USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. VII > Part 42
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1895 began in mercantile business in Ab- ington, following later by the addition of a coal yard to his store business. For nine years he continued a merchant and then launched a general contracting busi- ness. He is now president of the Ambler & Davis Company, general contractors, with offices in the Harrison building, Philadelphia. His company specializes in road and bridge building and municipal work of varied character. He is highly regarded in business circles as a man to be implicitly trusted, one who holds his honor above price, one whose fidelity can be safely confided in.
A Republican in politics, Mr. Ambler was a political worker before he was a voter. When he opened the store in Ab- ington he was appointed postmaster of the town, holding that office as long as he remained in business. He never wore a political collar, but was regular in his support of the party he believed in. In 1902 he was elected to the State Legisla- ture as assemblyman, and in committee room as well as on the floor of the house proved his mettle as a legislator of ability and courage. In 1904, 1906, 1908 and 1912 he was reelected, and again in 1914, and at the session of 1915 he was chosen speaker when the house organized. In the speaker's chair he proved a wise presiding officer, a strict parliamentarian, and in his naming of committees dis- played the qualities of the astute politi- cian. The business of the house was never more quickly nor efficiently con- ducted, while as a presiding officer his fairness and quick decision won him the commendation of political friend and foe. He is a Progressive Republican and a leader of that branch of his party, who would keep pace with advanced thought and keep his party in the van in modern political thought.
Mr. Ambler is a member of the Manu-
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facturers' and the Pen and Pencil clubs, of Philadelphia, and of the old York Road Country Club. He is a member of Friendship Lodge, No. 400, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, also of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Norris- town Lodge, No. 710, and the Junior Order of American Mechanics. In re- ligious faith he is a Presbyterian, belong- ing to the Abington congregation.
Mr. Ambler married Annie Dubree, daughter of John C. and Anna (Dubree) Hunter, of Abington. They have five children : Charles Merrill, Dorothy Du- bree, Bertha Hunter, Helen Richardson, and Wayne Harper.
HEEBNER, William D.,
Manufacturer, Financier, Legislator.
The biography of William D. Heebner, County Controller of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, portrays a life of endeavor and achievement in various walks of life, and stamps Mr. Heebner as the leading representative of one of Montgomery counties oldest families. The progenitor of this Heebner family was David Heeb- ner, who came with that great body of Schwenkfelders to Pennsylvania in 1734, most of them settling in what is now Montgomery county. Mary, wife of David Heebner, accompanied him. Their children were: Christoph ; Rosanna, born May 9, 1738; George, born June 21, 1744. David Heebner died in 1784, and his widow died June 1I, 1793. George Heebner, son of David, was the great- grandfather of William D. Heebner, the subject of this sketch. George Heebner married Susanna, daughter of Balthasar Heydrick, April 26, 1769. Their only child was Balthasar Heebner, who was born June 12, 1770. The wife and mother died a week later, and the father married a second time, having a large family of children.
Balthasar Heebner (grandfather) mar- ried Susanna, daughter of Christopher Schultz, thus uniting two prominent and well-known families of the Schwenkfel- ders, May 20, 1794. Their children were the following: George, born 1795, died in infancy; a daughter, born 1796, died at the age of two days; Anthony S., 1798; Anna, 1800; Maria, 1803, died at twelve years of age; Catharine, 1806; David S. (father), born June 25, 1810; Lydia, born September 8, 1812. Balthasar Heebner was a minister of the society for many years, and until his death, which occurred April 29, 1848, at the age of seventy-seven years, ten months, twenty-one days. The genealogical record of the Schwenkfel- ders probably owes its existence to him. It was preserved by him in German manuscript to about the year 1846. In earlier days to 1804 a few records had been kept, but they were abandoned about that time. He conceived the idea of com- bining all in one record, and he accord- ingly copied from what he could find, continuing the work to near the close of his long life. But for his industry and foresight much valuable material would have been lost. Cheerful and kind in dis- position, and of active and industrious habits, Rev. Balthasar Heebner had the fullest respect and confidence of the com- munity in which he had lived, and he transmitted these rare qualities to his de- scendants. His wife died March 22, 1848, aged seventy-two years and four months.
