My Genealogy Hound

SARAH H. TYSON, widow of Samuel Tyson, of Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, is the daughter of Jonathan and Eliza H. (Bushby) Roberts. She is a native of Upper Merion township, where she has resided all her life. She married Samuel Tyson, whose first wife was Mary Fitzwater, daughter of George and Rebecca Fitzwater, of an old family long resident in Upper Dublin township, in Montgomery county. The children of Samuel and Sarah H. Tyson: Jonathan R., married in October, 1900, Miss Anna Hughes, daughter of John J. Hughes, of Norristown, Pennsylvania, formerly residing at Gulf Mills, in Upper Merion, they living at Maple Station, on the Chester Valley Railroad; Edward M. and Eliza H., residing with their mother; a twin sister of Eliza H., Mary, having died in infancy. By the first marriage, Samuel Tyson had four children, as follows: Samuel T., George, Rebecca and Sarah; George and Rebecca are deceased.

Dr. Sarah Fitzwater Tyson, a practicing physician whose office and residence are at Marshall and Swede streets, Norristown, was educated at Darby Boarding School, and at Philadelphia schools, and took the course at the Women’s Medical College, in Philadelphia, graduating from that institution in 1889. Dr. Tyson was resident physician at the Lying-in Charity Hospital for a year after her graduation, and then located at 1313 Arch street, later at 1637 Arch street, Philadelphia, where she practiced medicine for ten years, closing her office on account of ill health. In 1900 she came to Norristown, and opened her office at the place already mentioned, and has been in successful practice there ever since. Dr. Tyson is a member of the Montgomery County Medical Society, and of the Alumnae of the Women’s Medical College.

Samuel T. Tyson, brother of Dr. Sarah F. Tyson, and several years her senior in age, is now and has been for many years a resident of Mexico. He is a metallurgist and mining engineer and stands high in his profession. He was educated at public and private schools, and was in attendance at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College when the rebellion began with the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861. He enlisted and served three years in the Anderson Cavalry, and then returned to the Sheffield School, graduated and taught there for several years. He then went to Colorado and became interested in the Little Chief and other mines. He is now the owner of the Arizona Copper and Silver Mine, and is interested in other enterprises of the kind. He has been eminently successful.

Samuel Tyson, husband of Sarah H. Tyson, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in March, 1813. His mother died when he was an infant, and his father when he was but twelve years of age. He then went to Abington, in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and resided with relatives. He entered an academy at Hatboro known as Loller Academy, which was in its time a celebrated school. He also pursued his studies still further at Wilmington, Delaware. He inherited the “Hop Yard Farm” in Delaware, which was deeded to his ancestor by William Penn. After leaving school Samuel Tyson went to Norristown, Pennsylvania, and became interested in the lumber business, and later with Mr. Rambo in the lime business. This employment not being suited to his tastes, he engaged in the study of mineralogy and botany, and spent his time in the search for minerals and flowers, becoming an earnest student of nature. He was greatly interested in educating young men along this line, and in the course of his life he gathered several collections of plants and minerals which he sent to various institutions of learning, receiving in return many complimentary letters. When he was twenty-four years of age he married the first time, and took charge of his farm in Delaware, remaining there several years and becoming a widower. He sold the farm, went to Philadelphia, and took a course in chemistry which brought him in contact with many prominent educators, he becoming a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences in that city. In 1859 he purchased a farm near where his widow now resides, he and Sarah H. Roberts having been married in 1858. They built the home in 1860, which was destroyed by fire in 1895. It has since been rebuilt, and Mrs. Tyson has a fine country home, the farm containing 130 acres. Samuel Tyson was a good farmer, always working from a scientific standpoint. He was a strong anti-slavery man and an earnest Republican.

Sarah H. Tyson was reared on the Roberts farm, in Upper Merion, and educated in the private school maintained by her father, Jonathan Roberts. She is a woman of much natural ability and of a kindly disposition, her whole life having been devoted to her family, her husband in his lifetime and her children absorbing her attention. She is an active member of the Montgomery County Historical Society, and of the Woman Suffrage Association. She is strongly inclined to the Society of Friends.

