for their mill so great, that they resolved to build a smelting furnace close at hand, which was accomplished by 1870, and put in operation only to encounter the prostrating business storm of 1873. This, of course, placed the furnace out of blast. These capacious structures, which combined bear the name of Norristown Iron Works, cover a large site, having a frontage of seven hundred feet on Washington street and about five hundred feet on the river. These works are capable of smelting and manufacturing two hundred tons of skelp, band and bar iron per week. The rolling mill has been run on part time since 1874, as orders were obtained, but the furnace has been silent about five years. The latter, being one of the best built in the country, could nevertheless be put in motion within a month. As manufacturers of iron the firm of James Hooven & Sons have a very high reputation, they always making it a primary aim to use good material and produce iron of superior quality.

Mr. Hooven's eminent success in life has been mainly owing to two things: first, his inflexible rule to superintend for himself the details of business as recorded on the books (he being a thorough accountant), thus always having his affairs fully in hand, like the General of an army; and second, his following the good old rule that "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well."

For many years Mr. H. was an earnest anti-slavery Whig, and is now a Republican, but never a politician or office-seeker. In 1860 he was one of the delegates to the Chicago convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and in 1862 his Republican fellow-citizens named him for Congress. He magnanimously declined, however, in favor of Hon. David Krause, who stumped the district, but failed of election before the people.

Being a man of enlarged public spirit, Mr. H. was for three years a member of the Town Council of the borough, and for a long time reliance has been placed upon him to help forward all objects of public charity and town improvement. Accordingly, when the Federal government adopted the policy of substituting national banks for State institutions, Mr. Hooven was

among the first to take the initiative in founding the First National Bank of Norristown, and in 1864 was chosen as its first President, a position he has now held fully fifteen years. In like manner, when the project of constructing a railroad connection between Norristown and Doylestown, via the North Pennsylvania road, was broached, he was one of the most liberal investors in the undertaking, and was elected the first President of the corporation.

When the lots that remained after building the new banking house for the Bank of Montgomery County, near Main and Cherry streets, were sold, Mr. Hooven purchased two of them, having a front of fifty feet, and proceeded to build perhaps one of the most complete double mansions of the town, which he still occupies as a private residence.

James and Emeline Hooven had born to them four children, named as follows: Joseph Henry, Alexander H., Jeannette, and Mary. Alexander is intermarried with Kate, daughter of Owen Raisor, deceased; Jeannette is the wife of Geffroy P. Denis, of Philadelphia; and Mary is married to Colonel John W. Schall, the Recorder of Deeds of this county.

In 1872 Mrs. Emeline Hooven lost her health, and after lingering some time died. In 1874 Mr. H. married Miss Helen Cushman, of Norristown.

WILLIAM B. RAMBO.

Our souls are ever yearning for the bright

And beautiful that shall not pass away;

And wait impatient for the fadeless light

Whose dawn shall turn our darkness into day.-L. F. Bittle.

While it is no discredit or evidence of demerit to be unable to point backward to one's ancestry, it is certainly one of the most warrantable sources of pride to be able to say, "I have inherited reputation or blood from some man or nation in the

remote past.' Such is the case with the gentleman whose name stands above. We have sketched many lives of persons traced back to England, Wales, Ireland, and Germany, but few, if any of them, antedating the settlement of William Penn, in 1682, except the Swedes, who made settlements upon the Delaware and Schuylkill so early as 1638, nearly half a century before the great Quaker landed to found his colony. Among these hardy descendants of the "Norsemen" were Peter and Gunnar Rambo, one or the other of whom was the ancestor of our subject. The records of the Court of Upland (Chester) contain an entry that "two hundred and fifty acres of land are confirmed to Peter Rambo, the same lying on the Schuylkill."

It may be said further in honor of this hardy aboriginal race who, under their war-gods, Thor and Woden, used to invade Southern Europe (and even America, as is believed by some of the learned), that as a people they have never been overrun or subjugated, as other nations have been, and wherever they went in their irruptions, they carried their simple industry and hardy robustness with them.

The Rambo family, while satisfied of their descent from one of the race just named, have not kept a genealogical table; so we have no account of generations to record by name, though our subject must, of necessity, be of the eighth or ninth, im regular order from the emigrants.

