My Genealogy Hound

HORACE G. FETTEROLF. The Fetterolfs are an old Montgomery county family long domiciled in the vicinity of Collegeville. Horace G. Fetterolf was born at that place, February 20, 1863. He is the son of Gideon and Esther (Hunsicker) Fetterolf, both of Collegeville.

Gideon Fetterolf was the son of Adam Fetterolf, the family being of German descent. The Fetterolfs were originally Mennonites. Gideon Fetterolf was a farmer, and later a merchant. The latter part of his life he resided at Collegeville, where he died in 1894, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was an elder in the Mennonite church, and prominent in its councils, and joined the progressive movement which eventually merged those engaged in it with the Reformed church. He was proprietor of a store at Royersford for a number of years. His first wife was Elizabeth Hunsicker, daughter of Bishop John Hunsicker. By this marriage there were four children, two sons and two daughters, as follows: Adam H., president of Girard College for Orphans at Philadelphia; Captain H. H. Fetterolf, who served in the Union army during the rebellion, and is an ex-member of the Pennsylvania legislature; Sarah (Mrs. Abraham Grimley); Susan (Mrs. A. Tyson). Mr. Fetterolf’s second wife was Mrs. Esther Detwiler, widow of Christian Detwiler, who left one child, Christian. She was the daughter of Bishop Abram Hunsicker, the founder of Freeland Seminary, which later became Ursinus College. The Hunsickers are descendants of Valentine Hunsicker, who came from Switzerland in 1717 and settled in Skippack township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. By the second marriage Mr. Fetterolf had three children-Abraham D., a well known business man of Collegeville who has been prominent in Republican politics, and was at one time resident clerk of the house of representatives at Harrisburg; Andrew Curtin, New York, prominently connected with the Steamship Trust; and Horace G., subject of this sketch. The second Mrs. Fetterolf survives, and is a resident of Collegeville.

Horace G. Fetterolf was reared at Collegeville, attending school until he was about sixteen years of age, and then attended a school at Andalusia, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He then took a position with the Lippincott Publishing Company, Philadelphia, remaining with that firm for seventeen years. In 1900 he engaged in the carpet and rug manufacturing business at Wayne Junction, Philadelphia, with Arthur Danby as his partner, the firm being Danby & Fetterolf. On May 1, 1904, Horace G. Fetterolf succeeded this firm and now conducts the enterprise on his own account. He is most emphatically a self-made man, having been the architect of his own fortune. He is a broadminded and intelligent business man, and owes whatever success he has achieved to that fact. He has proved himself to be an excellent financier, accomplishing all without assistance from any outside source.

In 1888 Mr. Fetterolf married Anna S. Holdzkom, of Philadelphia, daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Michener) Holdzkom, she of Chester county and he of the state of New Jersey. His father was Isaac Holdzkom. The ancestors of Mrs. Fetterolf came from Holland about the time of the Revolutionary war. Three brothers came together, one of them Isaac, grandfather of Mrs. Fetterolf. He settled in New Jersey, and followed different employments, keeping a hotel at one time. He was also at one period of his life a seafaring man, being captain of a vessel. He died in New Jersey. He married and had seven sons and two daughters. The father of Mrs. Fetterolf, Joseph Holdzkom, was born and reared in New Jersey, learning the trade of a bricklayer. After his marriage he located in the city of Philadelphia, where he became a prominent and successful contractor and builder, rearing many fine structures as lasting monuments to his skill and enterprise, and erected some of the finest blocks of dwellings and residences in that city. He affiliated with the Society of Friends, and was widely known and highly respected because of his industry and strict integrity. He was a thirty-second degree Mason. He died March 30, 1890. His wife survives, and makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Horace Fetterolf. She was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1824, being the daughter of Nathan and Sophia (Christman) Michener, she a native of Chester county and he of Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Michener’s ancestor came to America with William Penn from England, and settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Dr. Nathan Michener was born in Bucks county in November, 1775, and reared on a farm. He succeeded by the most strenuous exertions in acquiring an education, a much more difficult task at that time than it is at the present day, and became proficient in the Greek, Latin, French and German languages, being a teacher, and later read and studied medicine with the noted Dr. Meredith, of Doylestown. In 1800 he attended medical lectures in Philadelphia, and after graduating went to Chester county, where he engaged in the practice of his profession, and soon succeeded in building up an extensive and lucrative practice. He married in 1824, Miss Sophia Christman, of a prominent old Pennsylvania family of German descent. In 1840 he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, and having arrived at an age when he no longer cared to attend to an extensive practice, in 1860 he retired from active business. He died in December, 1865. He was a man highly respected in his community. He affiliated with the Society of Friends, although he forfeited his membership by marrying out of meeting. His father, Isaiah Michener, was a well known resident of Bucks county, Pennsylvania. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Michener Sarah, mother of Mrs. Fetterolf ; George, Jane, unmarried; Mary (Mrs. Stubblebine); Phebe, Rebecca (Mrs. Griffith); Clara (Mrs. Morrow); John, Isabel (Mrs. Wilson). Sarah, mother of Mrs. Fetterolf, married Joseph Holdzkom, in Chester county in 1854, they removing soon afterwards to the city of Philadelphia, where he engaged in business as a contractor and builder. The children of Joseph and Sarah (Michener) Holdzkom; Nathan, died at the age of thirty-three years; Samuel, died at the age of thirty-nine years; Ann E., William, Emily and Victoria, all of whom died in infancy; Anna S., wife of Mr. Fetterolf; Margaret (Mrs. F. C. Stiles); Joseph and George, both of Philadelphia. Joseph Holdzkom was not a member of any church; his wife was a Methodist.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Fetterolf: Morton H., born January 9, 1889; Mildred E., born September 11, 1894; Allen C., born July 2, 1896; Horace G., born March 26, 1903, died December 25, 1903. The family attend Trinity Memorial Church at Ambler, of which Mr. Fetterolf is a vestryman.