USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 59
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 59
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Aut Zenhellingen
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in the Revolutionary war, riding to Boston at 18 years of age, commanding the com- pany raised by Captain Nicholas, and serv- ing in the Wyoming campaign with credit and distinction; was weigh-master for 45 years at Baltimore where he died October 2, 1840, aged eighty-two years, leaving sev- eral children of whom Jesse was killed at Fort McHenry in 1814, and Otho W., was a prominent merchant of Baltimore, on Howard street, for over fifty years; Susanna became the wife of Daniel Barnitz; and Mary who married William T. Coale. Of Frederick Eichelberger, the second and youngest son, and of Philip Frederick, the immigrant, nothing is known after his com- ing to this country with his father.
By the second marriage of Philip Freder- ick Eichelberger were born four children: Captain Adam, Leonard, Jacob Sr., (grand- father) and Lewis. Captain Adam Eichel- berger, commanded a company of York county associates during the Revolution, came into the possession, in 1776, of the homestead farm and mill in Manheim, now Heidelberg township, three miles east of Hanover, married Magdalena Bechtel, and died in 1787 aged forty-eight years, leaving eight children: Frederick, Michael, Sam- uel, Adam, Joseph, Salome and Magdalena; Leonard was a farmer, married Elizabeth Smyser and their children were: John, Mary, (Mrs. Barney Welty), Sarah (Mrs. Frederick Welty), Susan (Mrs. Lewis Shearer), Lydia (Mrs. Daniel Daily), and Elizabeth (Mrs. H. Richenbaugh); Hon. Jacob was a justice and ex-sheriff of York county, served in the legislature in 1807 and left three daughters: Eliza (Mrs. Dr. G. L. Shearer), Maria (Mrs. James McCosh), and Catharine (Mrs. Enoch Young); Hon. Frederick was a farmer and resident of Frederick City, Maryland, served in the Pennsylvania legislature from 1815 to 1817, and in the State Senate in 1819; married
Catharine Baker, and died leaving no chil- dren: George removed to Frederick county, Maryland, of which he was register of wills for thirteen years, married Sarah Grayson, and his sons were: Miles, Hon. Grayson (a State Senator and Secretary of State under Governor Grayson), Henry and Allan; Hon. John, was a farmer and justice of the peace, who served in the Pennsyl- vania legislature in 1825, and left two sons: John and Alexander. Jacob Eichelberger, Sr., was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch; Lewis Eichelberger lived and died in Adams county and left four chil- dren: Adam, and three daughters who are dead.
Jacob Eichelberger, Sr., was a farmer and hotel keeper of Hanover. He died in 18II and his remains were first interred in St. Matthews Lutheran graveyard from which they were subsequently removed to Mount Olivet cemetery. He married Anna Maria Reiniker. They had but one child, Jacob Eichelberger (father) who was born in 1775. He was a farmer,merchant and hotel keeper at Hanover for many years, and became ac- tive and prominent in the affairs of the bor- ough, and many leading enterprises of the county. He was the first president of the Maryland Line Turnpike company, and took an active part in organizing the Han- over Savings bank of which he became president in 1835. He was a careful and pru- dent business man, served very acceptably as a bank president, and died in 1843, in the 68th year of his age. He was twice mar- ried. His first wife was Elizabeth Nace, who died and left three children: Louisa, wife of George Trone: Maria, married Ja- cob Young; and Elizabeth, who wedded Michael Barnitz. For his second wife he wedded, in 1806, Maria Wirt, who was a daughter of Christian Wirt, of Hanover. By his second marriage he had eight children: Matthew, Jacob and Henry, who are de-
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ceased; Catharine; Maria, who wedded S. A. McCosh, and died in Georgia, in 1868; Captain A. W .; Rufus, deceased, who was president of the Hanover Savings Fund So ciety; Amanda, married A. F. Gitt, and died in 1871; and Amelia.
Captain A. W. Eichelberger was reared at Hanover received his education in the public schools, and served a three years ap- prenticeship to the carpenter trade with Conrad Moul, of Westminster, Maryland. He afterward, in 1843, paid a visit to his brother Jacob in Georgia, and while there arranged for the shipment of carriages and damask coverlets to that State, which busi- ness he continued for several years. He and his brother subsequently purchased the Wehadkee flour and saw mills of Alabama which were confiscated by the Confederates in 1861, but returned to him after the war. From 1845 to 1852 he spent his winters in the South looking after his business inter- ests there, and his summers at Hanover, where he had the supervision of his moth- er's property.
During this period he was elected captain of an infantry company of citizen soldiers called the "United Blues" which he drilled with great care. He also drilled a cavalry company known as the "Fourth Dragoons." As a military officer he was a general fav- orite. In his early life he was a devoted Whig and in the political campaigns of 1844 and 1852 he went on the stump as a speaker. He is now a Republican. He is a regular attendant on the services of St. Mark's Lutheran church and a liberal con tributor to all objects of benevolence and charity. He is unmarried. Captain Eich- elberger, with three other public spirited citizens in 1872, presented to Hanover the beautiful fountain which adorns Centre Square and adds so much to the attraction of the town. He also with others has founded and made self-sustaining two acad-
emies, one of which bears his honored fam- ily name. Devoted during life to the dis- interested support of the right as God gives him to see the right, he is always to be found in the front rank of those who labor for the good of mankind. He takes a lively interest in the welfare of his native town, and is unqualifiedly popular among his neighbors and fellow-citizens.
C OL. JAMES A. STAHLE, late repre- sentative of the 19th Congressional district in the National House of Represen- tatives, is a native of West Manchester township, where he was born January II, 1830, the son of John and Sarah (Small) Stahle, the latter a daughter of Major Ja- cob Small. Both the Stahle and Small families are of German origin and for years have been very conspicuously identified with the counties of York and Adams.
John Stahle served two terms as Register of York county and for many years as justice of the peace. He had twelve children: Jacob S. Stahle, lawyer, dead; Hon. Edman W. Stahle, edi- tor, living; Catharine Stahle, dead; Sarah Stahle, living; James A. Stahle, living. Henry J., who with our subject learned the trade of printer during an apprentice- ship of three years in the office of the York Gazette, and who at the age of twenty-one, bought the Gettysburg Compiler, which he conducted for about fifty years at the same time becoming very prominently identified with Democratic politics in Adams county and in the State; Wm. Stahle, druggist, dead; Isabella Stahle, dead; Mrs. Ellen Crawford, dead; Virgnia Stahle, dead; Mrs. Franklin S. Weiser, dead; Henry I. Stahle, dead.
Col. Stahle acquired his education in the common schools and at the York County Academy, then under the leadership of Rev. Stephen Boyer, a prominent Pres-
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byterian minister and noted local edu- cator of his day. In 1847 Mr. Stahle be- came an apprentice in the tailoring trade with Joseph Hursh in Rupp's building, Centre Square, and later became a member of the firm, which was known as Hursh and Stahle. For several years they success- fully conducted a merchant tailoring estab- lishment on West Market street.
In 1858 Mr. Stahle became the agent of the Adams Express company, at York, a position he held until his country called on him to take up arms in defense of the flag and for the preservation of the Union. Years of training in the Famous Worth In- fantry, a local military company, so thor- oughly drilled that it is said its peer was not to be found throughout the entire country, had eminently equipped our subject to take the active and distinguished part which he did from the outset almost to the close of the war. During the summer of 1861, when the full extent and gravity of the secession movement began to dawn upon the admin- istration, and it became evident to the mili- tary authorities at Washington that the struggle between the two sections would be bitter and prolonged, Thomas A. Scott, president of the Pennnylvania railroad com- pany and Assistant Secretary of War, in- spired the organization of a regiment re- cruited in the counties of Adams, Cumber- land and York, which at first was known as the Thomas A. Scott, but later as the 87th Regiment of Pennsylvania Infantry. Mr. Scott's purpose in organizing this regi- ment was to provide an adequate military body for the defense of the Northern Cen- tral railroad, which was an important line of communication and transportation be- tween the north and the City of Baltimore. The regiment was mustered into the ser- vice on August 24th, 1861, and at once pro- ceeded to guard duty along the Maryland end of the road.
After several month's service along the Northern Central railroad the regiment was transferred to the Army of West Virginia, where it remained during the summer and winter of '62, rendering able service in sup- pressing the guerillas under Imboden, Mos- by and other Confederate chieftains; and up until the advance of Lee's army north- ward in the invasion which culminated in the battle of Gettysburg. During that ad- vance the regiment took a conspicuous part in the engagements at Winchester in June, 1863, between the seven thousand Union troops under command of General Milroy and the Confederate division of forty-five thousand men under General Johnson. La- ter on the regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and participated in Grant's campaign against Richmond. Capt. Stahle had meanwhile become major and then lieutenant colonel of the regiment. He fought in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Bermuda Hun- dred, Weldon railroad, Wopping Heights and numerous minor engagements of this campaign. After this eventful career he was, with his regiment, transferred to Washington; and on the ninth day of July, 1864, engaged in the battle of Monocacy. The nineteenth day of September found him fighting gallantly in the battle of Opequan under the brave and dashing Sheridan. La- ter he was in the battle of Fishers' Hill, after which the regiment marched as far as Woodstock, Virginia, and thence to York, where, on October 13, 1864, Col. Stahle and his comrades in the regiment were honor- ably discharged after a continuous and ac- tive service of three years and two months. At one period of his service the Colonel was temporarily in command of the 67th regi- ment Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and also in charge of the brigade with which his regiment was connected.
Since the war the Colonel has become
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actively identified with the Grand Army and when the grand review took place at Wash- ington in 1892, he led his post, General John Sedgwick, No. 37, in the parade, as its commander. He is also a prominent mem- ber of the Union Veteran Legion and was Colonel of the York Encampment for one year.
His integrity as a man and his business ability were quickly recognized by the ad- ministration of the now lamented Lincoln, under whom he served as deputy collector of internal revenue for the Ninth district, which office he continued to hold through the admnistrations of Grant, Hayes, Gar- field and Arthur. In 1894, despite his ex- treme disinclination to abandon the quiet, domestic and tranquil life he led amid the peaceful surroundings of his country home near Emigsville, he was prevailed upon to accept the nomination for Congress on the Republican ticket. Identified as he had been with the preservation of the Union and equally as conspicuously with the church and agricultural interests of the dis- trict, there were few men who had the friends he could boast; and his nomination was followed by a great wave of enthusiasm which swept many of his political oppo- nents into earnest and avowed support of his candidacy. Though the district had frequently cast as high as five thousand Democratic majority, his popularity was so effective as to turn this into a Republican majority of two thousand five hundred.
The policy of the Fifty-fourth Congress, it will be remembered, was intended to be from the outset one that would not need- lessly irritate the country's business inter- ests by the agitation of certain legislation which had marked the career of previous Congresses. Hewing close to the lines laid down by Speaker Reed at the beginning of the session, both as a code of dicipline and a policy for the majority, Col. Stahle
took a quiet, yet thoroughly able and intel- ligent part in the deliberations and actions of its sessions. He was particularly court- eous in his attitude toward his constituents and despite the numerous demands made upon his time and services, he gave dili- gent attention to such interests as they en- trusted to his care or in which they sol- cited his assistance. His record was such, coupled with his popularity and the desire of the people of the district, as to have commanded his re-nomination; and his county took steps to accomplish that by enthusiastically endorsing him and accord- ing him the privilege of selecting the dele- gates to the district conference. This was a time, however, of great confusion in Re- publican State politics, the ramifications of which extended into every school district in the State and produced conditions which, though in no sense personally prejudiced to the Colonel, made it impossible for his friends to control a united or harmonious conference and accomplish his nomination. Besides, the district had a fight of its own upon the basis of apportioning delegates among the several counties and this served to further complicate matters. Therefore, when the conference met at Hanover, 1896, it hardly opened before a split occured. The delegates of Adams and Cumberland held a separate session, refused to partici- pate with those from York, and nominated Frank A. Hollar, who was recognized by the State department as the regular nomi- nee. Colonel Stahle's friends were not sat- isfied that the outcome was the most de- sirable or that their candidate's rejection was entirely honorable, in view of his rec- ognized availability; and shortly after steps were taken to place him in the field as an independent candidate. This was accom- plished by circulating nomination papers which were very numerously signed by the Republicans, particularly of York county,
Engraved by J R Rice & Sons Philad a
fre Lindner
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
and in portions of Cumberland where they were circulated. After remaining in the field for some time and as it became appar- ent that the differences between the two ends of the district could not be harmon- ized, Col. Stahle came out in a letter of withdrawal in which he stated that he thought it best to afford the friends of sound money an opportunity to unite and preserve the district to that cause. He himself did all he could toward that end; but in the succeeding election the district was carried by the Democratic candidate.
Mr. Stahle is and has been for the past twenty-five years an active member and earnest worker in the United Brethren church. He was one of the originators of the Emigs' Grove Camp-meeting Asso- ciation and of its successor, the Penn Grove Association. He was for several years a trustee of Lebanon Valley College, at Ann- ville; and is at present a trustee of the Aged Peoples' Home of the United Brethren church, at Mechanicsburg. He has been actively engaged in Sunday school work for years and is president of the Sun- day School Union of the townships of Con- ewago, Dover, Manchester, West Man- chester and East Manchester and of Man- chester borough. In the past twenty years he has in his Sunday school work traveled more miles than would be required to girdle the earth. Mr. Stahle was instru- mental in the building of the United Breth- ren churches at Manchester and Hellam; and the Centre Square church in Manches- ter township is an outgrowth of a Sunday school organized by him.
The Colonel has always been interested in agricultural and horticultural pursuits. His ability has been recognized by the foremost men in the agriculture of the State, who have caused him to use pen and tongue in demonstrating the benefits of farming by improved methods. At present
he is a member of the executive board of the Mount Gretna Agricultural and Me- chanical Association; is a life member of the York County Agricultural Society, of which he has twice been an officer for sev- eral years; and was twice honored by Gov- ernor Pattison with appointments as dele- gate to the National Farmers' Congresses which met at Savannah, Georgia, and at Parkersburg, West Virginia. He has always been in close touch with the State Board of Agriculture. Colonel Stahle is still the possessor of the honorable title, "tiller of the soil," and daily manages his farm in Manchester township. Personally he is one of the most agreeable men in York county, hospitable to an unusual degree and always full of reminiscences of earlier times, politics and war which could find no more delightful narrator than he. His friendship is cherished by those to whom it is accorded and no man in the district pro- bably has a larger or more devoted follow- ing than Col. Stahle. At the present time, when speculation is already rife concern- ing the next Congressional nomination, his name is prominently mentioned for the honor.
Mr. Stahle was married three times. His first wife was Mary, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Spangler. They had five children; Mrs. Stahle died in July 1865. Mr. Stahle's second wife was Catharine Beltz, daughter of Charles Beltz, and by whom he had three children; Mrs. Stahle died in June 1890. In december 1894 he married Anna, daughter of the late Jacob Gartman. To that union has been born one child, Cornelia Anne Stahle.
J
T OHN LINDNER, JR., the head of the large and prosperous Lindner Shoe Company interests, is a native of Newark, New Jersey, where he was born November 22, 1857. He is the son of
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.
John, Sr., and Sophia M. Lindner; and is of German ancestry.
Mr. Lindner's father is a native of Ried- enhausen, Ober-Franken, Germany, and was born in 1820 at the old family resi- dence in that town where generations of sturdy old burgers of the Stadt had pre- ceded him. He was a son of Henry and Elizabeth Lindner, who were natives and life-long residents of Riedenhausen. The former was employed in the Government postal service of Unter-Franken all his ac- tive life, having entire charge of the postal service of the provinces.
John Lindner, Sr., was educated in the subscription schools of his native town and upon the completion of his education, en- tered the employ of his father in the capa- city of a clerk. Subsequently he became treasurer of the Beickeburg Brewing Com- pany, a position he filled until 1848, when he married and emigrated to America. Mr. and Mrs. Lindner located in Newark, New Jersey, where they still reside enjoying the comforts and ease of a well-spent life, the former in his seventy-eighth and the latter in her seventy-seventh year (1897). Here Mr. Lindner engaged in the manufacture of clothing and attained an eminent degree of success in the calling. Politically, in his adopted country, he affiliated with the Re- publican party; in religion he was a Luth- eran. His marriage with Sophia M., a daughter of Adolph Dormhurst, of Beicke- burg, resulted in the birth of three chil- dren: Frederick W., a furniture dealer of Louisville, Ky .; Elizabeth B., the wife of Frederick Heilman, superintendent of the Waltham Manufacturing Company, Walt- ham, Mass .; and John W., our subject.
John Lindner, Jr., now a resident of Carlisle, Pa., where the Lindner Shoe Works are located, was born in the resi- dence where his father, long since retired from active business, has resided ever since
he came to America. His education, con- sisting of a general knowledge of the vari- ous branches of study and a business train- ing, was acquired in the public schools of Newark, and in the New Jersey Business college. After abandoning his studies he entered the employ of Bannister & Tich- ner, shoe manufacturers, of Newark, N. J., where he successfully acquired a thorough practical knowledge of all the details of the shoe business. In 1882 he connected himself with the firm of Reynolds Broth- ers, Utica, New York, and later managed successfully the Port Jervis, New York, factory for the same firm. Six years later he came to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as gen- eral manager and superintendent of the Carlisle Shoe company. His management was very successful and demonstrated his eminent capabilities in this department of manufactures. From a small factory, making two hundred pairs of shoes a day, after being established about twenty years, Mr. Lindner, in three years' time, devel- oped it to a point where its output was in- creased seven fold and made it at the time one of the largest and best paying shoe factories in the country. In 1892 he or- ganized the Lindner Shoe company, of which he is the head and general manager. He made his company the most successful industry in the Cumberland Valley and the largest in Cumberland county, employing three hundred hands all the year round and paying its stockholders nine to ten per cent. each year. Mr. Lindner's policy has always been to protect the interests of the stockholder wherever he is interested. He has no love for the methods generally em- ployed by corporations. Mr. Lindner is an expert judge on raw materials and finished products and personally superintends the selection of stock as well as the details of the office and mechanical departments, and it is mainly to him, his energetic efforts
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and practical experience that the unparal- leled success of the company is attribut- able. The management is creditable and commendably liberal in its policy toward its employees; creditable, from the circum- stance that it is managed so as to secure to its employees work and wages the year round, through dull seasons as well as busy; liberal from the fact that of its three hundred employees, all but a few errand boys and messengers are adults and receive a just and fair compensation. The factory is one of the best equipped in the country, and is so constructed as to conserve the comfort and health of the employees as fully as possible. Its output is from one thousand to twelve hundred pairs per day. The goods produced are hand-turns and welts, Goodyear turns and welts and Mc- Kay sewed shoes and Oxford ties and all the latest styles of lasts and colors.
Mr. Lindner is one of Carlisle's best known, most popular, progressive and public spirited citizens and in politics is a Republican, though not in the general ac- ceptation of the term a politician; nor has he ever been an aspirant for political honors or preferment. But he has always taken a prominent and intelligent interest in pub- lic affairs and good government in local, State and national administrations. He is a believer in protection principles, is an enthusiastic member of the Manu- facturers' Club, of Philadelphia, and an ar- dent adherent of President Mckinley. Be- ing a native of Newark, New Jersey, he is quite well acquainted with Vice President Hobart and during the campaign which re- sulted in the election of the present admin- istration he organized and equipped the Lindner Light Guards, who carried off the honors for their fine appearance in the various towns where they participated in parades.
ing as president of the Mechanics' Build- ing and Loan Company, where all the pro- fits go to the poor man who borrows money to build a home, the non-borrowers receiving legal interest instead of giving the non-borrowers all the profits made bv borrowers. This institution has been in ex- istance for about twenty years and is oper- ated very successfully.
In 1884 Mr. Lindner was married to Ma- tilda B., a daughter of C. W. Metz and Ma- tilda B. Metz, by whom he has had one child, J. Austin. Mr. and Mrs. Lindner are both members of the Lutheran church. Their home is in a beautiful residence, sur- rounded by trees, shrubbery and flowers, on corner of Louther St. and College Ave. In it are copies of a number of rare and valuable paintings, masterpieces of many of the most celebrated artists of ancient and modern times, and evidences of cultivated taste, culture and refinement.
T ACOB HAY, M. D., one of the oldest and most honored physicians of York, is a son of Dr. Jacob Hay, Sr., and Sarah (Beard) Hay, and was born in the city of York, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1833. The Hay and Beard families were among the original colonial settlers west of the Susquehanna river and have been both prominent and conspicuous in the early and more recent history of the State. The Hay family is of Scotch origin, and the derivation of their name is attributed by Clifford Sims in his "Origin and Signifi- cance of Scottish sirnames" to an incident which transpired about the year 980 and in the reign of Kennett III. of Scotland. The Danes having invaded Scotland were encountered by Kennett near Clancarty, in Perthshire. At the first clash, the Scotts gave way and fled through a narrow pass where they were stopped by a countryman
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