USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 19
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Born on August 11, 1861, at Tay- lorsville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Elmer E. Buckman passed the years of his childhood on his father's farm. He at- tended the local village school and here gained his general education, growing up to manhood amid the wholesome rural surroundings which have given to this country its best type of citizenship. On completing his studies at the village school, he went to Trenton, New Jersey, where he entered the Capital City Com- mercial College and there took a business course. Having graduated from this institution, Mr. Buckman sought and found employment with the Morrisville Rubber Company of Morrisville, Penn- sylvania. Here he continued to work for a while and then went back to Tren- ton, New Jersey, where he secured a posi- tion in the wholesale and retail store of Brearley & Stoll. This was one of the well-known establishments of Trenton, and here Mr. Buckman remained until the year 1886, when he returned to Penn- sylvania and settled this time in Wilkes- Barre. He was twenty-five years of age at the time and secured a good clerical position in the Old Miners' Savings Bank. Two years later, in 1888, he was offered the position of teller in the Wyoming National Bank and at once accepted, and from that year until the present time he has been continuously associated with this large and important institution. He continued to prove his value in his new position and made himself more and more important until, in the year 1908, he was made assistant cashier. He con- tinued to act in this capacity until Janu- ary 12, 1915, when he was elected cashier of the bank and still holds this office. Mr. Buckman has thus for thirty years been associated with the Wyoming National Bank, and has throughout the entire per-
iod enjoyed the most absolute confidence on the part of the directors and bank officials. He has taken an important part in developing the present great business of the institution, and the future holds an even brighter promise for service on his part.
Mr. Buckman has always taken an active part in the affairs of the city of Wilkes-Barre, where his business inter- ests lie. He is a member of the Westmore- land and Kiwanis Clubs of Wilkes-Barre. In his religious belief he is a Methodist and attends the First Methodist Episco- pal Church of Wilkes-Barre. He is very active in the work of the congregation, and holds the office of treasurer of the church society.
Elmer E. Buckman was united in mar- riage, October 5, 1893, with Bertha M. Bannister, of Syracuse, New York, born September 14, 1865, a daughter of the Rev. Edward Bannister and Elizabeth (Mannering) Bannister, his wife. Rev. Edward Bannister was a prominent Methodist Divine, and opened in San josé at the end of 1850-51 the school which moved a little over a year later to Santa Clara and which later developed into the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, California; the name has since been changed to the College of the Pa- cific. To Mr. and Mrs. Buckman the following children have been born: I. Helen, September 4, 1894; married, Oc- tober 20, 1917, Jerome A. Applequist, of Syracuse, New York, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of Boston. 2. Alice, born January 13, 1896; employed as a teacher (1917) at the West Pittston High School at West Pittston, Pennsylvania. 3. Henry Tay- lor, born June 18, 1902, now a pupil at the Kingston High School at Kingston, Pennsylvania.
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MUENCH, Louis,
Manufacturer.
The supremacy of Pittsburgh among the industrial cities of the world is the supremacy of superior brain power, and describing a man as a leading Pittsburgh manufacturer is equivalent to saying that he possesses intelligence of a high order and touches life at many points. A man of this type is Louis Muench, president, treasurer and director of the Republic Chemical Company.
Louis Muench's father was George Muench, born in Germany, in 1801, son of a minister. After completing his stud- ies of theology and philosophy at the Giesen University, he founded a Prepar- atory School for young men at Homburg. When thirty-four years of age, he emi- grated, at the head of a large German Colony, to America, where he settled in Warren county, Missouri, as one of the early pioneers of that State. He left Germany because he was not in sym- pathy with Prussian Autocratic Rule and longed to breath the air of Democracy on this side of the Atlantic. He was one of the so-called "Latin farmers," took a keen interest in public affairs, and was active in the development of the Middle West. He was a public writer and speaker, and prominent in bringing Carl Schurz to the front when he was elected to the United States Senate by the State Legislature of Missouri. George Muench was influential in holding the State of Missouri in the Union, and his eldest son, the brother of Louis Muench, fought in the Civil War under General Siegel, and was severely wounded in the battle of Wilson's creek in Southwestern Missouri. In 1847 George Muench returned to Ger- many under the auspices of the Missouri Board of Immigration, of which he was a member and of which the Governor was
the presiding officer, for the purpose of promoting German immigration to Mis- souri. While there, he wrote a number of articles setting forth the advantages of the climate and soil of Missouri, particu- larly for horticulture, and returned the same year with another colony of emi- grants. His first colony, in 1835, landed at Baltimore and crossed by wagon and ox teams the Alleghenies to Wheeling, thence to the Mississippi by boat and up the Mississippi to St. Louis. The second expedition landed, after a voyage of four- teen weeks, at New Orleans, and from there went up the Mississippi to St. Louis. Mr. Muench was one of the early settlers of Augusta, Missouri, where he was the leader in all public affairs and did much towards the educational develop- ment and the public school system of the community. He died in 1879, survived . by his wife and four sons and one daugh- ter. His wife, the mother of Louis Muench, died at her daughter's home in Chicago, in 1899, and was interred in the family cemetery at Augusta, Mis- souri, at the side of her husband.
