Chester County PA Archives Biography of Uriah V. PENNYPACKER, 1881

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Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 1881. BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL, 
Chapt XIII E pp.680-725. 

URIAH V. PENNYPACKER, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Pennypacker, was born in 
Schuylkill township, Oct. 6, 1809. He inherited a great love of humor and a 
taste for discussion and investigation. At an early age he became a member of a 
debating society that met at the Union school-house, in Charlestown township, 
and there displayed so much ability that his father induced him to commence the 
study of the law with his uncle, Matthias Pennypacker, at West Chester. Meantime 
he had been a pupil at Jonathan Gause’s school, and had written many articles 
for the newspapers of the day. He was admitted to the bar, and at once became 
noted for his diligent study of the law and his close attention to his 
profession. In a few years he was admitted to the Supreme Court, where for many 
years thereafter he achieved some of his greatest triumphs. Of marked personal 
appearance (being six feet seven inches in height), and gifted with a fund of 
anecdote and illustration, he attained success as a political speaker, and was 
an active Whig as long as that party existed. He was one of the founders of the 
First Baptist Church of West Chester, and an incorporator of the Central Union 
Association, and its treasurer for twenty years, and was burgess of West Chester 
in 1845 and 1848. In 1855 his health declined and he was compelled to relinquish 
active work, and on the 16th day of August, 1867, he died from a stroke of 
apoplexy, and is buried in the Oaklands Cemetery. In all the relations of life 
he was faithful, honest, and true, and had the confidence and respect of the 
profession and people. He left four children, among them

Charles H., born April 16, 1845, a prominent lawyer, amateur scientist, and 
active politician, has been concerned in many important cases in Chester County, 
notably the Udderzook murder trial and the cases originating in the Pickering 
Valley accident in 1877.

The events in the life of Galusha, born June 1, 1842, colonel of the 16th U.S. 
Infantry, and brevet major-general U.S.A., the hero of Fort Fisher, and the 
youngest general officer during the Rebellion, have been detailed elsewhere in 
this volume, and may be found in all the histories of the war. His rapid 
elevation, due solely to gallantry and intelligence, from the rank of a private 
to that of a full brigadier at the age of twenty-two; his seven wounds in eight 
months, and his five promotions within a year; his gallant and hopeless charge 
at Green Plains, and his leadership, flag in hand, over the traverse at Fisher 
into the very face of Death, whom all thought he had met, signalize what in some 
respects was the most remarkable career of that great struggle.

Matthias, born Aug. 15, 1786, died April 4, 1852, a farmer and miller on the 
Pickering, was elected to the Assembly in 1826 and 1827. In 1837 he was a member 
of the Constitutional Convention. In 1831 he was chairman of the organization of 
the leading men of Chester County which made the first move towards the 
construction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and he was one of the 
corporators of that road.

Dr. Isaac A. Pennypacker was born in Schuylkill township on July 9, 1812. His 
father was Matthias Pennypacker, and his mother Sarah Anderson, a daughter of 
Isaac Anderson. He read medicine with his maternal uncle, Dr. Isaac Anderson, 
and Prof. William E. Horner, and graduated in the Medical Department of the 
University of Pennsylvania, March 26, 1835. He established himself in the 
practice of his profession in Phoenixville in 1836, and continued in the 
performance of its active duties until 1854, when he became Professor of the 
Practice of Medicine in the Philadelphia College of Medicine.

During his residence in Phoenixville he was active in plans for the improvement 
and incorporation of the town, of which he was burgess in 1849, 1851, and 1853, 
and for the dissemination of knowledge among its inhabitants. A portion of his 
leisure time was spent in giving lectures upon various literary and scientific 
subjects, and in gathering material for a history of Schuylkill township and 
Phoenixville.

In his professorship he displayed all the energy, manliness, integrity, and 
sagacity, as well as professional competency, which a laborious life of country 
practice had matured. As a teacher of medicine he was clear, thorough, and 
practical, combining a due valuation of works of authority with ample 
exemplifications from his own experience. As a professor, as a man and a friend, 
he was beloved by his pupils, perhaps as much as any who ever occupied a similar 
station. He was endowed by nature with a noble and generous heart, mild and 
affable in his manners, affectionate and kind in his deportment, with a mind 
well stored with practical knowledge always at command.

On May 9, 1839, he married Anna Maria Whitaker, eldest daughter of Joseph 
Whitaker, Esq., then a resident of Phoenixville.

Dr. Pennypacker died Feb. 13, 1856, and was interred in the Mennonist society’s 
burying-ground in Phoenixville.

Dr. Matthias J., of Schuylkill, born Sept. 10, 1819, was elected to the Assembly 
in 1855.

Dr. Nathan A., of Schuylkill township, born Oct. 20, 1835, was captain of Co. K, 
4th Penn. Reserves, during the Rebellion. In 1865, 1866, and 1867 he was elected 
to the Assembly. He was one of the commissioners to erect the State Hospital for 
the Insane at Norristown in 1877, and is a lieutenant-colonel on the staff of 
Governor Hoyt. For several years he has been president of the school board of 
Schuylkill township.

Samuel W., lawyer in Philadelphia, was born at Phoenixville, April 9, 1843. He 
is a Bachelor of Laws of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1867 was elected 
president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia. For several years he has been one 
of the editors and proprietors of the Weekly Notes of Cases, the leading law 
journal of Pennsylvania, and he is one of the compilers of a digest of the 
"English Common Law Reports," which was commenced by Chief Justice Sharswood. He 
has also given considerable attention to local historical investigation. In 1872 
he published the "Annals of Phoenixville," and in 1880 a paper on the 
"Settlement of Germantown." He was one of the Congress of Authors, who, on 
invitation, wrote sketches, which were deposited in Independence Hall July 2, 
1876. Some of his articles have been cited with approval by scholars in England, 
Germany, and Holland.

Isaac R., born in Phoenixville, Dec. 11, 1852, and one of the editors of the 
Morning News, of Wilmington, Del., has written some local poetry, which 
attracted the attention of Longfellow, Whittier, and Whitman. Two of his poems, 
"By the Perkiomen" and "The Old Church at the Trappe," may be found in 
Longfellow’s "Poems of Places."

Want of space prevents us from giving more than a meagre sketch of this family, 
which has a history outside of Chester County. Its members held, Oct. 4, 1877, a 
reunion at Pennypacker’s Mills, the site of Washington’s camp, from which he 
marched to Germantown. The proceedings were printed.