H. M. Byllesby.&t Company 
 ' IriHiirancn Exchange Building 
 
 CHIOA-OO 
 
 MRMO. PERTAlmMO TO MR. iiYT.T.;ir.fftBY« FAKILJ.IH AMBRICA. 
 
 H. M.3w\\\csW.^ 
 
 The earliest definite knowledge there ie of my grand¬ 
 father^ Lang ton Byllesby, who was born in I789 tmd it ie 
 believed in Philadejlphia, 
 
 There is a legend in the family which was handed down 
 along with the formula for the coat of arms (and this coat 
 of arms proves to be identioetl with that published in the 
 English genetvlogy) to the general effect that Langton 
 Byllesby^s father was an Englishman who was endeavoring 
 to regain a lost fortune in America; that they were inti¬ 
 mately related with the Langtons and that both the father 
 and mother of X^angton Byllesby died in come cholera epi¬ 
 demic in Philadelphia, when Langton Byllesby and his only 
 sister, Henrietta, were very young* This date is assumed 
 to have been between 1789 1795 * 
 
 The same legend gives a Thomas Ryerson of Philadelphia 
 a man of prominence and wealth, as being the guardians of 
 Langton and his sister* The same legend, which has been 
 handed down in the family, states that when one of these 
 children was found in a mournful frame of mind and quite 
 young, Mr* Ryerson showed them certain documents, presumably 
 a family tree or coat of arms, and told them that while they 
 had substantially no means they came from one of the best 
 families in England. 
 
 
7 rom doounents sent you, you will learn regardlr^ 
 Thomas Ryerson , as it is eyident that Langton and Hen¬ 
 rietta Byllesby were substantially members of his family 
 until probably as late as l820 or thereabouts. 
 
 During this period Hr. Ryerson had mored to Easton, 
 Pennsylvania, (probably following the same cholera epi¬ 
 demic) and we know from family legends, supported by 
 articles published by an laston newspaper some fourteen 
 years ago, that along about l8l2 or idl? Langton Byllesby 
 was editor and presumably the proprietor of the paper 
 in Easton* 
 
 l/hile in that section of the country he married his 
 wife, Vary 8alade of German or Pennsylvania Dutch extract¬ 
 ion* She presumably came of a good family as she was at 
 one time a pupil at the Koravian Boarding School for Girls 
 at Bethlehem, Pa* She also had cousins, of whom three or 
 four, or possibly five, married partners of eui old time 
 and very wealthy drug-house (wholesale) in Philadelphia, 
 styled Prenoh, Richards & Company* All of these part¬ 
 ners, notably Clayton French, were men of wealth, and 
 p^isters and ny cousins hare always kept up more or less 
 an acquaintanceship and correspondence with the various 
 descendants of these cousins who married the partners of 
 this drug house, one of the partners, as mentioned, being 
 Clayton French, another Richards, another Ritter, and 
 another Charles Funk* 
 
Langton Byll«»by had children as follmrat 
 
 (1) DtWitt Clinton Bylleoby (my father) who 
 
 ^826 and 
 
 died at Media, Pa. in I891 and wae bxiried at 
 our family burying plot, Mt. Holly, H. J. 
 
 ( 2 ) LimelXa, who nerer married and died in 1889 
 at the reeidei^e of iqy uncle Marieon at Mead* 
 Tille, Pa. 
 
 (3) Paber Bylleeby, the date and plaoe of whoee 
 birth are unknown to me, but who died in Iowa 
 in 1898. 
 
 ( 4 ) Marieon Bylleeby, the date and plaoe of 
 whoee birth are unknown to me, but who died in 
 Plorida in 1896 and is buried in the burial 
 plot of Dr. Ellie at Meadville, Pa, 
 
 All these eons beoame clergymen of the Protestant 
 
 Episcopal Church. They all spent the bulk of their roinie- 
 
 try in the State of Pennsylvania, excepting that my father 
 
 was Rector of Trinity Church, Mt. Holly, N. J., from I859 
 to 1871 incliisive. 
 
