EZEKIEL A. GROOM |
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EZEKIEL A. GROOM, of Buckingham, was born in Solebury township, Bucks county, October 29, 1834, being a son of Jonathan A. and Rebecca (PIDCOCK) GROOM. The GROOME family is an old one in Bucks county, the first settlers here being Peter and Thomas GROOME, brothers. Peter purchased two hundred acres of land of Penn in Southampton in 1683, but sold it in 1690, and removed to New Jersey. Thomas GROOME IN 1704 purchased 550 acres on the Delaware, in Bristol township, which he sold four years later, and settled in Byberry, Philadelphia county. William GROOME, supposed to be the son of Thomas, settled in Southampton in 1718 on 112 acres purchased that year, upon which he later erected a grist mill. He died there in 1736, leaving a widow Margaret and seven children, four of whom grew to maturity, viz.: Thomas; Mary; Anne, who married Garret VANSANT in 1739; and William, who married Rachel WALTON in 1747. Thomas, the eldest son of William and Margaret GROOME, at the death of his brother William in 1760 purchased the interest of the other heirs in the mill property and settled thereon. Part of the land was sold by the sheriff in 1788, but was purchased by his son Thomas. Thomas and Lydia GROOM, had three sons- Thomas, above referred to, William and John. Thomas remained on the old homestead, and William and John removed to Upper Makefield about 1800. John GROOM, third son of Thomas and Lydia, purchased of John BEAUMONT a small lot in Upper Makefield, and died thereon in 1810, leaving four children; Thomas; Phoebe, wife of John HAGERMAN; Mary, wife of Amos BENNETT; and John. Thomas GROOME, eldest son of John, was a farmer in Upper Makefield, where his son Jonathan was born in 1808. Jonathan GROOM married Rebecca PIDCOCK, and had six children; Mary E. COOK, of Trenton, New Jersey; Joseph P., of Buckingham, a Member of the One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the Civil war; Ezekiel A., Ramsey C., a member of Company A, One Hundred and Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the war; Sarah, wife of Israel WORTHINGTON, of Buckingham; and Anna Rebecca, wife of Rudolph B. COTTER, of Wycombe, Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch was born in Solebury, but at the age of nine went to live with ‘Squire Edward POOL, in Upper Makefield. Two years later he went to John MURFIT’S, in the same township, with whose family he lived until 1870, with the exception of one year (his nineteenth) in which he made a trip to the west. In 1870 he rented the MERRICK farm in Makefield (Washington’s Headquarters in 1777) where he lived for one year, and then removed to the Anderson farm in Buckingham, where he lived for ten years. The next twelve years he lived on the D. W. McNAIR and Joseph SHELLY farms in Buckingham. Mr. GROOM has been a farmer in Buckingham continuously since 1871. In 1893 he purchased his present farm, and has resided thereon since that time. In politics he is a Democrat. In 1890 he was elected county commissioner and served a term of three years. Mr. GROOM was married in 1858 to Elizabeth WARK, of Philadelphia, by whom he has four children: Henrietta D., and Jennie, residing at home; Georgianna, wife of Harry HALLOWELL, of Philadelphia; and John M., residing at home. Both Mr. GROOM and his son are members of Aquetong Lodge, No. 193, I. O. O. F., of Doylestown.
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