USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 44
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medical practitioner of that city for many years, displaying the qualities of good citi- zenship which have always characterized the family.
John Walter, great-grandfather of Dr. John Walter, was a farmer of North Leb- anon township for many years, where he was succeeded by his son John, born in the same township. The son followed the same calling as the father, and in turn was fol- lowed by his son Daniel, who was born in Union township, in 1824, followed the mill- ing business as well as farming, and died in 1880. His wife Elizabeth, born in Read- ing, Pennsylvania, in 1819, died in 1899, was a daughter of Peter Good, of Berks county. Daniel and Elizabeth Walter were the parents of the following children : Henry G .; Dr. William G .; Adam; Eliza- beth ; and John, of whom further.
Dr. John Walter, youngest child of Dan- iel Walter, was born near Lick Dale, Union township, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1858. He was reared on the home farm, and obtained a good practical education in the public schools. He taught school for several years, in the meantime pursuing courses of private study. In 1885 he entered the Cumberland Valley State Normal School at Shippensburg, whence he was graduated in 1886. He then pursued a course of medical reading under the direc- tion of Dr. V. H. Allweine, of Lebanon, and subsequently entered Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, from which, after a thor- ough three years course, he was graduated Doctor of Medicine, with the class of 1889.
Soon after obtaining his degree, he located in Lebanon, where for the past quarter of a century he has been engaged in the prac- tice of his profession, usefully and suc- cessfully. These have been fruitful years, and have brought Dr. Walter to a com- manding position in his profession, and de- served recognition as a citizen. In 1890 he was appointed on the Board of Health, and served for the long period of nine years, and as president of the board during the
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last five years. In 1893 he was appointed on the United States Board of Pension Ex- aminers, of which he is and has been presi- dent. He was also appointed attending sur- geon of the Good Samaritan Hospital, and took an active interest in the Lebanon Nurs- ing School. He is a member of the Leb- anon County Medical Society, the Pennsyl- vania State Medical Association, and the American Medical Association. He is presi- dent of the Rescue Hose Company, and has been for the past seventeen years. He is also actively identified with numerous other interests and activities of the city. He holds fraternal relations with the Patriotic Order of Sons of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, the Knights of Malta, and the Brotherhood. Politically he is an active Democrat, and has rendered to his party most intelligent service. He was elected chairman of the Democratic County capacity for six terms, and from 1904 to 1908 he was a member of the Democratic State Executive Committee. He never sought public office. In 1906 declining re- election as county chairman, and in 1908 declined reëlection as a member of the State Executive Committee. He is a strong and capable party leader, and a trusted adviser in the councils of his county and the State.
John Leibert was born at Leibert's Gap, Milford township, Lehigh county, Pennsyl- vania, and died in 1845, in his thirty-eighth year. He was a millwright and miller in Catasauqua, starting in business there in 1839. He was later chief engineer of the Committee, April 2, 1900, and served in that . City Water Works and Power Company. He married Catherine Owens Tice, who lived to the great age of ninety years less three weeks.
Dr. Walter married, in 1891, Nellie A., daughter of Edwin F. Waller, of Smethiport, Pennsylvania. Children: John Allen, born February 27. 1894, now a student at Leb- anon Valley College, class of 1914; Daniel E., born August 29, 1896, a student in Leb- anon High School, class of 1914.
Henry G. Walter, brother of Dr. John Walter, was postmaster of Lebanon for many years, and in 1889-90 was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Assembly.
LEIBERT, Owen F.,
Manufacturer, Financier.
Genius may or may not be an inheritance, but in the case of Owen F. Leibert, so long
and prominently connected with the Beth- lehem Iron and Steel Company, there is no doubt that from the many generations of machinists and millwrights of his family, came his mechanical genius and skill.
The founder of the family in Pennsyl- vania was Michael Leibert, born at Rhein- pfalz, Germany, who when a young man came to Pennsylvania, settling in German- town ( Philadelphia). His son Martin, born in Germantown, was a manufacturer of spinning wheels. His son Henry was a millwright, miller and distiller. Henry Miller married Catharine Knauss, who bore him a son John, the father of Owen F. Leibert.
Owen F. Leibert, second son of John and Catherine O. (Tice) Leibert, was born in Hanover township, Lehigh county, August 27, 1836. He attended public schools in Catasauqua until eleven years of age, then became a worker. His father died when he was eight years of age, David Thomas, superintendent of the Crane Iron Works be- coming the lad's guardian. From the age of eleven years until he was of legal age he worked under either Mr. Thomas or his sons. At the age of thirteen years lie was placed in the blacksmith department to learn that trade, and in the course of time became foreman of the shop. He later engaged in manufacturing at Norristown, Pennsyl- vania, in partnership with Daniel Milson. On January 16, 1863, Mr. Leibert entered the employ of the Bethlehem Iron Com- pany as blacksmith, later working as a ma- chinist under his brother Henry Leibert, who was in charge of the machine shop of
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the company. He later returned to his boy- hood home, Catasauqua, where for eighteen months he leased and operated the car works. He then again entered the employ of the Bethlehem Iron Company, first as draftsman, later as foreman in the steel de- partment, continuing for twelve years. He then spent nine months in Wheeling, West Virginia, at the Riverside Iron Works. He then returned to the Bethlehem Iron Com- pany, where from 1863 until 1893 he served under John Fritz, general superintendent and chief engineer of the Bethlehem Iron Company. In 1866 Mr. Fritz appointed Mr. Leibert assistant engineer, and for many years these two men were closely associated in business and warm personal friends. After the completing of the Ordnance Works of the company, Mr. Leibert became assistant superintendent until January, 1893, when he was appointed general super- intendent of the company. He was a thor- ough mechanic, and a wise and efficient manager, thoroughly furnished in every de- tail of the business, and thoroughly re- spected by those over whom he had author- ity. He prospered in material things; was interested financially in the Bethlehem Iron and Steel Works; the Leibert Engineering - Works, in which he was a director; the First National Bank, and other Bethlehem interests. He was a Republican in politics, interested in party success, but not an office- seeker. He took a great interest in the wel- fare and ambitions of young men, and many revere his memory as an advisor and helper.
Mr. Leibert married, January 28, 1864, Mary N., daughter of Benjamin and Emma Burkhart Warner. Mr. Leibert died at Bethlehem, March 25, 1911, and is survived by his wife.
BROOKE, Edward,
Leading Ironmaster, Man of Affairs.
Edward Brooke, born at Birdsboro, Feb- ruary 28, 1816, was the elder of the two sons of Matthew and Elizabeth ( Barde)
Brooke, who are mentioned in the following article on George Brooke, the younger brother of Edward, the article also contain- ing the previous history of the Brooke fam- ily in Birdsboro and of the development of the town. Matthew Brooke died in 1821, and during the long minority of his chil- dren, the works at Birdsboro, owned by him, were rented.
In 1837 Edward Brooke, on reaching twenty-one years of age, having had the advantages of a good school education and of some training in the iron business by em- ployment at the Hibernia Iron Works, in Chester county, owned by his uncle, Charles Brooke, came to Birdsboro, and with his brother George took the management of the property under the name of E. & G. Brooke. As senior partner and leading spirit of the firm of E. & G. Brooke until his death in 1878, at the age of sixty-two, his very un- usual business career is briefly noted.
The Iron Works proper, of which the brothers, E. & G. Brooke, came into pos- session in 1837, in addition to a large acre- age of farm and woodland property, con- sisted of two forges-one a finery forge, where pig iron was converted into blooms and anconies (a bloom with part of it drawn into a bar for convenience in hand- ling it), and the other a chafcry forge, where the anconies were heated and ham- mered into bar iron and saw plates. The total production of the works at that time was only about two hundred tons of iron in a year. After putting the property into better repair and building a residence, a large flour mill and a barn on one of the farms, E. & G. Brooke turned their atten- tion to increasing the production of iron. In 1846 they built Hampton Furnace, on the site of an old forge of that name. It produced about twenty tons of cold blast charcoal iron a week, but was part of the time run with anthracite coal with hot blast, when it made about forty tons a week. In 1848 they built a rolling mill, producing puddle bars and nail plate, driven by steam
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power, and a nail factory, at first driven by water power, and starting with eighteen nail machines. The mill was later enlarged and more steam equipment installed to run the nail factory, the capacity of which was increased to one hundred and twenty ma- chines, capable of producing 250,000 to 300,000 kegs of nails per annum. In 1852 the firm built No. I anthracite blast furnace, No. 2 furnace in 1871, and No. 3 in 1873. The ores for the blast furnaces were largely obtained from nearby deposits, such as French Creek, Jones' Mine and Warwick, lying ten to fifteen miles south of Birdsboro, in which mines the firm had obtained a half interest, and managed and financed their operation. In 1864, in connection with Sey- fert, McManus & Company and Samuel E. Griscom, they opened the William Penn Colliery, near Shenandoah, Schuylkill coun- ty, which afterwards came into full posses- sion of E. & G. Brooke. It was and still is one of the best mines in the coal region, both for quality of coal and large produc- tion, and made a valuable source of fuel supply for the blast furnaces. In 1887, after coke had begun to replace anthracite as blast furnace fuel in the East, the E. & G. Brooke Iron Company sold the colliery to interests identified with the Pennsylvania railroad, which had recently extended its Schuylkill division from Philadelphia to Pottsville.
