ally killed by a railroad accident near Bristol, Pennsylvania, while going on a summer excursion in 1874. Amelia, the youngest child, is married to John Beaver. Mrs. Caroline Schall died on the 7th of March, 1870, deeply mourned by her family and friends, and is buried in Montgomery Cemetery. For During his whole residence in Norristown General Schall has been a man of public spirit, entering heartily into all matters of general interest with his fellow-citizens. He has been a school director and a member of Town Council a number of terms. many years he was an active Whig, but on the rise of the Republi.can party was first identified with the American, and since with the Democratic party, though he has never been an office-hunter in either of them. General Schall and most of his family have been members of the Reformed Church of the Ascension, and for many years he has been one of its elders. His life has been a useful and busy one, which, with his numerous and well raised offspring, and a blameless reputation, are his contribution to the present and future. The late Wright A. Bringhurst, who had served in the Legislature with General Schall, in making his will left the latter one of the trustees of that munificent charity fund for the benefit of the poor. Very opportunely, therefore, General Schall, being out of employment the past year, was engaged in superintending the erection of the houses provided, under the will, to be built. Early in 1879 he was appointed Bank Assessor by the Auditor General to assess the bank taxes of the counties of Montgomery and Bucks and part of Philadelphia. Most of General Schall's sons are in business in Norristown. Reuben deals in coal, wood and lime, and David gives attention to the iron business, while George, who was recently Burgess, is now a wholesale coal operator. Calvin is employed and resides in Phil adelphia. As may be supposed, General Schall's real estate, when it was closed out at public sale, in the midst of a time of universal idleness and stringency in the money market, scarcely brought a tenth of its cost or of its previous value. The General, however, bears his altered circumstances with remarkable submission and philosophy. He can honestly exclaim with thousands who have gone before us, "Sic transit gloria mundi!" JACOB F. QUILLMAN. Art is long, and time is fleeting, And our hearts though stout and brave, Funeral marches to the grave.-Longfellow. Jacob F. Quillman, son of Daniel and Lydia Quillman, was. born at Sumneytown, Montgomery county, November 5th, 1835. Before sketching his education and rise as a business man, we turn aside to give what is known of the origin and pedigree of the family. As the arthography indicates, the name is German, the great-grandfather coming from that country and settling in Chester county, thence moving to Montgomery and settling at Sumneytown. His son Jacob, (Jacob F. Quillman's. grandfather) married Margaret Foust, and after burying his. first child, Henry, moved to McKeansburg, Schuylkill county, and they had born to them there the following offspring= Catharine, Daniel, Hetty, Jacob, and Jonathan. After some years, Jacob Quillman, Sr., and wife, with their children, returned and took up their abode again at Sumneytown, where the wife and mother died in 1856. Daniel Quillman, the eldest son, the father of the subject of this notice, was born in Schuylkill county, January 1st, 1811; and after arriving at manhood married Lydia, daughter of George and Elizabeth Frederick, of Upper Salford township, Montgomery county. The surviving children of this marriage are Jacob F., born November 5th, 1835, and Daniel F.,. March 30th, 1845. In 1848 Daniel Quillman, the father of these two sons, was elected County Commissioner, and in 1851, at the conclusion of his term, moved to Norristown, and rented the Rambo. House, on Swede street, which he kept several years. About 1856 he left the hotel. Daniel Quillman, on leaving the public house, bought out the stove and tin business of John M. Stauffer, at Main and Swede streets, which he continued to successfully carry on at that place six years, when he bought the building so long known as the "Washington House," by the side of the public square, to which he removed his stove and tin business. After coming to Norristown, 1851, Jacob F. Quillman, the subject of this notice, for four years was receiving the best education our Norristown schools and seminaries afforded, when, in 1854, at nineteen, he went into the office of Clerk of the Courts, Jesse B. Davis then being the incumbent; and continued to fill this position through the succeeding terms of E. B. Moore, James C. Burnside, and Daniel Fisher, Esqs., when having served twelve years apprenticeship in the office, through "civil service reform," or "rotation," he was elected Clerk of the Courts himself in 1866, and served three years, going out of office in December, 1869. At this time his father was conducting the stove and tin trade at the store-house just described, but growing old and desiring to be relieved of the business sold out the concern to his son Jacob F., who at once improved the store facilities, and took in partnership with him William H. Koplin, for many years in the employ of Henry C. Hill, in the iron and hardware trade. To the stove and tin line Messrs. Quillman and Koplin added a full line of iron, steel, cutlery, and hardware of all kinds, and at once the business of the concern began to assume large proportions. From this time, 1870 to 1877, their trade continued to increase, when the necessity for more room made improvements in the building necessary, whereupon a large stairway, entry and second floor were removed, a rear quarter-deck, or stove sales-room fitted up; large additions of hardware, and almost every description of house-furnishing goods, and manufacturers and mechanics' supplies added; and it may now be characterized as one of the fullest and completest retail establishments of its kind in the State. In April, 1861, Jacob F. Quillman was married to Henrietta, second daughter of Christian and Justina Meeh, of Norristown. The surviving children of this union are Tillie Justina, and `William Harry Quillman, two others having died in infancy. Since his sixteenth year, when he came to Norristown, Mr. 'Quillman has been constantly busy, first acquiring an education, and next serving the public in the very responsible office he held so long, and since then as the head of one of the largest mercantile houses in Norristown. It is proper to add here that he left the office as popular as he entered it, and the large trade he holds is the best proof of his deportment as a merchant. It ought to have been stated before, in connection with his father's notice, that his grandfather Quillman died at the residence of his father, in Norristown, 1860, and also that both the grandfathers of Jacob Quillman, Sr., were soldiers of the Revolutionary war. It will not be inappropriate to add also that our subject's brother, Faniel F., recently served three years as clerk for the County Commissioners, and for the past two years has been deputy Clerk of the Courts under Franklin T. Beerer. JAMES HOOVEN. Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, -Pope's Essay on Man, Among the self-made men of Montgomery county pre-eminently stands James Hooven, of Norristown, whose business life extends back nearly fifty-five years. He was born in Upper Merion township on the 30th of March, 1808. His parents were Benjamin and Jane Hooven, now many years deceased. When a small boy he received a good common school education until old enough to go into a store as assistant, which he did with Azariah Thomas & Co., at King-of-Prussia, as early as his fourteenth year. He remained with them three years, and with their immediate successors three, when he entered into partnership with Charles McClennan until 1830, a period of two years, at the same place. This brought him to his twentysecond year, at which time he was invited to go into company with George W. Thomas, of Norristown, in the general mercantile business, then long established at the corner of Main and Swede streets. Here, under the title of Thomas & Hooven, they prosecuted an extensive business until the spring of 1837. In 1833, while thus engaged, he was married to Emeline, the daughter of Joseph Henry, of Evansburg. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Hooven retired from the concern, after many years of service, and Dr. George W. Thomas took in Roberts Rambo and John Potts, forming the new firm of Thomas, Rambo & Potts. Mr. Hooven at once purchased from Alexander Crawford the quarries and lime-works immediately below Norristown, which he improved by building additional kilns, dwellings, landings, and the like. He pushed business with great vigor, shipping lime to Philadelphia and to all the States bordering on the Delaware river and bay. During the first year he was also actively engaged in settling up the store accounts of Thomas & Hooven. About 1840 he built himself a large brick mansion on Main street, at the corner of Walnut, in which he resided until 1853. He continued in the lime trade for eight years. Having accumulated considerable capital, he associated with Mordecai R. Moore, who, together with Merchant Maulsby, had been selling coal and lumber up to that time. The new firm arranged to erect a rolling and nail mill, being part of what is now known as the Norristown Iron Works. This mill, partly planned and erected under the supervision of John Griffin, a professional iron manufacturer, went into operation in 1846. Under the malign influence of a reduced duty on iron, however, the works did not then prove as remunerative as they expected. Although standing idle about six months in 1852, the works ran on till 1853, when Mr. Moore retired from the firm, and the rolling and nail mills were put in motion again and kept running by Mr. Hooven until the breaking out of the rebellion, when an immense demand for iron arose. Gradually Mr. H. abandoned the manufacture of nails, bolts, and so on, and adjusted his works to roll boiler and tube iron. He also took into partnership his two sons, Joseph Henry and Alexander H. In 1869-70 the firm, which had always taken especial care to have their manufactures of the best quality, found their sales so increased, and the necessity of providing suitable pig metal |