Longstreth-Noble Family Papers

The Longstreth family were Pennsylvania Quakers who married into the Cook and Noble families. Thomas B. Longstreth (1796-1867) was a Philadelphia building contractor who married Lydia Noble (1803-1879), both active members of Green Street Monthly Meeting. Lydia was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Tompkins) Noble, members of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Northern District. Samuel Noble was a successful tanner, and his daughter and son-in-law lived on his property until 1861 when they moved to Walnut Lane in Germantown. Thomas B. Longstreth accompanied fellow Quakers John Jackson and George Truman on their visit to the West Indies in 1840 and 1841.

Thomas B. Longstreth was the oldest son of Joseph and Margaret (McKee) Longstreth of Philadelphia. A younger son, Morris and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Cooke Longstreth had five children including John Cooke Longstreth, a prominent Philadelphia attorney who advised his uncle Thomas B. Longstreth on property matters and was executor for his aunt and uncle’s estate, and also Charles Cooke Longstreth who in 1853 married his first cousin, Sarah Noble Longstreth, the daughter of Thomas and Lydia Longstreth.

Thomas and Lydia had nine children. A daughter, Mary B. (1804-1907) married Benjamin Starr, moved to Indiana and became an active member of Whitewater Monthly Meeting. A son, Samuel N. Longstreth (1843-1928) married Mary Cook at Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) in 1880. He was a businessman and as the oldest son, took an active role in the family finances, especially property inherited from his parents and grandparents. He also served as guardian for the children of his sister Sarah and Charles Cooke Longstreth after Charles’ death in 1870 and was treasurer of Germantown Preparative Meeting.

Mary Cook’s brother, Walter Scott Cook, married Samuel N. Longstreth’s niece, Helen Longstreth Rowlett. They had two children, Florence Longstreth Cook (1897-1989) who compiled the collection, graduated from Swarthmore College and was a social worker in Philadelphia, and Walter Scott Cook, Jr., a Philadelphia lawyer. Samuel N. and Mary (Cook) Longstreth also had two children. Walter Cook Longstreth (1881-1975) married Emily Corson Poley, He was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer and a pacifist who defended conscious objectors in World War II. He and Emily were active Quakers, members of Green Street Monthly Meeting and Frankfort Preparative Meeting. His sister, Edith Longstreth married William S. Wood and was an artist.