three years. He was then appointed to a clerkship in the Union Bank of Maryland, continuing in that institution from three to four years, when he resigned and entered the firm of Elias Shaw & Co., and subsequently that of Gambrill & Shaw. On his retiring from the bank, Cashier Mickle presented him with a handsome testimonial letter for his fidelity and courteous deportment during his engagement there.

In May, 1837, Mr. Shaw was united in marriage with Sarah W. Ely, a sister of the late General John Ely. She died in 1839, and in 1845 he married Sophia, daughter of John Elliott, formerly of King-of-Prussia, Montgomery county. After this marriage he closed his business engagements in Baltimore, and moved to Buckingham valley, Bucks county, where he purchased the beautiful residence of the late Dr. John Wilson, and for ten years was engaged in the business of farming. In the spring of 1857 he was appointed Secretary and Treasurer of the Barclay Coal Company, and removed with his wife and children (Isabella and J. Elliott) to Norristown, of which borough he has since then been a resident, still filling the above situation that he has held for the past twenty-one years.

Mr. Shaw is a member of the religious society of Friends, and in politics a Republican. In the latter particular, however, he cares more for the qualifications of the man to fill the office than for party ties. He has never sought nor held any political office, but has on many occasions been called upon to settle estates and act as guardian, trustee, and the like.

Mr. S. is a man of cultivation and advanced sentiments touch

ing the public welfare. On occasions appealing to public charity he contributes liberally, as may be instanced when private funds were immediately wanted during the rebellion to equip men for the common defence, Mr. Shaw, in a public meeting, tendered his check for a hundred dollars, which example others followed. He has shown equal munificence and public spirit in taking the initiative and heading a list for the procurement of an ornamental drinking-fountain for public use, in front of the Norristown public square. He procured the

subscriptions, collected the money, purchased the fountain, induced the parties erecting it to remit their profits, and handed it over to the borough authorities with a detailed exhibit of the contributions and disbursements for the same, which was published for general information. In like manner, in conjunction with Mr. Charles D. Phillips, he procured in the same way a large number of iron settees for the square, as also assisting in the procurement of boxes for the birds in the square and in Friends' meeting yard.

Now, in the closing years of his life, Mr. Shaw enjoys the comforts of a home and a competency which early industry and habits of temperance have acquired and saved.

HON. WILLIAM A. YEAKLE.

The life of nations is much longer than that of persons, but their health depends on their observance of the laws of health notwithstanding. The law of right is their law of health also. John H. Hunt.

William Anders Yeakle, son of Samuel and Lydia Anders Yeakle, of Norristown, was born in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county, on the 20th of October, 1824. His ancestors on both sides from the era of the Reformation have belonged to that humble and evangelical people called Schwenkfelders. They are the followers of Casper Schwenkfeld, of Silesia, Germany, who was cotemporary with Luther. The Yeakles, Anders, and other families of this plain and pious

people, are settled on a belt of country extending from Germantown to Hereford, Berks county. The ancestors of Mr. Yeakle are known to have settled in the middle townships of what is now Montgomery county subsequent to 1734.

The father of Mr. Yeakle, as himself, was a farmer, and gave his son a good common school education, such as was usual forty years ago, consisting mainly of the rudimentary branches, to which he has since added by constant reading and study. On the 17th of January, 1849, he was married to Caroline, daughter of the late John and Elizabeth Hocker, of Whitemarsh, and in the spring following commenced farming for himself on the beautiful plantation (the old family homestead) where he still resides. His land has a frontage nearly to the Bethlehem turnpike road, with the Wissahickon crossing its eastern end, and extending back a mile, covering as handsome a plateau as can be found in that township of beautiful farms.

In 1850 his neighbors elected him a member of the school board of the township, and by their partiality he was continued in the position during eighteen years of continuous service. He then declined a re-election, though he remains one of the auditors of the board, being now over twenty years since he assumed the duties connected with it.

