children, the eldest, Ella M., is the wife of F. G. Hobson, attorney-at-law; they have two children, Frank H. and Anna Mabel. The second, Bertha, was one of the first two lady graduates of Ursinus College, class of '84, and had the distinguished honor of having the highest merits in recitations in her class; she is now engaged in teaching. The third, Abraham H., is a member of the present ('87) junior class of Ursinus College. After graduation he expects to study theology and enter the ministry. The fourth and youngest child is Sallie, who is attending public school.

The author will be pardoned for adding a word of testimony concerning our subject's close evangelical preaching. When it is considered that his call to the ministry was within a "Free Church," and he, as also his brethren, untrammeled by theological formulas, with every human temptation to launch out upon some of the restless waters of "liberalism," so called, the marvel is that Mr. H. has continued to preach the same humbling doctrines of grace that Paul taught, and which were born again at the Reformation.

OWEN BROOKE EVANS.

This family of Evans, which, according to tradition, is descended from Elystan Geodrydd, through his second son Idnerth, was originally settled in Carmarthenshire.

John Evans, a lineal descendant, having performed valuable military service during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in aiding to suppress the Irish rebellion, obtained from the Crown a grant of land, and emigrated from Carmarthenshire, in Wales, to Limerick, Ireland, where he was living in and before 1628. He married Ellen DeVerdon, and dying January 1, 1632, left issue two sons and three daughters. The elder son, George, represented Limerick in Parliament for many years, and died in 1707, at a very advanced age, having passed a most eventful life. The younger, John, a colonel in the army, married, and had issue three sons, the second of whom, William, and

his wife Ann, came to America with the Welsh emigration that sailed in the year 1698.

They located temporarily at Gwynedd, while prospecting for land, and subsequently purchased two tracts aggregating seven hundred acres, in Manatawny, afterwards Limerick township, on which they settled permanently. Here William's death soon after occurred, and his wife, surviving him but a few years, died in 1720. Her will, recorded in Philadelphia June 18, of that year, devises the property to her five children, viz.: William, Owen, George, Elizabeth and David. Of these, Owen, born 1699, was for many years justice of the peace, and at one time a member of the Colonial Assembly. He married on August 14, 1721, in Christ church, Philadelphia, Mary, the daughter of William and Mary Davis, and had by her, among other children, a daughter Mary, born in 1724, afterwards wedded to James Brooke.*

George, another son, born July 16, 1702, also a justice of the peace, married, November 9, 1736, Elizabeth, the daughter of John and Mary Kendall. A child of this union, James, born August 6, 1748, was on January 16, 1771, married at St. Paul's Episcopal church, Philadelphia, to Mary Brooke, the daughter of the above named Mary Evans (his first cousin) and James Brooke.

Among the issue of this last marriage was a son, James Evans, Jr., born March 9, 1773, who was at one time justice of the peace, and for several terms a member of the state legislature, and who on December 24, 1796, married Charlotte Brooke. They were the parents of eight children, of whom one son, Josiah W., became associate judge of the court at Norristown; another, James B., studied and afterwards practiced law; a third, Thomas, lived in Limerick and followed

James was the great-grandson of John and Frances Brooke, who, with their two sons, emigrated from Hagg, in the township of Honly, the county of York, England, to America, intending to locate 750 acres of land bought from William Penn by warrant made in England and dated March 17, 1698. The parents died in quarantine at Gloucester, N. J., soon after reaching port, and are interred in the Friends' burying ground at Haddonfield. Their sons; James and Mathew, took up the land purchased by their father, to which they fell heir by his will, recorded in Trenton, N. J., March 1, 1699.

She was also a descendant of John and Frances Brooke, being their greatgreat-granddaughter.

farming; while the fourth, Owen Brooke, is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Limerick township, Montgomery county, November 5, 1808, on the homestead adjacent to property that has belonged to the family continuously for over one hundred and seventy years.

After having received the customary education that was then accorded to youth of his station in life, and between times assisted his father in duties pertaining to managing the farm, he on March 12, 1836, left home and engaged as superintendent at the lime works of James Hooven, located below Norristown, and continued in that position about one year, when he was selected to conduct an agency which Mr. Hooven had established in Philadelphia for the sale of their product.

A short time after and while still acting in this capacity, a proposition to become a partner was tendered by his employer, and being accepted, the firm became thereafter J. Hooven & Co.

Some few years later, Hooven sold his interest to Hugh Crawford, and the industry was resumed under the style of Crawford & Evans until the former's death, which occurred soon after.

