ried. He died in 1877, and is buried in the cemetery of St. John's Church, Norristown, as is also Dr. Andrew. Mary was married first to John Hunter and afterwards to Francis Parke, but had no children. Ann was the wife of John Gorgas, and left one daughter, Susanna. Rebecca died in her minority. Sarah never married. Allen, who died October 23d, 1873, married Elizabeth H. Evans, and raised six children: Rebecca, married Dr. Samuel Ringwalt, and the latter dying left one son, who lives in Downingtown with his mother; Anna, who married Daniel Baugh, and who has two children living; George, intermarried with Tamazine Zook; J. Hunter, who keeps a store in Downingtown; Abner E., who lives in Philadelphia; and Allen W., the youngest, who resides at home in Downingtown.

Dr. Andrew Wills and wife, before mentioned, had fourteen children: Sarah died at the age of fourteen years; Mary married Washington T. Koplin, of Norristown, who recently died, leaving one child; Ellen; Morgan R. married Mary Hitner, daughter of Daniel H. Dager, now deceased, of Whitemarsh township, on the 6th of September, 1860; Edward S. married Fannie Homiston, and afterwards Annie Isbell; Clara is the wife of Hunter E. Van Leer; Rebecca married D. Smith Talbot; Andrew was killed at Fort Donelson; Horace died at the age of sixteen; Frances also died young; Ann married T. Lewis Vickers; Elizabeth is the wife of D. Webster Evans; Florence married George R. Hoopes; Susan died in infancy.

Morgan Reese Wills, the editor and proprietor of the Norristown Herald, was born in West Whiteland township, Chester county, on the 21st of October, 1831. He first received a common school training, and afterwards instruction under the tutorship of Rev. George Kirk, at Downingtown, until 1847, in his sixteenth year, when he went to learn printing first with Caleb N. Thornbury, who started a temperance sheet about that time in the office of the Jeffersonian at West Chester. The temperance enterprise not succeeding, however, he came to Norristown and entered the office of the Register, then owned by Samuel D. Patterson, and which was published for him by our townsman William Slemmer. Mr. Wills remained there until April, 1853, when, invited by a cousin, Captain Isaac R.

Diller, he went to Springfield, Illinois, and entered the employ of that gentleman, who was postmaster of that city, and there continued till the autumn of that year, when he returned to to Norristown and worked as a compositor and proof-reader until 1859. In January of that year he opened a book, stationery and variety store near Main and Strawberry streets, some time after combining job printing with it.

The war occurring in 1861, and the State being invaded by the Confederates in 1863, Governor Curtin called for "emergency men" to protect the State. About the 1st of July of the latter year, therefore, two companies of volunteers were raised in Norristown in two days, and in the ranks of Company I, Forty-third Regiment, Captain Joseph L. Allabough, Mr. W., as also the author, were enlisted as "high privates," serving six weeks on the famous Potomac, and were mustered out at Harrisburg late in August, "with all the honors."

In 1864 Mr. Wills sold his store to Martin Molony, and purchased of Mr. Iredell a half interest in the weekly Herald, publishing it jointly thereafter with Robert Iredell, Jr. He also transferred his jobbing business, which had become considerable. This arrangement continued till 1865, when the firm became Wills, Iredell & Jenkins, the Norristown Republican, owned by Atkinson & Jenkins, being purchased and combined with the Herald, Mr. Atkinson retiring. The Republican was continued for several years, however, as a semi-weekly. About 1869, Mr. Jenkins having left the firm, Wills & Iredell became . possessed also of the Lehigh Register of Allentown.

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In 1869 Robert Iredell, Jr., bought Mr. Wills' interest in the Allentown paper, and removed to that city, the latter purchasing the former's share of the Herald and semi-weekly RepubliOn the 20th of December of that year the latter paper was brought out as the Norristown Daily Herald, and for three years issued as a one-cent journal. In December, 1872, it was enlarged, and the price advanced to two cents, while the weekly was and is continued more for county circulation.

Mr. Wills served one year as a member of Town Council, and was once run for Burgess of Norristown, but defeated by Colonel Edward Schall.

His two papers being in the full tide of success, in the summer of 1873 he erected the present capacious and convenient building, which contains all the modern facilities for conducting the printing business. Not needing the entire lot of ground, he shortly after sold the remainder to the Norristown Hall Association, and Music Hall, which adjoins his office, was erected.

About the time of erecting his office, and the construction of Music Hall, the site being springy, great need was felt for underground drainage. Mr. Wills and other citizens advocated building a sewer, and after a sharp contest with those opposed to the project that improvement was completed along several of the principal streets.

