My Genealogy Hound

MRS. EFFIE M. LEWIS, widow of Harry J. Lewis, of Conshohocken, is a native of that place, where she was born May 20, 1866. She has long held a position in the office of the clerk of the orphans’ court, and was the first woman deputized to act in an official position, in the court house at Norristown. Mrs. Lewis is the daughter of William Michigan and Mary Elizabeth (Peterson) Mahoney.

William M. Mahoney (father) was a native of Maryland. He married Mary Elizabeth Peterson, April 15, 1862. His wife, who was the third daughter of Tobias and Sarah Peterson, was born near Cherry Hill, Cecil county, Maryland, February 22, 1844. She was educated in private schools in that state. The oldest child of William and Mary E. Mahoney was Fannie Edith, born September 25, 1863, in Cecil county. The following year the family removed to Conshohocken, in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where was born Effie May, subject of this sketch, the family residing at that time on East Hector street. Mr. Mahoney followed his occupations of carpenter, wheelwright and millwright. In 1870 the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney, Sarah Rebecca, was born. In the course of the following year Mrs. Mahoney’s health failed, and she was taken to the residence of her father, Tobias Peterson, at Everett, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, to which place he had removed from Maryland in the hope that the mineral springs in that vicinity might prove beneficial to her health. Mrs. Mahoney died in September, 1871, and was buried in the Lutheran cemetery near Everett. After her death her oldest daughter, Fannie, attended the public schools of Conshohocken and graduated therefrom in 1881. The four following years she taught school in the Eight Square School in Plymouth township, near Conshohocken. She married, September 2, 1885, James M. Morrison, master mechanic at the establishment of the Alan Wood Company, in Conshohocken. She died September 12, 1898, leaving her husband and two daughters-Marion, aged ten years, and Fannie, six years old. She was buried in Brandywine cemetery, at Wilmington, Delaware.

Effie May Mahoney, subject of this sketch, lived with her paternal grandparents, Elisha and Rebecca Weaver Mahoney, on their farm midway between Elkton and Northeast, in Cecil county, Maryland, on the line of the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, for three years after the death of her mother. When her father married the second time, he took her to his home in Conshohocken, and she attended the public schools there until she graduated in 1884. During 1884 and 1885 she taught as a substitute in the Lower Merion high school at Ardmore, the Mount Pleasant school, in Lower Merion, and in the Conshohocken public schools. In August, 1885, she was elected to the advanced secondary department in the Conshohocken schools. On April 4, 1886, Miss Mahoney became the wife of Harry J. Lewis, eldest son of John Craig and Harriet (Gilbert) Lewis. Harry J. Lewis was born February 11, 1866, at Radnor, Pennsylvania, and when three years of age became a resident of Conshohocken, his parents removing to that borough. He attended the public schools of Conshohocken, graduating from the high school in 1882. He studied telegraphy and secured a position with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company at West Spring Mill. He also held similar positions at West Conshohocken, West Falls, and Richmond, Philadelphia. He was employed at the last named place when his death occurred, November 15, 1893. Mr. Lewis was a fine musician and was organist of the First Baptist church of Conshohocken for ten years preceding his death. He was also prominently connected with the Patriotic Order Sons of America and with Gratitude Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Besides his widow, three children and his parents survived him. He left also an only brother, Rev. Daniel E. Lewis. His father, John C. Lewis, was for many years bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Conshohocken. The family of Harry J. and Effie M. Lewis are: Edith May, born May 6, 1887; Herbert Fisk, born January 26, 1890; Elizabeth Louise, born April 19, 1892. Edith May attended the public schools, graduating in June, 1903. In 1904 she attended and graduated from Schissler’s College of Business, Norristown. Herbert is a student at Girard College, Philadelphia. Elizabeth is a pupil in the Conshohocken high school.

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lewis and her three children boarded with her aunt, Mrs. William Steele, on Seventh avenue, Conshohocken. Mrs. Lewis took a position with the J. Ellwood Lee Surgical Company of Conshohocken as forelady. Afterward she did Spanish translating for the firm. She was the first to attempt the translation of their large catalogue into the Spanish language, and completed the greater part of that work before leaving the employ of the company. She became a student at the Schissler Business College in April, 1896, graduated from this institution and became one of the faculty, having charge of the typewriting department. In June, 1897, she was offered and accepted a position as typewriter and stenographer in the office of William P. Young, clerk of the court of Montgomery county. She retained this position until January, 1900, when Major Isaac N.Cooke, the newly elected clerk of the courts, appointed Mrs. Lewis his second deputy. Hon. William F. Solly, upon receiving his appointment as president judge of the orphans’ court in 1901, approved the appointment of Mrs. Lewis as deputy clerk of the orphans’ court, qualifying her as such on June 12th of that year. At the expiration of Major Cooke’s term as clerk she was retained by the register of wills and clerk of the orphans’ court, Henry A. Groff, as typewriter. Mrs. Lewis and her daughters are members of Calvary Episcopal church, Conshohocken.

