308                                MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

    MRS. CATHERINE CLAYTON is the widow of Abraham Clayton, who was a well known resident of Moreland township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. She was born in that township, August 10, 1828. Her husband was born August 10, 1826.
    Abraham Clayton was the son of Ezekiel and Ann (Snyder) Clayton. He was all his life a resident of that vicinity. In early life he learned

                                      MONTGOMERY COUNTY                          309

the trade of a harness maker. He was engaged in that occupation for many years, but in later life was occupied with agricultural pursuits. He died December 18, 1864. Abraham Clayton married, in 1848, Catherine Wynkoop, daughter of Henry and Maria (Hoagland) Wynkoop, residents of that vicinity. There are seven living children of the couple, as follows: Henry Harrison, Charlotte, wife of William Johnson; Snyder, Lucy, wife of Christian Stout; Louisa (Mrs. Vanzant); Eleanor, wife of Harbeson Kinsey; Christian S., and four others who are deceased.
    Christian S. Clayton, the youngest living child of Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Clayton, was born in Huntingdon Valley, August 11, 1868. Educated in the public schools, he has been since boyhood a clerk in the store of Andrew Ervin, the leading merchant of Huntingdon Valley, and now occupies the position of head clerk in the establishment.
    The Hoagland family, of which Mrs. Catherine Clayton is a member, are among the oldest in that section of Pennsylvania. Henry Wynkoop, father of Mrs. Abraham Clayton, was a well known farmer. He married, December 23, 1824, Maria Hoagland, born July 22, 1802, daughter of Derick and Hannah Hoagland, of Moreland township. Maria (Hoagland) Wynkoop died September 12, 1836, and her husband, Henry Wynkoop, died May 3, 1883. This old couple had four children, viz.: William, born December 15, 1825; Catherine (Mrs. Clayton); Lucy V., born June 24, 1833; and Charles, born May 4, 1836.

Source:

Roberts, Ellwood, "Mrs. Catherine Clayton," Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Containing Genealogical Records of Representative Families, Including Many of the Early Settlers and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens, Volume II, New York, T. S. Benham, 1904, pp. 308-309.

    This biography is unusual for the reason that it is the only biography of a Wynkoop woman that I've found so far in all my years of searching. Catherine, who, by the way, is the younger sister of my 2nd great-grandfather, William Wynkoop, must have been a formidable woman with a lot of ambition and drive, to have placed her biography in this book full of men at a time when women were not allowed to vote and were treated in what we would now call a sexist fashion. She was a woman of character that I would have felt honored to know.

    I'd like to dedicate this page to Sue Chiaverini, one of Catharine's descendants, who, over the years has supplied me with a rich trove of information on the Clayton family of Montgomery County.

    Sue, this page is for you.

    All my best,

    Chris