My Genealogy Hound

ELLWOOD ROBERTS, teacher, author, journalist and builder, has exhibited in his career a versatility which is seldom met with in ordinary experience. Combining a good physical constitution with an enormous capacity for labor, he has never found lacking all the employment he needed to occupy his time and attention. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, January 22, 1846, he has been a citizen of Pennsylvania, the native state of both his parents, since 1861, and few native-born Pennsylvanians have a greater share of pride in the grand old commonwealth founded by William Penn than Mr. Roberts.

Educated in the common schools and supplementing the slender knowledge gained in this way by home study, he is emphatically a self-made man, having taught school fourteen years, mostly in public schools and in Friends’ Central school, Philadelphia, before taking a position as associate editor of the Norristown Herald in 1883, which he still holds. In the meantime, he has been actively engaged in other pursuits, having in 1895 published a volume of poems entitled “Lyrics of Quakerism;” a volume of genealogy in 1898, “Old Richland Families,” containing the history of his own and connected families of Quakertown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where his first ancestor in this country, Edward Roberts, settled in 1716; and a third volume, also historical and genealogical, “Plymouth Meeting,” in 1900. All these publications were well received. He has several more well under way, including the “Dewees family,” now in press.

On his father’s side Ellwood Roberts is of Welsh-Quaker ancestry. On his mother’s side he is of Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania-German extraction.

Hugh Roberts (father) was born near Branchtown, August 5, 1821, in the old Roberts mansion, recently torn down. His father, also Hugh Roberts, a miller by occupation, had died several months previously, and his widow married a second time. The infant Hugh became an object of the most tender care and solicitude to his maiden aunt, Mary Roberts, who reared him until he was placed, at the age of eight years, with a maternal uncle, Thomas P. Spencer, on a farm in Lower Makefield township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Here he grew to manhood, or nearly so, and learning the trade of a miller, became employed at Brandywine Mills, Wilmington, where he remained a dozen years, marrying, August 8, 1842, Alice Anna Gallagher, born August 28, 1819. The couple had seven children, of whom four died in infancy, the survivors being Charles H., now a resident of Norristown like the others; Ellwood; and Mary, wife of Samuel Livezey. Hugh Roberts in 1852 became a farmer, following that occupation with varying success in Delaware, and in Bucks and Montgomery counties, until his removal to Norristown in 1882, where he was occupied with his son Ellwood in building until his death on August 23, 1894. His widow made her home with her son, surviving nearly eight years. She died April 10, 1902. The family ancestors in regular order were Hugh (1821-1894); Hugh (1782-1821); Amos (1758-1835); David (1722- 1804); Edward, the immigrant, ( 1687-1768). All were members of the Society of Friends and Edward was an earnest minister therein for the last forty years of his life. Edward’s son David married the daughter of another well-known minister, Thomas Lancaster, who died while on a religious mission to Barbadoes Island in the West Indies.

Ellwood Roberts married, September 12, 1878, Mary Long Carter, daughter of Job and Rachel (Owen) Carter, of Upper Greenwich, New Jersey, both members of the Society of Friends, and interested in the maintenance of its principles. Their children: Howard C., born July 6, 1879; Charles A., born May 30, 1881, and died March 14, 1888; Alice R., born June 15, 1886; William H., born February 12, 1888; and Mary C., born January 31, 1892.

Ellwood Roberts is an active worker in the Montgomery County Historical Society, of which he is a life member, and has rendered much assistance in editing the two volumes of historical sketches which it has published. He purchased for it the building which it occupies on Penn street, Norristown, when many of its members feared that the undertaking was too great. He and his sister, Mary R. Livezey, have labored steadily to diminish the debt, many hundreds of dollars being realized through their exertions, aided by their many friends. He is strongly attached to the principles of the Society of Friends, and has written and spoken in behalf of them for many years. He is and has been deeply interested in the growth and prosperity of Norristown. A Republican in politics, he has cast his influence on the side of good government without regard to mere partisanship. In everything relating to the welfare of the community, he is active and earnest and ever ready to lend a hand in righting any wrong that exists.

Mr. Roberts is one of the most extensive real-estate owners in Norristown, having been engaged in several enterprises of note, first, in conjunction with his father, and, more recently, with his son Howard. All his properties are kept in the best repair, nothing being allowed to depreciate because of neglect. He believes thoroughly in Norristown as the place to make investment, and prefers real estate to stocks or bonds, regarding it as having a permanent value, especially in a good location.

Few men at his age are so active and so capable of continued exertion in anything which enlists his interest. He is satisfied with having impressed his personality on the community with which he has been so long and so honorably identified, and he has no other desire than to serve the interests of those around him by contributing his share to the general progress of Norristown.