Justice Owen J. Roberts, a man who lived quietly among us, was one of the great men of our time. He was born in Germantown on May 2, 1875, in the home of his parents, Josephus Roberts and the former Emma Lafferty.
His paternal grandfather, William Owen Roberts, a miller, came to America from Wales in 1808 and established a grist mill on the Perkiomen Creek near Collegeville. His maternal grandmother was a descendant of early German settlers in Pennsylvania.
In 1904, Justice Roberts married the former Elizabeth Caldwell Rogers of Fairfield, Connecticut. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Rogers Roberts, who became Mrs. Charles A. Hamilton.
Early in his law career, Justice Roberts made his home in Philadelphia, but in 1929 achieved a life-long ambition to have a farm, by purchasing a 700 acre place at Birchrunville, Chester County. He called the farm, “Bryn Co-ed”, Welsh for “Wooded Hill”. He restored and improved the farmhouse built in 1820 into a gracious home.
A great jurist, for fifteen years a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Owen J. Roberts was, nevertheless, primarily interested in education, in the youth and the hope of America. Justice Roberts died May 17, 1955, at the age of 80 and is buried at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ludwigs Corner, PA.
The School District was formed by state law on July 1, 1959. Today the district encompasses an area of 110 square miles and the following seven townships: East Coventry, East Nantmeal, East Vincent, North Coventry, South Coventry, Warwick, and West Vincent. Five elementary centers, a middle school, and a high school serve the educational needs of over 5,000 students.