History of Bucks
County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
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Dr. OLIVER STOUT Dr. OLIVER STOUT. Jacob STOUT, the pioneer ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was born in Germany, Rhine Province, in the year 1710, and came to Pennsylvania in the ship “Samuel,” arriving in Philadelphia on August 30, 1730. He was accompanied by two brothers, John and Abraham STOUT, of whom little is known. Jacob STOUT located in Bucks county near the present site of Perkasie, where John LACEY (who had emigrated from Germany with his wife Anna, nee MILLER, in the ship “Adventurer” in 1732) had purchased a tract of two hundred acres in 1735. LACEY died in 1738, and in 1739 Jacob STOUT married the widow Anna. He probably remained on the Perkasie plantation with his wife and her two sons by LACEY, for the next ten years and later came to what became Williams township. Northampton county, where he purchased a tract of 243 acres on September 9, 1750, which remained the property of his descendants for several generations, descending through his son, Isaac STOUT, the father of the famous physician and surgeon, Dr. Abraham STOUT. Jacob STOUT was a potter by trade, and seems to have followed that vocation both at Durham and at Perkasie. How long he remained at the former place does not appear, but in 1753 he purchased a mill property and tract of land at Church Hill, in Rockhill township. In 1759 his step-sons, John and Henry LACEY, having come of age, Jacob STOUT conveyed to them 266 acres in Hilltown, which he had purchased in 1757, and they in turn conveyed to him the 200 acres in Rockhill, originally taken up by their fathers. This
tract embraced a large part of the present borough of Perkasie, and it remained the
residence of the ancestors of the subject of this sketch for at least three generations. Here Jacob STOUT resided the remainder of his life,
becoming a prominent man in the community and an extensive landowner. In 1767 he purchased the Pine Run mill property,
one mile north of Doylestown, which in 1770 he conveyed to his son-in-law, Abraham FREED. In
1774 he purchased 150 acres in New Britain, on which he settled his daughter Catherine,
who had married Jacob SCHLIEFFER. Jacob STOUT
died April 30, 1779, at the age of sixty-eight and one-half years, and is buried beside
his wife and several of their children and grandchildren in a neat little family burial
lot within a few rods of Perkasie station on the N. P. R. R. on a part of the old
plantation. The children of Jacob and Anna (MILLER-LACEY) STOUT were as follows: 1. Abraham, an account of
whom follows: 2. Isaac, who settled on his father’s Northampton county tract and
reared a family, among whom were Dr. Abraham STOUT. 3. E. Salome, who married first Abraham FREED, and after his death in 1773. Gabrielle SWARTZLANDER,
and lived and died at what was known for a century as “SWARTZLANDER’s Mill” one mile north of
Doylestown, and left many descendants, among whom is Dr. Frank SWARTZLANDER, of Doylestown. 4.Catherine, who married Jacob SCHLEIFFER, and lived and died in New Britain.
Abraham STOUT, eldest son of Jacob and
Anna, born at Perkasie, August 17, 1740, was probably the most prominent and best educated
Pennsylvania German of his day. Most of his
education was acquired at the famous Germantown Academy for years the rival of the College
of Philadelphia, later the University of Pennsylvania, under the tuition of Hilarius BECKER, professor of German, and David J. DOVE as instructor in English. Abraham STOUT
thus acquired a thorough knowledge of the English language, an accomplishment exceedingly
rare at that date and for a century later among the descendants of the German colonists of
upper Bucks, as well as a thorough scientific training.
He was an excellent accountant and penman, a surveyor and conveyancer, as
well as an excellent business man, and transacted practically all the public business for
his German neighbors far and near. Most of
the deeds, wills, petitions to the courts, etc. on file among the papers of the several
county offices from 1770 to 1812, are in his handwriting, as well as numberless account of
administrators and executors, (he having served very frequently as auditor in estates) and
are models of brevity, neatness and execution. At
the death of his father his brothers and sisters conveyed to him the old Perkasie
homestead, and his whole life was spent thereon. At
the beginning of the protest against the oppressive acts of the mother country in 1774-75,
he was foremost in the neighborhood in organizing for the protest, and was named as the
member of the committee of safety from Rockhill in 1775. When,
however, it became apparent that a resort to arms would follow, he resigned from the
committee and thereafter held aloof from active participation in the struggle. The reason for this was, no-doubt, owing to
religious convictions on the subject of the war, as there is evidence to show that his
sympathies were with the patriot side. Though
later generations of the family were members of the German Reformed church, it is probable
that he was reared in the Mennonite faith. When
his father, Jacob STOUT, took the oath of
Allegiance in 1751, his name appears among the list of “Quakers and others who from
religious conviction conscientiously scruple to take the Oath on the Holy Evangelists and
having complied with the terms required by the Act of Parliament took and subscribed the
qualifications required.” Again, the
Germantown Academy was in its inception a Mennonist institution, and he probably imbibed
ideas of non-combativeness that prevented his participation in a sanguinary struggle. The war having ended, he became, however, a
prominent figure in public affairs. He was
one of the delegates from Bucks county in the constitutional convention of 1790, and took
a prominent part therein. His career of
usefulness ended with his death on the eve of the second struggle with the mother country
, June 8, 1812, and he is buried beside his father in the old burying ground at Perkasie. He married, October 21, 1773, Mary Magdalen HARTZELL, daughter of Henry HARTZELL, another prominent Pennsylvania German in
Rockhill township. She died November 8, 1811. Abraham and Magdalen (HARTZELL) STOUT
were the parents of seven children, viz.: 1. Nancy, who married Jacob HARTMAN. 2. Jacob, the grandfather of Hon.
