My Genealogy Hound

MORGAN R. WILLS. The Wills family are of English origin, although for many years resident of Ireland, prior to the coming to this country of the ancestor of the American branch. It has long been a tradition in the family that their English ancestor went to Ireland between 1650 and 1655, when Cromwell was engaged in renewing the population of that island with large accessions of English and Scotch.

The ancestor of Morgan R. Wills, whose name was Michael Wills, came to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1728 in company with his family, accompanied by the Mather family. His parents were left in or near Rathdrum, Wicklow county, Ireland, they living to a very advanced age. Michael Wills, the immigrant, was a resident of Lower Merion, where his will was dated, November 28, 1748. His son, Michael Wills, married Jane Mather, who was about ten years younger than himself. He had three sons: Jeremiah, Michael and John; also three daughters: Rebecca, Mary and Elizabeth. The first of the sisters married Michael Mather, the second Jacob Whiteman, and the third, John Mather. Michael Wills was a careful business man. He finally purchased a farm in Plymouth. It contained 225 acres of land, and the price was L1180, Pennsylvania money. He died in 1794, and left all of his property to his widow, who survived him ten years, just the difference in their ages. Each was about eighty-six years of age at the time of death. Both were buried at Radnor.

Michael Wills, the third of the name, married Ann, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth (Keyser) Wood. Andrew Wood owned a fine farm in what is now Roxborough, the house in which he lived standing on the Ridge turnpike, between the sixth and seventh mile-stones. His land on the Schuylkill side included a shad fishery, the canal having not yet been constructed. During the winter of 1777, a party of Virginia cavalry having gone into the barn to sleep, they were surprised in the night by a scouting party from Howe’s army, then in Philadelphia, who killed a number of them and set fire to both house and barn. The house was saved through the efforts of the wife, Ann Wood. Andrew escaped and hid himself in a cave on the river bank, where he remained three days without food or drink. There was an old servant in the house, Nicholas, whom the British mistook for the owner, and wounded with their swords as they ran until they killed him. Michael Wills, it is said, met with some mishap near Andrew Wood’s house, while attending the Philadelphia market; on going there for assistance to make repairs he met his future wife.

Michael and Ann Wills had fourteen children, and raised nine of them. The nine who grew to manhood and womanhood were: Elizabeth, Ann, Jane, William and Mary (twins), Ann, Allen, Rebecca and Sarah. Elizabeth married Levi Evans, and had four children, all boys. Andrew married Sarah Hannum. William married Elizabeth Marple and had a family. Mary married first John Hunter, and afterwards Francis Parke, but had no children. Ann married John Gorgas, and left one daughter, Susannah. Rebecca died in her minority, and Sarah never married. Jane married John B. Hahn, and had eight children. Michael Wills died January 15, 1829, and his widow, April 29, 1832.

Andrew (father), born June 18, 1798, studied medicine, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1825, and married on November 12, 1826, Sarah Hannum, born May 2, 1807. She was the daughter of James Hannum, and Sarah Edge Reese, the two latter having married on the 13th of December, 1803. Andrew practiced medicine in Chester county, Pennsylvania, forty-six years, and died July 7, 1871, at Lionville, aged seventy-three years.

Dr. Andrew Wills and wife had fourteen children: Sarah, died at the age of fourteen years; Mary, married Washington T. Koplin, of Norristown, who died many years ago leaving one child; Ellen, Morgan R., Edward S., married Fannie Hemiston, and afterwards Annie Isbell; Clara, married Hunter E. Von Leer; Rebecca, married D. Smith Talbot; Andrew, killed at Fort Donelson; Horace, died at the age of sixteen; Francis, also died young; Ann, married T. Loui Vickers; Elizabeth, married D. Webster Evans; Florence, married George R. Hoopes; Susan, died in infancy. In the latter part of his life Dr. Andrew Wills resided one year in Norristown, but returned to Lionville, where he died. His remains were interred in the cemetery of St. John’s church, Norristown, where his father and mother were also buried.

Morgan Reese Wills, editor and proprietor of the Norristown Herald, was born in West Whiteland township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1831. He attended the common schools, and received instruction from Rev. George Kirk, of Downingtown, until 1847, when he went to learn printing on a temperance sheet, the Crystal Fountain, published in the office of the Jeffersonian, at West Chester. In September, 1847, he went to Norristown, completing his apprenticeship on the Register. He has since resided there, with the exception of a few months spent in Springfield, Illinois, in the early fifties. In 1859 he became a bookseller on Main street, combining with it job printing. Mr. Wills became interested in the Norristown Herald, one of the oldest and most influential papers in Eastern Pennsylvania, in 1864, when he purchased a half interest in the paper from Robert Iredell, who died October 24, 1904, aged ninety-five years. Several changes occurred in the firm, so that Mr. Wills was left sole proprietor five years later. Having erected the building in which the Herald is published, he enlarged it and improved it from time to time. The plant now includes complete arrangements for the publication of a daily newspaper. The Herald establishment includes also one of the best equipped and most extensive job printing offices in Pennsylvania. The third story of the main building is occupied by a complete book bindery. The time having arrived when Norristown needed a daily newspaper, Mr. Wills began the issue of a daily edition on December 20, 1869. The venture proved to be a success from the beginning, and the paper soon attained a high rank among the newspapers of the state, which it has ever since maintained. Few journals outside of the great metropolitan dailies are more frequently quoted or better known, and it is everywhere recognized as among the most progressive. The Norristown Herald was chartered by the Governor March 10, 1903, Morgan R. Wills being president, treasurer and managing editor and Ellwood J. Harner, the business manager of the corporation, being its secretary.

On September 6, 1860, Mr. Wills married Mary H., daughter of Daniel H., and Mary W. Dager, of Whitemarsh. They had two children, Mary D., wife of Harrington FitzGerald, of the Philadelphia Item, and Helen W., wife of J. Leedom Jones, of Norristown. Mrs. Wills was a woman of literary culture, and was the author of many contributions to the Herald. Her two published volumes, “A Summer in Europe,” and “A Winter in California,” bear ample testimony to her descriptive powers. Mr. and Mrs. Wills traveled much in this country and abroad, many of the trips being undertaken for the purpose of benefiting her health, which was greatly impaired for several years prior to her death on June 1895.

Mr. Wills has always taken an active interest in Republican politics, being regarded as one of the acknowledged party leaders for forty years or more. He was one of the twenty-nine electors in 1880, casting the vote of Pennsylvania for Garfield and Arthur. He took a prominent part in the organization and construction of the De Kalb Street and Bridgeport Railway, being a director for a number of years. He was a member of town council, and also the Norristown Land and Improvement Company and in other local corporations. In everything that has had a tendency to develop the growth and prosperity of Norristown, Mr. Wills has participated through his influence as a newspaper editor and otherwise.

Mr. Wills married, August 4, 1896, Elizabeth Willits Marple, daughter of Rev. A. A. and Harriet Neal Marple, of Norristown. They have one child, Harriet Marple, born June 11, 1901.