My Genealogy Hound

NICHOLAS H. LARZELERE. The revocation of the famous Edict of Nantes, signed by Henry IV, in 1598, which gave religious freedom to all parties, was an act which lost to France many of her best and most desirable citizens, a large number of families finally finding refuge in America. Among those who fled from the persecutions following the ill-advised action of Louis XIV, were Nicholas and John Larzelere, who settled on Long Island. Nicholas removed ultimately to Staten Island, where he married and reared a family which consisted of two sons, Nicholas and John, and two daughters. Of the sons, Nicholas, in 1741, removed with his family to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and settled in Lower Makefield township. He died at the age of eighty-four, having reared a family of eight children, and was buried in the Episcopal graveyard at Bristol.

The eldest son of the first settler in Bucks county of the name, also Nicholas (great-great-grandfather), was born on Staten Island in 1734. He married Hannah Britton, of Bristol township, and removed into Bensalem township, where he became possessed of a large estate, rearing a family of ten children. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and died at the age of eighty- four years.

Benjamin Larzelere (great-grandfather), eldest son of Nicholas, last-mentioned, married Sarah Brown, of Bristol township, the couple having eight children, and he dying at eighty-four years of age on the farm which he purchased in that township, and on which the present borough of Bristol is partly located.

Nicholas Larzelere (grandfather), eldest son of Benjamin, located in Abington township, Montgomery county, in 1825. He married Esther Berrell, daughter of Colonel Jeremiah Berrell, and reared a family of twelve children. He died at sixty-seven years of age, in 1858, and was buried in the Presbyterian graveyard at Abington, one of the most ancient burial places in that vicinity.

Benjamin Larzelere (father) was born in 1826 and is still living. He married Mary Maxwell, eldest daughter of Henry and Ann (Buskirk) Maxwel1, of Moreland township. Mrs. Maxwell was the daughter of Jacob Buskirk, originally from Holland, who married Elizabeth Lawrence, eldest daughter of Jonathan Lawrence. Jonathan Lawrence was the eldest son of John and Mary (Townley) Lawrence, who came from England to Massachusetts in 1713. Mary Lawrence was a daughter of Charles Townley of Lancashire, England, the genealogy of whose family has been traced in England to the reign of Henry VIII.

Nicholas Henry Larzelere was born in Warminster township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, He was reared on his father’s farm in Warrington township, to which the family had removed, and was educated in the common schools of the neighborhood, attending them in winter, as is the usual custom in rural districts, and assisting with the duties of farm life during the greater part of every year. Having decided to take a college course, he entered the Doylestown English and Classical Seminary at the age of eighteen years, teaching part of the time. He entered the freshman class of Lafayette College at Easton in September, 1871, graduating from that institution in 1875. In his junior year he won first honors in an oratorical contest between Franklin and Washington Halls. In his senior year he had the honor of representing Lafayette College in the inter-collegiate oratorical contest, which took place in the academy of music, New York city, January 13, 1875. The institutions represented were Amherst, Princeton, Williams, Cornell, New York, Columbia and Lafayette colleges.

In September, 1875, Mr. Larzelere entered the office of Hon. George Ross, a leading lawyer of Doylestown, reading law under his direction for one year. At the end of that time he entered the office of Hon. B. Markley Roper, afterwards president judge of the courts of Montgomery county. At the end of two years of diligent study, Mr. Larzelere was admitted to the bar of Montgomery county, September 28, 1877, Mr. Larzelere married, September 21, 1880, Miss Ida Frances, second daughter of Dr. John W. and Hannah Loch, of Norristown. They have two sons, John Loch and Charles Townley Larzelere, who are students at Princeton University. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Larzelere are both Presbyterians. On his father’s side Mr. Larzelere’s ancestors adhered to the Presbyterian faith, while on his mother’s side they were mostly members of the Society of Friends or Quakers.

