People/Organizations | Horsham Preservation and Historical Association

Peter Choate

Posted in In Memoriam, People/Organizations.

Peter Choate We are extremely sad to report the passing of our dear friend Peter Choate. Pete was the cofounder and long-time leader of our organization. He passed away peacefully January 13, 2025, at the age of 83. Pete and his wife Margaret are shown below in March, 2016 at the Penrose-Strawbridge House. Both Pete and Margaret committed the latter parts of their lives to our group, preserving the history of Horsham Township, the restoration of the Penrose-Strawbridge House and service to our community. Margaret passed away April 5, 2017. Peter Jacquet Choate was born on May 28,...

Memories of Sue Bibus

Posted in memories, People/Organizations.

Memories of Sue Bibus Author: Sue Gilbert and Sue Bibus Editor: Kevin Winters Published: August 9 2018 photo of Sue Bibus (Sophie Halata) in center with brother and sister on either side. Used with permission of Sue Bibus Memories is a place for folks to tell us the stories they remember of Horsham Township. Please contact us (hpha@horshampreservation.org) if you would be interested in sharing your stories (long or short) to become part of the history of the area.. You can send us written stories, audio or video – and we would love some of your...

Isaiah Lukens

Posted in People/Organizations.

Charles Harper Smith Editor: Kevin Winters Published: August 9 2025 Get involved or contribute to HPHA Donate

Samuel and Sarah Penrose

Posted in People/Organizations.

Graeme Park in Horsham, PA was established in 1720 by the Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith. Keith called his plantation Fountain Low. Originally about 1,800 acres, parcels were sold off in the 1730s after Keith returned to England. His son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Graeme acquired 835 acres of Fountain Low in 1737 and renamed this parcel Graeme Park. Graeme turned his park into a summer retreat and during the period of the 1760s it became a stop for many of the more prominent people in Philadelphia. Dr. Graeme’s daughter, Elizabeth, inherited the property in 1772 upon her...

Morris and Mary Penrose

Posted in People/Organizations.

Not much is known of Morris Penrose. He was born on March 14, 1860, the second child of Abel and Sarah Penrose. Morris never married but did become the fourth generation of Penroses to farm Graeme Park. His sister Mary Penrose married William Carothers on April 16, 1913. Carothers was 23 years older and died two years later. Mary returned to Graeme Park following his death. She died in 1953. When Morris’ father Abel Penrose died on July 10, 1893, his will directed that the property could be purchased by his two sons, Morris B. or William Penrose, either jointly or individually,...

Samuel Carpenter

Posted in People/Organizations.

Samuel Carpenter Editor: Kevin Winters Published: August 9 2018 Updated: November 27, 2025 Samuel Carpenter Public Domain – Carpenter & Carpenter Samuel Carpenter, and his half-brothers Joshua and Abraham, came from Barbadoes to William Penn’s new city of Philadelphia shortly after it was established in 1681. All were very well educated and had money from investments in Barbadoes. Samuel had spent 10 years there investing in sugar and would soon become one of the wealthiest men in Pennsylvania. He became an early investor in Pennsylvania,...

Howard T. Hallowell

Posted in People/Organizations.

Howard T. Hallowell Howard T. Hallowell, a native of Horsham, founded the Standard Pressed Steel Company, now known as SPS Technologies. Mr. Hallowell was born on June 30, 1877, at Hallowell, Pa. Hallowell was working as a draftsman at the American Pulley Company in Philadelphia in 1900 when he witnessed an industrial accident where a brittle cast iron shaft hanger broke. He designed a better hanger from pressed steel and patented it in 1901. The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia115 awarded Hallowell the John Scott Legacy Award for this same invention in 1906. In 1903 Hallowell left...

Justinian K. Hallowell

Posted in People/Organizations.

Justinian K. Hallowell The village of Hallowell was at the intersection of Governor’s Road and the Doylestown-Willow Grove Turnpike in Horsham Township, Pa. It was one of five small villages that made up the township. The area became a crossroads after the 1830s when the turnpike north of the area became a public road. Justinian Hallowell, born in 1855, established the Hallowell Hotel in 1880 and at some point a post office also called Hallowell. The following information is according to My Genealogy Hound, and based on a family biography published in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery...

William and Hannah Penrose

Posted in People/Organizations, Places.

William and Hannah Penrose William Penrose is the second generation of Penroses to own and farm Graeme Park. William Penrose, the third child and second son of Samuel and Sarah Penrose, was 19 when he moved with his parents from Richland Township to Graeme Park in 1801. His older brother, Abel, remained in Richland. His older sister, Gainor, would marry Richard Jarrett (son of Jonathan and Hannah (Mather) Jarrett) of Horsham. He married in 1810 at age 28 to Hannah Jarrett (daughter of William and Ann (Lukens) Jarrett), also of Horsham. William and Hannah moved into a new home – a large...