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BUCKS INDEX

HEACOCK

Name & Page Number (as posted on index page)

Heacock, Joel     636

Heacock, Joel L. 636

JOEL LEVI HEACOCK

 Joel Levi HEACOCK.  Through several centuries the Heacock family has been represented in Bucks county.  Jesse and Tacy (Thompson) Heacock, his grandparents, were residents of West Rockhill township, where the former owned and operated a farm.  It was upon that farm that Joel Heacock, father of Joel L. Heacock, was born in 1794.  He attended school in Milford township, Trumbauersville, and afterward engaged in farming and in the general milling and lumber business.  He was married in 1842 to Miss Abigail Roberts, the daughter of Levi and Phoebe (McCarthy) Roberts, the eldest of a family of twenty-two children.  After his marriage Joel Heacock located on the old family homestead farm and devoted his attention to general agricultural pursuits and milling.  In his political views he was a Whig, and his religious faith was indicated by his membership in the Society of Friends.  The old homestead is one of the oldest farming properties of Bucks county, it having been acquired by ancestors of Joel Levi Heacock from Thomas and Richard Penn through a charter grant.  This farm was situated in West Rockhill township and long remained in the possession of the family.

    Joel Levi Heacock attended the public schools in his home district through several winter seasons, and in the summer months worked on the farm assisting in the labors of the fields.  His father died March 17, 1853, while on a business trip to Germantown, and the family continued on the home farm until 1858, when Mrs. Heacock, the widow, rented the place, for  she realized that her son required better educational advantages, and removed to Quakertown in order that he might enjoy educational opportunities that were in advance of those afforded by the community schools.  There he continued his studies in the Friends’ school, and later became a student at what was know as the Bucks County Normal Classical School, conducted by A. R. Horne, a native of Springfield township, Bucks county, and a graduate of Pennsylvania college, located at Gettysburg, this state.

    Following the completion of his normal and classical course, Mr. Heacock assisted as a teacher for one year in that institution, after which he joined James Brunners in the conduct of a school for the training of teachers that they might be prepared for the work of the public schools in the townships.  Later Mr. Heacock became principal in the Friends’ school, occupying that position for a year.  He next entered into partnership with Rev. George M. Lazarus, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran church, and for a time conducted a school in the basement of that church.  Many of the boys and young men who pursued their studies under his direction afterward became active, prominent and influential in various departments of business life.  Mr. Heacock has ever been deeply interested in the welfare and progress of his home locality, and has done everything in his power to promote its upbuilding, but has never aspired to office outside of Quakertown.  He served as chief burgess for six years, and as a member of the town council labored effectively and honorably for the improvement of the borough along substantial lines of progress.  Interested in the advancements that would make Quakertown an attractive place of residence and also a good business center, he did everything possible to secure the lighting of the town by electricity.  With this end in view he visited different places in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Indiana, to investigate conditions and plans of lighting those towns.  Few men have labored so untiringly and along such practical lines for the benefit of the borough as has Mr. Heacock.  His efforts have ever been of the most practical character, and his fellow townsmen recognizing the value of his service, in 1869 he was appointed notary public, and later became interested in the real-estate business, which he conducted in connection with the performance of his duties as justice of the peace.  In the last mentioned office he has ever been desirous of bringing to a friendly conclusion any matter of dispute or litigation between contestants who appeared before him.

    Mr. Heacock is now living a retired life, and has gathered around him many warm friends who are deeply interested in the social, economic and municipal questions which elicit his earnest attention and cooperation.  Everything which tends to benefit mankind is a matter of concern to him, and especially has he labored for the welfare of his home locality and native county.

Text taken from page 636 of:

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

Transcribed August 2008 by Thera; tsh@harborside.com; as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, http://pagenweb.org/~bucks/biographies/bucksindex.html 

Published Sept 2008 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at http://pagenweb.org/~bucks