David S. Heebner was destined to a long and exceedingly useful life. Al- though mostly selftaught, the school of his day affording but little in the way of opportunity to acquire anything like a thorough education, he rose to a com- manding position in life, being an inven- tor, machinist, and for many years the head of the extensive establishment of Heebner & Sons of Lansdale. He en- gaged in farming until the year of 1840,
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when he commenced in a small way the manufacture of agricultural machinery at Norritonville, a few miles from Norris- town. He was a pioneer in the invention of the modern machinery and the farm implements which have done so much to lighten the labor of the farmer. He was always in advance of his time, and it took the community some time to catch up, as it were, with his advanced ideas. He became successful in his business, his patrons coming eventually from every State of the Union and from all parts of the world, his two sons, Isaac and Wil- liam D., assisting him greatly in the de- velopment of his progressive views on the subject of farm machinery. The whole system of agriculture in the United States has been revolutionized in the past sixty years as the result of the labors of David S. Heebner and his sons, and others who, like them, applied themselves to the task of superseding the clumsy and ineffec- tive implements of farming and garden- ing with those that were fully adapted to the needs of the occupation. In 1872 he went into partnership with his sons, who had established an agricultural machine, making a plant at the village of Lansdale that was to become one of the most ex- tensive and successful of that kind in the entire county. David S. Heebner con- tinued in this partnership of Heebner & Sons until October, 1887, by which time the business of the establishment had developed largely from the beginnings he had made in Norristown nearly forty years earlier.
David S. Heebner enjoyed in a very high degree the esteem and confidence of the community in which he lived. In 1891 he was commissioned postmaster of Lansdale by President Benjamin Harri- son, and held the position for four years, performing its duties in a most acceptable manner. In politics the family, like most
Schwenkfelders, were oldline Whigs and later Republicans. He was twice mar- ried, his first wife being Anna, daughter of Henry Derstein, who died June 8, 1853. The couple had nine children: Joseph, born June II, 1833, died April 3, 1838; James, born August 6, 1836, died April 8, 1838; Mary Ann, born April 2, 1839; Isaac D., born January 18, 1841 ; Addison, born June 18, 1843, died at the age of two months; Josiah, born July 5, 1844, is a well-known farmer of Norristown ; Jacob, born August 10, 1846; William D., born September 27, 1848, subject of this sketch ; David, born August 22, 1851, died June 15, 1852. David S. Heebner married (second) Regina, daughter of the Rev. Christopher Schultz. They had one child, Abram S., born May 22, 1857, died Octo- ber 6, 1862.
Hon. William D. Heebner was reared on the farm and attended the public schools until he reached the age of four- teen years. He served an apprenticeship of seven years in his father's machine shop, learning the business of agricul- tural implement making in all its branches.
Mr. Heebner went to Lansdale and be- came a partner with his brother, Isaac D. Heebner, and the foundation of the firm's subsequent extensive business was laid. Two years later the firm became Heebner & Sons, and so continued until October, 1887, when William D. Heebner pur- chased the entire plant, which he has operated successfully ever since. The proprietor, who was still a young man, comparatively speaking, had seen the business increase with every passing year, its every department being so thoroughly organized and so well managed that the operation of the plant is now unaffected by his presence or absence. He has chosen thoroughly competent persons to take charge of every mechanical and busi- ness detail, and there is no break in the
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running of the great machine which the plant has become as the result of the organizing power of Mr. Heebner. Its work goes on steadily increasing from year to year, the managers of the busi- ness knowing in advance just what to expect in the way of orders, and never being troubled by the slightest fear that the season's output will exceed the de- mand from their customers in all parts of the world. Not only are the wonderfully improved machines the inventions of the members of the firm, but the devices used in their construction are the productions of their skill and genius. Many of these work automatically, saving the labor that would require many employes, and insuring a per- fection of detail that could not be secured by hand labor, however carefully ex- ecuted. Every machine of a certain kind and size is an exact duplicate in all its parts of every other made by the firm. Every year since the establishment of the industry, it has shown a healthy and satisfactory growth. The business-like methods of the firm and their known ad- herence to fair dealings with all their cus- tomers, new or old, combined with ex- cellence of their goods, retain their old customers and make them new friends at home and abroad. Every year improve- ments are added to the machines which have long been recognized as the special- ties of the firm, so that these have no equals, much less superiors, in the market. They are emphatically the very best of their kind. The aim is constantly to have every machine that is turned out at the works thoroughly up to date, its every part being so constructed and so adjusted as to secure the greatest possible strength and usefulness. Every year improve- ments are necessarily added to the plant to enable it to accomplish what is desired in this respect. Its specialties are all leaders in the particular class to which
