Along Butler Pike, between Ridge Avenue and Hendricks Street, there was a huge plot of land owned by a prominent family during the 1870s. The family was descended from a Scotch-Irishman from Belfast, Ireland who settled in Plumstead Township, Bucks County.
Samuel Hart and His Descendants
Samuel Hart (1690-1750) and his family were one of the early settlers in Plumstead, Bucks County in 1735. He escaped the oppression of the British Isles. In 1737, Samuel obtained a warrant of survey for 100 acres of land where he and his family lived for a long time.
He wrote in his will that his sons James and William will take over the homestead when he dies. After James was married, he settled not only in his father's homestead, but also purchased 400 acres of land next to it where he built a tavern and became an innkeeper. It was known as "James Hart's Tavern" at the time before it was renamed to the Plumsteadville Inn.
In his military career, James was a member of the Associated Regiment of Bucks County as a Lieutenant during the War of the Austrian Succession (aka King George's War).
After James died, his wife Jean was having difficulties trying to sell her husband's properties until the Court allowed her to sell the land in order to support her family.
Fun Fact #1: James, I's son Colonel William Hart was the founder of Hartsville, PA in Bucks County.
James's namesake son, James, II, lived at his father's homestead for a short time after his father past away. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a private in Captain Robert Gibson's company in Plumstead while his brother John was a lieutenant and his other brother Samuel as a private. He lived in Kingswood Township, New Jersey, after his marriage to Ann Hankinson, until he moved to Philadelphia between 1790 and 1800.
Fun Fact #2: James, II and his brothers proposed a bridge across the Delaware River from nearby Plumestead. The bridge was first built in 1813, and James's name appeared on an original stock certificate of the bridge company. It is in procession of the family.
After James, II moved to Philadelphia, he established a shipping business.
Fun Fact #3: The South Laurel Hill Cemetery lot was where most of the Hart family were buried. James, II's sons Thomas and William originally purchased the lot, and it was later owned by their heirs.
Thomas and William Hart (1789-1877) were inseparable and did many activities together. But for William, he wanted to stand out. After finding out there was someone else in Philadelphia with the same name as his, William decided to place the letter "H" in the middle of his name.
The brothers were influenced by their father as a businessman, and purchased three hotels Philadelphia: the White Horse, the Black Bear, and the Merchant House, all located around North 3rd and Callowhill Streets. The hotels were purchased to aid the "Great Wagon Road" from Philadelphia to the West.
William, meanwhile became the honored Captain of the First City Troop of Philadelphia in 1847, and governor of the Schuylkill Fishing Company. He was one of the founders of the Girard National Bank.
William H. Hart's Descendants
He married Matilda Maybin in 1818 and had seven children, but only two reached maturity. His only surviving son was Dr. Harry Carlton Hart (1827-1881). Harry was one of the distinguished doctors in Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1851 where he received his medical degree.
He married Mary Claythorne Meigs (1838-1917) in 1865, and had five children.
NOTE: I would assume the Hart family moved to Ambler some time after their marriage or after 1870.
Dr. Charles Delucena Hart (1871-1951) was born on July 3 in the old "Llynwold" residence of the Hart Family in Ambler. He was educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH, then later attended Princeton University where he earned his BA and MA. In 1897, he attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received his medical degree.
He was a resident physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital as an assistant and later as chief. He was also a consulting physician for the Pennsylvania Institution for Instruction of the Blind.
He became an inspector at the Eastern State Penitentiary from 1903-1920, and later served as president of the Board of Prison Inspectors of the State of Pennsylvania in 1921 by PA Governor William Sproul.
Charles was appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania to the committee of public safety during World War I. In World War I, he was a 1st Lieutenant of the US Army Medical Corps. He was appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia, J. Hampton Moore, to the Americanization committee of Philadelphia in 1921, and the standing committee on grounds and buildings of the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition Association of Philadelphia in 1922.
Out of all the civic work he had done, contributing to the Boy Scouts of America was his greatest interest. He was the one responsible for the construction of the Boy Scout building in Philadelphia. He was the recipient of the Boy Scout organization's Silver Buffalo Award.
Fun Fact #5: The statue in front of the former Boy Scout building, designed by R. Tait McKenzie at Charles's request, was reproduced and used throughout the US and the world.
He worked with Pulitzer Price author and philanthropist Edward W. Bok to establish the Treasure Island Camp along the Delaware River.
He convinced "Star Spangled Banner" composer and conductor John Philip Sousa to write the Boy Scout March.
In 1940, he was conferred an honorary degree (LLD) at Temple University. He was the author of "History of the Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania" and "Hikes to Historic Places."
The Hart Mansion "Llynwold"
Prior to the Hart family's arrival in Ambler, there was a mill that operated in the borough called the "Fulling Mill," located on Main Street and Tennis Avenue. It was operated for nearly 150 years. During the Civil War, the mill supplied blankets for the soldiers in the Union Army.
The creek that flowed parallel near Belmont Avenue supplied the mill, and was later owned by the Hart family.
There was an elegant mansion on the Hart property that was built by a man name Charles Childs. He owned that land until it was sold to the family. Instead of being torn down, the Hart family kept the home Charles Childs built.
Based on the Historic American Buildings Survey, the house stood for a long time until after the 1990s. It was demolished for housing development.
Fun Fact #4: Mary C.M. Hart contributed to the education for the community. In 1884, she "made a gift of $25.00 to the [Ambler Independent School District] with the proviso that the Directors expend that amount in the purchase of books as Christmas gifts to the children."
Bibliography
"About Us." The Plumsteadville Inn. Accessed October 9, 2021. http://www.plumsteadvilleinn.com/index.php/about/about-us.
Franklin Survey Company. Montgomery County 1949 Vol D, Plate 14, 1949.
Hart, Thomas. A record of the Hart family of Philadelphia : with a genealogy of the family, from its first settlement in America ; augmented by notes of the collateral branches, 1735-1920. (Philadelphia: The Hart Family, 1920): 17-38, 91-95, 98-107, 214-228, 233-240.
Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator. Hart Mansion, 224 Forrest Avenue, Ambler, Montgomery County, PA. Pennsylvania Montgomery County Ambler, 1994. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/pa3009/.
Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator. Hart Mansion, Carriage House, 224 Forrest Avenue, Ambler, Montgomery County, PA. Pennsylvania Montgomery County Ambler, 1994. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/pa3279/.
Hough, Mary P. H. "Early history of Ambler 1682-1888.” A Celebration of Women Writers. Accessed October 22, 2021. https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hough/ambler/ambler.html.
Klinge, Frank H. M. Montgomery County 1927 Reading Main Line Vol 1, Plate 31, 1927.
Mueller, A. H. Atlas of the North Penn Section of Montgomery County, Pa., Plate 26, 1916.
"Samuel C Hart, the pioneer." The Clark-Hart Pages. Accessed October 8, 2021. http://www.clark-hart.us/getperson.php?personID=I1044&tree=clarkhart.
Scott, J.D. North Pennsylvania Railroad 1886 Philadelphia - Bucks - Montgomery Counties, Ambler, 1886.
Smith, J.L. Montgomery County 1893, Ambler Borough, 1893.
White, James T. The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time, Volume 45. (New York: James T. White & Company, 1962): 370-371.
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