Mr. Evans then entered into a partnership with his brother, Josiah W., and they conducted business for several years, after which the latter withdrew. Owen continued alone until 1861,

and then finally retired.

Since that time he has been a director of the Spring Garden Insurance Co., holding that position continuously for about fifteen years, until voluntarily withdrawing from active business life; also of the Spruce and Pine Streets City Passenger Railway. He was likewise an incorporator of the Northern Savings Fund, Trust and Safe Deposit Co., and has held various other positions of trust from time to time.

After leaving Norristown, in 1837, Philadelphia became his home.

On January 14, 1841, he married Amy, the daughter of Henry Berrell and Susan Evans, and there were born unto them four children, of whom James, Clara and Mary died in infancy, and the youngest, Frank Brooke, yet living and married, is, with his family, consisting of a wife and four children, residing near Germantown.

Mr. Owen B. Evans is the only surviving member of his generation. Since 1881 he has not engaged in any financial projects, and at present, with his wife, is leading a retired life.

JOHN MCCANN.

John McCann, of Norriton township, at this writing in his eighty-second year, is remarkably preserved in mental faculties, having doubtless as clear and distinct a remembrance of early men and things in his locality as any one of his age in the county. His immediate progenitor, John McCann, came from Scotland or Ireland to America, a little after the close of the Revolutionary war, and later married Ann, daughter of Archibald McAfee, a Scotchman, who in after life went westward with the celebrated Daniel Boone to Kentucky. This McAfee was probably a soldier or teamster belonging to the Continental Army, for it is a tradition of the family that his daughter Ann, our subject's mother, was born at Valley Forge while the army lay there in 1777-8. John McCann, the emigrant, settled in Upper Merion township, where he and his wife Ann, nee McAfee, had ten children born to them named as follows: William, James, John Elizabeth, Samuel, Thomas, Davis, Philip, Catharine, and one who died in infancy. William, the eldest, was a tailor by trade, and pursued his business several years in Mexico when a young man. Returning he married Mrs. Hepsey Wells, one of the Norris family, which gave name to Norristown, and they had born to them one daughter named Mary; but his wife dying soon after, Mr. McCann, with his daughter, removed to Norristown, where he purchased property and continued to reside till the time of his death in 1881. Being wealthy and his daughter somewhat advanced in life, after providing well for her, he made a donation in his will of ten thousand dollars to the School Board of Norristown to found "The William McCann Free Library," and to a number of other charities in Philadelphia smaller bequests.

Several other children of John McCann the elder left families in Montgomery county or elsewhere, which occupy respectable positions in society, but are omitted here.

We come now to the proper subject of this memorial, John McCann, the third child of John the emigrant, who was born July 29, 1806, in Upper Merion township. When arrived at the age of seventeen years he was apprenticed to Samuel Cowden, of Broad Axe, to learn the trade of a smith, which business he industriously followed, conducting it on his own account at Black Horse, near Norristown, for sixteen years, when, having accumulated some means, he next purchased one of the Meredith farms of seventy-two acres, in Plymouth township, to which he removed and commenced farming. On May 5, 1830, he was married to Catharine, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Ramey, of the same township, and there were born to them eleven children named as follows: Elizabeth, Ann, Catharine, Charles C., Letitia, John Jacob, Herbert, and four who died in early infancy. Of the former, Elizabeth, the first born, died in the bloom of young womanhood, unmarried, at the age of twenty-five, in 1856. Ann, the second child, is intermarried with Israel Michener, and they have had four children: Ella, William, John and Sarah. Catharine, the third, died in her ninth year. Charles C. is married to Phœbe, daughter of Charles Shoemaker, of Whitpain, and they have three children: Mary, William and Sallie. Letitia remains at home to care for her aged father, who now resides at Penn Square. John Jacob married Lavina, daughter of Abraham Dolby, of Chester county, and died 1882, leaving two children, Horace and John J., who are with their widowed mother in Downingtown. Herbert, the youngest child, is intermarried with Clara, daughter of Henry Hipple, and they reside in West Philadelphia, but are also in business at Atlantic City, N. J.; they have one son, Wellington.

Catharine, the universally esteemed wife of John McCann, died of cancer, August 10, 1865, aged sixty-five years, and was interred at Plymouth Meeting burying ground. Though widowed and deprived of the counsel of his helpmate, Mr. McCann, by assistance of his daughter, continued to manage his farm until 1883, when, feeling the weight of years, he left