Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Bobb MD, Dr. Henry December 9, 1846 - 
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Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net February 7, 2026, 11:22 am

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

HENRY BOBB, M. D., a successful physician and prominent 
business man of past Greenville, is a descendant of two old 
settled German families, Hillegass and Bobb. He is the son 
Henry and Elizabeth (Hillegass) Bobb, and was born at the 
old Hillegass homestead in Upper Hanover, December 9, 1846.

Henry Bobb (father) was born at Forgedale, in Washington 
township, Berks county, October 10, 1809 and died August 11, 
1901, at East Greenville. After attending neighborhood 
schools until his sixteenth year, he learned the trade of 
saddler which he followed until 1840, when he engaged in 
farming on the old Hillegass homestead, continuing that 
occupation successfully until 1868, when he retired. He was 
a Democrat in politics, and a member in high standing of the 
Lutheran church. He married, about 1833 Elizabeth Hillegass, 
the couple having five children, of whom Dr. Bobb is the 
sole survivor. John died in infancy; John 2d died at the age 
of ten years; George died at the age of twenty-nine years; 
James Daniel, the oldest, died in his fifty-third year, 
leaving, three children, the eldest of whom Dr. W. G. Bobb, 
is a prominent medical practitioner in Philadelphia. Henry 
Bobb was a school director and treasurer of the school board 
of Upper Hanover for many years.

Daniel Bobb (grandfather) married Anna Herb he was born 
inForgedale Berks County, July 26, 1781. He had ten 
children, of whom three survived.He was a Democrat in 
politics, and a member of the Lutheran church. He died 
February 27, 1866.
 
Daniel Bobb (great-grandfather) was the youngest son of 
immigrant, John Conrad Bobb. He was born in 1740. His father 
dying in 1760, when he was but fourteen years of age, the 
care of the hundred acre farm and grist and oil mill at 
Forgedale fell to his lot. He continued their management 
until 1774 when he bought it, continuing to operate it until 
1782, when he sold it to his son Daniel.

John Conrad Bobb (great-great-grandfather) came from Germany 
prior to 1744. In that year he bought from Christian Beidler 
the farm, grist and oil mill at Forgedale. He died in 1760, 
intestate. 

John Conrad Bobb, who spelled his surname Bopp, as is shown 
by receipts and other papers in existence, married Elizabeth 
Stover. Their children were John, Abraham, Anna (Mrs. 
Bowman), and Daniel.

Dr. Henry Bobb's early educational training was obtained at 
East Greenville, Quakertown and Washington Hall Collegiate 
Institute, Trappe. He taught school for a time, serving in 
this capacity in the public schools of Upper Hanover for two 
years. He then accepted a position as clerk in a general 
store, but after spending two years in this way decided to 
study medicine, which he did under the preceptorship of Dr. 
John G. Hillegass, of Pennsburg. Later he entered the 
University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the medical 
department of that institution in 1868. He practiced 
successfully for seven years at Herefordville, Berks county 
1875, he removed to East Greenville where he opened a drug 
store, combining its management with the practice of 
medicine. He has been the preceptor of a number of 
physicians now practicing successfully in various sections 
of Pennsylvania. He is a Democrat in politics, and was for 
many years treasurer of East Greenville, and also it the 
Factory Company and Water Works of that place. In religions 
faith he affiliates with the Reformed denomination, and is 
prominently identified with the New Goshenhoppen church. He 
is also president of the St. John's Reformed Chapel at East 
Greenville. He owns and occupies one of the most beautiful 
homes in that borough.

Dr. Bobb married, May 11, 1868, Maria Catharine, daughter of 
Peter Hillegass, the well-known linseed oil manufacturer, 
who resided in Upper Hanover township. The couple have had 
five children, as follows: Vincent Peter, Nevin and Henry 
Hillegass, all of whom died in infancy; Eugene Hillegass, an 
alumnus of Franklin and Marshall College, of the class of 
'95, died from pneumonia on Friday, May 20, 1898. He had 
just completed his post-graduate course for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy in Biology, Chemistry and Psychology. 
He came to the college in 1892 as a boy of seventeen years, 
his preparatory training leaving been received under Dr. N. 
C. Schaeffer, then principal of the Kutztown State Normal 
School. He was the first student of Franklin and Marshall 
College who entered the second year of the medical 
department of the University of Pennsylvania on certificate. 
But his love for Franklin and Marshall was greater than his 
taste for the practice of medicine, and in 1890 he returned 
in order to take in postgraduate work in the branches 
mentioned above.

