USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 39
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tor of the Harrisburg Hospital, and vice- president of the Sylvan Heights Home for Orphan Girls. In recognition of his wide- embracing philanthropy and for his deep interest in civic work Mr. Tracy has been recently decorated by the Pope with the order of Knight of St. Gregory the Great, civil order.
Mr. Tracy holds membership in the Harrisburg Club; Old Colony Club ; En- gineers' Society of Pennsylvania (of which he was president for a time) ; Chamber of Commerce of Harrisburg, and its president in 1917; director of the Pennsylvania State Chamber of Com- merce; Knights of Columbus; and for eight years was president of the Board of Public Works of Harrisburg. In politics he is an Independent, reserving the right to vote for the man he deems best fitted for the office. He is a prominent member of the Roman Catholic Church. He is also chairman of Harrisburg Sub-Region of the Resources and Conservation Sec- tion of the War Industries Board, and city chairman of the United War Work Campaign.
On September 6, 1904, Mr. Tracy mar- ried Gertrude B., daughter of the late Hamilton D. and Jane (Dellone) Hem- ler, of Harrisburg. Her father was one of the most prominent financiers and busi- ness men of Eastern Pennsylvania, being president of the Central Trust and also of the Merchants National Bank, both of Harrisburg. Mrs. Tracy serves as presi- dent of the Catholic Ladies' Auxiliary of the Red Cross in Harrisburg, and in all her husband's philanthropic work she is an earnest helper.
HILDRUP, William Thomas, Sr., Car Builder.
The late William Thomas Hildrup, gen- eral manager and treasurer of the Harris-
burg Car Manufacturing Company, was a man to be numbered among the creators of Pennsylvania's industries, inasmuch as he was one of the originators of the wide- ly-known concern with which he was con- nected during the greater part of his ac- tive life. Mr. Hildrup was associated with other important industrial enter- prises, and took a leading part in all that made for the progress and welfare of his home city of Harrisburg.
The Hildrup family is one of the most ancient families of Great Britain. The name Hildrup is a combined form of Hill, Hyll, Hule and Droop or Drope, old Saxon families of Somersetshire, Eng- land. The Hylls or Hills have written their names large in English history and among the Dropes was one Lord Mayor of London in the fifteenth century. The name became Hill-Droop, Hyll-Drope and eventually Hildrup. They claim to have complete family history running back to A. D., 327, when the first ancestor landed at Aqua Solis, now Bath, England, with a view of starting importation of oranges from Spain, of which country he was a native. The head of the English family was William Henry Hildrup, living in a house in Glossop, Somerset, which had been occupied by twenty-seven consecu- tive generations of Hildrups. There is an Irish branch in Dublin.
Arms-Gules, a chevron ermine between three garbs or.
Crest-A dove, with wings expanded; in the beak an olive branch, all proper.
William Thomas Hildrup, of the third generation of the American branch of the family, was born February 6, 1822, in Middletown, Connecticut, and was a son of Jesse and Sophia (Turner) Hildrup, of Hartford. The education of William Thomas Hildrup was received in local schools, and at the age of sixteen he began
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to learn the carpenter's trade. Three years later, having finished his appren- ticeship, he went to Cape Vincent, Jeffer- son county, New York, where he was em- ployed for two years, going then to Wor- cester, Massachusetts, and there finding employment in the car works of Bradley & Rice. During the nine years he re- mained in the works he became thorough- ly proficient in every branch of the busi-
ness. In 1852 Mr. Hildrup removed ta Elmira, New York, where he established a car-wheel foundry and machine shop. A year later he went to Harrisburg on the invitation of a prominent citizen whom he had met on his way to Elmira and who had laid before him the advan- tages possessed by the capital of Penn- sylvania for railroad car building. Mr. Hildrup, with others, organized the Har- risburg Car Manufacturing Company, with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars and a capacity of nine eight- wheel cars a week. Mr. Hildrup was appointed manager, and immediately a bright future began to dawn upon the new enterprise. In 1862 the company was reorganized with a capital of seventy-five thousand dollars, at the same time taking a new departure which greatly augmented its production and gave employment to two hundred and fifty hands. In 1864 the capital was again increased and four years later was raised to twelve times the original sum, the concern then employing over a thousand men. On April 25, 1872, the car works were destroyed by fire, but this disaster served only to give oppor- tunity for the exercise of Mr. Hildrup's wonderful fortitude and indomitable en- ergy. A temporary structure was erected and within ninety days after the fire the company was turning out ten finished eight-wheeled cars daily.
