HOME

BUCKS INDEX

DR. JAMES E. GROFF

DR. JAMES E. GROFF, a popular and successful physician, of Doylestown, was born near Sellersville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1856.  He is a son of Isaac S. and Mary A. (Fellman) Groff, both of German descent.

    Hans Jacob Groff emigrated from the Palatinate, Germany, with his wife Verona, and arrived in Philadelphia in the ship “Patience,” August 11, 1750, and located in Rockhill township, Bucks county, on land surveyed to him in September, 1761.  In 1770 he purchased two tracts of 186 acres and forty-seven acres respectively, near the present borough of Perkasie, adjoining the land of Jacob Stout, with whose family the Groffs later intermarried.  He was a blacksmith by trade.  He died April 1, 1782, leaving a widow Verona, and children; Jacob, Peter, John, Henry, and Mary, who married Isaac Souder.  John married Christina Fulmer.  Peter Groff, brother of Jacob, accompanied him to America in the “Patience,” and both were doubtless sons of Peter, who arrived in the “Crown” in 1749.  Peter Groff, son of Jacob, settled in East Nantmeal twonship, Chester county.  Henry Groff, fourth son of Jacob and Verona, was born in Rockhill township, and at the death of his father in 1782 was living on the homestead, and three years later purchased in partnership with his brother John one hundred acres thereof, and purchased John’s interest therein in 1794.  He married Esther ____, and had two sons Jacob and Abraham.

    Jacob Groff, born on the Perkasie homestead about 1800, acquired title to a part of it from his father, Henry Groff, in 1826, on condition of providing for his father and mother during the remainder of their lives.  He also purchased two hundred acres adjoining, and other tracts in Rockhill, becoming an extensive landowner and prominent man in the community.  In religion he was a Mennonite, and in politics a stanch Whig.  He died April, 1855.  He was twice married, his first wife being Mary Magdalen, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Barndt) Stout, of Rockhill, born August 29, 1804, died February 7, 1848.

(See Stout family in this work.)  The children of Jacob and Mary Magdalen Groff were:  Owen, Isaac, Charles, Abraham, Mary and Jacob.  Mary, the only daughter, married Jacob Shearer.  Jacob Groff married (second) Hannah Moore, but had no issue by her.

    Isaac Stout Groff, second son of Jacob and Magdalen, was born in Rockhill township, August 13, 1834, and there grew to manhood.  He was a merchant tailor, and carried on business at Benjamin, now a part of Perkasie borough, for many years.  He later conducted a general store at Chalfont, but returned to merchant tailoring several years prior to his death, locating at Line Lexington, New Britain township, where he died in 1890.  He was a member of the Reformed church.  He married Mary Ann Fellman, daughter of Jacob Fellman of Richland, of the well-known family of that vicinity, Charles Fellman, of Richland, who was Sheriff of Bucks county, 1854-6, being a brother of Jacob.

    Dr. James E. Groff, the subject of this sketch, was the only child of Isaac S. and Mary Ann Groff, and was born at Benjamin, August 3, 1856.  He attended the public schools of that neighborhood until fifteen years of age, and then taught school for two years.  He then entered Ursinus College at Collegeville, and remained two and a half years.  In his sophomore year the serious illness of his father necessitated his leaving school, and he returned home and conducted his father’s business for two and a half years, and expected to follow the business of a merchant for life, but, his father selling out his business in the spring of 1877, James E. began the study of medicine with Dr. A. J. Mathews, at Chalfont.  In the fall of the same year he entered Jefferson Medical College, and graduated in 1880.  He first located for practice of his profession at Tradesville, Warrington township, Bucks county, and remained there until 1886, when he removed to Doylestown, where he has lived and practiced ever since.  He has been eminently successful in his chosen profession, and has built up a large and lucrative practice.  He is a member of the Bucks County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society and the American Medical Association; the local representative of the State Board of Health and a member of the board of United States Pension Examining Surgeons.  He is now serving his second term as a member of the borough council of Doylestown.  He is an active worker in the German Reformed church of Doylestown; a member of Doylestown Lodge, No. 245, F. and A. M.; Aquetong Lodge, No.193, I. O. O. F.; and Lenape Council No. 1117, Royal Arcanum.  He has always taken an interest in all that pertains to the improvement and development of his town and county.  In politics he is a Republican.  He was married November 16, 1876, to Adelaide, daughter of Charles R. Grove, of New Britain, by whom he has one son, Howard R. born November 26, 1877, who is a clerk in the Doylestown Trust Company.  He was married in 1902 to Miss Nellie Wolf, and resides in Doylestown.   

Text taken from pages 477-478 of:

Davis, William W.H., A.M. History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed February 2004 by Thera Schwenk-Hammond; tsh@harborside.com; http:// www..rootsweb.com/~schwenk as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project,

Publishedd April 2004 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb