USA > Pennsylvania > Lebanon County > Biographical annals of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent men and representative citizens and of the early settled families > Part 22
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On November 24, 1870, John Franklin Gable was wedded to Clara Bennetch, who was born November 30, 1851, fifth child of Bennevil and Sarah (Witters) Bennetch, the former born July 17, 1817, died June 4, 1899, and the latter born January 6, 1822, died July 5, 1878. To John F. Gable and wife have been born children as follows: (1) Flora. born July 8, 1871, became an instrumental music teacher. On May 19, 1894, she married Ira J. Light, a graduate of the Millersville State Normal School, now teach- ing in the high school at Schaefferstown, Pa., and they have had five children, namely: Myra, born March 22, 1895; Adin Gable, January 24, 1896: Alin Caleb, March 2, 1898; Warren Eugene, March 23, 1900; and John George, October 24, 1902, died April 3, 1903. (2) Charlotte, born March 5, 1881, was graduated June 26, 1902, at the Millersville State Normal School, and is now teaching the Waldeck school in Heidelberg township. (3) Mollie, born August 5, 1883, is a student in the Millersville State Normal School. (4) Emma, born June 12, 1889, is at home.
PETER HAUER. The ranks of the "Boys in Blue" are fast being depleted by the great enemy of life, but while they are here it behooves the present generation to give them their full meed of praise for the glorious work they have accomplished in saving the Union. There are a number of these old veterans in Lebanon county, among whom is the gentleman whose name forms the caption of this paragraph, and who has for a long lifetime lived an honorable and upright life within the county. He is at the present engaged in the real estate and general insurance business, and has in the past been connected with many of the leading enterprises of the city of Lebanon.
Peter Hauer is a native of the county, born August 27, 1838, a son of Henry Hauer, a native of Dauphin county, Pa., and his wife, Catherine Grumbine, of Lebanon county. Henry Hauer was a leading farmer of the county during his lifetime, his decease occurring in 1868, when he was aged seventy-one years, and that of his wife two years previous, at the age of sixty- eight years. They were the parents of nine children, of whom the eldest was
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Levi, a farmer, now deceased; Jacob, deceased, who was engaged in the tobacco business for years in Lebanon : Catherine, who married Michael Klein- felter, and is now deceased; George, a retired farmer of Bethel township, Lebanon county ; Elizabeth, widow of Isaac Wagner, of Lebanon; Samuel, now deceased, for years engaged in the tobacco business in Lebanon, as a member of the firm of Hauer Bros. ; Sallie. who became the wife of William Belleman, and now resides in Missouri ; John, deceased; and Peter, the subject of this sketch. The parents of this family were worthy and highly respected residents of their community, and were always found ready to engage in any movement that meant the uplifting of humanity. They were devout members of the Lutheran Church.
Peter Hauer was brought up to the labor of farm life, where he developed a sturdiness of character and strong physical health which has followed him through life. He received a fair education in what was called at that time the "paying school," at Fredericksburg. At sixteen he became apprenticed to the miller's trade at the Grove Flouring Mill, near Fredericksburg. serving one year as an apprentice, the following two years as a journey- man. He then changed his location to East Hanover township, Lebanon county, where he rented the old Maulfair Mili and went into business for himself. He, however, operated this mill but the short period of a year, when he went back to Fredericksburg and engaged in the produce busi- ness. After two years here he sold out. and in 1857 removed to Lebanon. and where he has since resided. He first engaged with the old Peter Strickler mill on North Ninth street, and after a number of years with them became connected with the North Lebanon Mill.
While engaged in the North Lebanon mill, the storm which had been gathering over the nation for so many years broke in all its destructive fury. Mr. Hauer had watched the progress of events with great solicitude. and was one of the first to offer his services for the suppression of rebellion against the recognized authority of the United States. On September 9. 1861. his name was enrolled as Corporal of Company A, Ninety-third Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, at Camp Coleman, Lebanon, Pa. This Regiment went to the front in November, 1861, camping at Fort Good Hope, near Washington City, and later toking position at Tennallytown, near Georgetown. Here the regiment participated in severe daily drill until March. 1862, when it became part of the troops who participated in that fatal first fight, the battle of Bull Run. After this bottle the regiment returned to Camp Tennally. where some time later it embarked with McClellan's troops and went to Fortress Monroe, at Newport News, where it disembarked and engaged in the Peninsular Campaign. Mr.
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Hauer was with his regiment in all the service here, which has become a matter of history ; he was at Warwick Court House, at Yorktown, and on May 5, 1862, engaged in the bloody battle of Williamsburg. Following this he was at Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, and engaged in the various parts of the Seven Days fight, which ended in the great battle at Malvern Hill, the end of this series of engagements finding the regiment at Harrison's Landing. Thence the regiment again embarked and returned to Alexandria, where it remained until it joined the army that was gathered to prevent Lee's first invasion of the North. The regiment reached the field in time to participate in the battle of Antietam. The exposure consequent upon the severe service here brought on our subject a spell of sickness and he was forced to pass a considerable period of time in the Broad and Cherry Street Hospital, Philadelphia. This sickness left him in such a weakened condition that he was unfit for active service, and in August, 1863, he was given an honorable discharge for dis- ability. He returned to his home with the consciousness of having done what he could to save the honor of the flag.
After a convalescent period, and when he had partially regained his health, Mr. Hauer resumed work at his trade in the Walter Mill at Jonestown, and it was there that in October, 1863, he suffered the accident which caused him to lose his right arm, it having to be amputated at the shoulder. It seemed. somewhat singular that a soldier who had passed through a number of the hottest battles of the war should return from the service unharmed and in less than a six-month suffer so terrible an accident, which incapacitated him for active service at his trade, making it necessary to adopt other means of liveli- hood. He returned to Lebanon, where he secured the appointment of collector of taxes for Lebanon county and the borough of Lebanon, together with that of court crier. In the fall of 1869 he became a candidate on the Republican ticket for the office of register of wills of Lebanon county, and was elected, in which office he served with credit to himself and satisfaction to his con- stituents for the three years' term of office. His next venture was in the grocery business, which he conducted for three years and then sold out, having been appointed again as tax collector of Lebanon county. This office he administered with fidelity for the following ten years, having also been com- missioned as a notary public. The commission of Mr. Hauer as notary public has been renewed six different times, covering a period of twenty-four years, and he is holding said appointment at the present time. In the year 1887 he became engaged in the general insurance business, which he is still conducting, being also interested in real estate. Another business connection has been that of collector for the Lebanon Gas Company for over thirty-five years. Mr.
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Hauer also served a period of three years as treasurer of the County Alms House. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Firemen's Aid Association, and is of course an honored member of that grand organization, the Grand Army of the Republic. In religious matters he is a leading member of Zion's Lutheran Church.
Mr. Hauer has been twice married. On June 17, 1859, by Rev. J. H. Rohmig, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Clarissa, daughter of Peter Meyers, who was born in Fredericksburg, Lebanon county, May 19, 1841, and died February 27, 1885. She was the mother of the following children : Miss Annie L., of Philadelphia ; Katie E., of Lebanon, married to W. G. Hain; Grant L., Lincoln M. and William H., all three deceased; George I., married and living in Pittsburg, Pa .; Lottie C., of Lebanon, married to Geo. W. Daugerty ; Charles P., married and living in Philadelphia; Warren M., married and living in Reading, Pa .; Raymond M., deceased; and Miss Mabel C., of Lebanon. Mr. Hauer's second marriage occurred December 20, 1887, the lady's name being Mrs. Mary A. Fisher, a native of Lancaster county, Pa., and a daughter of Jacob Pfeffer, now deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Hauer are worthy and respected citizens of Lebanon, where the high integrity and many noble qualities of citizenship of this old veteran endear him to a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
MILLER. For ninety-three years Henry Miller went in and out among the good people of Lebanon county. \Vhat an immeasurable span, taken in the light of development which had taken place in all departments of civilized life! When a mere lad he opened his eyes in wonder at the first steamboats that plied the rivers; when a young man he looked incredulously at the then crude locomotive; in the prime of life he stood aghast to find men communi- cating with each other, as it were, by flashes of lightning; he had passed his sixty mark ere the telephone became a slave of commerce; he was an old man when rapid transit began to revolutionize cities. From the day of small things, when hand labor accomplished everything, he saw gigantic and intricate machinery doing the work of hundreds of hands, and doing it infinitely better.
