Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Boorse, Elizabeth A. ???? - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net December 13, 2025, 12:57 pm Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904 Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor ELIZABETH A. BOORSE. The ancestor of the Boorse family in Pennsylvania was Harman Boors, who came from Holland and settled in what is now Towamencin township, Montgomery county. Having been a man of wealth and influence in his own land, the settlement of his affairs in Holland required him to revisit that country several times, and on a voyage he died at sea and was buried in mid-ocean. He left property in Towamencin, near Kulpsville, on which he resided. He had five children, of whom Peter, Arnold and Harman married. John and Henry died unmarried. Harman Boorse, Jr., great-great-grandfather, reared a large family. His children were John, Margaret, Peter, Henry, Anna Catharine, Sybilla, Susanna and Elizabeth. John Boorse, great-grandfather, the eldest of the children of Harman Boorse, Jr., born October 17, 1763, married, June 8, 1797, Elizabeth Cassel. He received the ordinary education attainable at that time in Towamencin township, and engaged in farming on the Boorse homestead, which occupation he followed through life. His wife died in 1830, but he lived to his eighty-fourth year, dying in 1847, on January 26th. Their children Abraham, Henry C., Magdalena, Peter, Daniel, Joseph, Harman, Jacob, Catherine, Mary and Hubert. Henry C. Boorse (grandfather) was born on the Boorse homestead, October 14, 1799. This farm, still in the possession of a member of the Boorse family has not been out of the name in the course of more than a century and a half. Henry C. Boorse was a farmer, like his ancestors, but he was an influential man in the community and field several township offices, although not an office seeker. He married, in 1822, Susanna Cassel, who died in 1836, he surviving his wife thirteen years, and dying April 26, 1869. The children of Henry C. and Susanna (Cassel) Boorse: Barbara, born in December, 1822, married Henry Ziegler, and died in 1866: John C., born June 27, 1831, of whom see sketch elsewhere: Ephraim C., (father), born January 24, 1825; Catherine, born in 1836, married William Bechtel, died in 1877; Susan, born in 1830, died in 1856. Ephraim Cassel Boorse, father, was born on the homestead in Towamencin township. He was reared as a farmer, obtained his education in the common schools of his day and neighborhood, and on reaching manhood engaged in farthing, which he relinquished after the lapse of four years to establish himself-in the member and coal business at Port Indian, about three miles above Norristown, on the Schuylkill river, in the township of Norriton. He carried on business quite extensively, and accumulated considerable money, handling large quantities of coal and lumber. He sold this business at the end of fourteen years. He also at one time owned a number of canal boats, but sold them out also when the extension of railroads practically ruined the canal boating business. He then purchased a fine farm above Jeffersonville, which he cultivated for sixteen years, when he retired from active pursuits and removed to Norristown, buying a home on DeKalb street, where he and his family resided the remainder of his life, and where his widow and children lived for a number of years. Mr. Boorse retired from farming in 1874, removed to No. 1340 DeKalb street, Norristown, in 1878, and died November 27, 1895. As a business man he was careful, conservative and uniformly successful in his undertakings, qualities which he inherited from a long line of thrifty and prosperous ancestors. His integrity and strict attention to business established a reputation for him as a useful member of the community, and he was widely known and respected. He was a Republican, but took little interest in politics, beyond casting his ballot. He married, March 16, 1845, Elizabeth K., daughter o£ Abraham and Rachel (Krause) Ziegler, her father being a farmer of Skippack township, in Montgomery county Pennsylvania. Abraham Ziegler was a son of Garret Ziegler, of the same place. Their children Isaiah Z. Doorse, married Mary Reiner, and resides on his farm above Jeffersonville, having three children, and is one of the best farmers in that section of the county; Susan; Clara C., married James Hoffman, they having six children; Henry A., married Martha Gottshall, and has two children, being engaged in business in Norristown; Elizabeth A., and Mary Katherine. Elizabeth A. Boorse, the subject of this sketch, is a graduate of the State Normal School of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and also of a business course in the Commercial School of Rochester, New York. She taught in the public schools for several years, in which work she was very successful.. She has traveled extensively, partially induced for the benefit of her impaired health, which was fully restored to her early in her travels when sojourning in southern California. She is a woman of excellent business capacity, and is the executrix of her father's estate. She is since engaged in attending to the property interests of the family, and is very successful in business of this kind. She, as well as her sisters, Susan and M. Katherine, are members of the Montgomery County Historical Society, and take an active interest in pursuits of this kind. They are also eligible to membership in the Society of The Daughters of the American Revolution. Through their mother's side they are the great-granddaughters of Captain Carl Krause, who willingly gave his fortune and bravely enlisted his life in his endeavors for the achievement of freedom and National Independence. This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb