The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-01-14
rzRRY BRorHERs ARE AGED TWINS.

Alter nearly tour score years OF
experiences in the vicinity of Phila-
delphia, William and Samuel Terry,
twins, recall many interesting events.
They remember the coming of the
first locomotive to Philadelphia, and
tell of the days when their father con-
veyed treasure trains of silver bullion
from the United States Custom House
to the Government banks in New
York and Boston, and fought off the
bands of highwaymen who infested
the roads by force Of their brawny
arms and loaded whips.
William Terry. twice married and
now widower, lives at Holmesburg.
He is too old to follow his trade Of
carpenter, and is now the janitor of
the Thomas Holme Free Library.
Samuel Terry, also twice married
and widower second time, lives on
Lambert street, Trenton. Their
father was carpenter, and Jim"
Terry, as he was known, was the
largest man in the country round.
He was born the year that Washing
ton retired from the Presidency, and
when he decided to marry, in 1890,
his six feet four inches of brawny bulk
easily won him wife. He settled in
Yardley, near Trenton, and did odd
jobs at carpentering.
''It was about that time," said
William Terry, 'that he was engaged
by the Government to haul the specie
from the Philadelphia bank to New
York and Boston. They travelled in
trains of FIVE wagons, each drawn
by four horses. In the fall of ga, the
year that he died, and the anniversary
of the event / have in mind, he told
me the story of one of these trips.
''It was the year 1926, and five
wagons, drawn by FIVE of the largest
mule teams on the Atlantic seaboard,
were loaded with the silver bullion at
the Custom House, at Fourth and
Chestnut streets, for delivery in New
York. Shutdown that night found
them on the Bristol pike, in the fa-
nous Pickpocket Woods, 2 miles from
Bristol, much exhausted after they had
beaten off gang of highwaymen
who had swooped down on them,
despite the fact that every precaution
was taken to prevent it being known
that the innocent farm wagons car
ried aught but grain and fodder and
cordwood. They usually spent one
week on these trips, and it was on
one in 1922 that our Oldest brother,
Joshua, was born. He is living yet,
at the age of eighty-two, in one of
our old homes, II Cooper street,
Trenton.
The same men appeared every year
at the same place and carted the an
nual consignment ofsilver, cut in the
denominational sizes, but not stamp
ed, to the Knickerbocker banks.
For seven years father engaged in this
until the Camden and Amboy Rail-
road was opened for operation in 1929:
'Well ! remember the excitement
which the passing of that old wbeezy
locomotive at its fifteen-mile speed
caused. I was then only two years
old, and havea vivid impression of
of the fright had at the sight, and
/ didn't get over crying all of the ten
miles that we had to travel home.
II married in 1856. Sam married
about the same time, and both OF MS
married Margarets. Our second
wives were both named Mary. Mary,
my wife, died eight months ago.
Her death was due to shock. She
had gone to assist her sister, Elizabeth
Noorsanger, who was undergoing an
operation for gangrenous growth at
the Jewish Hospital. She was al
lowed in the operating room to COM
fort her sister. The sister died, and
when Mary felt the hand she was hold
ing grow chill and its pulse cease, she
too swooned into nurses arms and
died few moments later. We buried
them side by side. At her death l
broke up housekeeping. have three
children living, and my brother has
four"
William Terry was for may years a
prominent builder in Philadelphia.
Failing health has forced him to aban-
don his trade. He now resides at 81
oo6 Welsh Road. Samuel Terry still
works at his trade, and is prosperous
builder in Trenton. They tell of the
times when the stages ran from Phil
adelphia to New York, and recall
many stops they have made at the
old Washington Hotel, in Holmes
burg, where, it is said, the great gen.
eral stopped when on one of his trips
from the Capital, then New York, to
his home at Mt. Vernon.
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