Mahlon H. STOUT, president judge of the courts
of Bucks county. 3. Henry H., the
great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 4.
Abraham. 6. Margaretta, who married Tobias RHUl,
and 7. Magdelen, who married John GEARHART.
Henry H. STOUT, second son of Abraham
and Magdalen (HARTZELL) STOUT, was born on the Perkasie homestead, June 3,
1776. He was a lifelong farmer and resided
for some years after attaining manhood on a portion of the old homestead, but later
settled in Hilltown, where he owned considerable land.
He was a member of the German Reformed church at Tohicken and an influential
man in the community. He married, May 1798,
Elizabeth KERN, daughter of Christian KERN, of Hilltown.
She was born May 10, 1778, and died June 5, 1871. Henry H. STOUT died January 12, 1854. Both are buried at Tohincon. Their children were: Catharine, born 1798: Mary,
born 1800: Samuel, 1802;Magdalene, born 1805: Hannah, born1807; Elizabeth, born 1809;
Enos, born April 17, 1813: Lydia, born January 18, 1815; and Annie, born 1821.
Enos STOUT, only son of Henry H. and
Elizabeth (KERN) STOUT, was born and reared on
the Hilltown homestead, a part of which he purchased on attaining manhood, and erected
buildings thereon. At the death of his father
he purchased the remainder and lived theron, during life.
He was a prominent and influential man in the community, and a member of the
German Reformed church. He married, November
13, 1834, Catharine KRATZ, daughter of John and
Magdalena (SWARTLANDER) KRATZ of Plumstead, his cousin, her mother being
a daughter of Gabriel and Salome (STOUT) SWARTZLANDER.
Catharine was born May 2, 1809, and died March31, 1890. Enos STOUT
died December 6, 1886. Their children were:
Lewis K., born December 22, 1835: John Henry, born July 22, 1838; Ruben, born March 28
1841; Allen K., born May 21, 1843; Edward Clayton, born March 3, 1846;
died January 28, 1862; and Wilhelmina, born 1850, died 1862.
Lewis K. STOUT, eldest son of Enos and
Catharine (KRATZ) STOUT, and the father of Dr. Oliver STOUT, was born on the Hilltown farm and educated
at the public schools. He taught school in
Hilltown, Benminster and Rockhill townships, in all eight years. He was a justice of the peace of Rockhill township
for five years, 1874-1779. In April, 1886, he
removed to Philadelphia, where he resided until May 1, 1903, when he removed to Perkasie,
Bucks county. Pennsylvania, where he still resides. He
married, October 28, 1865, Lavina M. ALTHOUSE,
born August 23, 1844, daughter of Samuel and Sarah (MITMAN)
ALTHOUSE, of Bedminster, Bucks county, and
they are the parents of seven children, viz. Henry Erwin, born September 15, 1866, died
April 8, 1874; Annie A., born January 14, 1868, unmarried; Oliver A., the subject of this
sketch; Edward Clayton, born August 12, 1872, graduate of the College of Pharmacy,
Philadelphia, a druggist at 4628 Woodland Avenue, Philadelphia; Charles A., also a
graduate of the College of Pharmacy and now a druggist at Eighth and Diamond streets,
Philadelphia; Philip Samuel, born August 20, 1877, graduated at the College of Pharmacy,
Philadelphia, class of 1899, graduate of University of Pennsylvania, class of 1904, now
demonstrator in pathology in the university: Benjamin Franklin, born January 18, 1889, a
graduate of the College of Pharmacy in 1903, a druggist at Tonopah, Nevada. Test taken
from pages 201-203 of: Davis,
William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County,
Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III Transcribed
April 2001 by Joan Lollis of IN. as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project,
www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html Published April 2001 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/ |