At the time of the United States Centen- nial Exposition in 1876, the pig iron capac- ity of the plant had reached about 30,000 tons a year, a large percentage of which was used at the rolling mill and turned into pud- dle bars and nail plate. E. & G. Brooke had therefore built up an iron manufactur- ing concern, almost "self-contained," with respect to the ownership of its raw materials and one of the largest in size then existing in the United States.
Mr. Brooke was concerned in the incep- tion and promotion of many important busi- ness enterprises of his day, outside of those connected with his firm. The Wilmington
and Reading (now the Wilmington and Northern ) railroad was projected and built largely through his efforts, and he was its first president. He was also one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Reading, and a director of that institution until his death.
Ever advocating and carrying out an ag- gressive business policy, the senior partner of E. & G. Brooke had contemplated and planned further improvements and addi- tions to the firm's equipment and extensions of its business, when, after a brief illness, his career was cut short by his death on Christmas Day, 1878. His death, which occurred after a two weeks' attack of pneu- monia, brought on by severe exposure at No. 3 Blast Furnace, following an accident to the blowing engine, was indeed the occa- sion for general mourning throughout the community in which his life had been spent. The people of Birdsboro greatly felt his loss, well realizing that their welfare had always been a matter of importance to him and that, in cooperation with his brother, he had been wise and liberal in devising and effect- ing the advancement of the town. He was by nature kind and genial, honorable in all his dealings and generous to everyone in word and deed. Naturally friendly and ap- proachable, his men came to him in their difficulties, and many an employee was helped by him, not only with money in time of need, but also by kindly personal interest and wise counsel.
To his success in life, his extended scien- tific knowledge largely contributed, and in all business affairs, he manifested great in- dustry, perseverance and sound judgment. His temperament was a fortunate one in his work, for knowing well the vicissitudes of the iron business, he was not dismayed by the "Pauper" periods, but had the courage and foresight to prepare in such times of depression for the better conditions which were to follow. His progressive mind and penetrating judgment enabled him to enter confidently into many fields where men of
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less strength would have hesitated to ven- ture, yet his prudence in management kept his undertakings always within conservative bounds and made him trusted among all his business associates.
In politics he was a Republican, and a firm believer in the policy of a protective tariff. He was a broad-gauged man in all his tastes and sympathies, fond of travel and interested in literature. A reader of books on a wide range of subjects, he ac- cumulated a valuable library. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church and, with his brother, planned and built St. Michael's Church, Birdsboro, in which he served as a vestryman for many years, and until his death. His lifelong friend the rec- tor, Rev. Edmund Leaf, in the memorial sermon preached on the Sunday succeed- ing the death of Mr. Brooke, thus summed up his character : "He was an able man of business, especially well qualified for the management of his large and important interests; a man of principle, living by the rule of right and duty; a man of kindly heart, valuing his success because of the capacity it gave him for enlarging the field of labor and filling the community with happy and prosperous people; a man of marked humility, free from false pride and self exaltation, and a humble Christian in character, conduct and example."
Mr. Brooke married Annie M. Clymer, daughter of Daniel R. Clymer, of Reading, and four children survived him: Anne Clymer, who married Blair Lee, of Wash- ington, D. C., and died in 1903; Robert Ed- ward, who married Cornelia L. Ewing, of Philadelphia ; George Clymer, who married Rhoda F. Morris, of Philadelphia; and Frederick Hiester, who married Henrietta Bates McKee, of Washington, D. C.
