On August 23, 2022, the Wissahickon Valley Historical Society received an inquiry about a home that stood outside the Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School on the corner of Sumneytown Pike and Evans Road. It was said that this was the former of Owen Evans, one of the four Evans brothers who came to Gwynedd in 1698.
The Evans Tract
After the Evans brothers and other settlers came to establish Gwynedd in 1698, they claimed different sections of the township. Owen Evans (1659-1723), one of the four Evans brothers, was granted 538 acres of narrow land in 1703. It stretched across the township between Welsh and Township Line Roads, bordering Evans Road.
In 1720, he sold 204 acres to his son Thomas Evans (1682-1760). During his ownership of the property, he ran an inn at his father's old home until his death in 1760. In his will, his namesake son Thomas Evans (1733-1818) was directed to sell all of the land across from his father's old home. That land was immediately sold to Paul Boger, a German man who operated an inn on the property. It was said that the property was built in 1764 after Paul sold the property to John Mathews.
Charles Harvey Denby
In 1799, the property was sold to John Giffen, a celebrated justice of the peace and a local Methodist preacher. After him was Virginia-native farmer Nathaniel B. Denby (1798-1854), whose son became a successful diplomat in the Far East. Charles H. Denby spent most of his childhood with his father while traveling to France, sparking an interest in a diplomatic career. While spending time in France, he became fluent in French while studying at the College Royal at Marseilles.
NOTE: Nathaniel Denby was a US consul-general at Marseille, France at the time.
When he returned to Virginia, he went on to attend the Virginia Military Institute where he graduated in 1850. According to the 1850 Census Data, he was still living with his family at age 19 in Pennsylvania, and had a job as an attorney at law.
In 1853, he moved to Evansville, Indiana where he continued his career in law, and stayed there for the remainder of his life. He was admitted in the bar in 1855, and then was elected to the Legislature as a Democrat in Indiana from 1856-1857.
When the Civil War broke out, Charles was named lieutenant colonel of the 42nd Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and later colonel of the 80th Indiana Volunteers. He was wounded 2 during the war, including at the Battle of Perryville, where his horse was killed under him. He was compelled to resign his commission and returned to practice law at Evansville.
Charles was recommended to be part of President Grover Cleveland's post in the diplomatic service, and was appointed the Minister to China on May 29, 1885. He was stationed at the Peking, China, known today as the country's capital Beijing. He spent 13 years in this position, creating friendships with Chinese statesmen like Li Hung-chang. You can read his experience being in China in his 2-volume book, China and Her People.
Fun Fact # 1: His son Charles Denby, Jr. followed his footsteps and became a US consul-general in Shanghai.
Under William McKinley's presidency, Charles was appointed as a member of the commission to investigate the conduct of the Spanish-American War. He was later appointed as a member of the Philippine Commission.
Gwynedd Mercy College's Early Beginnings
Some time in the second half of the 19th century, the property was owned by Samuel H. Beaver (1841-1910), who married the daughter of George H. Danehower, whose property adjoined the Beaver's. Both families sold their properties together to Francis E. Bond (1867-1931) who built his Willow Brook mansion on the former Danehower property.
In 1916, Philadelphia investment banker Roland L. Taylor (1868-1943) leased the Bond mansion where his family lived for over 20 years. During their occupation, the property was called the "Treweryn House."
After his wife died in 1938, Roland's daughters Anita and Elizabeth took over the family property while still living in their own homes boarding their father's land.
The sisters ended up selling the Treweryn House and the additional buildings on the property to the Sisters of Mercy in 1948. While the Treweryn House is used today by the Gwynedd Mercy University, the home at the corner of Sumneytown Pike and Evans Road is used today as St. Joseph's Convent.
Bibliography
Bond Centennial and Heritage Committee and Marion K. Rosenbaum. Gwynedd-Mercy College. (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2006): 18.
"Charles Denby." Virginia Military Institute Archives. Accessed July 19, 2023. https://archivesweb.vmi.edu/rosters/record.php?ID=159.
Denby, Charles. China and Her People In Two Volumes, Volume 1. (Boston: L.C. Page & Company, 1906): ix-xvi.
"Google Maps Area Calculator Tool." DaftLogic. Accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm.
Horrall, S.F. History of the Forty-Second Volunteer Infantry. (Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1892): 11-12.
"Local History Sketch. Interesting Local Matter Collected by 'E.M.' John Giffen, the Gwynedd Justice, and His Home--Property of Mr. F.H. Bond, Supervisor of the Townships." Ambler Gazette. July 3, 1902. Page 2. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_3603.
"Local History. The Farm of Joseph Evans, Lower Gwynedd--Owen Evans, The Pioneer--Thomas Evans, the Innkeeper." Ambler Gazette. September 15, 1898. Page 3. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_681.
Morris, William E, and Smith & Wistar. Map of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: from original surveys. [Philadelphia: Smith & Wistar, 1849] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012590207/.
"Mrs. Taylor's Estate." Ambler Gazette. March 3, 1938. Page 1. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_22827.
Mueller, A.H. Atlas of the North Penn Section of Montgomery County, Pa., Plate 29, 1916.
"Roland L. Taylor Dies, Ex-Bank President." Ambler Gazette. June 24, 1943. Page 1. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_18065.
Smith, J. L. Montgomery County 1893, Upper and Lower Gwynedd Townships, Lansdale, North Wales, Spring House, Ambler Right, 1893.
Virkus, Frederick A. The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, First Families of America, A Genealogical Encyclopedia of the United States. (Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company, 1925): 242.
Wise, Jennings Cropper. The Military History of the Virginia Military Institute from 1839 to 1865. (Lynchburg: J.P. Bell, 1915): 496-498.
"Zoning Map of the Township of Lower Gwynedd." Ambler Gazette. September 25, 1941. Page 12. https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Awivp-gazett_19949.