William B. Rambo, whose name heads this sketch, is the son of Nathan and Ann Broades Rambo, of Upper Merion township, and was born at Swedesburg, April 15th, 1836. He attended the public schools of his native township until his fourteenth year, and then entered Elmwood Seminary, under the care of Rev. J. R. Kooken, in West Norristown, where he remained not quite two years, when he went into his father's office as clerk and book-keeper. The latter was then prose

*On this point we beg to relate the following Irish anecdote: Living a little out of the city of Londonderry was an impecunious old gentleman named Knox, who prided himself on his aristocratic descent and connections, but who had grown so poor as to be obliged to sell his landed estate at public auction. Accordingly as the bidding progressed, and the property was about to be struck off, the proprietor called out, "Who is the purchaser?" On being told it was a fat butcher from Londonderry, he exclaimed, "Stop the sale! I won't convey my domain to any but a blooded man." At this the purse-proud bidder answered in the language of his business, at the same time shaking a bag of gold in the other's face, "Ah, Master Knox! you have the blood, but I've got the suet!" Most of us Americans are anxious to have the "suet," but few are ashamed of good "blood" also.

cuting a heavy lime trade, just as his son, who succeeded, is doing now. On arriving at his twenty-first year, in 1857, Mr. Rambo took his father's quarries, kilns and fixtures, and entered upon a business well established. On the 1st of March, 1858, his father died, aged forty-seven years, and William B. continued the business with renewed earnestness, quarrying stone, burning lime, and shipping both to places near and distant, which has now been continued for over twenty years. His quarries are near the river, and at the exact point where the great limestone valley strikes the Schuylkill. Here he has also eighty acres of the most productive valley-land in the county, with inexhaustable masses of limestone, easy of access, and much of it above the water level. He runs his own boats, some of them rigged for sailing down the bay and along the coast; others of inland construction run directly to New York, the East, the coal regions, and other places. In his lime-works proper, he employs on an average about eighty hands. Mr. Rambo is probably the largest lime and stone operator now in Montgomery county, and has, without doubt, the most complete facilities for carrying on the business to profit. He is a man of enlarged public spirit, a stockholder and director of the Montgomery National Bank, as also of several other of our local corporations.

Upon reaching his twenty-fourth year Mr. R. was married on the 29th of April, 1860, to Elizabeth A., daughter of Robert J. Arundel, Esq., a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia. Of this union four children have been born, to wit: E. Pauline, William A., Evelyn and A. Sidney. The third is now deceased.

Just after commencing business Mr. Rambo found time and opportunity to study law, and was admitted to the bar in 1861. This was only designed to enlarge his mind and afford the fullest qualifications in conducting his business; so he has never opened an office or commenced practice.

Mr. Rambo has always been a moderate Republican, and in 1862 his party ran him for Assembly, but at that time without prospect of success against an adverse Democratic majority. Mr. Rambo and his family are members of Christ's (Swedes) Episcopal Church, Upper Merion, and he has been

for several years one of its vestry, and a zealous assistant and advisor of the rector.

We close this sketch with a fuller account of William B. Rambo's near relatives. His grandparents on the father's side were Jonas and Ann Rambo. They had but two children, a daughter and son. The former, Mary, was intermarried with Benjamin B. Hughes, of Bridgeport; she is now many years deceased. Jonas and Ann Rambo's son was Nathan, who married Ann Broades on March 5th, 1833, and their offspring are the following named children: Eliza Ann, married to Matthias P. Walker, of Great Valley, Chester county. They have offspring as follows: Nathan R., Anna B., John O., William, Thalia, Winfield, Mary, and Matthias. The second child, the proper subject of this notice, has already been recorded. The next child of Nathan and Ann Rambo was Mary, the wife of David Schall, now some years deceased. The fourth, Rebecca, is married to J. P. Hiester Jones; they have two sons, John Pringle and William Muhlenberg Heister. The fifth child, Emma P., is the wife of Thomas P. Merritt. The sixth is Nathan, intermarried with Clara, daughter of Thomas Walker; offspring, one son, Harry. The last is Thomas J., who is unmarried.

GEORGE W. ROGERS, Esq.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.-Burke.

A man's enemies are as useful to him as his friends if he knows how to make use of them.-Anonymous.

George W. Rogers, the well known counsellor and advocate of the Norristown bar, claims a New England origin, affirming that his earliest American ancestor came over in the Mayflower, and afterwards settled in Connecticut, where his great-grandfather, Dr. David Rogers, was born and resided. The descent