they belong. Again and again they have won the first prize in competition with all other machine makers at the World's Fairs that have been held in Europe and America. The farm machinery made at the Heebner plant includes horsepower and threshers, feed cutters, with or with- out crushing or shedding attachments; saw machines, and other specialties for farmers, whether they are located on the Atlantic coast, in the Mississippi valley, on the steppes of Siberia, or the plains of Argentina. The products of the estab- lishment are sent to every part of Penn- sylvania, to every State in the American Union, and to every country of the globe. Wherever they are used they have won for themselves a high reputation, simply because they have deserved it. The value of the plant is difficult to estimate. The buildings are very extensive, and the ma- chinery used in the various processes is expensive as well as complicated.
In addition to owning and operating this plant, Mr. Heebner is a heavy stock- holder in the Lansdale Water Company, of which he is president, and owns a large amount of valuable real estate. He has also important interests in the south, hav- ing a commodious winter home in Florida, owning several orange groves; also a farm of two hundred and seven acres in Montgomery county, where he has built a bungalow and as is typical of the man, is planting, developing and organizing a well kept farm and orchard. He is closely identified with the interests of the flourishing town which has grown up around his works. He has been a mem- ber of its council, its honored burgess for a number of years. At all times an active worker in behalf of the interest of the Republican party, he is always on hand on the day of election to assist in getting out the full party vote; but, while an ardent party organization man, Mr. Heeb-
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ner is strongly opposed to "boss" rule, and in support of that principle he has scored some victories in his home county.
In 1915, when Mr. Heebner was urged by his friends to run for the office of county controller, he entered the fight and presented his plea to the people, mail- ing a blotter throughout the county with the following plea printed thereon above his own autograph :
If you will go to the Primary Election on Sep- tember 21, any time from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. and cast your vote for me for County Controller, you will help blot out the present custom of one man in the Republican party, with the assistance of one or two others, to dictate who shall have an office and then ask the Republican voters to keep him in office continually. Such practice, in my judgment, is detrimental to the best interest of the Republican party and is not fair to others in the party who are worthy and entitled to office. My principal object in being a candidate is to give the voters an opportunity to enter their pro- test against this present pernicious custom, and keep any political Contractor-Combine candi- date ont of the Controller's office. I am fighting for a principle, whether nominated or defeated I have nothing to lose.
Yours respectfully, WM. D. HEEBNER. LANSDALE, PA., Sept. 17, 1915.
The result was an overwhelming vic- tory, Mr. Heebner defeating his opponent by eight thousand majority in what was probably the most keenly contested poli- tical fight ever waged in Montgomery county. Mr. Heebner was elected county controller of Montgomery county No- vember 4, 1915, and took office January 3, 1916, and he is acknowledged a most efficient and capable administrator of the county funds. He has deep interest in the system of the public school education, and in everything else that pertains to the welfare of the community. He is also a leader in various financial enter- prises, being a director in the Lansdale National Bank, and the Jessup & Moore
Paper Company, the Southern Trans- portation Company, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Henrico Lumber Company ; and interested in other insti- tutions. He served two terms at Harris- burg as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, one of the most prominent achievements being the intro- duction on Washington's Birthday of a bill making an appropriation for the free- ing from the burden of debt the Headquar- ters of Washington at Valley Forge, which, through his advocacy and that of his friends in both houses of the legisla- ture, became a law.