Louis Muench was born on a farm near Augusta, St. Charles county, Missouri, March 5, 1859, son of George and Emma (Wolf) Muench. He received his edu- cation in the schools of his section, and in the schools of Chicago, to which city he went when he was thirteen years of age. His first employment was as book- keeper and accountant, in Chicago, and in 1892 he entered the can manufacturing business in Chicago, as president of the Illinois Can Company. He remained at the head of this company until 1901, when he sold it to the American Can Com- pany. At the time of this company's absorption by the American Can Com- pany, Mr. Muench became general sales agent of the American Can Company, and was also elected a vice-president and
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
director of this large corporation, known in the industrial development and per- throughout the world. He held this manent prosperity of Pittsburgh. A man of singularly strong personality, he has exerted a wonderful influence on his asso- ciates and subordinates, and toward the latter in particular his conduct has ever been marked by a degree of kindness and consideration which has won for him their loyal support and hearty cooperation. Force and resolution, combined with a genial disposition, are depicted in his countenance, and his simple, dignified and affable manners attract all who are brought into contact with him. He is one of those men who number friends in all classes of society. position until the fall of 1904, when he withdrew from business and spent a year traveling throughout Europe, in company with his family. On his return he helped form and became president of the Amer- ican Dehydrating Company, of Wau- kesha, Wisconsin. This company, unique in its line, takes from all kinds of vege- tables and fruits the water and waste and preserves the vegetable or fruit in cans, which, when opened and the water re- absorbed, becomes as the fresh fruit or vegetable. The concern has the honor of equipping the fleet of battleships on its cruise around the world under Theodore Roosevelt's administration, in 1908. Of this company Mr. Muench is still presi- dent.
In 1912 Mr. Muench, in association with his fellow officers of the American Dehydrating Company, bought patents for detinning by the chlorine process tin scrap. By this method tin scrap is resolved into steel, which is used by the open hearth steel furnaces, and the tin, in combination with chlorine, forms tetra- chloride of tin, used by silk manufactur- ers for weighting their products; it is also used variously in the arts and indus- tries. The company, known as the Re- public Chemical Company, has a large plant, situated on Neville Island, Pitts- burgh, with hundreds of employees, and of this company Mr. Muench is presi- dent, treasurer and director. In no small measure has the very rapid growth of this enterprise been due to Mr. Muench's tireless industry and energy. His train- ing qualified him for carrying on a large business enterprise, and his close applica- tion to the business of his company has given him remarkable success. The in- dustry which he has built up is of great value in itself and of relative importance
Mr. Muench is vice-president of the Business Federation of America, Incor- porated, an association the aim of which is nation-wide cooperation among busi- ness men towards the bringing about of business conditions that will redound to the good of all. In politics he is a Re- publican. His views on religion are lib- eral and he attends any church where he has an opportunity of listening to good sermons or lectures. Of social nature, Mr. Muench is a member of the Ben Avon Country Club. A man of action, he demonstrates his public spirit by actual achievements which advance the pros- perity and wealth of the community.