When Mr. Hildrup first went to Har- risburg he found little mechanical skill
among its artisans, and during the winter of 1853-54 he established a free school for the instruction of the young men in the company's service in free-hand and me- chanical drawing. He also adopted a sys- tem of partial weekly payments and credit concessions involving cooperation in the purchase of the necessaries of life. This care for the interests of his employees greatly endeared him to them and they constantly manifested toward him a sin- cere respect and loyal regard. In illness their expenses were paid, and those in- jured in the discharge of their duty at the works received special care.
The Civil War brought more conspicu- ously into play Mr. Hildrup's admirable judgment and rare clarity of vision. When Harrisburg was threatened with invasion he it was who planned fortifica- tions and selected their sites. He was also associated during the war with his friend William Calder, in supplying the government with horses and mules. It is estimated that, during the four years of the war, he delivered to the government forty-two thousand horses, sixty-seven thousand mules and five thousand head of oxen.
While never failing in the duties of a public-spirited citizen, Mr. Hildrup al- ways steadily refused to become a can- didate for office. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, coöper- ating earnestly in its charities and liber- ally aiding its institutions. Notwithstand- ing the fact that he was the largest owner in all branches of the Harrisburg Car Works, Mr. Hildrup was, it has been said, the hardest-working man in the estab- lishment. The assistance he rendered in building up the manufacturing interests of Harrisburg is well nigh incalculable. Not his city only, however, but the entire State, felt his influence, and the forces he
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set in motion have been, as the years went on, increasingly fruitful.
Mr. Hildrup married (first), October 22, 1845, Harriet E., daughter of Colonel John B. and Clarissa (Stanley) Essel- tyne, of Cape Vincent, Jefferson county, New York, and niece of the Hon. Orville Hungerford, a prominent banker and rail- road man of Watertown, New York. The Esseltynes are an old and influential fam- ily of Jefferson county. Mr. and Mrs. Hildrup were the parents of six children, one of them a son, William Thomas, whose biography and portrait follow. Mrs. Hildrup, a woman of lovely person- ality, passed away on February 6, 1875. Mr. Hildrup married (second), in Octo- ber, 1876, Emma J. Piper, of Philadelphia. She died January 4, 1919. In Mr. Hil- drup's character love of home and family was always a dominant trait, and in the exercise of hospitality he found one of his chief pleasures.
On January 21, 1909, this able and use- ful man was gathered to his fathers. His passing removed one of the foremost figures in the manufacturing circles of Harrisburg and Pennsylvania, and mul- titudes mourned him, for in every class in the community he numbered sincere and loyal friends. The career of William Thomas Hildrup speaks for itself. His deeds are more eloquent than words. His record belongs among those of the repre- sentative men of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
HILDRUP, William Thomas, Jr., Manufacturer, Financier.
Eastern Pennsylvania has no more ag- gressive business man than William Thomas Hildrup, Jr., secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Company, and of-
ficially connected with various other im- portant business enterprises. Mr. Hildrup is also associated with a number of the other leading interests of Harrisburg, and is active in Masonic affairs and in club circles.
William Thomas Hildrup, Jr., was born January 19, 1862, in Harrisburg, and is a son of William Thomas and Har- riet E. (Esseltyne) Hildrup. William Thomas Hildrup was educated in private schools of his native city and at a private boarding school at West Chester, Penn- sylvania, where he spent three years. At the age of sixteen he entered the scien- tific department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1882 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1885 he received the post-graduate degree of Mechanical Engineer, the first ever con- ferred by the University of Pennsylvania.