At the time of his death, April 25, 1903, four generations-Henry Miller, David W. Miller, Charles L. Miller, and his son, Charles David Miller, were living in the city of Lebanon, where each of them in turn was born. This is a record which but few families in the country can equal. The earlier members of the family were in their day prominent and useful citizens, wino bore their share of the heat and burden of the day and left unstained records to posterity.
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John Miller, the first of the family in this country, came from the Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine, making the voyage to America in the ship "Mortonhouse," James Coultas, master, which sailed from Rotterdam, and touched last at Deal, England, according to the clearance, dated June 21. 1729. There were 180 persons on board. They arrived at Philadelphia in August, 1729, and on the 19th of that month signed a declaration of their allegiance of King George II. They located some seventy-five miles west of Philadelphia, in the wilderness among the Indians, in that section now em- bracing Lebanon, Lancaster and Dauphin counties.
Daniel Miller, the next in the line of whom we have record, was a native of West Hanover township, Dauphin county, where his birth occurred May 19, 1781, his death June 23, 1859. He married Catherine Ensminger, who was born September 22, 1786, and died September 7, 1861, and they reared children as follows: John, born June 8, 1807, died November 5, 1901 ; Daniel, born October 13, 1808, died February 9, 1896; Henry, born March 31, 1810, is mentioned below ; Elizabeth, born December 6, 1811, died in 1827; Cath- erine, born February 2, 1813, died July 25, 1896; Peter, born June 2, 1814, died August 16, 1887; Mary, born October 25, 1815. is the widow of David Spang; Adam, born March 8, 1819, died in 1825; Susan, born January 25, 1822, died August 3, 1893; Christian, born April 3, 1824, died May 12, 1887; David E., born December 9, 1827, is still living. Four of the sons were six feet and one inch in height, and the daughters were all tall women. As may be seen, this family is also remarkable for longevity.
HENRY MILLER, born March 31, 1810, was married April 4, 1833, to Sabina Tittle, who was born September 14, 1812, and died May 3, 1883. They became the parents of the following children : John Henry, born March 3, 1834; Catherine Anna, September 14, 1835 (a widow) ; Mary Anna, December 29, 1837 (a widow) ; David W., December 16, 1839 (mentioned below) ; boy twins, June 25, 1841 (one died when one day old, the other, Jacob, surviving until June 18, 1844) ; Daniel, September 19, 1843; Sabina, May 15, 1845 (died February 12, 1869) ; Emma Lydia, May 20, 1847; Jere- miah, December 22, 1849, died May 19, 1903; John Adam, March 24, 1851 ; Jennie Frances, May 13, 1854 (a widow). As will be seen, all but four of the large family survive. On April 4, 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Miller cele- brated their Golden Wedding. Mrs. Miller passed away a month later, and Mr. Miller survived her twenty years, living in the old home with his two daughters, Emma and Mrs. Jennie F. Shaak. Mr. Miller early learned the trade of millwright, but subsequently turned to farming in order to secure work for his children.
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Mr. Miller was originally a Whig in political sentiment, in time becoming a Republican. His first vote was cast for Henry Clay, in 1832. In 1840. he supported Gen. William H. Harrison, and in 1888 voted for his grandson, Benjamin Harrison. In 1860 he voted for Abraham Lincoln, and he cast his ballot for every Republican candidate since, including William Mc- Kinley, in 1900. In 1885, when seventy-five years old, he was elected director of the poor of Lebanon county.
DAVID W. MILLER was born December 16, 1839. He remained on the home farm until his sixteenth year, receiving a fair education in the schools of his district, and applying himself to such purpose outside of school that he had become qualified at that age to teach. For seventeen consecutive terms he then wielded the ferule in the county, working on the farm in vaca- tions. He looks upon this period of his life with great pleasure, having had many prominent men, now high in business circles, under his instruction.
When the tocsin of war was sounded, in the 'sixties, Mr. Miller left the peaceful humdrum of the schoolroom for the more active forum of the field, enlisting in August, 1862, and becoming a private in Company E., One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, Capt. L. L. Greena- walt commanding the company, and Col. W. W. Jennings the regiment. He took part in the engagements at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At Fredericksburg, when volunteers were called for to man a battery which had lost all its men the day before, he was the first to offer his services, others following. He remained there two weeks, seeing much hard fighting. After the nine months of his enlistment had expired he returned home, and re-en- listed in Company E, Forty-eighth Regiment. Emergency Troops, of which he was second lieutenant.