The Daily Herald, which was at first thought by some to be a doubtful experiment, through Mr. Wills' thorough business habits and judgment, aided by Mr. John H. Williams, an accomplished paragraphist and humorist, was placed on a paying foundation.

In 1875, Mr. Wills, accompanied by his wife, made a tour of Europe. They left Philadelphia on the 20th of May in the steamer Indiana, and were gone about four months, in that time visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and France. During their absence their letters of travel, principally written by Mrs. Wills, appeared almost weekly in the Herald, and on their return were issued in book form by J. B. Lippincott & Co., bearing the title "A Summer in Europe."

Printing and publishing the long established Republican organ of the county, Mr. Wills is necessarily a strongly committed partisan, but his journal is always conducted with such courtesy as to maintain a kindly intercourse with the opposition and the general public.

Finding a growing demand for the Herald from places at a distance, a weekly literary edition was started in 1878, which has a considerable sale to news dealers generally throughout the Union.

The offspring of Mr. and Mrs. Wills are two daughters, Mary D. and Helen D., the former born on the 8th of January, 1863, and the latter on the 24th of July, 1867.

J. WARRENNE SUNDERLAND, LL.D.

How charming is divine philosophy!

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,

But musical as Apollo's lute.-Milton.

In the very fore-front of the educational institutions of Montgomery county-which in that department claims to lead the State-stands Pennsylvania Female College, on the Perkiomen, at Collegeville. It was the first college established in our county, and perhaps the first institution of the kind in the United States which by its charter was authorized to confer degrees upon women. This classical school was founded in 1851 by the enterprising and energetic gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch. His career has been at once

a checkered and yet a successful one. From very meagre notes given by him to us after great reluctance, he having a habitual contempt of parade and self-display, we are able to furnish the following incidents of his early life.

J. Warrenne Sunderland was born February 19th, 1813, at Exeter, Rhode Island, where his parents lived most of their lives, and are buried. His father, Warrenne Sunderland, was of English descent, the family name being derived from Henry Spencer, who was created Earl of Sunderland by Charles I in 1643 for eminent services rendered that ill starred monarch in his wrangles with Parliament before or during the civil wars. This Henry Spencer was killed by a cannon shot at the battle of Newbury, August 20th, 1643. The name Sunderland comes down to America doubtless from the earldom, our subject being a descendant of one of the younger sons, as is the custom in the old world for the untitled ones to go abroad. The mother of Mr. Sunderland was Mercy Sherman, also of English origin, whose ancestors emigrated first to Massachusetts, and thence followed Roger Williams to Rhode Island, where they permanently settled.

Up to his twelfth year our subject enjoyed the advantages of common school instruction, and early evinced a fondness for reading. Like all boys of spirit, he conceived imaginary projects by which he hoped to make a fortune and see the world.

Being also somewhat addicted to mechanical studies, at the age of twelve years he devised a machine for spinning wool directly from the cards, which the celebrated Seth Boyden afterwards perfected, patented, and sold for a large sum of money. At thirteen he went aboard ship, and made a flying trip to the West Indies. At fourteen he sailed up the Mediterranean Sea, and managed to get on board the flag-ship Asia, Admiral Codrington, and was present when the allied fleets (English, French and Russian) attacked and sunk the entire Turkish squadron in the harbor of Navarino in 1827. That decisive battle assured Greek independence. This event forms an incident in his life in which perhaps no other American shares to-day.

Having seen somewhat of the world for a boy, he found his way home again, and in 1830, when seventeen years of age, entered the Methodist Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, to prepare himself for college. In 1832 he entered Wesleyan University, and graduated in 1836, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Very soon after finishing his college course he entered upon the professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in McKendree College, Illinois, to which he had been elected some months before. He filled that position nine years. In 1845 he was appointed to a professorship in Kemper College, Missouri, which had been founded by Bishop Kemper, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Two years later he was called to a professorship in O'Fallon University, St. Louis, now known as Washington University. Mr. S. came to Montgomery county in 1848, and engaged as principal teacher in Freeland Institute, a seminary for young men, established by Rev. Henry A. Hunsicker. After filling this position three years, a building being erected for him, Professor Sunderland founded Montgomery Female Seminary in 1851, at Perkiomen Bridge, which two years later was chartered a regular "college for the liberal education of young ladies."

In 1847 the University of St. Louis conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. From the time of the founding of the female seminary to the present time, with a short interregnum, when it was rented, Dr. Sunderland has maintained the college now nearly thirty years with eminent success.

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