Immediately after his graduation in 1882, Mr. Hildrup became associated with his father in the Harrisburg Car Manu- facturing Company, holding first the of- fices of assistant general superintendent and engineer and later those of secretary and assistant treasurer. He maintained his connection with this concern until its dissolution which was caused by the fail- ure of the firm of Baring Brothers in 1888. Animated with the spirit of enter- prise which has always formed a part of his character Mr. Hildrup, without delay, turned his attention to a new undertaking. In association with David E. Tracy and J. Hervey Patton he engaged in the manu- facture of pipe coils and refrigerating ap- pliances under the name of the Harris- burg Pipe Bending Company, Limited, holding the offices of secretary, treasurer and director. In December, 1899, the business was incorporated under the name of the Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Company, Mr. Hildrup continuing to fill
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the same offices until 1914. In that year Mr. Patton, by disposing of his interests, terminated his connection with the com- pany and Mr. Hildrup while retaining the offices already mentioned, became, in addition, general manager of the business.
The Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Company furnishes an illustration of the possibilities of small beginnings when their development is entrusted to the right hands. The enterprise started with six men and in 1899, at the time of its incor- poration, employed about seven hundred. It now employs two thousand eight hun- dred. As general manager Mr. Hildrup has closed for the firm all contracts for export and all contracts for business with the departments of the Federal govern- ment and the British and French govern- ments. He has personally solicited and has obtained the largest orders ever filled in Harrisburg, all of which goes to show that the company is very largely indebted to its general manager for the substan- tial and constantly-increasing prosperity which has produced its present flourish- ing condition.
In all that makes for civic improvement Mr. Hildrup is unceasingly active. For years he has been a director and is now the principal stockholder of the First Na- tional Bank of Harrisburg, and a director of the Commonwealth Trust Company of Harrisburg and the North American Oil and Refining Corporation of Oklahoma and Texas. He is vice-president and di- rector of the Harrisburg Hotel Company, which is now erecting in that city the handsome Penn-Harris Hotel, destined, when finished, to be one of the finest in the United States.
In politics Mr. Hildrup is an Independ- ent Republican, holding steadily aloof from office-seeking and office-holding, but always public-spirited and patriotic. He
has served as chairman of the first and second campaigns of the Red Cross War Fund, and it was very largely owing to his efforts that Harrisburg, in raising its allottment, went triumphantly "over the top." Since 1904 Mr. Hildrup has been secretary and vestryman, and is now jun- ior warden, of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church. He is one of the gov- ernors of the Harrisburg Hospital. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, affiliat- ing with Perseverance Lodge, No. 21, Free and Accepted Masons, of Harris- burg, and is also a member of Zembo Temple of the Shrine. He is a charter member of the Harrisburg Club, and member of the India House and Bankers' Club of New York City and the Univer- sity Club of Philadelphia, also the Beta Theta Phi fraternity of the University of Pennsylvania. His personality and appearance are those of the typical aggressive, live-wire business man of Eastern Pennsylvania-broad-gauge and genial, a man of many interests and hosts of friends.
On June 22, 1898, Mr. Hildrup mar- ried, in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, Florence Nightingale, daughter of Dr. William A. and Maria (Derland) Houck, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hildrup is a cultured woman of attractive person- ality, and she and her husband delight in gathering about them at their hospitable fireside the inner circle of their chosen friends.
Mr. Hildrup has achieved much and his record will endure, but many years of ac- tivity and usefulness still lie before him and his past gives assurance that the future will find him fully equal, either as business man or citizen, to any task or opportunity which may come to him in these "times that try men's souls."
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STARKEY, W. P.,
Manufacturer.
Prominent among the younger genera- tion of manufacturers who are infusing into Harrisburg the element of youthful vigor and enthusiasm, is W. P. Starkey, general superintendent and director of the Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Company. Mr. Starkey has thoroughly identified himself with a number of Har- risburg's leading interests, entering into their promotion with the same aggress- iveness that characterizes him in all that he undertakes.
