My Genealogy Hound

RALPH KNAPP KIBBLEHOUSE, son of George B. and Hannah (Shrawder) Kibblehouse, is one of the most enterprising farmers and business men of his section of Montgomery county, Pennsy1vania. He was born August 28, 1871, on the homestead farm in Lower Gwynedd township, located on the Swedes’ Ford Road, and now owned by Henry G. Keasbey, of the Ambler Keasbey-Mattison Company.

Ralph K. Kibblehouse attended the public school at Gwynedd until he was seventeen years of age, when he became an apprentice to Jacob C. Rile, to learn the carpenter trade, Mr. Rile being a contractor and builder of the vicinity, residing near Gwynedd station. He was thus employed for two years, when he went to Yardleyville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, to work in a creamery, remaining at that place one year. He then became an employe of George Amberg, a carpenter and builder of Blue Bell, in Whitpain township, with whom he was employed for two years.

Mr. Kibblehouse married, July 19, 1894, Sarah, daughter of Henry Baker and Mary Ann (Fry) Reyner, farmers, of Penllyn. Their children: Mary Henrietta, born February 28, 1895; Henry Baker, born March 1, 1896; Helen Melcina, born March 29, 1897; Hannah Valeria, born April 16, 1898; Ralph Knapp, born July 4, 1900; Levi, born April 12, 1901, died August 29, 1903; Agnes Dorothy, born April 13, 1903.

After his marriage Mr. Kibblehouse spent the first year in Gwynedd, working at his trade of carpenter, and performing the duties of one of the road supervisors of the township, to which position he had been elected in February, 1895. He has continued to hold the position ever since, with the exception of one year, 1902. In 1892 he removed to a farm of Henry G. Keasbey, located near Penllyn, on the North Pennsylvania Railroad, containing thirty acres of land, operating it as a dairy. He remained there for seven years. In 1902 he removed to a farm of thirty-two acres, on which he now resides, having purchased it from the estate of Mordecai Jones, where he operates a stone crusher and grist mill, employing twelve or fifteen men, and supplying the local demand for crushed stone, and furnishing the township with the material needed for macadamizing the highways.

Politically Mr. Kibblehouse is a Republican, having always been actively interested in supporting the principles and candidates of the party ever since attaining the rights of a voter. He has been county committeeman for his district, and a member of the election board, several times a delegate to county conventions, and on one occasion a delegate to the state convention of the party, a very unusual honor for so young a man.

George B. Kibblehouse (father) is a son of John and Ann (Fetzer) Kibblehouse. He was born in February, 1837, in Whitpain township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, attended the schools at Shandy Grove and Sandy Hill in that township, in the meantime assisting in farm duties as opportunity offered, and on leaving school was employed with his brother-in-law, Joseph Stackhouse, for seven years. In 1866, he married Hannah Custer Shrawder, daughter of Joseph Shrawder, of Lower Providence township. Their children: Joseph, born April 1, 1867, married, April 3, 1890, Mary Emma, daughter of Isaac and Catharine (Booz) Custer, of Upper Gwynedd township; Ralph Knapp, subject of this sketch; John Raymond, born November 15, 1873, married October 31, 1896, Margaret, daughter of Alvin Williamson and Mary Catharine (Harp) White; George B., born February 28, 1876, married, April 3, 1901, Martha Brendlinger, daughter of Nathan Fox, of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania; Mary Henrietta, born May 20, 1878, married, in 1897, Reuben Michael, son of Reuben and Mary (Zearfoss) Rodenbaugh, of Whitpain township; Levi Shrawder, born August 7, 1880, is unmarried, and resides with his brother Ralph.

John Kibblehouse, grandfather, born in 1800, married Ann Fetzer, his children being Evan, born in 1825; William, 1826; Lavina, 1828; John Antrim, 1830; Ann Catherine, 1831; Eliza Jane, 1833;George W., 1834, died in infancy; Clement Jones, 1835; George B., father, 1837; Albert Werstner, 1840; Susanna Amanda, 1846. (For further particulars of the Kibblehouse family, see sketch of George B. Kibblehouse, elsewhere in this work.)