 My father had children as follows: 
 
 ( 1 ) Mary Limella, born Lewiston, Pa. about 18 ^ 2 , 
 now living at 4824 Madison Ave., Chicago. 
 
 ( 2 ) Prancis Elizabeth, born at Montrose, 
 about 1834, died at Pittsburgh, Pa. about 
 burled at Mt. Holly, K. J. 
 
 Pa.. 
 
 1858. 
 
 (3) Alice Charlotte (Cummins) born at Montrose, 
 Pa., about l 835 * martied James 8 . Cummins of 
 Media, Pa. (who is a partner of H. M. Bylleeby ft 
 Company) <^nd living at 4932 Lake Ave., Chicago. 
 
 ( 4 ) Henry Meirison (the writer) born at Pittsburgh, 
 Pa., 1859* married in 1882 to Margaret Stearns 
 Baldwin at Roselle, K. J., second daughter of H. 
 
 P. Baldwin, General Passenger Agent of the Hew 
 Jersey Central Railroad. 
 
i^K Holly, 
 
 "l lived only three months and burled 
 
 at Mto Holly* 
 
 Uy father married in I850 Sarah Matthews of Oranee. 
 Hew Jersey, this lady (my mother) beli« one of a large 
 
 family of meane and influence in Orange, being the well- 
 known Matthews and Harrison families, now living in t>»t 
 section of the country* My mother died at Roselle, N, J 
 Deoeniber 27th, 1876 o 
 
 Marison Byllesby married at Meadville, Pa,, about 
 1864, Ruth Elizabeth, daughter of Dr, Xllis of Meadville* 
 They have living children, Ruth Hills, born about I866, 
 unmarried, a deaconess in the Protestant Xpisoopal Church 
 A son, Hills Byllesby, born I872, unmarried and an 
 invalid in a private sanitarium at Cambridge, Pa* 
 
 Sarah Hlizabeth Byllesby, born about l 875 » unmarried 
 and living with her sister, Ruth Hllis Byllesby, at pre¬ 
 sent at Meadville, Pa* 
 
 Marison Byllesby and his wife had three deceased 
 sons, two dying in infauioy and one, Langton Byllesby, 
 dying at Denver at the age of 21 , of oon 8 ung>tion* 
 
 Haber Byllesby married unfortunately in Cincinnati, 
 shortly after being admitted to the ministry* I mean 
 unfortunately in the sense of marrying far below his 
 station* His wife survived him one or two years* 
 
 They had a large family of children, all of whom are 
 living in the west and which does not particularly con- 
 
agt 5 
 
 o«m thl8 matter, ae I believe there le no ohanoe of 
 running aorose them In this eearoh. 
 
 Ify grand-father, Lang ton Byilesby, Is burled at 
 Meadvllle, Pa, Ve have eearohed all the family records 
 and can find no record of the name of his father or 
 mother or their birth. 
 
 There Is also a legend In the family that while a 
 young man, my grand-father was for some tin* in the south. 
 We find that Thomas Ryerson, after having left Baston, 
 
 Pa,, was in business in South Carolina, where apr.arently 
 he became deeply involved aiid it Is entirely likely that 
 Langton Byilesby was with him at that time. 
 
 As liavlng a bearing on this situation, not only 
 according to the family legends, but from the scraps 
 that we are now unearthing, there appears to have been 
 an almost continuous living together, or close personal 
 contact, between Langton Byilesby and Thomas Byerson until 
 at least after the southern venture, 
 
 Langton Byilesby*s wife was an extremely strong- 
 minded woman and the legends are to the effect that Langton 
 Byilesby himself (who was put out to learn the printer* s 
 trade by Thomas Ryerson, and became an expert printer) was 
 always a visionary and more or less shiftless character, 
 and one in vfhom neither his wife nor his sons took any 
 particular pride. 
 
His tojnbstone at Vsadyille gives no infoxmatlon as 
 to his birth or his antecedents. 
 