In the summer of 1870, at the solicitation of friends, he consented to be a candidate for State Senator before the Republican convention of the county, and was nominated in September. The district, however, being composed of Montgomery, Delaware and Chester, the conferees of the two latter finally voted for Henry S. Evans, of Chester, when Mr. Yeakle magnanimously withdrew from the contest in favor of the former, who was put on the ticket and elected. Three years later Mr. Yeakle's claims were again presented. In the meantime Montgomery county had become a Senatorial district by itself. He was nominated again on the Republican ticket to take his chance of success in a Democratic county. At the election in the following October he was chosen by a majority of thirty votes over Dr. John G. Hillegass, his Democratic competitor. This was a most satisfactory proof of Mr. Yeakle's worth and great popularity. Mr. Y. served his term of three years, but

declined a renomination, and the place was filled by the Demo-crats electing Jones Detwiler over S. Powell Childs at the next election.

For a long time Mr. Yeakle has taken a deep interest in everything that concerns agriculture, and has been for many years a member of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society. In January, 1877, it chose him on its behalf a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and on taking his seat he drew the one-year term. Upon its expiration he was chosen again in January, 1878, for the full term of three years.

Mr. Yeakle enjoys in the largest degree the confidence and favor of his neighbors and fellow-citizens, having frequently represented them in the county conventions of the Republican party, and on one or more occasions has presided over the annual gathering.

As a legislator Mr. Yeakle represented the most elevated sentiment and feeling of the Republican party, and his votes show that he carried with him to the State Capital the high moral principles of the religious society of which most of his family are members. If men of his stamp were oftener sent to legislative bodies there would be fewer charges of peculation and corruption alleged against officers and representatives.

We close this sketch with a brief notice of the family at large, including the record of its emigration and settlement in Pennsylvania. It is known that the great progenitor was named Christopher Yeakle, who died in Silesia, Germany. His son. Christopher, being then but seventeen years of age, came to our State in 1734 with his widowed mother, Regina, and after serving an apprenticeship to a cooper in Germantown, married and settled at Creisheim, on the south side of Chestnut Hill, in Philadelphia county, at which place he built a log-house about 1743 or 1744. This house is still (1879) standing. A short time previous to the Revolution he purchased a property on the summit of Chestnut Hill, where he died in 1810 at about the age of ninety-three years. He left three daughters and two sons, Abraham and Christopher. The latter of the two married Susannah Krieble, and remained on the homestead till 1844, when he died, aged eighty-six years. Christopher and Susan

nah Yeakle had six children, of whom Samuel Yeakle, of Norristown, the father of the subject of this notice, is the young.est. Samuel Yeakle and wife have three sons, William A., Charles A., and Abraham A., the last intermarried with Anna Eliza, daughter of Jesse and Harriet Shepherd, of Hickorytown, and they have three children, Frank S., John Morris, and Hattie May. Abraham A. is the well known merchant of Norristown, long in partnership with James W. Schrack, deceased, He is an active member of the First Presbyterian ⚫Church. The children of William A. Yeakle and wife are Annie H. and Samuel. Charles A. resides on a part of the old homestead in Whitemarsh.

SAMUEL F. JARRETT.

"It is better to be born lucky than rich," says the adage. But better still than either is it to be trained affable, courteous, obliging, and trustworthy. While we know there cannot be such a thing as "luck," for nothing comes by chance, still some circumstances in the notice we are about to write would seem to confirm that popular notion.

The Jarrett family are supposed to have come from the highlands of Scotland early in the past century, for Buck in his history of Montgomery county refers to Thomas and Levi Jarrett as living in Upper Dublin township, and John Jarrett's name appears as one of the first or original officers of the Hatboro Library Company in 1755.

Mr. Jarrett's maternal ancestors on his father's side were Palmers, a numerous family settled in Delaware county, as also in our own. These were all English Quakers. His maternal grandmother, of the elder generation, was a Rhodes, and his iimmediate maternal grandparent a Farra, who was of Welsh origin.

Samuel F. Jarrett, farmer, and late County Treasurer, is the