Jonathan Roberts (father of Mrs. Tyson) was born at Swamp Grass Farm, Upper Merion township, August 16, 1771. His ancestor was John Roberts, who in 1682 emigrated from Penn-y- chlawd, Denbighshire, Wales, purchasing from John ap John and Thomas Wynne 250 acres of land in what is now Lower Merion, on which they built the third mill in Pennsylvania, the first having been built at Chester by Richard Townsend, and the second by the same person who came with William Penn in the “Welcome,” on the Wingohocking, in Germantown, and long owned by a different family of Robertses. John Roberts was a millwright. He married Elizabeth Owen, who died young, leaving two sons and a daughter. Matthew Roberts, the youngest child, was the great-grandfather of Sarah H. Tyson. John Roberts, the immigrant, died when his son Matthew was young, bequeathing to him his plantation, a part of which remained in the family until 1885.

Matthew Roberts was a blacksmith, and carried on this business in connection with farming. He married, in 1728, Sarah Walter. They had five children, of whom Jonathan Roberts (grandfather) was the eldest.

Jonathan Roberts was a learned and well read man. In 1771 and for four consecutive years thereafter he was a member of the colonial assembly. Being a member of the Society of Friends, he retired from public life on the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, not caring to be involved in bloodshed. After the war he was one of those instrumental in having the county of Montgomery organized, being one of the commissioners named in the act of the state legislature to select a site for the county seat and to erect the county buildings. He became a member of Congress in 1790. At the end of the session he withdrew from public life, and died twenty years later at the age of eighty-two years. He married the daughter of David and Anna (Noble) Thomas. The couple had six children who grew to maturity, one of whom was Jonathan Roberts (father).

Jonathan Roberts was a liberally educated man. He commenced with Lawrence Bathurst, son of Allen, Lord Bathurst, as his tutor. At fourteen he entered the school of Edward Ferris, a famous teacher. He learned the trade of wheelwright, in accordance with the custom of that day of learning a trade in connection with a knowledge of farming. He became an active member of the Republican party on reaching manhood. In 1796 he and his brother Matthew leased the farm of their father, and in three years had saved seven thousand dollars. In 1799 he became the youngest member of the state house of representatives. He was re-elected the next year, but failed of re-election the third year because his strong convictions had made him enemies in his own party. In 1807 he was elected to the state senate. In 1811 he was elected to congress. He severed his connection with the Society of Friends in order to urge consistently a declaration of war against Great Britain. In 1814 he was elected a United States senator from Pennsylvania. He was very prominent in the proceedings of that body. He retired from office and sought the quiet of his farm when the tide of Jacksonism swept over the country. He was a delegate to the national Whig convention which nominated General William Henry Harrison for the presidency. He served a short time as collector of the port of Philadelphia under President Tyler, but did not afterwards hold public office. The last dozen years of his life were spent in congenial occupations on the farm. He married, in 1813, Eliza H. Bushby, daughter of Mrs. Mary Bushby, a widow, who resided on capitol Hill, Washington. He died July 21, 1854. His widow survived him eleven years, reaching the age of seventy-six years, and dying, June 11, 1865. Both were buried in the Roberts burying ground, on the road from Bridgeport to King-of- Prussia. Their children: Matthew T., Mary C., William B., Anna M., Jonathan M., John B., Sarah H., subject of this sketch; Matthew and Edward F. Of these Mrs. Tyson is now the only survivor.

William B. Roberts, brother of Mrs. Tyson, was prominent in Montgomery county Republican politics and became a member of lower house of the state legislature. He married, in 1842, Susan H., daughter of Colonel George W. Holstein, of Upper Merion township, and had eight children, as follows: Eliza A., married David Conrad; Sarah L., married William Wills; Matthew H., married Clara V. Conrad; William H., married Laura Stephens Massey ;Jonathan, married Sarah Louisa Beidler; George, Edward and John. Jonathan M. Roberts, brother of Sarah H. Tyson, married Mary H. Abbott, of Norristown, and had seven daughters; John B. married Virginia M. Lewis, of Burlington, New Jersey, and had two children. The others died unmarried.

Mrs. Tyson’s family were remarkable for intelligence and uprightness, and always stood high in the community in which they lived. For more than two centuries they were an influential family in Upper Merion township. Mrs. Tyson has inherited the family characteristics, and is held in high esteem by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.