ISAIAH B. HOUPT. A span is all that we can boast, The "Haupt" family, as the name was originally spelled, is undoubtedly of German origin, the earliest known progenitor being Henry Haupt, who settled near Jarrettown, in Upper Dublin township, Montgomery county, sometime late in the past century. The father of Isaiah B. was John, the son of Henry just named, and his mother's name was Rebecca, daughter of John Brandt, of Plymouth township. Isaiah B. was born in the locality first above named on the 12th of June, 1817, and received in his youth an ordinary common school education, till old enough to learn a trade. His father, as his uncles, Samuel and Henry, were stone masons by trade, and at the proper age Isaiah was placed with his uncle Henry to learn what had become the family calling, as his older brother, Ezekiel, had already acquired the same handicraft. About 1838, as soon as out of his apprenticeship, he took an engagement with Thomas M. Jolly, Esq., Patrick Flynn and James Webb, who had just contracted to build a section of the Georgia State railroad, in the Empire State of the South, where he remained about a year. Then coming North, he found work in building locks at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Baltimore and Ohio canal, where he stopped six months. From thence he went to Hollidaysburg, in (now) Blair county, where he assisted to set two of the heavy stationary lifting engines of the inclined plane on the top of the Allegheny mountains. He also worked at or built an aqueduct at Huntington and another at Newton-Hamilton. Finishing there he went to Pittsburg, and taking a flat-boat descended the river to New Orleans, where he got work at erecting a prison for the confinement of the chain-gang of that city. Here he stayed one year and six months, and shifted his job to the repairs of Fort Wood, some distance from the city, where he remained eleven months; after which he took passage on the ship Gaskill, for New York, where he arrived after a twenty-seven days voyage, the ship having bad weather and sailing over the outside passage. Soon after arrival at home, he commenced work again at his trade, and very soon in 1843 was married to Elizabeth Nyket, of Unionville, Berks county. Not long after, in connection with his brother Ezekiel, he began to contract to do mason work, handling some very heavy contracts. They took the building of the Crane Iron Works near Allentown, in Lehigh county; the two furnaces at Spring Mill, and two at Conshohocken, besides a large number of bridges, including one over Perkiomen, at Tyson's Ford, and another at Alderfer's mill, as also other smaller contracts in different parts of the county. Previous to these, however, he served an appointment as wood-inspector on the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad, when that great avenue was under State management; and shortly after was appointed Supervisor of the Eastern Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, residing at Harrisburg three years while holding that position. In 1863 his claims as a life-long Democrat were recognized by a nomination for Register of Wills, which office he held for the term of three years. In 1870 he was appointed by the Court Prison Inspector, which position he filled eight years. He also served in the borough Council six years. Having a claim against the Norristown Register establishment for money loaned to the proprietor, Mr. Houpt, in July, 1877, bought the concern at public sale to secure his claim. This journal he published one year, and in connection with it a daily. penny paper, called the Watchman, nearly as long. While he continued these publications he procured large additions to their patronage, both papers being edited with considerable ability by his sonin-law, H. U. Brunner, Esq. About one year after making this purchase he sold the paper and good-will to A. Kneule, Esq., of the Pennsburg Bauern Freund, and retired from journalism. Mr. Houpt is a man of pleasant and courteous demeanor, and is generally held in high regard by his friends. Isaiah B. and Elizabeth Houpt have two children, Mary Ann, intermarried with H. U. Brunner, Esq., attorney-at-law, late District Attorney, and Dr. Charles N. Houpt, whose wife is Laura, daughter of Gabriel Kohn, of Norristown. Isaiah B. and Elizabeth Houpt have three grandchildren, Gabriella, daughter of Dr. Charles N. and Laura Houpt; Blanche and Charles, children of H. U. and Mary A. Brunner. In friendly, social qualities, Mr. Houpt stands in great personal estimation with his fellow citizens; and after a life of industry and care, has accumulated a comfortable sufficiency for the down hill of life. HON. GEORGE N. CORSON. Abou Ben Adhem-may his tribe increase.-Leigh Hunt. His George Norman Corson, attorney-at-law and member of the late Constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, is the third son of Charles and Sarah Corson, of Lower Providence township, Montgomery county. The maiden name of his maternal grandmother was Norman, and she became the wife of Laurence Egbert. Mr. C.'s mother was a sister to the wife of his uncle, Alan W. Corson, elsewhere commemorated in this book. father, Charles Corson, an elder son of Joseph Corson (the first of the name in Montgomery county), was a farmer, and located, soon after his marriage, in Lower Providence, where he raised a large family, dying there in May, 1878, aged seventy-eight years. He was a man of great moral and mental force. The brothers and sisters of the subject of our notice are the following: Richard R., long known as a real estate broker in Norristown, who is intermarried with Louisa C. Williams; William E., intermarried with Hannah Highley, the latter of whom is deceased; John J., also in the scrivening and real estate line, who is married to Rebecca, daughter of Henry Freedley, Esq.; Laurence E., who lives in Lower Providence; Adelaide, the wife of Albert Crawford, also of that township; Susan R., married to Felix Highley, of Norriton; and Mary. George N. Corson was born March 11th, 1834, and his early years were spent at the farm on the banks of the beautiful Perkiomen, a name sufficiently musical and romantic to turn our subject's young mind to smooth-sounding numbers, as shall be narrated hereafter. His youthful foster-mother was a country school-house on the hills, between the Ridge turnpike road and the Perkiomen. Here he obtained the rudiments which inspired him with a desire to secure a better education. This he soon attained, first at Treemount Seminary, Norristown, then under the care of Rev. Samuel Aaron, and afterwards at Freeland Seminary, conducted by Rev. H. A. Hunsicker. Being an apt scholar he soon acquired good academic training, and like thousands of the now distinguished of our country, commenced instructing others, thereby teaching himself, or further perfecting his own education. He began teaching when seventeen years of age, and in 1853, by the time he had attained his nineteenth year, was enabled to begin the study of law in the office of James Boyd, Esq., of the Norristown bar. In 1856, in his twenty-second year, he was admitted, and at once secured a considerable practice. He very early brought himself into notice by the ingenuity with which he managed criminal cases. One instance occurs to the writer, which is this: A weak-minded culprit was arraigned for some petty crime, and Mr. Corson so adroitly handled the witnesses on his behalf as to befog both jury and court as to the sanity or amenability of the defendant, who was thus acquitted of the charge in the indictment. The client thereupon seemed bound for the lunatic asylum, when his counsel again came to the rescue by getting such modifying testimony introduced, or so practicing on his Honor's good nature, as to convince him that this was not a case that required the man's detention, who was therefore permitted to go free. He handles a strong case with such preparation and bold assurance as to take the inside track from the start, and in managing weak causes is an adept at filibustering and befogging a jury, which may be regarded as the refined strategy of the profession. Mr. Corson is a fluent speaker, with a full, manly voice. His practice has grown to be quite large. His most noted and latest achievements in the line of his profession were the able assistance he rendered the District Attorney in the prosecution of Joseph Haddop, a German, for the murder of Julius Wochele, a Jew peddler, and his defence, in 1877, of Heinrich Wahlen, the murderer of Max Hugo Hoehne. These cases were striking parallels in nearly all their circumstances. In the first instance a conviction was reached and the man hanged, and in the latter the man hung himself to escape the gallows. Belonging to a notoriously anti-slavery family, Mr. C. entered with great spirit into the issues characterizing politics since 1856, the time of his entrance into public life, and he was prepared to argue them with great earnestness. Being thus an active, ingrain Republican, he obtained an appointment as Notary Public from Governor Curtin in 1862, and shortly after, through the favor of Hon. Simon Cameron, and by recommendation of Judge Chapman, was appointed Register in Bankruptcy, an office of considerable emoluments. Previous to this, however, on the breaking out of the rebellion, he enlisted in Colonel Hartranft's Fourth Regiment, and served as a private for three months, till discharged by the terms of enlistment. In 1870 Mr. Corson made a hasty voyage to Europe, touring rapidly through Scotland, England, and Ireland. His letters in the meantime were published in the Norristown Herald, and attracted much attention. In 1872 he was on the Republican ticket as delegate to the Constitutional convention and was elected. For a young man, he took a very active part in the doings of that body, being on several important committees. The following curious coincidence in history may be recorded in this connection: It is well known that Hon. John B. Sterigere, who was an active member of the previous convention, held in 1838, was mainly instrumental in procuring the insertion of the word "white" in our then State Constitution, thus disfranchising all men of African descent. Mr. Corson, a delegate from the same county, and occupying the same law office vacated at death by Mr. Sterigere, was the first to move the committee to expunge the obnoxious word from the fundamental law, which, of course, was done. This is a marked case of historical retribution and justice after remaining nearly half a century a stigma and blot on the fair fame of the Commonwealth. During the sittings of the convention Mr. C. wrote anonymously for the Philadelphia Press numerous pen-portraits of its members, which were extensively copied by the newspapers of the State. He has been for a long time a frequent contributor to the press of Norristown and elsewhere, including papers in Appleton's American Cyclopedia. He was largely instrumental in establishing the Norristown Independent, which he edited for some time after it started. His writings are characterized by piquancy and ideality, even to the point of being sensational. His poetic compositions, however, have secured him the most |