Mr. Heebner married, November 7, 1872, Emma, daughter of Jesse Frantz, of Centre Square, who died August 22, 1881. He married (second) November 29, 1883, Elizabeth Shearer, daughter of John Shearer, of Lansdale. By the first marriage he had three children : Clarella, Blanche and Estelle; and by the second marriage there are three children : Robert, S. J. Donald, and Grace W.
Mr. Heebner is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church of Lansdale, and one of its trustees. He is an earnest worker, and for forty years has been the leader of its choir. He is a member of Lansdale Castle, No. 244, Knights of the Golden Eagle; a charter member of Lodge No. 977, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which he assisted in organ- izing; a member of Charity Lodge, Free and Accepted Mason, of Norristown; of Norristown Chapter, No. 190, Royal Arch Masons; and of Hutinson Commandery, No. 32, Knights Templar. He is a mem- ber of Washington Camp, No. 120, Pa- triotic Order Sons of America, of Lans- dale; and of Norristown Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Heebner, who is proud of the Heebner plant at Lansdale, and deeply interested in the welfare of his co-workers
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in business, says that since 1888 the plant has never shut down for one hour unless for repairs. In April, 1916, Mr. Heebner, addressing a mass meeting of his em- ployees, said that for the year he would divide all the profits less a five per cent. charge for capital invested. Mr. Heeb- ner, who has always led an industrious and busy life, with temperate habits, finds happiness in service, and few men are held in higher esteem or greater re- spect in the entire county.
KEIM, George de Benneville, Man of Affairs, Public Official.
The frequent recurrence of the name George de Benneville in Keim family records and in Philadelphia history is sometimes confusing. George de Benne- ville Keim, second and third of the name, were contemporaries in Philadelphia. George de Benneville Keim (2), born De- cember 10, 1830, son of Hon. George May Keim, died in Philadelphia, December 18, 1893, and is buried in the Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Pennsylvania. Born the same year (1831, January 18), his cousin, George de Benneville Keim (3), son of John May Keim, became head of the most important carriage hardware business in the United States, and was, as well, one of the most efficient sheriffs the city of Philadelphia ever had. His son, George de Benneville Keim (4), is the present vice-president of the impor-
tant banking house of Chandler & Co., Inc., of Philadelphia. It is with particu- lar reference to Sheriff George de Benne- ville Keim (3), and his son, George de Benneville Keim (4), that this and the following narrative will treat.
This branch of the Keim family de- scends from Johannes (Hans) Keim, born in the vicinity of Landau, near Speier, Rhenish-Bavaria, about 1675; married in
Germany; died in Oley, Pennsylvania, in 1753. His son Nicholas, born in Oley in 1719, moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1755, and there died. He married Bar- bara Schneider. His son, called John Keim the younger, was born in Oley in 1749, died in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1837. He and his father were associated in the general hardware, iron and grain business. This was the beginning of the Keim connection with the hardware busi- ness, a line of commercial activity with which they have ever since been inti- mately associated in different parts of the United States. John Keim, the youn- ger, was also a Revolutionary soldier, en- listing in Peter Nagle's company, Lieu- tenant-Colonel Nicholas Lutz's Fourth Battalion, Berks county troops, which marched in the fall of 1777 to reinforce General Washington in his operations in the vicinity of Philadelphia after the dis- astrous battle of Germantown, and in the winter of privation and suffering at Valley Forge. In 1778 he was made captain in Colonel Jacob Weaver's Fifth Battalion. This service was rendered in spite of the fact that he was a member of the Society of Friends and need not have entered the army.
Not less notable is the maternal line of George de Benneville Keim, the de Ben- neville, an ancient Huguenot family. Dr. George de Benneville, a native of Rouen, Normandy, had Queen Anne of Eng- land for sponsor and guardian of his orphaned childhood, and figures in Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's historical novel, "Hugh Wynne." His son, also Dr. George de Benneville, lived to be a very old man and is buried in the de Benneville private burial ground on Green Lane, at Branch- town, where lie Dr. George de Benne- ville, father and son, Harriet de Benne- ville Keim, and many scores of the de Benneville name and connection. This is
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one of the five private cemeteries still existing within the limits of the city of Philadelphia. Dr. George de Benneville married Eleanor Roberts, a descendant of Thomas Roberts, a Welsh gentleman and friend of William Penn.
