since been occupied. From nearly the completion of his manufactory in 1838 till 1850, when he took his son, William M., into partnership, his son-in-law, William Stroud, who had married his daughter Jane, was clerk and book-keeper, and was afterwards assisted by John Potts, who had married Mr. J.'s younger daughter Mary. Subsequently Mr. Stroud went into the daguerreotyping business, and Mr. Potts alone filled the position. For a number of years, up to 1856, a large manufacturing business was done by the firm of Samuel Jamison & Son, the latter becoming a leading partner in the establishment. The younger son, Samuel, was an assistant.

Very soon after coming to Norristown, Mr. Jamison purchased and moved into the large stone mansion on Main street, where his son Samuel now (1879) resides. As before stated, Samuel Jamison took his son William into the concern in 1850, and they ran the mills together till his death in 1856. William, having the works willed to him by his father, continued to operate them till his own death, which occurred on the 15th of October, 1862.

Samuel Jamison, Sr., and his wife Agnes, who had come with him from the old country, had seven children, named as follows: William M., who married Mrs. Harriet Parker (originally Dungan), died without issue.

The next child was John, who was buried in childhood.

The third is Jane, the wife of William Stroud, of Norristown. They have two sons and four daughters living, two children dying in infancy.

Agnes, the fourth child, was intermarried with S. Porter Stinson, of Norristown. They have one daughter, named for her mother, and who resides with her father. Agnes Jamison Stinson died while young, and is interred beside her parents.

The next was Mary, who married John Potts, Esq., recently deceased. She had five children, three sons and two daughters. One of the latter died in childhood; the other, Mary, married Dr. Theodore Jacobs, then of Coal Valley, Illinois, where she died about two years ago. One of the sons is also deceased, and of the family only Samuel and William now (1879) survive. Mrs. Mary Potts died in 1868.

Samuel, the sixth child, is married to Elizabeth, daughter of John C. Craft. They have one daughter, Agnes.

Sarah, the youngest, was the wife of Hon. James Boyd, of Norristown. They had three sons: Robert, the eldest, died in childhood; Wallace J., who was elected Burgess of Norristown on the

18th of February, 1879; and Howard. Mrs. Boyd died in 1876. Samuel Jamison, Sr., was bred a Presbyterian, and usually attended the First Church of Norristown. He did not become a member, however, till shortly before his death, which took place September 8th, 1856, at the age of seventy. His wife's demise preceded his own eight years, she dying November 3d, 1848, in her sixty-fourth year. In person Samuel Jamison and consort were tall and robustly built, he having a light florid complexion. He was one of the most thorough and energetic business men that ever flourished and died in Norristown. He and his wife and daughter Agnes

lie buried near the rear wall of the First Presbyterian Church, and an ornamental marble shaft commemorates their lives. Mrs. Potts and Mrs. Boyd are interred in Montgomery Cemetery, in their family tombs.

GENERAL WILLIAM SCHALL.

The ties that briefly bound to earth

Have one by one been broken;

My soul has left its idle mirth,

And owns each sadd'ning token.

My spirit waits the call to join

The household of my heart.-W. Whitehead.

If we measure life by its useful results and by the scriptural limit of threescore years and ten of honest effort, then the person whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch stands among the successful men of our day.*

William Schall belongs to the sterling German Protestant element infused into our State by religious persecution in Europe during the early part of the eighteenth century. He traces his descent to Tobias Schall, who settled in Earl township, Berks county, just about the time the Rutters and Potts were founding the iron business in that locality, a hundred and fifty years ago. Tobias Schall, among

*THE POINT OF VIEW.

In illustration of the sentiment just advanced we presume to quote the following anecdote, which shows that an estimate of human life greatly depends upon the point of view :

"It was a sad funeral to me," said a gentleman, in a company of friends; "the saddest I have attended for years.'

"That of Edmondson?" asked a friend.

"Yes."

"How did he die?"

"Poor as poverty. His life was one long struggle with the world, and at every dis

other children, had one son George, who in turn had also a son George, and who rose to some eminence, being a member of the Legislature from Berks county. This George Schall married Catharine Eyster, and there were born to them (the fourth generation) the following children: George, John, David, William, Hannah, and Catharine. Of these, Hannah was intermarried with Daniel Jacoby and Catharine with Dr. William Herbst. David was the father of Colonel John W. and George Schall, now of Norristown. The third and youngest son, William, is the subject of our notice. He was born in Oley township, Berks county, on the 18th of April, 1812, and in his youth received a fair education both in German and English, though he was early trained to labor and the management of the iron business, in which his father was engaged. From his early childhood William Schall lived at what was called District Forge, in District township, Berks county.

In 1833 he built Green Lane Forge, in Marlborough township, Montgomery county, and worked it successfully till 1848, when he removed to Norristown. For many years previous to this time his father's works had manufactured large quantities of bar and other merchant iron. In 1835, Mr. Schall, in company with Robert Stinson and Wright A. Bringhurst, was elected on the Whig ticket to the lower house of Assembly, and served one year. This result was in consequence of the division of the Democratic party into the Wolf and Muhlenberg factions, and their running two tickets.

At an early day he joined the Third Troop, being elected First Lieutenant shortly after, and subsequently Colonel of the Third Regiment of Montgomery county volunteers. In 1840 he was

advantage. Fortune mocked him all the while with golden promises that were destined never to be fulfilled."