After the war was over Mr. Miller resumed teaching. and continued in that calling until 1872, at which time he entered upon the business which has since assumed such large proportions, as a member of the Lebanon Lumber Company. Later the firm name was changed to D. W. Miller & Co. Under the skillful management of Mr. Miller the business assumed increas- ingly large proportions. a condition which has continued since he turned it over to his sons, in 1897. Mr. Miller has always been active in the business life of the city. He is president of the Fidelity Building & Loan Association, and is a director of the North Lebanon Shoe Company. He is president of the Indian River Manufacturing Company, which owns 16,000 acres of land on the Indian river, in Florida, which they are developing.
In local municipal affairs Mr. Miller has been quite active, but he has contented himself with doing his part in seeing that good men were
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elected to the different offices. In school affairs he has gone a little farther. His early experience in the school room was taken advantage of by his fellow townsmen, and he is now serving on the board of school controllers. He is a prominent and forceful worker in the ranks of the Republican party, which he represented in the Electoral College of 1896 from the Fourteenth Con- gressional District, and had the pleasure of casting his vote for that peerless American, the late William Mckinley.
In social life Mr. Miller gives most of his attention to that grand organi- zation which is the wonder and credit of the age, the Grand Army of the Republic. He is one of the leading members of the local post, Sedgwick, No. 42, of which he was commander in 1873, and which he has represented in the Department Encampment for a number of years. He was the depart- ment's representative in the National Encampment at Providence. Indian- apolis, Louisville, St. Paul, Pittsburg. Philadelphia and Buffalo. He served as aide-de camp on the staffs of both Gens. Clarkson and Gobin when they were grand commanders. Since he was twenty-one years of age Mr. Miller has been a member of Lebanon Lodge, No. 121, I. O. O. F., and has filled all chairs (being a past grand) and represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge twice. For fifteen years he was secretary of his lodge, and during that time missed only two meetings. He also belongs to the I. O. R. M. and the A. O. U. W .. in which latter he held the office of treasurer for a number of years.
On October 8, 1863. Mr. Miller married Mary Ann Louser, daughter of Michael Louser and Mary Brandt. She was born in the city of Lebanon October 4, 1839, and died May 14, 1903, mourned by a large circle of friends. To this union two sons were born, Charles Lincoln and Henry Michael. Mrs. Miller was a member of Zion Lutheran church, to which Mr. Miller also belongs, and in the work of which both bore a very active part ; he was a member of the board of trustees for fifteen years.
CHARLES LINCOLN MILLER, M. D., the eldest son of David W., and the senior member of the lumber firm of Miller Bros., which has its yards on the corner of Sixth and Willow streets. Lebanon, was born in that city August 20, 1865. He was thoroughly grounded in the elementary branches in the excellent public schools of the city, and in his later teens taught school for three years. While engaged in teaching school he began his study of medicine with Dr. Samuel Weiss, and in 1886 matriculated in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. There he took a full three years' course, and practiced medicine the following four years in the city of Philadelphia, two years of that period being chief of the Skin Clinic at
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the Polyclinic Hospital, and for two years more was chief of the Medical Clinic at the same hospital. In the latter part of 1893 he gave up his practice and returned to Lebanon, where he succeeded to his father's lumber business, the latter's health having failed temporarily. The firm was then Miller, Cilley & Co .. becoming subsequently Miller, Louser & Co., the last named firm consisting of C. L. Miller, Samuel Louser and Henry M. Miller, the latter a younger brother. In the year 1899 this firm was changed to Miller Bros., upon the retirement of Mr. Louser. The business of this firm consists of the manufacture of all kinds of lumber and mill work, they having the most extensive plant of the kind in Lebanon. It covers between five and six acres, on Willow street, extending from Fifth to Seventh streets.