Harriet de Benneville, daughter of Dr. George de Benneville, the younger, was born in March, 1803, died at her beautiful estate, "Solitude," on the Old York road, October 4, 1900, one of the most interest- ing and highly esteemed of Philadelphia's noted women. The combined ages of herself, her father and her grandfather, were two hundred and seventy-six years; her birth in 1803 was just one hundred years after her grandfather's in 1703, but one generation intervening. She died at the age of ninety-seven, her father at the age of ninety, and her grandfather at the age of eighty-nine, one hundred and nine- ty-seven years intervening between the birth of the elder Dr. de Benneville and his granddaughter's death.
Harriet de Benneville married, in 1821, John May Keim, of Reading, Pennsylva- nia. They were the grandparents of George de Benneville Keim (4). The house in which Mrs. Keim resided-for she sur- vived all her children but one-and the roof which sheltered four generations of her descendants, was built in 1775, by her aunt, Sarah Roberts, and was used by the British as a hospital in 1777-78. The estate of more than one hundred acres on which it stands had been occupied by herself and her ancestors for nearly two centuries, and was aptly named "Soli- tude." It lay at the Old York road and Fisher's lane, and while the city's maps show streets and avenues running through it, they were not there, and there had been a general understanding that its broad acres and century old trees would not be interfered with during Mrs. Keim's lifetime. The women of her family were
socially prominent in colonial days, and were accorded special privileges by the British commander while his troops were occupying the estate.
There were three houses on the estate, massive colonial structures, having walls three feet in thickness. The house occu- pied by Mrs. Keim's farmer was stand- ing when her great-grandfather, Thomas Roberts, bought the property in 1715, and it is believed to have been then twenty- five years old. Cornwallis and his staff made "Solitude" their place of meeting in council during the British occupation of Philadelphia, a certain room in the man- sion still being called the "Cornwallis" room. On the Branchtown estate of the family is the de Benneville private burial ground where over one hundred members of the families de Benneville, Keim, Roberts, Brown, Shewell, Evans and Thomas, all intermarried, are buried.
On the old estate, rich in Colonial and Revolutionary reminiscence, Mrs. Keim spent the evening of her long life, with every faculty unimpaired. She had never worn glasses, despite her years (ninety- seven), and ever remained young in spirit. She was a widow for fifty years, her husband, John May Keim, dying in middle age, and but one child surviving her. She was very fond of entertaining, and, to the last, dispensed with courtly grace, the charming hospitality char- acteristic of her early life. John May Keim and Harriet de Benneville married in 1821, residing in Reading, Pennsyl- vania, where their son, George de Benne- ville Keim, was born, January 18, 1831. The family was one of high consideration and social influence, the Keims dating from William Penn and possessing large tracts of land that later became within the corporate limits of Reading. They were also commercially prominent in that city, while the prestige of the Huguenot fam-
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ily, de Benneville, added to their social distinction.
The youth of George de Benneville Keim was spent in acquiring a sound education, after which he entered busi- ness life. He remained in Reading until about 1861, then moved his residence and business to Philadelphia. He gradually built up a very large business which eventually expanded until there were few if any cities in the United States in which the firm of George de Benneville Keim & Company was not known to the trade. This growth in importance continued until the house attained the proud dis- tinction of being at the head of the car- riage hardware business in the United States. As the business grew, the foun- cier kept close watch over the young men in his employ, and, when there was need for another in the firm, one of these capable energetic young men was ad- mitted to a partnership. In the course of time he had not only a very large busi- ness, but a thoroughly organized force of men to handle it. The reputation he had won in the trade for integrity and fair dealing could then be safely confided to the young men whom he had taught the same stable business principles, and about the year 1880 he began to relinquish the heavier burdens of management to his younger partners. He was then about fifty years of age, had been continuously in business from youth, and felt he was entitled to enjoy the competence he had so fairly earned.
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