William Jeanes Tyson was born in 1866, one of eleven children of Ephraim Tyson and Anna Maust.1 Ephraim was a farmer in Hatboro, where William grew up.  On 20 February 1889 he married Catherine Rinker, daughter of Francis Rinker and Catherine Pownall. Francis had been a shoemaker and then a policeman in Germantown, Pennsylvania, but retired to a farm in Montgomery County in 1885. William and Catherine lived in Horsham, at the corner of Easton and Dresher Roads, right across from the Horsham Friends Meeting House, and raised their family of eight children there.2 They would remain there for the rest of their lives together. According to William J. Tyson II, the grandson and namesake of William, their house was still standing, at least in 1993.3

By 1900 Catherine Rinker, William’s mother-in-law was living with them, after her husband Francis died in 1892. She probably stayed with them until her own death in 1909. In 1910 five of the children were still at home.4 Through the 1920s and 1930s they stayed on the farm, with some of the children living there temporarily until they were married.5 Since none of the sons wanted to take over the farm, William sold fertilizer for M. L. Shoemaker.6 As each of the children married, he gave them a piece of the farm. As William J. Tyson II put it, “At one time my Aunt Mildred lived across the street from us and next to her, Uncle Willie and his wife… Next door to us my Uncle Ralph… My Uncle Earl and his family… lived in back of our property. It was a wonderful idea on Grandpop and Grandmom Tyson’s part—to keep their family together, but it didn’t last all that long. Eventually everyone except Uncle Earl moved away.”7 William and Catherine also owned a beach house in Ocean City, New Jersey, where they gathered the family. Their thirteen-year old grandson Howard made a dramatic rescue there in 1925, swimming to save a woman who was drowning in Great Egg Harbor Bay.8 He saw her struggling and calling for help, swam to her, and pulled her by the arm to shallow water. “He was nearly exhausted and was unable to go father when his feet touched bottom.” Howard was there with his parents at the cottage of his grandmother Catherine Tyson. After After Catherine died in 1950 she left the house in Ocean City to her son Raymond.9 William died on March 24, 1947.10 Catherine died on June 25, 1950.11 They are buried in Hatboro Cemetery. As their grandson remembered, “They led a very simple, good life.”

Children of William and Catherine:12

William Francis, born Dec 1889, died 1980. In 1910 he was living at home with his parents, working as a house carpenter. In 1911 he married Elsie Woodroffe with a Delaware marriage license. He was 21; she was 18.13 She was the daughter of James and Harriet Woodroffe.14 She lived in Germantown, where her father James was a policeman. This could be a coincidence, since Catherine Rinker’s father Francis was also a policeman in Germantown. Perhaps that is how Elsie and William met. They had two children, Howard and Gladys.15 Elsie and William lived in Horsham, where he was a builder.

In 1932, Elsie divorced William on the grounds of cruel treatment.16 Elsie told the court a dramatic story. “After acting as clerk for her husband following their marriage, and thus engaged for several years, everything went well until the wife decided that housekeeping was enough to keep her busy, and decided to give up the clerical job. The husband consented, according to the wife, and soon he engaged another girl, became much devoted to the new clerk, and neglected his wife… Mrs. Tyson said her husband admitted taking the girl out. She said that when she remonstrated with her husband about the girl he threatened to strike her with an electric heater.” By 1940, William was remarried, living next door to his parents in Horsham, with his second wife Kathryn Mather and a newborn son Ronald.17 They later moved to Fort Lauderdale, where he worked as a building contractor and died in 1980.18 Kathryn died in 1987. They are buried at Lauderdale Memorial Park.

Ralph Steward, born in 1892, died 1965, married Nora Schabinger in Sept 1912. They had four children: Ralph, Pearl, Laura and Arthur.19 Arthur was born in 1920, but by then Ralph was gone, living with a young woman named Florence in East Cleveland, Ohio.20 Nora divorced him and went back to live with her father Charles, taking the three surviving children with her.21 By 1930 Ralph and Florence were in Grand Junction, Colorado, with four children. By 1940 they were in Horsham, living in the same house as Raymond and his family; Ralph was working as a towerman for the railroad. Children: Evora, Constance, Twilla, Cloyd, Willa Mae.22

Raymond LeRoy, born in 1895, died 1959, married 1919 Helen Worthington, daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth.23 They were married in 1919, after he returned from serving in World War I.24 Raymond worked as a ticket agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad, based in Hatboro or Horsham. Helen worked for the state of Pennsylvania as a tax collector. They had three children who survived infancy. After Raymond died suddenly in 1959, Helen remarried twice, and survived all three of her husbands.25 She eventually moved into an assisted living facility in Quakertown, and died there in 1987. He is buried at Hatboro Cemetery; her ashes were sprinkled in the lagoon in Ocean City, New Jersey, where she had a summer house for many years. Children: Raymond, Dorothy, Robert E, Janet E, William Jeanes II.

Harry Edwin, born 8 Oct 1897, died Oct 11, 1918, in the flu pandemic of “croupous pneumonia”. He was not married. A machinist, he was just 21 when he died.26 When he registered for the draft for the Second World War on 12 Sep 1918, he was living at 461 Winona Ave in Germantown, with Rinker relatives, working for Frank H. Rinker as an automobile mechanic on 416 Coulter Street.27 Frank was Harry’s uncle, a son of Francis and Catherine.

Katie and Anna, born 1899, died within two hours of birth.

Mildred Evelyn, born in 1900, died 1973, married William Barlow. William was a salesman. They lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania, later in Johnstown. They retired to Florida, where Mildren died in 1973 in Sarasota. William died in 1996; They are buried together in Port Charlotte. Child: Gail.

Earl Jeanes, born in 1909, died in 2001. After graduating from Abington High School in 1927, Earl went to work for the post office in Horsham, and in 1953 was the postmaster there.28 He married Thelma Gaykenheimer or Gegenheimer in 1934 in Philadelphia. They had six children together.29 Thelma died in 1975 in Ft. Lauderdale. Earl married Mary McDonald in 1978 in Broward County, Florida, and in 1998 married Louise Wells Friday. He died in November 2001, in a retirement home in Quarryville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, survived by his wife Louise, five children and three stepchildren. He had 23 great grandchildren at his death.30 Children of Earl and Thelma: Thomas, Nancy, David, Daniel, John, Richard. Two of the sons, Thomas and Richard, became ministers.