After his return from Philadelphia Dr. Miller became ambulance surgeon to the Good Samaritan Hospital of the city, serving as such during the balance of 1893 and 1894. In 1894 he was appointed a member of the United States Board of Examining Physicians of Pensions, of which he was chosen secre- tary, holding that position until last year, when he became president. Although entirely out of the practice of medicine at the present time, Dr. Miller retains his interest in the profession, and keeps himself in touch with and abreast of the progress in the field of medicine. He is still a member of the Lebanon County Medical Association, of which he was secretary for five years, and is at present treasurer. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society. Further, he is a member of the General Alumni Association of the University, and is vice-president of the Lebanon County Alumni Asso- ciation of the University. He is prominent in other societies of the city, taking a deep interest in the work of the Lebanon County Historical Society, of which he is a member. In the fraternities he keeps in touch with the best, being a member of the Odd Fellows, the Elks, and the Red Men, in all of which he is helpful in maintaining the principles for which they stand.
On February 18, 1893, Dr. Miller was joined in marriage to Mary Jeanette Scott, of Winchester, Va., daughter of Charles Scott. This union has been blessed with one son, Charles David Miller, born September 27, 1894.
HARRY MICHAEL MILLER, youngest son of David W. Miller, and junior member of the firm of Miller Bros., was born in Lebanon August 13, 1869. He, too, received a good preliminary education in the public schools, which was supplemented by a course in architecture in a Philadelphia school. Upon his return he became a member of the lumber firm, as noted in the sketch of his brother. He is a wide-awake, earnest business man, and in his per- sonality combines qualities which make him exceedingly popular in Lebanon circles. He takes an active part in the social life of the city, being a member
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of the Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler, and giving his active aid to all movements looking to the betterment of society in his native city. He was married December 10, 1891, to Miss Minnie Jones, daughter of Richard Jones, of Lebanon, Pa., formerly of Philadelphia.
It is not fulsome praise to say that no single family is held in greater esteem than that of the one whose history we have just recorded. The older members are men of character, and the younger men are rapidly forging to the front as leading business men of their native city. They deserve and receive the popular esteem in which they are held.
J. HENRY MILLER. Connected for long years with the business interests of Lebanon, and one of the authorities in the matter of fire insurance in the city, is the gentleman whose name is here given. He has been con- nected with the promotion and organization of a large number of the lead- ing financial, industrial and social institutions of the city, and is a man whose life has been helpful along very many lines.
The birth of Mr. Miller occurred on the old Daniel Miller farm about two miles south of the town of Annville, this county, March 3. 1834. He is the son of Henry Miller, one of Lebanon county's most respected citizens, whose life of probity and uprightness was such as to continue his existence to the remarkable age of ninety-three years. He died at Lebanon, April 25, 1903.
J. Henry Miller passed the period of his boyhood aiding in the cultiva- tion of farms in North and South Annville and Fast Hanover townships. In these places he attended the district school, and later was given a course at the Annville Academy. His attention to his books had been of such a nature as to qualify him for teaching, and at the age of eighteen he taught his first school in Union district. This was followed by terms in North Annville, East Hanover and North Cornwall townships. In 1858 he came to Lebanon, and in 1861 and 1862 he taught two sessions in the city schools there. Late in 1860 he began his connection with the general insurance business, with which he has continued to the present time. In 1860 he became secretary of the Washington Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he was one of the organizers that year, and has been its secretary continuously and also treasurer since January 1, 1899. He was also one of the organizers of the Lebanon County Mutual Live Stock Insurance Company, in 1869, and has served continuously as its secretary and treasurer. He assisted in organizing the Lebanon Steam Company in 1888. and has been its treasurer continu- ously since its organization, and also its secretary since 1893. He was instru-
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mental in organizing the Lebanon Market House Company in 1890, of which he has since been secretary and treasurer. The Lebanon Cemetery Associa- tion was one of the earliest institutions to claim his attention, and he assisted in its organization in 1859, has been a· director and since 1896 has served as its secretary. In the year 1894 he became one of the organizers of the North Lebanon Shoe factory, one of Lebanon's successful industries, and has been its president from the beginning. The Lebanon County Trust Com- pany is one of the latest of his successful efforts at organization, it having been organized in 1902, and he is chairman of its finance committee. In fire insurance our subject represents a large number of companies as agent, the following being some of the leading ones : Insurance Company of North America, American Fire Insurance Company, Franklin Fire Insurance Com- pany, the Pennsylvania, the Girard, the Spring Garden ( all of Philadelphia), the Hanover, the Hartford, the New Hampshire, the Orient, Phoenix, Liver- pool, London & Globe, the Royal, Commercial Union, Connecticut, Fidelity & Casualty and Fidelity & Deposit.
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