On September 4, 1888, Mr. Muench married Marie T., daughter of Charles and Anna (Fernow) Schober, of Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Schober was head of the largest lithographic concern in Chicago, and a well-known business man of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Muench are the par- ents of the following children: I. Clara Louise, wife of Peter G. Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt is president of the Northwest- ern Fruit Products Company, of Olym- pia, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt have children as follows: Clara Louise, Marie Johanna, and Margaret. 2. Lily
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A., wife of Robert A. Manegold, of Mil- waukee, Wisconsin, president of the Dings Magnetic Separator Company; they are the parents of the following children : Robert Louis, born April, 1916; and Marie Louise, born August 30, 1917. 3. Alice M., graduate of the Institute of Musical Art of New York. 4. Marie C. 5. Emma.
Louis Muench's career may be summed up in one word-success-the result of his own unaided efforts. Throughout his career he has been animated by scrupu- lous honesty, fairness and the spirit of progress, ever pressing forward and seek- ing to make the good better and the bet- ter best. He has furnished a true pic- ture of the ideal manufacturer, one who creates and adds to the wealth of nations while advancing his own interests.
HARDTMAYER, Hansr R., Consulting Physician and Surgeon.
The older generation of Pittsburgh physicians has no abler or more honored representative than Dr. Hansr R. Hardt- mayer, who can now look back on nearly forty years of continuous practice in the Iron City. Dr. Hardtmayer has had un- usual experience in hospital work and is one of the members of the profession most frequently consulted in difficult cases.
(I) Frank Hardtmayer, grandfather of Hansr R. Hardtmayer, was a physician of Zurich, Switzerland.
(II) Dr. Francis Hardtmayer, son of Frank Hardtmayer, was born November 7, 1824, in Zurich, Switzerland, and in 1847 graduated from the University of Wurzburg, Germany. Later he became involved in the troubles which, toward the middle of the century, agitated the empire and all Europe, in consequence of the po- litical upheaval of that period, and in 1848 he sought refuge, as did many
others, in the United States. Making his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he opened an office on the North Side (then Allegheny), and during the remainder of his life was actively engaged in general practice. At the time of the Civil War, Dr. Hardtmayer organized Company B, Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves, and became its captain, serving for one year and participating in the battles that this organization engaged in, and was honorably discharged at Harrison's Land- ing on account of a wound and general disability. Dr. Hardtmayer married Han- nah, born in Cambria county, Pennsyl- vania, daughter of Henry and Maria Mucker, the former a native of Saxony, Germany. They were the parents of eight children, three sons and five daugh- ters, all of whom are deceased except three: Mrs. Sophia Stumberg, of St. Louis, Missouri; Alfred, of Omaha, Ne- braska, and Dr. Hansr R., of whom fur- ther. Dr. Hardtmayer passed away December 23, 1879. He was an able phy- sician, and a brave, devoted citizen to his adopted country.
(III) Dr. Hansr R. Hardtmayer, son of Francis and Hannah (Mucker) Hardt- mayer, was born November 17, 1856, in Allegheny, now North Side, Pittsburgh, and received his primary education in the public schools, afterward attending the Episcopal Classical Academy of Pitts- burgh. Having decided to adopt as his own the profession of his father and grandfather, he entered Jefferson Medi- cal College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1877 with the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine. The same year the young physician entered upon a career of general practice in Allegheny, now North Side, and has since continued to devote himself to the duties involved in the possession of a large and constantly increasing clientele. The year of his graduation, Dr. Hardt-
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mayer was elected a member of the staff of the Mercy Hospital, and served until 1890. In that year, owing to pressure of private practice, he resigned, at the same time withdrawing from several other hos- pitals where his services had for many years been highly valued. For the last twenty-five years he has been surgeon for the Pittsburgh and Eastern and the Bal- timore & Ohio railroads in Pittsburgh. As a consulting physician and surgeon, Dr. Hardtmayer stands in the front rank, being widely known and frequently resorted to in cases of an unusual and complicated character.
As a citizen, Dr. Hardtmayer habit- ually studies to promote the welfare and progress of Pittsburgh, voting with the Republicans for such can- didates and ordinances as he deems calculated to further that end. He is vice-president and director of the Workmen's Savings Bank and Trust Company, and a stockholder in several industrial concerns. His religious mem- bership is in the German Evangelican church.
