History of Bucks County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
Names and Page # Index

   URIAH DU BOIS, youngest son of Peter and Amey (GREENMAN) DUBOIS, born in Pittsgrove township, February, 1768, became one of the most prominent preachers and educators in Bucks county.  He received his academic education near the home of his ancestors in Orange county, New York, entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1787, and graduated in 1790.  While a student there he boarded in the family of Robert PATTERSON, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the University, whose daughter Martha he later married.  On his graduation he accepted a position as teacher in an academy at Charleston, South Carolina, where he spent one year.  Returning to New Jersey he taught at Woodbury and Bordentown for three years, and then returned to Philadelphia to pursue his studies for the ministry under the Rev. Ashbel GREEN, D. D., afterwards president of Princeton.  He was licensed to preach in 1796 and preached as a licentiate at Allentown, and at Deep Run and Red Hill in Bucks county.  The Presbyterians of the latter two churches were pleased with him and he was elected their pastor in 1798.   On June 20, 1798, he married Martha PATTERSON, and in December of the same year took up his pastoral labors in Bucks county, residing for one year at Dublin, and then removing to the parsonage farm near the Deep Run church, and preaching alternately at Red Hill and Deep Run.  In 1804 the inhabitants of the growing village of Doylestown built an academy and invited Rev. DUBOIS to become its principal instructor.  The congregations at both churches had decreased by the removal of the English settlers from that locality, and he decided to accept the offer and removed to Doylestown, meanwhile continuing his pastorate.  He built a house, still standing at the north corner of State and Broad streets, in what was then a "two acre blackberry patch" and removed into it in 1805.  He later built the house adjoining the academy and lived there from 1807 to 1814, and then removed back to the first home where he spent his remaining days.  The builders of the academy had provided that religious services were to be held therein, and Mr. DUBOIS frequently preached there.  This was the nucleus of the present Presbyterian church at Doylestown, which was organized in 1814 and the building dedicated in August, 1815.  Rev. dubois was a fine classical scholar and an excellent instructor.  He was an assidous worker, and the infant academy and church both prospered under his guidance.  He continued his work in both institutions as well as at Deep Run until his death, September 19, 1821.   He was also clerk of the Orphans court of Bucks county for the last six years of his life, his eldest son Charles E. performing the clerical work.  His wife Martha PATTERSON was also a native of New Jersey, being born in Carltown, Cumberland county, July 30, 1779, from whence her father moved to Philadelphia when she was a year old.   She was a very estimable woman and a fitting helpmeet for the enthusiastic and struggling divine in a sparsely settled community, and a heroic wife and mother.  She survived him many years, dying October 25, 1856.  The children of Rev. Uriah and Martha (PATTERSON) DUBOIS were:  Charles E., the grandfather of the subject of this sketch; Emilia, who married the Rev. Samuel AARON, born 1803, and died 1830; Robert P., born, 1805, for many years pastor of the Presbyterian church at New London, Chester county, Pennsylvania, married Jane H. LATTA; Samuel, born 1808, a noted local photographer and artist; William, born 1810, married Susanna ECKFELDT; Matilda, wife of the Rev. Silas M. ANDREWS, who succeeded his father-in-law as pastor of the Doylestown church and filled the pastorate for a half century; Louis, born 1814, married Henrietta COX; and Mary, who married S. H. THOMPSON.

   Charles E. DUBOIS, eldest child of Uriah and Martha, was born at the Deep Run parsonage, July 16, 1799.  His family removing to Doylestown when he was five years of age, his youth and manhood was spent there.   He was educated at the Union academy under his father's tuition, studied law under Abraham CHAPMAN, Esq., and was admitted to the bar August 28, 1820.  In 1823 he was commissioned clerk of the orphans' court and filled that position for six years, and in 1832 was appointed district attorney.  He was an able and successful lawyer, and practiced in the Bucks county courts for 5 years.  In 1847 he was elected president of Doylestown National Bank, and filled that position until his death which occurred March 5, 1865.  He was married to Mary S. LATTA, daughter of Rev. John E. LATTA, of New Castle, Delaware, by whom he had eleven children:  John L., born April 16, 1832, died February 20, 1903; Samuel M., died 1859; Emma P., married Edward P. FLINT, a merchant of San Francisco, California, died 1899; Helen M., living in Doylestown; James L., died in California in 1897; Charles, died in infancy; Louis P., died 1889; Mary L., living in Doylestown; Charles E., died 1867; Henry M., a practicing attorney in Philadelphia; and Edward M., died 1857.

Text taken from pages 193 and 194 of:

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

Transcribed MAY 2001 by GRACE T. BURTON of PA as part of the Bucks Co., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html