My Genealogy Hound

REUBEN WINTER, SR., may be called a pioneer of Royersford, he being the oldest now living of the founders of that borough. He was born in Upper Providence township, near Trappe, October 30, 1823, and was reared to farm pursuits by his parents. He was educated in the common schools of the vicinity, which were maintained by subscription, being the immediate predecessors of the public schools which have grown to still greater usefulness in our own time. He was the son of John and Deborah (Raysor) Winter. The father was born in Berks county, March 6, 1786, being the son of John Winter belonging to a Berks county family whose ancestor came to America in colonial times from Prussia and settled in Pennsylvania.

John Winter (grandfather) served through the Revolutionary war. He kept a hotel in Philadelphia in 1793, on Water street. The Winters were mostly tillers of the soil, however. John Winter died in Upper Providence, in January, 1836, aged over eighty years. His children were: Elizabeth, Catharine, John (father). The father’s parents were members of the Lutheran church at Trappe, and they were buried in the graveyard adjoining, where lie so many of the earlier German residents of that section of Montgomery county.

John Winter (father) came to Montgomery county with his parents in 1812, to a hotel near Trappe, where he remained until he reached manhood. Later in life he succeeded his father in the hotel business, which he continued many years, but ultimately purchased a farm located a half-mile below what is now Royersford, being the Moyer farm, and removed from the hotel at Trappe to this farm about 1825. In 1831 he sold the farm and removed again to Upper Providence, and built a residence on land he owned in connection with the old hotel property, in 1829. He remained there during the rest of his life. His wife died in 1859. He then made his home with his son. He died in 1870, at the age of eighty-four years. He was a man of the highest integrity, who enjoyed the respect of the entire community. He was a member of the Lutheran church. Politically he was a Whig, and later a Republican. His wife was born in Chester county, being the daughter of Enoch and Mary Raysor. The Raysors are of German descent.

John Winter was twice married, his first wife having been Catharine Moyer, of near Royersford. By the first marriage the children were Isaac, John, William and Peter. By the second marriage, with Deborah Raysor, the children were: Reuben, subject of this sketch; Catharine, who had two husbands, Benjamin Hunsicker and John Nace, and had two children by her first husband, and three by her second; Deborah, died in infancy.

John Winter’s first wife died in 1818, and he married his second in 1821. The first wife was the widow of John Buckwalter, of Chester county, by whom she had four children, he dying in May, 1810. John Winter reared the Buckwalter children. They were: Hannah (Mrs. J. E. Gross); Barbara (Mrs. J. Walt); David, died in Philadelphia; Mary (Mrs. Daniel Fry). He thus reared in all eleven children, and all in harmony together.

Reuben Winter remained with his parents until he was twenty-four years of age, when he married. He taught school two terms in the neighborhood in which he lived. He married in 1848, removing at once to Royersford, and engaging in business with his father-in-law, who was postmaster, merchant and hotel-keeper, all combined in one person. Reuben continued thus until 1859, when his father-in-law died, and he was appointed to the vacant postmastership, becoming also the station agent of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company, the store having been closed and the hotel previously sold. He continued as station agent until 1881, attending to telegraphing and all office and post office work. He was postmaster in all about twenty-five years, under several administrations. During his agency for the railway company he purchased some real estate, including six acres of land, on which was the residence in which he yet lives. When Mr. Winter married and settled at Royersford, there were only three houses in the village. The post office was established in 1844, the railway having been chartered in 1833, and built in 1835. David Gow was the first postmaster of Royersford, and kept the post office behind the bar of his hotel. Daniel Schwenk, Mr. Winter’s father-in-law, succeeded Mr. Gow. He received his first commission from President James K. Polk. Mr. Winter’s commissions were from President James Buchanan and his successors, his last being revoked by President Cleveland, during his first administration, in the appointment of his successor. On leaving the positions of station agent and postmaster, Mr. Winter practically retired from business, being engaged since in looking after his property interests. In 1898 he established, however, a lumber and coal business, the firm being R. Winter & Son. He is the oldest director in the National Bank of Phoenixville. He is also a director in the Royersford Trust Company. He is a stockholder in several other corporations, including Philadelphia institutions. Mr. Winter is emphatically a self-made man, and has accumulated a competency by dint of hard work and the practice of rigid economy in his younger days.

In 1848 Mr. Winter married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel and Mary (Stetler) Schwenk. She was born October 23, 1825. Her grandparents were also of Montgomery county, her grandfather being Daniel Schwenk. The Schwenks were among the early settlers of the county, and have long been prominent in politics and otherwise. Daniel Schwenk (father of Mrs. Winter) purchased the farm of John Winter near Royersford, in 1831, remaining there seventeen years, until 1848, when he bought the hotel property at Royersford which was afterwards converted into the Reading Railway offices. He was also engaged in other business, as has been stated. He had purchased seventeen acres of land at Royersford on which he erected a handsome residence that has since been altered into a hotel. Mr. Schwenk was a successful business man in his day, and was long identified prominently with the interests of that community. He was a Whig in politics, and later a Republican, but never was an aspirant for public office, preferring to follow the walks of private life. He was a member of the Lutheran church, as was his wife, who survived his several years, dying in 1863. She was the daughter of Henry Stetler, of a family well and favorably known in the upper section of Montgomery county. Their children: Elizabeth (Mrs. Winter); Henry, William, Mary (Mrs. Daniel Springer); Daniel, died in infancy.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Winter: Mary J. (Mrs. C. S. Swartley), whose husband is deceased, she living in Philadelphia; Ida (Mrs. J. W. Isett), her husband being a business man of Royersford; Reuben, Jr., who conducts the lumber and coal business; Elizabeth (Mrs. Burdett Geissinger).

Mr. Winter’s wife died February 16, 1896, on the anniversary of the birth of two of her daughters-the oldest and the youngest.

Mr. and Mrs. Winter were both reared in the faith of the Lutheran church, they in turn bringing up their family in the same way.