My Genealogy Hound

J. IRWIN AMBLER, one of the best known business men of Lansdale, where he is engaged in the hardware and house furnishing business, is the son of John F. and Maria (Scholl) Ambler, who also reside in Lansdale, and is one of a family of six children.

He was born in Lansdale, February 9, 1872, and was educated in the public schools of that borough. After leaving school he decided to enter upon a business career, and entered a hardware store as clerk. He remained in that capacity until 1898, when he concluded to engage in business for himself, which he did, and has carried it on very successfully ever since. There is no better equipped place of business in his line in the rural towns of the state. He has built up a flourishing trade largely by his attention to business and desire to please his customers and the public. He married in 1898 Miss Catharine Wall, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The couple have one child, Ada E. Politically, he is a Republican and an earnest worker in behalf of party success. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the Knights of the Golden Eagle, and the Masonic Order. He is secretary of the Lansdale Building and Loan Association; treasurer of the Royal Arcanum, and agent in Lansdale of the United States Express Company. He and his family attend the Reformed church. He is a rising young man, and thoroughly respected by all who know him, none having a better reputation in the community.

The Amblers are one of the oldest families in Montgomery county, and are of Quaker lineage. They are descended from Joseph Ambler, who, according to the records, purchased on May 1, 1723, from William Morgan a tract of ninety acres of land in Montgomery township, then Philadelphia county (now Montgomery county), Pennsylvania. His wife was Ann Ambler. The ninety-acre tract was sold by Joseph Ambler to his son Edward, who in 1770 devised it by will to his brother John, who became the ancestor of the Amblers of Montgomery county. John Ambler had a son John, born 5th mo. 8, 1783, died 4th mo. g, 1859. He married Ann Morgan, born 5th mo. 8, 1784, died 4th mo. 4, 1863. Their children: Thomas, Benjamin (grandfather); Chalkley, Joseph, John and David (twins), Septimus, Letitia and Sarah.

Benjamin Ambler (grandfather), now deceased, was born in Montgomery township, not far from the present borough of Lansdale, 9th mo. 3, 1810. He married, 3d mo. 1, 1838, Mary, daughter of John and Catharine Fitzgerald. Their children: John F., born 7th mo. 12, 1840, father of the subject of this sketch; Ann Catharine, wife of Seth L. Scholl, brickmaker, and a prominent citizen of Lansdale; Thomas Ellwood, born 11th mo. 30, 1843, married, 6th mo. 20, 1867, Harriet E. Makens; Benjamin Morgan, born 6th mo. 13, 1846, married 3d mo. 5, 1868, Elizabeth Street. John Fitzgerald Ambler (father) still a resident of Lansdale, was born in the vicinity and educated in the public schools. On relinquishing school studies he learned the carpenter trade, which he followed for some years with success. In politics he is a Republican. He married, 1st mo. 28, 1864, Maria, born 10th mo. 5, 1840, daughter of Henry and Mary Ann (Lake) Scholl, of Lansdale.

The Scholls are descended from George Scholl, who with his brother John, came to America from Germany in 1778. He was a saddler by occupation, and, that calling being in great demand in the army, he enlisted as a Continental soldier and served to the end of the Revolutionary war. At the close of the war he and his family went into what was then known as “The Wilderness,” on Branch Creek, near where Trumbauersville, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, is now located, and took up a tract of three hundred acres of land, raising a family of children, one of whom was Michael, born December 1, 1784, who was the grandfather of Maria Scholl (mother). Michael Scholl married, July 12, 1807, Mary, daughter of Conrad Hoot, of Gwynedd township, who lived where is now North Wales. He died February 25, 1858. His wife, Mary Hoot, was born October 7, 1789, and died March 21, 1870. Both were buried in Wentz’s Reformed church cemetery, on the Skippack road, above Centre Point, in Worcester township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. Their children were Jacob, Margaret, Catharine, Henry (father of Mrs. John F. Ambler), born July 25, 1816, in Germantown, Pennsylvania; Matilda, George, Amanda, Elizabeth.

Henry Scholl married, December 1, 1839, Mary Ann, daughter of Andrew and Eustina Lake, of Philadelphia. Their children were Maria, Seth L., and others. (For further particulars of the Scholl and Ambler families, see sketch of Seth L. Scholl, of Lansdale, elsewhere in this work.)