The countenance and bearing of Dr. Hardtmayer are those of a man of strong character and liberal culture, progressive and yet deliberate. There is strength in every line and the eyes are at once those of the student and the man of action. His personality is that of the typical physi- cian, dignified, benevolent and quietly genial and he numbers many friends both in and out of his profession.
Dr. Hardtmayer married, March 4. 1881, Emma, daughter of the late Cap- tain James and Lucinda (Morrison) Maratta, of Beaver county, Pennsylvania. Captain Maratta was one of the most highly respected of the steamboat men of a former generation. Dr. and Mrs. Hardt- mayer are the parents of one son: Roy, born November 30, 1881, educated in Pittsburgh schools and in schools of
Washington, Pennsylvania, and now con- nected with the Pittsburgh Steel Com- pany. Eminently happy in his domestic relations, Dr. Hardtmayer possesses to the full that love of home and family which is so marked a characteristic of the noble race from which he sprang.
For nearly sixty years the name of Hardtmayer has been associated in Pitts- burgh, even as it was a century ago in a land beyond the sea, with excellence in the medical profession, the prestige descending in an unbroken line from father to son. Dr. Hardtmayer's inherited talent, fostered by the more liberal cul- ture and greater opportunities of a later time, has made him, the third in line of physicians, and the most distinguished bearer of the family name.
FEE, Terrence,
Business Man.
Among the representative and pros- perous business men of Potter county must be numbered Terrence Fee. He was a man who, by his physical energy and mental dominence, made for himself an enviable place in the business world. He was born on January 14, 1860, at Van- dalia, Cattaraugus county, New York, and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fee, who were early and substantial res- idents of that place. Terrence Fee was one of twelve children.
In 1886, with his brothers, Richard E. and Charles P., he came to Potter county, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the lum- ber business. This was in the days when Potter county was noted throughout the State for her splendid forests, and the firm of Fee Brothers grew and prospered. Mr. Fee was a natural business man, was himself industrious and was a master in directing men under his employ. As a citizen he ranked as a substantial man of affairs whose word was above question.
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Terrence . Fre
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- Historical Mo =".
John 11 Blain
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He was considerate of others and was ever thoughtful and kind to those who were dependent upon him. It is consid- ered remarkable that during his long business career, the firm of which he was the directing force never found it neces- sary to enter into legal litigation, that they always dealt with their men in such a manner that there was at all times a feeling of sincere friendship between em- ployers and employees.
Terrence Fee married (first) Carrie Edwards, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Edwards, of Homer township. She died leaving four young children : Henry, Beatrice, Donald and Esther. He married (second), Mary F. McMenomin, of Friendship, New York, and she with one daughter, Terrencia, survive him as do also the children by the former mar- riage. Mr. Fee was an active member of St. Eulalia Church, and always gave freely to its support.
Mr. Fee was a man who was extremely fond of his family and his home. He had a beautiful residence in Ladona, a suburb of Coudersport, which is the county seat of Potter county, and there he died on November 15, 1906, when just in the prime of a vigorous and useful manhood. All his life he had been a man of unusually fine physical appearance. He had led a temperate life, and his untimely death was a great sorrow to the entire com- munity in which he had so long lived. At his death he left a comfortable fortune for his wife and children, and his name will always be held in tender memory by friends and relatives who knew and val- ued him at his true worth.
BLAIR, John K., Merchant.
Forty-five years ago the name of John K. Blair was conspicuous in the business
world of Pittsburgh as that of a member of the firm of Boggs, Blair & Buhl, a concern which has ever stood second to none in its own special sphere. Mr. Blair, who has been now long deceased, was during his too brief career influen- tially identified with the most essential interests of his native city.
John Blair, father of John K. Blair, was born in 1806, in Philadelphia, and was a member of a family of Colonial record. John Blair served an apprentice- ship to the trade of milling, which he fol- lowed for several years, and then, urged by a spirit of enterprise, removed to Pittsburgh. Later he worked at his trade for a time in Perrysville, and in 1838 took up his abode in Allegheny City, where he engaged, until about three years before his death, in contracting and building. He adhered to the Republican party, and was a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Blair married Nancy, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Sipley) Morrow, of Perrysville, and their children were: Thomas, deceased, was treasurer of the Pittsburgh & Fort Wayne Rail- road; John K., mentioned below; Henry S .; Mary, deceased, married Charles Reed; Fannie, married Thomas Ran- dolph; Lydia, married Cyrus D. Rynd; Jane, wife of James Menold; Ella, de- ceased, married Robert B. Willison ; and Charles S., deceased. The death of Mr. Blair occurred November 10, 1868. Both as a business man and citizen he had the respect of the entire community.
