My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES RAMEY, who lives retired at No. 1002 DeKalb street, Norristown, was born in Upper Merion township, March 28, 1826. He is the son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Griffith) Ramey, both of whom were natives of Montgomery county. They had three sons and four daughters, of whom Charles Ramey is the only one now living.

Jacob Ramey (father) was a farmer and shoemaker in early manhood, and later a farmer on what is called Walnut Grove farm near Conshohocken. Soon after his marriage he was called out with his militia company, Captain Holgate commanding, to Marcus Hook, in the war of 1812. He came home with camp fever from which he recovered, but he died in 1828. After the war and until his death he was a farmer and a merchant, carrying on business in the “Bird-in- Hand” store, in the village now known as Gulf Mills, in partnership with his cousin, Daniel Altemus. He was thirty-seven years old at the time of his death. His wife survived until 1851, and was in her sixty-seventh year when she died. Both attended the Society of Friends Meeting.

Lawrence Ramey (grandfather) was a native of Wales and came to Pennsylvania when a small boy. He was a farmer and also a shoemaker. He died at the age of seventy-five years. His wife was Catharine Conrad. They had two sons and one daughter. Both were buried at Plymouth Meeting Friends burial-ground.

Charles Ramey’s grandfather Griffith was a native of Montgomery county. He died in middle life leaving four daughters and one son.

Charles Ramey has lived all his life in Montgomery county, and the greater part of it in Norristown. He was reared on the farm and attended the district schools and the old Academy on DeKalb street, taught by Rev. Samuel Aaron, and still later Treemount Seminary, under the care of Rev. Samuel Aaron, a Baptist preacher, and a great temperance and abolition lecturer. In March, 1850, he removed to Norristown, and engaged in the mercantile business on Main street, for thirty-three years. He retired in 1883.

On August 25, 1853, Mr. Ramey married Miss Ellen Wood, daughter of Timothy Wood. They had five children, two daughters and three sons: Ida W., Sallie M., William Howard, Charles Clifton and Horace. Ida died in 1876 at the age of nearly twenty-two years. Sallie M. married Frank L. Jones, of Norristown and they have two children, Charles Ramey and Helen Mary Jones. William Howard died June 9, 1885, in his twenty-eighth year. Charles Clifton married Irene Mitchell, and they had one child, Catharine, who died in infancy. Charles Clifton is employed by the Eastern Export Milling Company in New York, which owns twenty-eight mills. He was born Thanksgiving Day, 1862. Horace, who was born August 11, 1864, and had been engaged in the bookselling business in Norristown, died in 1882 when eighteen years of age.

Mrs. Ramey died August 31, 1892, aged sixty- seven years. She belonged originally to the old school Presbyterians, but was married by a Baptist minister and later united with the Episcopal church. Mr. Ramey’s faith is that of the Friends. He has attended Quaker meetings since he was four years old. He belongs to Curtis Lodge, No. 239, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also Norristown Encampment. He joined the Odd Fellows in May, 1850, and the Encampment in 1861. He is the oldest member of Curtis Lodge and is a veteran of Philadelphia lodge since 1901. He also belongs to the Montgomery County Historical Society.

Politically he was first a Whig and has been a Republican ever since the organization of the party in 1856, and an active worker. He served as school director from 1851 to 1854. He has at various times owned considerable property in Norristown and Bridgeport.

His wife came from Malden in Ulster county, New York, where she lived until sixteen years old, coming then to Pennsylvania. She had four brothers and one sister. Her father was a ship carpenter and built a great many boats on North river, as did his father before him. The family originally came from England. Her mother died when she was about eight years old.

Charles Ramey is a man of kindly disposition, who at an age which is attained by few still retains an active interest in all that is going on in the world around him. Having all his life been accustomed to intelligent observation of men and things, he has accumulated a vast fund of information, and being a pleasing talker, he is rarely at a loss for listeners.