Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Cadwallader, Algernon S.
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Lower Makefield Township


   ALGERNON S. CADWALLADER P.O. Yardley, was born in Lower 
Makefield township, Bucks county, in 1828.  He is descended 
on his father's side from the Cadwalladers and Taylors, and 
by his mother from the Yardleys and Staplers.  All these 
families were contemporaries of William Penn in the early 
settlement of Pennsylvania; all were members of the Society 
of Friends, and active in both private and public affairs.  
He was educated at the public schools until he was 16 years 
old, when he was sent to a boarding school in Chester county 
under the care of Benjamin Price (a brother of the late Eli 
K. Price, of Philadelphia), where he remained for some time, 
after which he finished his education at the Attleboro 
academy, under the tuition of James Anderson.  He lived with 
his father on the farm until he was 21 years of age, when he 
moved to the village of Yardley, and engaged in mercantile 
pursuits, which he followed for several years.  In 1853 he 
married Susan Josephine, eldest daughter of William and 
Sarah (Hart) Yardley, a woman of great worth, by whom he had 
nine children:  Lydia Yardley, the eldest, married George 
Warner, Jr., of Philadelphia; William Y. married Carrie E. 
Lansing, of Trenton, N. J.; J. Seymour, a very promising 
young man, died in his 21st year; Letitia S. married Edmund 
R. Willets, of Trenton, N. J.; T. Sidney married Ida R. 
Weeks, of Lancaster, Pa.; Sarah Yardley married George F. 
Craig, of Philadelphia; Augustus J., Mary Anna and Helen M. 
are living at their father's home.  When a young man Mr. 
Cadwallader was an active and ardent Henry Clay whig, 
imbibing the principles of protection to American capital 
and American labor, which, year by year, have strengthened 
with him, and he now thinks it the most important question 
before the American people.  After the disbandment of the 
whig party he became an active republican.  In 1861 he was 
nominated for state senator, and though the county at that 
time was largely democratic, he was defeated by only a small 
vote. This was the only election, since he gained his 
majority, in which he did not cast a ballot.  From the time 
of his nomination until after the election, he was confined 
to his bed by very serious illness.  In 1865 he was 
appointed collector of internal revenue for the fifth 
district of Pennsylvania, and in 1878 he was a candidate for 
congressional nomination for the sixth district of 
Pennsylvania (Bucks and Montgomery counties), and had a 
majority of his own county delegates, but was defeated by 
the action of Montgomery.  In 1886, at the earnest 
solicitation of many Bucks county republicans, he was again 
a candidate for nomination, and had a plurality of delegates 
from the home county, on the first ballot, after which he 
withdrew as candidate.  In 1862, at the request of Governor 
Curtin, he superintended the enrollment of the Bucks county 
militia, and throughout the war of the rebellion was active 
and earnest in supporting the Union cause.  In 1864 he 
represented the fifth district of Pennsylvania in the 
national convention that renominated Abraham Lincoln for 
president, and was also a delegate to the national 
convention of 1868, which nominated U. S. Grant, and at 
various times Mr. Cadwallader has represented his district 
in state conventions.  For the last few years he has been 
retired from active business, and is still living in the 
village of Yardley in an old mansion built in 1728, by his 
great-great-grandfather, Thomas Yardley.