In the practice of his profession Mr. Larzelere soon attained a commanding position among his associates at the bar. He took the lead from the beginning and has well maintained it to the present time, his industry, devotion to the interests of his clients, and his fertility of resources overcoming every obstacle that appeared in the course of his career. He has been counsel, on one side or the other, of the majority of the important cases that have arisen in the Norristown courts in the more than a quarter of a century that has intervened since his admission. He was a recognized leader from the beginning of his career, and he has won some notably splendid triumphs before juries and elsewhere, the force of his reasoning powers enabling him to present his case in the strongest possible light to the court or the jury as the case might be. Among the more notable of the cases in which he distinguished himself, from time to time, are the following: Bradfield et al. vs. Insurance Company; Commonwealth vs. Gaffey, indicted for manslaughter at the hospital for the insane. The matter of freeing the DeKalb street bridge at Norristown, one of the most stubborn legal contests ever waged in the county; Rudolph vs. Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in which as in the DeKalb street bridge case, the damage verdict considerably exceeded a hundred thousand dollars, and many other cases involving damages on account of railway construction, in all of which he acquitted himself with the highest credit, and won the highest encomiums for his ability and success in presenting his case to the best possible advantage. Success is the best test of a lawyer’s ability, and, judged by this, Mr. Larzelere is entitled to the highest consideration as a master in the legal profession.

In politics Mr. Larzelere was originally a Democrat, according to the traditions of his family, but he was never a strong or unreasonable partisan. When the Democratic party, in the nomination of William J. Bryan for the presidency, in 1896, and the endorsement of the fallacy of silver coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1, abandoned the principles of sound finance, Mr. Larzelere publicly announced that he could no longer support that organization and, with voice and vote, supported McKinley and Hobart, the Republican nominees for the offices of president and vice president. His vote and his influence have ever since been cast on the side of sound money, and safe methods in connection with the administration of national affairs. He is a stanch Republican and a member of the Union League. When Judge Swartz was a candidate in 1904 for judge of the Pennsylvania supreme court, Mr. Larzelere presented his name at the Republican county convention in a speech that will long be remembered for its earnestness and eloquence, by all who heard it.

In everything that relates to progress and improvement in the borough of Norristown, his home during all his adult life, Mr. Larzelere has been actively interested, always casting the weight of his influence on the side of advancement. He has been for a number of years prominently identified with the street railway system, which has assisted so much in the development of the best interests of the county seat. He has been president of the Schuylkill Valley Traction Company during its entire existence, and still occupies a prominent position in connection with the management of the company’s line and the operation of its various branches, which are being extended in many directions so as to become an important link in the chain of communication between different sections of the county and state. In this work of development and growth of the popular means of transportation, Mr. Larzelere has assisted very materially, his efforts being constantly directed towards the improvement of the service so that the public convenience may be promoted to the fullest possible extent. He is also solicitor for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Montgomery county, for the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, the Lehigh Valley Traction Company, the Bell Telephone Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company and many other great corporations which have business interests in his district. All these are added to a large and exacting practice, which has grown, year by year, to large proportions. The law firm which was for many years Larzelere & Gibson, Mr. Larzelere’s partner being Muscoe M. Gibson, son of Rev. Isaac Gibson, has within a few years been enlarged further by the addition of Gilbert R. Fox, also of Norristown, the firm name being Larzelere, Gibson & Fox, in which working shape it is prepared to take up any and all legal business that is presented, and carry it to a successful issue. Mr. Larzelere, notwithstanding the fact that he is a very busy man in his profession, is not unmindful of other business interests and opportunities, and is in the directorates of several railway, manufacturing and fiscal corporations. Mr. Larzelere and his family reside in one of the handsomest and most complete homes in Norristown at DeKalb and Basin streets, with extensive grounds laid out elegantly, forming a fine setting for his residence in the finest part of Norristown. He has found time among his other occupations to devote a good deal of attention to literature, and art and has collected one of the best private libraries in the state, as well as a collection of oil paintings representative of the highest excellence and merit among modern artists.