BIOGRAPHY: LOUIS PANCOAST - Salem County NJ Information located at http://www.rootsweb.com/~njsalem/ On a USGenWeb/NJGenWeb Web site TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN, County Coordinator in 2007 Please see the web site for my email contact. ---------------------------------- Copyright 2007 Janice Brown The original source of this information is in the public domain, however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is restricted without written permission from the transcriber (who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same). ======================================================== SOURCE: Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the First Congressional District of New Jersey by Mrs. Wainwright; New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1900 page 83 LOUIS PANCOAST Louis Pancoast is a son of Joseph and Mary Jane (Barnes) Pancoast. He was born in Salem county about forty years ago. He is descended from ancestry honorable and distinguished who came to New Jersey at an early day, and through ahrdships and sufferings such as the present generation have little knowledge of, assisted in laying the foundation for the present prosperity, progress and advancement of Salem County. The first of the name in America was John Pancoast, who emigrated from London, England, taking passage on the good ship "Mary" in 1678. He was at one time sheriff of the tenth district of New Jersey, then comprising a territory extending from the middle of Main Street in Burlingotn to the Assinipink creek in Trenton and across to the Atlantic Ocean. He had two sons--John and Joseph. Joseph was married and among his children was a son named Edward, who settled near Clarksboro, New Jersey. he and his wife had a son John, who married Sarah, a daughter of Bradway and Jane (Waddington) Keasby, of Hancock's Bridge, New Jersey. They settled in that locality and afterward removed to Mullica Hill, where they spent their remaining days and were buried in the Friends' cemetery there. Among their children were Hannah, Achsah, John, Israel, David C. and Aaron K. David C. Pancoast the grandfather of our subject, resided in Woodstown but following farming in Pittsgrove township. He was a member of the Society of Friends and in politicial belief was a staunch Republican. He married Ann H. Davis, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Haines) Davis and a native of Burlington county, New Jersey. Her father was born on the 15th of June 1766, and her mother November 11, 1770. They had eleven children, seven of whom reached years of maturity. Mrs. Ann H. Pancoast died 1878, at the age of seventy-two, and David Pancoast passed away November 26, 1881 in his seventy-eighth year. The Davis family is of royal descent, the ancestry being traced back in an unbroken line to Edward I, King of England. A later representative of the family was Sir Thomas Wyatt, of Allington Castle, who married Lady Jane Hawte. They had two children, George and Lady Jane Wyatt. The latter became the wife of Charles Scott, of Edgerton, died in 1635. He was twice married, his second union being with Jane Knatchbull, whom he married in 1604 and who died in 1615. She was a daughter of John Knatchbull, of Mershom Hatch. Among their children was Dorothea Scott, who came to Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, in 1680, accompanied by the children of her first husband, Major Daniel Gotherson, who died in 1666. She was again married, in 1680, becoming the wife of John Davis, of Oyster Bay. They removed to Piles grove township, Salem County, in 1705. One of their children was Judge David Davis, of Salem County, who married Dorothy Cousins, who was born in 1693, and died in 1789. David Davis was the second child of Judge David Davis and Dorothy (Cousins) Davis. He was born in Salem County New Jersey in 1730 and married Martha Cole. He had two children. The elder, David Davis Jr., resided in Salem County and married a Miss Haines, by whom he had three children: Anna, wife of Allen Fennimore; Martha, wife of Tobias Griscom of Salem, New Jersey, and Joseph who married a Miss Collins. Joseph Davis, the second son of David and Martha (Cole) Davis, resided in Salem county and wedded Mary Haines. They had two children, the elder being Martha, who became the wife of William Folwell and the mother of Joseph D. Folwell. They lived in Philadelphia. The younger, Anna Davis, became the wife of David C. Pancoast of Woodstown, New Jersey, the paternal grandfather of Louis Pancoast, whose name heads this sketch. Their children were Mary D., Joseph D., Martha F., Anna, David, William, Charles F. and Belle. Of this family, Joseph D. Pancoast was the father of our subject. He was born in Woodstown, Salem County, New Jersey, July 9, 1833, and was educated in Woodstown and at the Fremont Seminary at Morristown, Pennsylvania. He married Miss Mary Jane Barnes of Woodstown, a daughter of Joseph Barnes and a lineal descendant of John Sharpless. The maternal ancestry has been traced back to the latter part of the seventeenth century and is a record of which our subject may well be proud. John Sharpless came from England in 1682 with three sons, John, James, and Joseph and settled in the southern part of what is the present state of New Jersey. John Sharpless Jr. was the father of Ann Sharpless, who was born in 1710 and married Samuel Bond, of Maryland. Her remains were placed in the graveyard at Shiloh. Two of her daughters married brothers, Elkanah and Jonathan Davis, of Shiloh, this state, the latter of whom was pastor of the Shiloh Church and died there in 1785 at the age of fifty-two years. His wife, Margaret, lived to the extreme age of ninety years and was laid to rest in 1822. One of their children, Samuel Davis was also pastor of the same church as his father formerly had charge of and died in 1834, at the age of seventy-five years. He was married four times, his second wife bein the daughter of Joshua Ayars, and died in 1797. She left an only child, called for her mother, Mary Davis, who was born January 1, 1795 and died in 1838. Her husband was Lot High, a son of Anderson Quincy High, who was born in 1789 and died in 1857. They had a large number of children, of whom Phoebe Ann, the eldest, was the grandmother of our subject. She was united in wedlock to Joseph Barnes, of WOodstown, who was a son of Joshua and Rebecca (Haines) Barnes. Joshua was the son of John Barnes a proprietary resident of Pittsgrove township before Woodstown received its