John K. Blair, son of John and Nancy (Morrow) Blair, was born July 11, 1839, in Allegheny City, and received his pre- paratory education in local public schools, subsequently studying at Iron City Col- lege. It was in Allegheny City that he entered upon the independent work of life, serving as a clerk in the store of A. M. Marshall & Company. He was a
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
man born for advancement, and recogni- tion of his abilities was followed by rapid promotion, while his devotion to duty obtained for him well-merited confidence and esteem.
It may be readily understood that a man of Mr. Blair's impulse to take the initiative would early feel a desire to launch out for himself, and so it was. He was one of the three men who, in 1868, organized the firm of Boggs, Blair & Buhl which, from the outset, took high rank in the dry goods business, the fact that it did so being due in very large measure to the wisdom, foresight and aggressiveness of Mr. Blair. The too few years of his connection with the concern were the years in which the foundations of the business were laid, and on those foundations, which were so largely his work, the firm, now Boggs & Buhl, car- ries on a trade which places it among the largest and most exclusive of Pittsburgh's department stores. In politics Mr. Blair was a Republican, always strongly up- holding the principles of the party, but never for a moment being numbered among office-seekers. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church, serving on the board of trustees and tak- ing an active part in the work of the Sunday school.
Perhaps the most noticeable feature of Mr. Blair's personality was its many- sidedness. With his diligence in business and devotion to civic duties and religious work, he combined a keen enjoyment in out-door sports, being particularly fond of driving and taking great pleasure in fine horses. His social nature was largely developed and the number of his friends would defy computation. So many years have elapsed since he left us that it may not be long before those who can recall his face and manner will have passed away, but the pencil of the artist will
show to those who come after them the countenance of this man who, after so short a life, left works which follow him.
Mr. Blair married, October 4, 1860, Julia A. Fairman, whose family record is appended to this biography, and they became the parents of the following chil- dren: 1. Julia Fairman, born September 12, 1861, died November 3, 1864. 2. Thomas M., born September 7, 1863, died July 4, 1878. 3. James Fairman, born October 19, 1865. 4. John C., born April 19, 1867, died March 13, 1875. 5. Reed Fairman, a biography of whom follows. 6. Edwin Gordon, born December 3, 1870, died March 11, 1875. 7. Dale, born April 20, 1873, died in infancy. 8. Lida Rynd, born July 13, 1874, wife of Henry L. Schilpp, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and mother of two living children: Henry Lewis and Elizabeth Blair. The mar- riage of Mr. and Mrs. Blair, dissolved by death ere it had quite completed its fif- teenth year, was an extremely happy one. Mrs. Blair was a woman of lovely per- sonality, and she and her husband lived in and for each other and their children, their home being the abode of domestic felicity and gracious hospitality.
On September 5, 1875, Mr. Blair, in the prime of his young manhood, was summoned to relinquish the activities which he was rendering so fruitful. Many were the mourners for what seemed the premature termination of a career so abounding in fulfilment and so rich in promise for the time yet to come, but to his family and friends the loss was irre- parable.
At thirty-six years of age most men have not yet reached the zenith of their course. At thirty-six John K. Blair passed away, having achieved in less than a score of years results which could hardly be looked for in a shorter space than twice that period. In the annals of
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FAIRMAN'S MANSION AND TREATY TREE Built 1702. Taken Down 1825
Tree Blown Down Saturday Night, March 3, 1810
Girth of Trunk 24 Feet Age 283 Years
Need To Blair
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Pittsburgh his name stands as that of an honorable and successful merchant and an active, public-spirited citizen. It is such men that the city needs.
(The Fairman Line).
Thomas Fairman, founder of the fam- ily in Pennsylvania, was chief civil engi- neer to William Penn, to whom he ex- tended the hospitality of his home upon his arrival in the province. The tree under which Penn made his celebrated treaty with the Indians stood directly in front of Mr. Fairman's house.
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