Biographical Sketch of Eli URNER (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 306-8. "ELI URNER, the well-known farmer and business man of Pughtown, and a representative of one of the oldest families in this State, is the eldest child and only son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Halderman) Urner, and was born in Warwick township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1821. He was reared on his father's farm and educated in the public schools of his neighborhood. After leaving home he engaged in the butchering business some five or six years, and then became a stock dealer and drover. He was and is yet an expert judge of good stock. He then purchased a farm in Warwick, and spent another ten years in agricultural pursuits in that township, after which he removed to South Coventry township. Here he farmed for a year or two and then once more engaged in the butchering business, in which he continued for fifteen years. In 1889 he purchased a farm (the old homestead) of two hundred and twelve acres in Warwick township, and again gave his attention to the cultivation of the soil. In 1881 he moved into Bucktown, where he now resides. Politically he is an ardent republican, taking an active interest in all public questions and attending nearly all the conventions and public meetings of his party. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. During the civil war he was connected with the quartermaster's department for two or three years. He is an intelligent, affable gentleman, and a popular and highly esteemed member of his community. "On September 19, 1842, Mr. Urner was united in marriage with Sarah Richards, of Warwick township, this county, and to them was born a family of seven children who lived to reach maturity: Oliver N., who married Sarah Murphy, and now resides at Norristown, this State, where he is serving as justice of the peace; John, now deceased; Hannah E., wedded Lewis Burgoyne, a farmer of South Coventry township, this county; Allen, married Deborah Shick, resides at 'The Buck,' and is agent for the Mount Penn Stove works of Reading, Pennsylvania; Filmore, who wedded Anna Frederick and lives in South Coventry township, where he is engaged in farming; Webster, who married Millie Bradford, and resides at Spring City, proprietor of the Hoosier Manufacturing Company, at Royer's Ford, Mont- gomery county, and Mary A., deceased. "The Urner family is of Swiss descent, coming originally from the canton of Uri, Switzerland - whence the name. (See Schiller's poem entitled 'Wilhelm Tell.') Three brothers, John, Martin and Jacob, sons of Uriah Urner, were driven from their homes in the Swiss valleys by religious persecutions, and settled for a time in the province of Alsace, now com- prised in the German empire, but later - some time between 1708 and 1712 - came to America and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania. John Urner died unmarried in 1743, and was the first person buried in the Brethren graveyard in Coventry. Martin Urner and his wife were two of the first six persons ever baptized by the Brethren in this country, this rite being performed in the Wissahickon, at Philadelphia, in 1723. In 1724 he re- moved to Coventry, this county, where he organized the Coventry church of the Brethren, over which he presided as preacher and bishop until the time of his death in 1755, and in the cemetery of which his remains now sleep. His descendants are now found in various parts of Virginia, Missouri and New York. The third brother, Jacob, settled originally in Pottsgrove town- ship, near Ringing Hill, Montgomery township, near Ringing Hill, Mont- gomery county. He died in 1744, leaving a wife, Ann, and three children: Elizabeth, who married Jacob Frick; Hester, who became the wife of Ulrich Switzer; and Martin, who wedded Barbara Switzer; and Martin, who wedded Barbara Switzer, and became the second preacher and bishop of the Breth- ren's church at Coventry, which he served from 1755 to 1799. At his death he left four children: Martin, grandfather of Eli Urner; Jonas, Mary, who married David Reinhart, of Maryland; and Elizabeth, who became the wife of Abraham Titlow of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. "Martin Urner (grandfather) was born in Coventry township, Chester county, in 1762, and died in North Coventry township in 1838, aged seventy-six years. He was a farmer by vocation, an old-line whig in politics, a member of the German Baptist church, and married Barbara Baugh, by whom he had four sons: John, Daniel, Israel and Jacob, all of whom are now deceased. John, the eldest, was born in 1784 and died in 1827. He was twice married, first to Susannah Grubb, who died without issue, and later to Elizabeth Grubb, by whom he had two children: Lydia, who married Gilbert Brower; and Isaac N. "Jacob Urner (father) was born in Coventry township in the initial year of this century, and lived there until 1828, when with his family he moved to Warwick township, dying February 16, 1868, in his sixty-eighth year. He also was a farmer, and devoted his life principally to agricultural pur- suits, in which he was very successful. In both religion and politics he followed the traditions of his family, and was a stanch whig and republi- can, and a member of the German Baptist or Dunkard church. He married Elizabeth Halderman in 1820, and was the father of three children, one son and two daughters: Eli, the subject of this sketch; Hannah B., who married Lewis C. Templin, and now resides in Warwick township; and Elizabeth, the wife of J. L. Wells, of Warwick township. The daughters were educated at Kimberton's seminary. "Among the descendants of the other sons of Bishop Martin Urner was Milton G. Urner, a member from Virginia of the forty-sixth and forty-seventh congresses of the United States; and Isaac N. Urner, LL. D., a graduate from Dickinson college, who was president of the Mississippi Baptist college from 1851 to 1867."