name. He died August 11, 1828, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife, Rebecca, was from Burlington county and died in 1826, at the age of seventy years. Joseph Barnes was born in 1796 and died in 1853, and his first wife, Phoebe Ann, died in 1849, when near her thirty- fifth year. They have three children still living, namely: Rebecca, who married Morris Hall and is a resident of Missouri; Arabella, who married Daniel Stratton and resides in the same state; and Mary Jane, who married Joseph D. Pancoast and is the mother of Louis Pancoast. After the marriage of Joseph D. and Mary Jane (Barnes) Pancoast, they took up their residence on the old homestead farm in Pittsgrove township, where they remained two years. In 1859 they removed to Salem, where Mr. Pancoast engaged in the milling business. He operated the old white stone mill four years and then became identified in the manufacture of glass in the firm of Hall, Pancoast & Craven. He was a practical glass-maker and conducted his share in the enterprise in a highly creditable manner, contributing in no small degree to the successful operation of the business. He remained in this firm until his death, December 7, 1879, and his death was a blow to the company, taking from it, as it did, one of their most able and efficient officers. He was a Republican in his political affiliations and a member of the Hicksite Society of Friends. He was also a prominent Mason and during the war was a member of the home-guard militia. His marriage to Mary Jane Barnes was solemnized February 26, 1857, and resulted in the birth of the following children, namely: Louis, born May 11, 1859; David Archer, born May 8, 1868, and married Helen, a daughter of Delwin Francis Smith, by whom he had one child, Francis Joseph; Mary Davis, born May 24, 1871, married Biddle Hiles June 3, 1899; Charles Fithian, born September 19, 1875, is a resident of Philadelphia, where he is engaged in clerking, and Morris Hall, born April 27, 1877, is employed in the banking department of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. LOUIS PANCOAST attended the high school of Salem, but left school at an early age to accept a clerkship in his father's glass-works. He has risen form that position to the office of secretary and director of the company, and gives to the business his undivided attention. The company afterward took the name of the Salem Glass Works, and is one of the largest glass plants in this part of the state and does a large business. He is a member of the board of health, the Fenwick Club and the Country Clug, and is a prime favorite in social circles. In politics he is a warm sympathizer with Republicanism and keeps well up on all problems of the day. On the 12th of February 1896, Mr. Pancoast was united in marriage to Miss Laura Casper, a lady of charming personality and many accomplishments. She is a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Gillingham) Casper. Joseph Casper, son of Thomas Jefferson Casper and Mary Ann, nee Anderson was born July 20, 1832 in Salem County. His occupation was farming until he was about 23 years of age, when he removed to Philadelphia with his father and egnaged in keeping the Davis Hotel. He married Elizabeth Rich Gillingham, of that city, January 1, 1862, and died February 14, 1879 by a railroad accident at Torresdale, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas Jefferson Casper was the son of John and Hannah (Wentzell) Casper, and was born July 12, 1802. His father, John Casper, was the son of Lawrence Casper, born 1775. Lawrence Casper's father, also named Lawrence, emigrated to this country from Germany when a young man, and died March 2, 1810 aged ninety years. Hannah Wentzell Casper, grandmother of Joseph Casper, was the daughter of Charles Wentzell, a Revolutionary soldier, who died in 1835, aged ninety-two years. The ancestry of the Gillingham family can be traced back to Yeamans Gillingham, who was the first of the name in this country. He came to America from the south of England about 1682 or 1683 and wedded Mary Taylor, who crossed the Atlantic about the same time. They had seven children. Yeamans purchased one hundred acres of land in Oxford township, now Frankford, from William Penn in 1696, and afterward sold that property to Thomas Bristol, who, on the 11th of November, 1786, sold it to Henry Paul, and the last named sold it to Yeamans Gillingham, the grandson of Yeamans Gillingham, first. The latter transaction occurred March 9, 1793. His property included all the land enclosed by the road leading from the United States arsenal around to the Friends' meeting-house, thence northwest to the Black Run, thence by nearly a straight line from Sacony creek to the river and the arsenal road again. Yeamans Gillingham either died there or moved wth son James to the edge of Salisbury township, near the Buckingham meeting-house. General Henry Knox offered James Gillingham the command of the First Marine Corps. He was sergeant major of the McPherson Blues. The same James Gilligham was in the battle which is known in history in connection with the whiskey insurrection. The children of Yeamans and Mary (Taylor) Gillingham were: Ann, who was born May 8, 1694, and married Henry Paul, in honor of whose family Paul Street in Frankford is named; Mary who was born October 21, 1698 and became the wife of James Wilson; Sarah, who was born September 27, 1699 and married Abraham Spicer; Elizabeth, who was born February 22, 1705 and married Samuel Eastburn; James, who was born August 2, 1708 and married Martha Canby and died November 4, 1745; John, who was born May 12, 1710 and located in Philadelphia, and Susanna who was born November 29, 1712. The children of James and Martha (Canby) Gillingham were: John, who had twelve children; Yeamans, who was born August 15, 1734, married Ruth Preston December 21, 1763, and after her death wedded Bridget Moon, in 1768, and died February 26, 1825; James who lived in Philadelphia, was born July 26, 1738 and married Phoebe Hallowell; Joseph, who was born May 14, 1743, married Elizabeth Haney and lived at Falsington until his death May 17, 1794; Thomas who lived in Philadelphia; Martha who was married to Jonathan Kinsey June 9, 1763 in Bucks county; Lavina and Benjamin. The Canby family, of whom Mrs. Pancoast is a descendant, was founded in America by Thomas Canby, who came to this ocuntry July 17, 1688. He was a justice of the peace from 1719 to 1738 and was a member of the legislature from 1731 to 1738. (end)