 I am enclosing you a report made by Mr. Darling of 
 our Law Dep^irtment, who dug up certain infoimation in 
 Washington County, Pennsylvania, and worked for a few 
 days in connection with Judge Porter. This is rather 
 voliaminous but it bears on the proposition. 
 
 The general legend in the family is, as I think 
 before mentioned, that Langton Byllesby^s father was an 
 Snglishman, and yet this was purely a legend. As you 
 pro'bably know the English brunch of th& family disap¬ 
 peared so far as we are able to find from all records, 
 at about l660 to I67O, at which time apparently thsre 
 were several males of the family living* I think it is 
 a significant matter that the land in Wash!ton County 
 Pennsylvania, adjoined the land of the Asfordbys and 
 the Cracrofts. 
 
 Also,- another matter which may or may not be sig¬ 
 nificant i8 the fact that several mentoers of the Ryerson 
 family had as their last name Paber (being the first name 
 of in/ lunole) and also that an ancestor of the Ryersons 
 along about I7OO was a Repjelye, being the same name as 
 mentioned in your Crall genealogy. 
 
 Among the names of the Araerioan Byllesbys so for 
 dug up in this matter areas I remember it, James, r^amuel, 
 William, Hamilton, Rlohard and Langton, and the following 
 
are the family names running through the pedigrees to 
 the earliest tines - William, Langton, Rlohard and Charles. 
 
 Z think this about exhausts the information that I 
 hare. Z would only add further that from the nature of 
 ny buoiness whloh haii been an extremely aotlve one, taking 
 me to all parts of the United States, Z have never heard of 
 any one of our family name, dlreotly or indlreotly (except 
 those that Z knew to be of family) with one only except* 
 Ion of an Anqy officer at St. Paul, Minnesota, who was an 
 elderly man In I691, and who told me that In one of the 
 western anqy poets. In hie younger life, there had been 
 a private in hie regiment by the name of Byllesby, and who 
 at the time of this officer<e reoolleotlon was already an 
 elderly man. 
 
 Z would Imagine that none of the family are now in 
 existence In Pennsylvania or anywhere In that vicinity 
 excepting those whom Z know to be my relatives, as for 
 years our family has been known in that state. Prom the 
 nature of my business Z have been more or less prominent 
 In Pittsburgh and elsewhere, and the various enterprises 
 with whloh Z have been connected, some of whloh have borne 
 my name, hero been very extensively advertised, and If 
 there were any living members of the family in this country 
 other than those we know of, they must be In the extremely 
 lowly walks of life, and ray belief Is there are none. 
 
Pag# 8 
 
 P» 8.* As a possibls fxxrthsr oluS| plsass rsfsr 
 to **Lln oolnshire Pedigrees* by Canon Maddison, under the 
 name of Johnsont which I think you will find to be page 
 550 or thereabouts, and you will find a string of faniliee 
 of this name liviiig in Lincolnshire who were oonneoted 
 with one of the last members of the Byllesby family who 
 are recorded in the Pedigrees, who left bequests, or a 
 bequest, in the will of one of them, to the wife of a 
 John Byllesby, and you will notice that these Johnsons 
 had interests in Virginia, and it is possible that our 
 Amerioan branch have descended through John Billesby, who 
 was buried at Billesby in l6$l and that his descendants 
 came to Virginia through the Johnson connection* This, 
 however, is ms rely a thought* 
 
 P. 8. f 5 ^ 2 * My grand-father, Langton Byllesby, from the 
 time he removed from Baston or thereabouts, had his family 
 located and living in Philadelphia or its immediate vicin¬ 
 ity until about 1864 or I865, when Langton Byllesby, his 
 wife and hie dau^ter Llraella lived with Mdrison Byllesby 
 until their deaths at Meadville, Pa., with the exception 
 that daring a certain period, probably about iSjJ, until 
 five or six years following, he either owned or rented a 
 farm at a place then called Marcus Hook, Pa., about JO 
 miles south of Philadelphia. Prom this form the family 
 moved back to Philadelphia.