David Atkinson (abt. 1788 - aft. 1860)

Born about 1788 in Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States

Husband of Mary (Margerum) Atkinson — married about 1810 in Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States

Descendants

Died after 1860 after about age 72 in Mercer, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

David Atkinson was born about 1788 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Margerum by 1810, likely in Bucks County, and in that year lived in Newtown, Bucks County. ^[1] In 1814 he lived in Newtown, Bucks County. ^[2] By 1820 he had moved his family to Springfield, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. ^[3] In 1830 he lived in Salem, Mercer County. ^[4] In 1840 he lived in Salem, Mercer County. ^[5] In 1844 David Atkinson was appointed Auditor of Mercer County for a one-year term. ^[6] In 1850 he lived in Salem, Mercer County, with wife Mary and children Jonathan, Granville, and Lyda, as well as daughter-in-law Anne [Roberts] Atkinson and her daughters Anne and Elizabeth. ^[7] David's wife Mary died during the following decade and in 1860 he lived in Hempfield, Mercer County, widower, with son Benjamin and family. ^[8] David Atkinson likely passed away between 1860 and the 1870 Census, as no further record of him can be found. Some ancestors believe his parents were Moses Atkinson and Sarah (Abbot) Atkinson of NJ, but their David seems to have lived and died in NJ.

"WILLIAM HENRY ATKINSON, A.M., M.D., D.D.S.
In Newton, Bucks County, Pa., January 23, 1815, William Henry Atkinson was born. His parents were David Atkinson, an Englishman, and Mary Margerum Atkinson, a native of Holland. David, the father, was a frontier Methodist preacher, and Mary, his mother, a Quakeress, who was noted as a faithful parent and strict disciplinarian to her children, as well as a doctress and good angel of mercy to the sick and distressed of the neighborhood. Young William spent his boyhood days in the native village, which was destitute of those advantages of culture even for the ordinary education generally supposed essential to a literary or professional career, except that of the public school which he attended during the winters. At an early age he was apprenticed to a tailor, filling in his spare time working on the farm. About this time his parents moved to Mercer County, then in the wilds of Western Pennsylvania, where they purchased a farm of one hundred acres, on which they lived in a log cabin in a sparsely settled neighborhood, where young Atkinson worked at intervals at his trade and as a farm-hand until he reached manhood. He early exhibited a desire to investigate scientific problems, and by perseverance and force of intellect only, while a boy, acquired an education that made for himself a name well known throughout the dental profession." ^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Census Place: Newtown, Bucks, Pennsylvania; Roll: 46; Page: 900; Image: 00071; Family History Library Film: 0193672.
2. ↑ Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Tax Records, 1782-1860. Microfilm, 76 rolls. Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Newtown Township, 1814.
3. ↑ Fourth Census of the United States, 1820. (NARA microfilm publication M33, 142 rolls). Census Place: Springfield, Mercer, Pennsylvania; Page: 139; NARA Roll: M33_107; Image: 63.
4. ↑ Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls). Census Place: Salem, Mercer, Pennsylvania; Series: M19; Roll: 149; Page: 205; Family History Library Film: 0020623.
5. ↑ Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls). Census Place: Salem, Mercer, Pennsylvania; Roll: 474; Page: 284; Family History Library Film: 0020550.
6. ↑ White, J. G. "A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principle interests." Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909, p 316.
7. ↑ Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Census Place: Salem, Mercer, Pennsylvania; Roll: 796; Page: 361b.
8. ↑ 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Census Place: Hempfield, Mercer, Pennsylvania; Page: 227; Family History Library Film: 805139.
9. ↑ Thorpe, Burton Lee, M.D., D.D.S. "Biographies of Pioneer American Dentists and Their Successors." Chicago, IL: The National Art Publishing Company, 1909, Volume III, page 177.