My Genealogy Hound

ELWOOD LYLE HART, son of Solomon and Hannah (Lyle) Hart, of Blue Bell, was born July 20, 1830, in Whitpain township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He attended the public schools in the vicinity until he reached his fifteenth year, when he found employment among the farmers of the neighborhood for three years. At the end of that time he became an apprentice of Isaiah B. Houpt, of Norristown, to learn the mason trade and served for three years. At the age of twenty-one he commenced work as a journeyman, continuing thus for six years, when he began contracting on his own account in masonry, building the foundations of many of the mills in Conshohocken, including the Wood rolling mill, several cotton factories and other establishments. He continued in business for over thirty years as a contracting mason. When he was twenty-six years of age he married Kate, daughter of John and Elizabeth Smith, of Plymouth township. She was born May 12, 1841. The couple had nine children: Jacob, Azor, William and Perry, deceased; Norman, born at Conshohocken; Elmer Ellsworth, born September 18, 1862, married Hannah, daughter of Nathan and Sarah Rambo, born March 10, 1864, and married Elmer Ellsworth in 1886. They have seven children, Kate, Emma, Elmer, Anna and Sarah, and William and Elwood, deceased. Anna Coulston, born May 17, 1864, married Harry, son of Harry Werkeiser, who was born June 29, 1864, and lives at Center Square, having no children. Elwood, whose wife is Phoebe Stackhouse, lives at Conshohocken and has three children: Albert Mauck, Kate and Eugene. Israel, born in May, 1872, married Margaret Cameron, of Norristown, they having one child, Dorothy, born in 1903, and they living at Conshohocken. The children of Elmer E. and Hannah Hart are: Kate, born September 13, 1887, William Aspinwall, born August 13, 1889, and died December 29, 1889; Emma Moyer, born October 8, 1890; Elwood, born October 5, 1892, and died October 5, 1894; Annie Coulston, born June 13, 1894; and Sarah McInnes, born September 7, 1900. They live at Wharton, Morris county, New Jersey, where Mr. Hart is yardmaster at the Wharton Furnaces. The children of Elwood and Phoebe Hart are: Kate, born October 18, 1889; and Eugene, born March 17, 1892.

Elwood L. Hart continued to live at Conshohocken during his entire career as a contractor. In 1887 he removed to Centre Square where he kept the hotel until the spring of 1893, when he retired from the hotel business and purchased the old parsonage property of St. John’s Lutheran church, above Centre Square, on which he made many improvements and removed to it. Mr. Hart is a Democrat in politics, having always voted for the candidates of that party and been a consistent worker therein, although he has never sought or held office. The family are attendants at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran church, above Centre Square. Mr. Hart has retired from active business and devotes his time to the care of the home farm which consists of twenty-six acres of finely situated land, kept in a high state of cultivation by the present owner.

Mr. Hart’s parents, Solomon and Hannah Lyle Hart, were both natives of Whitpain township and are farming people. The father died when thirty-five years of age. The mother died about 1884. They were buried at Barren Hill, in Whitemarsh township. Andrew, his brother, married Jane McCool and lives at Penllyn Station, having five children: David, Allen, Annie, Emily and Harry. John, another brother, born in 1828, married Elizabeth Jones, of Norristown, and has several children. His sister Kate, born in 1825, married John Stillwell and lives at Hatboro.