BROOKE, George,
Man of Large Affairs.
A history of the Brooke family of recent generations would be also a nearly com-
plete history of the borough of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, and no history of the bor- ough for the last century or more could be written without a frequent reference to the achievements of the Brookes, in every phase of its evolution from a mere settlement to one of the finest of Berks county boroughs. Filled with an unselfish public spirit, the means and influence of the family have always been given liberally to the promotion of all movements tending to the public good, while their wise administration of their own affairs has been reflected in the material welfare of Birdsboro. To George Brooke and his brother, Edward, especially, the bor- ough is indebted for many of its greater ad- vantages.
(I) John Brooke, and his wife FFrances, of Hogg, in the township of Henley and parish of Almonbury, in Yorkshire, Eng- land, with their two youngest sons, James and Matthew, sailed from Liverpool on the ship "Britannia," Richard Nicholas, com- mander, in the year 1698, arriving in the early part of 1699 to take up land he had purchased. In consequence of a contagious disease on board the vessel, the passengers were not permitted to land at Philadelphia, but landed lower down the river on the New Jersey side, about where Gloucester now stands. They at once went to stop at the house of William Cooper, Cooper's Point, New Jersey, a friend of theirs, and in a very short time both died, and were buried at Newton Creek Friends' Meeting House Cemetery, at Haddonfield, New Jersey. John Brooke is known to have belonged, and was an active member, of the Society of Friends, and it was probably the severe persecution on that point that obliged his leaving England. The vicar of Kirburton parish, which adjoined Almonbury, the Rev. Joseph Briggs, was a stern upholder of the Established Church opinions, and was most active in the persecution of the Quakers of that section. The estate purchased by John Brooke from William Penn, before leaving England, consisted of 2,500 acres of land
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to be taken up anywhere between the Dela- ware and Susquehanna rivers, where vacant land should be found. After the death of their parents, James and Matthew Brooke took up this land in Limerick township, county of Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where they settled. They divided the land between them.
(II) Matthew, son of John and Frances Brooke, was born in Hogg, Yorkshire, Eng- land, January 1, 1680; baptized at Holm- firth Chapel, January 30, of the same year ; died at his residence in Limerick, Pennsyl- vania, June 18, 1720, and is buried in the old graveyard in that place. He appears to have prospered, as the records show that he added more land to his original estate and built in 1716 the first stone house in all that country. It was situated on the Mana- tawney road, was a large house of colonial design, and was torn down in 1878. He was an influential citizen, lived on his estate quietly as an English gentleman, yet had so greatly enlarged it that, at his death, he was able to leave all of his sons with large tracts of land and comfortably off. He married, May 18, 1712, Ann Evans, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, and they had four sons.
(III) Matthew, son of Matthew and Ann (Evans) Brooke, was born at Limerick, 1719, and died at Birdsboro, in October, 1806. Some years prior to his death he had removed to Birdsboro, as he and his son, also Matthew, had purchased in 1788 a part of the iron works of the Bird family at that place. He married, March 29, 1744, Sarah, a daughter of Thomas Reese, Esq., and they had five sons and four daughters.
(IV) Matthew, son of Matthew and Sarah (Reese) Brooke, was born in Lim- erick township, February 9, 1761, and died in Birdsboro, in 1822. In 1786 the Bird family, who owned extensive iron works and great tracts of land situated at and about Birdsboro, became financially in- volved, and in 1788 began selling off cer- tain tracts, forges, etc., and a short time
after that Matthew Brooke (2nd) and Mat- thew Brooke (3rd) purchased one of these tracts and one of the forges and moved from Limerick to Birdsboro, residing in a mansion which had been erected by him- self, and which was situated near where the present rolling mills stand. It was torn down in 1875 to make room for addi- tions to the rolling mills. A year or so later he, with his brother Thomas and his brother-in-law, Daniel Buckley, of Phila- delphia, purchased from the Bird family, Hopewell Furnace and an estate of 10,000 acres extending from Hopewell to Birds- boro, a distance of five miles, which had been built about 1760 by Mark Bird, and ranks among the first furnaces of the coun- try. Cannon and shell were made here for the Revolutionary War. Matthew Brooke was a man of prominence in his day, giving both time and counsel to local affairs and the State. When quite young, he joined the Continental army, but was soon after taken prisoner and placed on board a prison ship, where he was held for some time, finally being released through an exchange of pris- oners, but as the war was then drawing to a close, he never saw any active service. He represented Philadelphia county in the Provincial Conference of Pennsylvania, held at Carpenter's Hall in 1776, and was one of the committee on removing the pub- lic stores from Philadelphia when that city was threatened by the British troops. He also served on many local committees that those stirring times demanded. In the Pennsylvania Archives, vol. iii., there is a record of his sending as a present to the Honorable Council of Safety of Philadel- phia, in the year 1776, two cannon, one a twelve and the other an eighteen pounder, the cannon having been made at the Hope- well Furnace. Mr. Brooke married, in 1805, Elizabeth, a daughter of Captain John Louis Barde, a retired English army officer. Of their five children: Two daughters died young, leaving no offspring ; Elizabeth, mar- ried Hon. Heister Clymer; George, of fur-
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ther mention; Edward, a sketch of whom also appears in this work. At the death of Matthew Brooke his sons inherited the prop- erties, but both being very young, the works were leased and so run for a number of years, until the sons were old enough to take over the management of the business.
Captain John Louis Barde, who was born in Switzerland, was educated in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England, entered the English army, and came to America with the expedition to operate against the Spaniards in Florida. A short time before Matthew Brooke and his son Matthew made their first purchase, Captain Barde leased the iron works, of the Birds, together with certain land which embraced the old Bird manor house, a very large and handsome house standing in the midst of a great park with a sweeping lawn down to the banks of the Schuylkill river. It was in all likelihood one of the finest estates that could be found in Pennsylvania at that date. The old house is still standing, but the grounds have all given way to the march of progress, and it is now in the midst of the thriving borough of Birdsboro. In 1796 Captain Barde purchased the properties he had under lease, but a few years later sold them to his son-in-law, who had by that time purchased all the other lands of the Birds, and had thereby, prior to 1800, be- come the owner of all the extensive Bird properties and works. Later, the Hopewell property was divided, Thomas and Daniel Buckley still retaining the furnace and two- thirds of the lands, and Matthew Brooke taking the other third and retiring from the firm. Captain Barde married Ann Billop, a daughter of Major Robert Farmar, the English governor of West Florida, who came North, sold his commission, and be- came a citizen of the United States.
(V) George, younger of the two sons of Matthew and Elizabeth (Barde) Brooke, was born at Birdsboro, Berks county, Penn- sylvania, July 26, 1818, passed his long life at that place, and died January 15, 1912,
lacking but seven years of being a cente- narian. He was educated in the schools of Reading, Lititz and West Chester, Pennsyl- vania, and Burlington, New Jersey, finish- ing his studies at a private school in Phila- delphia. He ranked well in English, Latin and French, but was especially proficient in mechanics, drawing and mineralogy. Upon his return to Birdsboro at the close of his school years he entered the iron manufac- turing business and in time mastered every detail. On April 1, 1837, he and his brother Edward succeeded their father in business, the output of which at that time amounted to only two hundred tons annually. Under the firm name of E. & G. Brooke, the brothers developed a much larger business, and continued together until the death of Edward Brooke, December 25, 1878. They built a large flour mill in 1844, finished it in 1845, enlarged it in 1882, and supplied with modern machinery a third mill, now occupy- ing the sites. In 1840 they added a charcoal furnace in order to use their wood in the manufacture of pig iron instead of operat- ing the forges. In 1848 and 1849 a rolling mill and nail factory were added. In 1852 Anthracite Furnace No. I was built, and in 1870 and 1873 two more furnaces were added, and the capacity of the plant in- creased from time to time, until the annual output exceeds 100,000 tons of pig iron, 250,000 kegs of nails, besides much bar and skelp iron. In the latter '8os a steel plant was erected at Blast Furnace No. 2 to con- vert the molten iron into steel to be used in the manufacture of nails. In connection with their furnaces, the brothers acquired a one-half interest in the French Creek, War- wick and Jones mines, whence the greater part of their ore is taken, the Wilmington and Northern railroad connecting the fur- naces and mines. In 1864 the Brookes, in association with others, opened the William Penn Colliery, near Shenandoah, Schuylkill county, later becoming the sole owners of these yet valuable mines. In 1887 these mines were sold to interests representing
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