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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company; Elwood Roberts, Editor.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HARRY F. HALLMAN, one of the successful farmers of Plymouth township, resides near the borough of Conshohocken, in which he was born May 1, 1858. At the age of seven years he went with his parents, William A. and Margaret A. (Freas) Hallman, to reside on the homestead on which he now lives and which has been in the possession of the family for several generations.

William A. Hallman (father) was a farmer, residing on the homestead already mentioned the greater part of his life. He was a Democrat in politics and served as school director and assessor for a number of years. He married Margaret A. Freas who is now also deceased. William A. Hallman died August 27, 1890, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Their children are: Harry F., Joseph (deceased), Ruth Anna (deceased), and Allen.

John Hallman (grandfather) resided on the same property, was a farmer and married Annie Lenabough. They had several children.

John Hallman (great-grandfather) resided on a property in the same vicinity now owned and occupied by William Sheppard. His wife was Elizabeth. The family is of German origin, the Hallmans having settled in the vicinity before the middle of the eighteenth century.

Harry F. Hallman attended the Eight-Square School in Plymouth township, not far from where he resides and also Treemount Seminary in Norristown. The farm, which contains thirty-nine acres, is rich in mineral products. When Mr. Hallman was about twenty-one years of age he went into the iron ore business, digging ore from the farm a short distance below the surface, and hauling it to nearby furnaces at Conshohocken. He continued that business for about twenty years in connection with farming, when, owing to the furnaces being abandoned, the demand for ore no longer existed. About fifteen years ago Mr. Hallman opened a vein of valuable fire clay close to the Conshohocken road from which he has taken great quantities of clay of a very superior quality, for which he has found a ready demand in Norristown and Conshohocken, for the purposes to which it is usually applied.

Mr. Hallman married, June 30, 1888, Miss Ella N. Young, born May 26, 1867. She was a daughter of William J. (deceased) and Anna (Thomas) Young. The children of Harry F. and Ella N. Hallman are: Anna Margaret, born July 22, 1889; Ruth E., born March 16, 1891; Myrtle M., born April 20, 1893; William H., born June 13, 1897, and died June 30, same year; and Martin Luther, born June 17, 1899.

William J. Young (father of Mrs. Hallman) was born in 1826 and died in 1897 in his seventy-first year. He married Anna Thomas, daughter of Jacob and Esther (Snyder) Thomas. William J. Young’s father was Samuel Young, who was born in Lower Merion township, lived for a number of years at Centre Square in Whitpain township, removed to Norristown soon after the close of the Rebellion and died there twenty-five years later at a very advanced age, beyond ninety years. The Youngs were an old family in Lower Merion, having settled there at an early date, and were quite prominent in colonial and Revolutionary times.

Jacob Thomas (maternal grandfather of Mrs. H. F. Hallman), had eleven children as follows: Anna, born October 17, 1834, and residing with her daughter, Mrs. H. F. Hallman; Rev. Joseph Thomas (deceased), a Baptist minister; Catharine (deceased); Jacob, residing at Kohn and Marshall streets, Norristown; John R., a drover at Jeffersonville; Hannah, who married James Trego and resides in Conshohocken; Clarion (deceased); Samuel, who lived in the western part of Pennsylvania and died there; Mary, who died young; Alice, who married George Hallman of Plymouth township;Valeria, who married John Clark and resides in Lower Providence township, Montgomery county. Jacob Thomas’ father, Richard Thomas, came from England and settled in Worcester. He married Kate Johnson.

Esther (Snyder) Thomas’ mother was a Shultz, a member of the Schwenkfelder denomination.

Mr. H. F. Hallman was elected a justice of the peace at the February election in 1897 on the Republican ticket, polling a majority of seventy votes in a township usually Democratic. He held the position five years and declined a re-election. He was again, however, nominated on the Republican ticket for justice of the peace, without his consent, and was the only one elected on the ticket even defeating his opponent, a Republican, by a few votes at the February election of 1904. He takes an active interest in public affairs and is well informed on all topics of current interest. He and his family are members of St. Mark’s Lutheran church, Conshohocken.

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This family biography is one of more than 1,000 biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

View additional Montgomery County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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