William M. Mahoney, father of Mrs. Lewis, after the death of his first wife, married Virginia Matthews, his first cousin, of Cecil county, Maryland, December 24, 1875. They had two children, Verna Lee, born December 23, 1878, who is unmarried, and Arthur, born June 16, 1880. He is married and living in Chester, Pennsylvania. After the death of his second wife, which occurred December 25, 1885, William M. Mahoney removed from Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, to Maryland. There he married his cousin, Miss Rachel Weaver, in 1892, and the couple reside on a farm near Mechanics’ Valley, in Cecil county.

Mrs. Lewis is descended from Swedish and Irish ancestors. On her father’s side her progenitor was Elisha Mahoney, who came from Ireland early in the eighteenth century, settling in Pennsylvania, but afterwards removing to Cecil county, Maryland, where he purchased a farm near Mechanics’ Valley, and reared a large family of children. Numerous descendants are scattered throughout Maryland and Delaware, and are remarkable for their height, nearly every male member of the family being over six feet tall. The family are Protestants in religious faith. One of the sons of the immigrant was Stephen Mahoney, whose son, Elisha Mahoney, Jr., was the father of William Mahoney, who is the father of Mrs. Lewis. Elisha Mahoney, grandfather of Mrs. Lewis, was for many years section foreman on the P., B. & W. Railroad. He was prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity. The other children of Elisha Mahoney, Jr., are Alfred, Joseph, Martha, wife of Samuel Miller, and George.

Sarah Rebecca Mahoney, younger sister of Mrs. Lewis, resided after her mother’s death with her grandparents, Tobias and Sarah Peterson, on their farm in Cecil county, Maryland, attended the public schools, and at the age of sixteen years became the wife of Jackson Willis. Her husband purchased a farm adjoining that of her grandfather, Tobias Peterson, where the couple reside, having six children: Clifford, Rexley, Daniel, Sarah Emma, Carl and Lillie.

The sisters and brothers of Mary Elizabeth (Peterson) Mahoney, mother of Mrs. Lewis were: Lydia Ann, educated for a teacher, and taught a school in Cecil county, near Poplar Hill, in a school house which was erected on her father’s farm. She married William T. Steele, son of Joseph Steele, of that vicinity, and removed to Conshohocken in 1863. Their two children were Frank, who died in infancy, and Lillie M., a teacher in the Conshohocken public schools since 1887. Sarah Jane, married her cousin, George Brown, and removed to Conshohocken in 1863. They had two children, Leola, married to Thomas Ritchie, of Cecil county, and Blanche, who died in childhood. Sarah and George Brown returned to Maryland in 1876, and both died there in 1903. John Thomas, died in infancy. Margaret Emily became a teacher at Everett, Pennsylvania, during her parents’ residence there and returned with them to Cecil county, Maryland. She died in 1879, at the age of thirty-one years, unmarried. Hannah Louisa, died unmarried in Philadelphia in 1894, aged forty-four years. Alice Lucinda, married, May 6, 1886, Andrew Sentman. She has no children. George Tobias, born 1858, married, in 1877, Miss Belle Willis, resides on her father’s farm near Appleton, in Cecil county and became the father of a numerous family.

The Petersons are of Swedish origin. Tobias, great-grandfather of Mrs. Lewis, married, in 1805, Ann Derrickson, also of an old Swedish family in Delaware. They removed on their marriage to Maryland, bought a farm near Scott’s Mills, and reared a large family. She died in 1859 and he in 1865. They left ten children, as follows: Ann, Ruth, George, Lydia, Thomas, Tobias, Mary, Peter, John and Sarah. Ruth was the first of these children to die in 1878, the youngest being then over fifty years of age. Tobias, grandfather of Mrs. Lewis, born in 1814, married in 1838, Sarah Mullen, and died in Cecil county, in 1895. Mrs. Peterson died in 1891.