In 1897 he received the degree of Master of Arts in the 
basis of his thesis, "On the Origin of the Apple." At his 
graduation as Doctor of Philosophy he wrote a unique thesis, 
"On the Development of the Middle Germ Layer," which was 
worthy of a higher degree than that of the first academic 
distinction, and the drawings he made for the scientific 
contributions of Professor R. C. Schiedt evoked the 
commendations of the professors at Merlin. 

The funeral services were held on Thursday, May 26, 1898, 
six of his college friends served as pall-bearers, namely 
Messrs. D. N. Laudenslager, W. F. DeLong, Harry D. 
Schaeffer, J. Frank Meyer, and Revs. Thomas Dickert and 
Daniel E. Schaeffer.

Dr. John S. Stahr, president of Franklin and Marshall 
College, spoke very feelingly of the departed, and Professor 
D. C. Schiedt, with whom Mr. Bobb was intimately associated 
during the, last six years of his life, paid a glowing 
tribute to the heroic self-sacrifice of his friend. His 
pastor preached a sermon in German, and the presence of many 
friends attested the high esteem in which he held. 

Mary Mabel, only daughter of Dr. Bobb was born August 5, 
1882. She is a graduate of Perkiomen Seminary, of Pennsburg, 
and of Woman's College of Frederick, Maryland. She is now 
the wife of Professor J. Parsons Schaeffer, who attended the 
Central Pennsylvania College, of New Merlin, graduated with 
honors from the Keystone State Normal School, at Kutztown, 
and was first honor man at the United States College of 
Engineering. He was supervising principal of the East 
Greenville schools for two years, but resigned to complete 
his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania.He has 
also done special work at Cornell University. The maternal 
ancestors of Dr. Henry Bobb were John Frederick and 
Elizabeth Hillegass. They came with his sister Barbara and 
his brother Michael, who was the father of Michael 
Hillegass, the first treasurer of the United States, from 
Germany, sailing from Rotterdam in the ship "William and 
Sarah," and landing at Philadelphia, September 18, 1727, 
settling in Upper Hanover township in the region named by 
the Indians "Goshenhoppen." They were accompanied by the 
Rev. George Michael Weiss, a Reformed Minister, and a 
graduate of the University of Heidelberg.

 John Frederick Hillegass took up a large tract of land 
along the Perkiomen near the present borough of East 
Greenville. Among his children were: George Peter 
(great-grandfather of Dr. Bobb): Leopold, a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war, who afterwards settled in the state of 
New York; John Adam, who built the first grist mill in the 
upper end of Montgomery County. George, Peter Hillegass was 
born February 2, 1735, and died September 24, 1810. He 
married Anna Barbara Hornecker. 

The couple had the following children : Eve, John, Jacob, 
Frederick, Catharine, Elizabeth, Magdalena and Maria 
Margaret. Maria Margaret married John George Hillegass, a 
grandson of John Adam Hillegass. 

John George Hillegass (maternal grandfather) was born in 
Lower Milford township, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, 
February 28, 1771. In early life he removed to Upper Hanover 
township, Montgomery county, where he engaged in farming and 
mercantile business, and being, a man of great business tact 
and ability accumulated a competency. He was a Democrat in 
politics, a member and officer of the New Goshenhoppen 
Reformed church, and one of the most influential men in that 
section of Pennsylvania. He died May 8, 1851, leaving his 
estate to his children: Charles, George, Jacob, Maria, 
Elizabeth (mother), and Catharine. Of these Maria married 
Samuel Kepler, and has the following children John, Samuel, 
Hannah, Maria, Eliza and Adline?. Catharine married Solomon 
Steltz, her children being John, William, Edward and two 
deceased.

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