Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Corson, Alan March 29, 1808 - April 19, 1855
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net December 18, 2025, 12:19 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  ISABELLA F. AND MARY CORSON are descended from one of the 
oldest families in Eastern Pennsylvania. They are the 
daughters of Alan and Elizabeth (Francis) Corson.

  Cornelius Corson and wife emigrated from France about 
1685, soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and 
settled on Staten Island, New York. All the family in 
America are descended from this couple. Cornelius Corson's 
will was probated in 1693. His son, Benjamin Corson, born on 
Staten Island, settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, about 
the year 1726. He is the ancestor of the Corsons of Bucks, 
Montgomery, and adjacent counties. His son, Benjamin Corson 
(great-great-grandfather), was seven years old when he came 
from Staten Island with his father. He married Maria Sedam, 
or Suydam, and had one son, Henry, who married Margaret 
Cornell. The other children  Benjamin, Cornelius, John, 
Richard, Mary, Jane, Abraham.

  Henry Corson (great-grandfather) had the following 
children: Benjamin (grandfather), Wilhelmas, Richard, 
Cornelius, Alice, and Mary. Henry Corson lived in Plymouth 
township in 1700. According to tradition he was very stout, 
Weighing four hundred pounds. He was buried at Falls of 
Schuylkill about the year 1800.

  Benjamin Corson (grandfather), eldest son of Henry, was a 
farmer, in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county. He 
married Mary Febridge. They had three children: Margaret 
Corson, unmarried, now deceased; Susan Corson, married Peter 
Weaver, and had no children; Alan Corson (father), married 
Elizabeth Francis, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Francis, 
of Shannonville, now Audubon. 

  Benjamin Corson married (second wife) Christiana Febridge, 
sister of his first wife, by whom he had two children: Amos 
E. and Mary F. Amos married Mary A., daughter of Abraham 
Heydrick, of Chestnut Hill. They had one child, Sarah T. 
Corson, who married James Vancourt, who lived near Fort 
Washington. 

  Mary F. Corson married Charles Vancourt, and had five 
children: Benjamin F. (deceased); James, who married his 
cousin, Sarah Corson; Emma (deceased); Howard, in the 
publishing business, married Sarah E. Rickert, and they have 
five children; Horace, who married Anna E., daughter of the 
late Jacob Craft, of Norristown.
 
  Alan Corson (father) was reared and educated in 
Montgomery, where he was born March 29, 1808. He taught 
school in the county for many years, but finally settled on 
a farm near Audubon. He carried on general farming and 
attended market, being of good business capacity. He was 
often called upon to prepare legal documents and settle: 
estates. He served as justice of the peace for many years. 
He was a Whig in politics, and was one of the progressive 
men of the community where he lived. he died April 19, 1855. 
His wife was born October 7, 1813, and died October 1, 1894. 
She was the daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Umstead) 
Francis. The children of Alan and Elizabeth (Francis) 
Corson; Isabella F.; Thomas F.; Margaret, died at the age of 
three years, and Mary.

  Thomas Francis (maternal grandfather of Isabella and Mary 
Corson) was born in Montgomery county. He was of Welsh 
descent, and his wife of Holland Dutch. He was not a church 
member, but was trustee of the building of the Episcopal 
church, and was an advocate of all that was good. He was one 
of the early settlers of Lower Providence township, and was 
widely known and respected. Their children Issabela (Mrs. 
William McHarg); a son who died unmarried: John U.; Joseph, 
married Mary Phillips; and Elizabeth (mother).

  Thomas F. Corson, brother of Isabella F. and Mary Corson, 
was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and was a 
prominent physician. He was an assistant surgeon in the 
Civil war, and afterwards settled in Philadelphia and 
engaged in the drug business and in the practice of his 
profession. He later retired from active practice, and was 
in the real estate business until his death on May 29, 1902. 
He married (first wife) Margaret Johnson, and had one 
daughter, Jeanette, who lives with her aunts, Isabella F. 
and Mary. He married (second wife) Edith McPherson, and they 
had one son, Alan Corson, a civil engineer, who is married 
and lives in Philadelphia. 

  Isabella F. and Mary, the oldest and youngest of their 
father's children, have never married and for years have 
lived together at Audubon, in Lower Providence township. 
Their niece Jeanette also lives with them, and their home is 
a proof of the fact that three women may live happily 
together.

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