"Yet he was patient and enduring," remarked one of the company. "Patient as a christian, enduring as a martyr," was the reply. "Poor man! he was worthy of a better fate. He ought to have succeeded, for he deserved success." "Did he not succeed?" questioned the one who had spoken of his patience and endurance.

No, sir. He died poor, just as I have stated.”

I was with him in his last moments," said the other, "and thought he died rich." No," said the first; "he has left nothing behind. The heirs will have no concern as to the administration of his estate."

"He left a good name," said one, "and that is something."

And a legacy of noble deeds that were done in the name of humanity," remarked another.

"And a precious example," said a third.

"Lessons of patience in suffering; of hope in adversity; of heavenly confidence when no sunbeams fell upon his bewildering path," was the testimony of another. "Then you think he died rich?" inquired the first speaker.

"Yes; richer than the millionaire who went to his long home on the same day, miserable in all but gold. A sad funeral,' did you say? No, my friend; it was a triumphal procession-the planting of a living grain to rise to life again, not the burial of a human clod. Did not succeed? Why, his whole life was a series of successes. Look what he accomplished while he lived. His heirs have an interest in all he did, and also what he left behind. A large property is left, but not in money. Let his children see to it that they do not squander the example and good name he has bequeathed them."

elected Brigade Inspector, which office he held till 1847, when he was chosen Brigadier General of all the county militia.

General Schall moved to Norristown, and purchased of Hon. John Freedley the large dwelling at the corner of Main and Mill streets, together with a convenient plot of ground at the confluence of Schuylkill river and Stony creek. He there first proceeded to erect very extensive nail works, and not long afterwards the large rolling mill, which were all put in operation, employing a great number of hands. From this time (1853) until 1857, when the commercial revulsion overtook us, these works were among the most valued sources of our productive industry. Doing a very heavy business for several years, the need was felt for a home supply of pig metal. Accordingly, in 1857, before the revulsion of that year, in company with his sons, he proceeded to build “Lucinda Furnace" by the side of the other works. This was put in operation, notwithstanding the dull times, and was kept in blast till the breaking out of the rebellion, when a temporary suspension occurred, as nearly all his sons entered the army with the Fourth Regiment. But the war soon revived the iron trade, and for two or three years such a heavy business was done here that in 1864 General Schall and sons concluded to erect a rolling mill between the railroad and the river, in the lower part of the borough. This was run till about 1870, when it was sold to Samuel Fulton, of Conshohocken. During late years the works of the Messrs. Schall were capable of producing about thirty thousand kegs of nails, and rolling and sending to market one thousand tons of boiler iron a year, generally employing about two hundred hands.

The years 1867 and 1868 will be known in American annals as the inauguration of the new governmental policy of a forced return to gold payments, as the period from 1873 to 1879 was the culmination of the same. Under this suicidal effort half the industry of the country, which had grown up in recent years, has been destroyed, and a large proportion of its population reduced to poverty and destitution. Since September, 1873, we have seen this great, new country-or, rather, continent of ours-which invites labor and development on nearly every mile of its surface, struck as with a death-like paralysis-a palsy, which has crushed enterprise, crippled manufactures, stopped material improvement, foreclosed railroad and other mortgages in favor of foreign capitalists, and prevented the construction of new roads that are needed. The nation is now seen staggering under four thousand millions of national, State, and

corporation debts, which it is striving to pay while its own idle people starve, in order that we may thereby export the residue of labor products to pay those foreign debts, with the interest, and pay them in gold.

The population of the United States is greater now than in 1870. The people have as many wants now as then, which constitute the basis of all industry, and they are as willing to labor for the purpose of gratifying them. Yet our production and consumption have shrunk to nearly a half of what they were in the period first named. A half settled country like ours should have a steady, uniform and continual development of its industry and of material improvement. The reason that it has not all these is not found in nature, Providence, or as the result of accident.

Of course such a state of things as we have described has swept away from hundreds of thousands the capital and savings of their whole lives. It is no wonder then that General Schall is among the number financially ruined. In his old days, however, he can point to what he has done in a long life rather than what he has in hand, and to the fact that when and after the rebellion broke out he sent into the field his eight sons to fight his country's battles, giving also the life of one of his brave boys to her on the field of blood.

In January, 1831, while a young man, William Schall married Caroline, daughter of Reuben Trexler, of Berks county, and there were born to them fourteen children, ten of whom are living. The names of those who survived infancy are as follows: Lucy, Reuben, Edwin and Edward (twins), David, Calvin, Margaret, George, Percival, Alexander, Annie, and Amelia. Lucy, the eldest daughter, is intermarried with Herman L. Baer. Margaret, the second daughter, is the wife of Charles Hunsicker, Esq., attorney-at-law. Reuben, the eldest son, is married to Virginia, daughter of George White. David was intermarried with Mary Jane, daughter of the late Nathan and Ann Rambo; she has now been dead some years, leaving one son, named William. Edwin, the distinguished soldier, was killed at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in 1864, as elsewhere recorded in this volume. Edward, the twin brother, unmarried, is a practicing attorney at the Montgomery county bar, and being a soldier, advertises himself as an agent to procure soldiers' pensions. Calvin was married to Susannah, daughter of John White; she is deceased. Percival D. wandered from home, and enlisted in the army. Alexander, when in his twenty-second year, was accident