The Starkey family is of Norman ori- gin, and has from early times been set- tled in England. Among the families of this name in England are the Starkeys of Wrenbury Hall, County Chester ; Starkie, of Huntroyde, County Lancas- ter; Starkey family of County Warwick ; and others. The family came to England with William the Conqueror at the time of the Norman invasion, and received grants of lands. A Sir Humphrey Starkey was Chief Baron of the Exchequer, ap- pointed by patents dated I Edward V. and I Richard III. Hugh Starkey was gentleman-usher to Henry VIII., and Oliver Starkey was a Knight of Malta, and afterward Grand Prior of the Order. Nicholas Starkey served in the Parlia- mentary army in 1643, and was dis- patched from Preston after the surrender of that place, to take Hoghton Tower, which he did. The name is spelled vari- ously Starkey, Starkie and Starky. The Starkey arms are as follows :
Arms-Barry of ten argent and gules, a stork sable, beaked and legged of the second, on a canton of the third a fleur-de-lis of the first.
Crest-A stork's head erased per pale argent and sable, in the beak a snake vert.
(I) Jacob Starkey, of the English fam- ily of this name, early came to the Prov-
ince of Pennsylvania, settling in what afterwards became Bucks county. His wife's name was Mary. He was a man of prominence in his section. Children of Jacob and Mary Starkey: Elizabeth, born May 12, 1763; Sarah, born June 17, 1765; Thomas, born October 8, 1768, see below; John, born February 15, 1772; Mary, born December 13, 1775; Phania, born November 15, 1778.
(II) Thomas, son of Jacob and Mary Starkey, was born in Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, October 8, 1768; married, Feb- ruary 16, 1792, Achsa Tudor, of Bucks county, Pennsylvania (a descendant of the Scottish family of Tudor), and their children were: Elizabeth, born June 22, 1793, died August 13, 1793; Mary, born March 3, 1794; Achsa, born May 31, 1796; Daniel, born August 25, 1798; Letitia, born February 1, 1803; Eliza- beth, born March 5, 1805; Sarah, born December 20, 1809; Thomas, born July 6, 1812; Jonathan W., born May 14, 1814. Thomas Starkey, the father, died August 4, 1849, at the home of his son Daniel, near Bustleton, Pennsylvania, suburb of Philadelphia, aged 80 years, 9 months and 27 days. His wife was born February 14, 1773, died March 14, 1833, she a daugh- ter of George and Elizabeth Tudor.
(III) Daniel, son of Thomas and Achsa (Tudor) Starkey, was born at Oxford Valley, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Au- gust 25, 1798, and died May 24, 1891. He was educated in the schools of his sec- tion and early learned the trade of coach- making. He later settled at Bustleton, Pennsylvania, where he pursued his busi- ness in a large way, but was financially involved by a partner. A man of much force of character, he was active in all that tended to advance the interests of his section. Deeply interested in religion, he started Methodist churches at Lang- horne and Bustleton. He purchased a
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Eng. by E.G Williams & Ere NY.
Mottarkey
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Lewis Historical Hab C't
Samuel B. Har Rey
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large tract of farming land in Philadel- 18, 1836, widow of Jesse Rennard, of phia, now in the possession of his de- Phoenixville, Pennsylvania ; Mary (twin), born October 18, 1836, deceased; Mary Jane Smith, born January 18, 1839, widow of Peter Otto, Germantown, Phil- adelphia; Daniel Seth, born February 21, 1841, living in Bustleton, Pennsylvania; Anna James, born March 3, 1843, wife of Joseph G. Rennard, of Phoenixville, Penn- sylvania. scendants. Daniel Starkey married Jane Yerkes, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Banes) Yerkes, and granddaughter of Anthony and Mary (Harper) Yerkes. Mary (Banes) Yerkes, born March 4, 1774, died November 13, 1848, the wife of Jacob Yerkes, (he born January 19, 1776, died February 28, 1846), was the daughter of Seth and Elizabeth Banes. (IV) Samuel Cox, son of Daniel and Jane (Yerkes) Starkey, was born at Bus- tleton, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1834. His education was obtained in the schools of Bustleton, and he then learned the coach- making trade with Amos Gregg, but later took up farming, which he pursued with great success until his retirement in 1898, cultivating the land that came to him from his father's estate. In politics Mr. Starkey is a staunch Democrat, but has never held office. He is a member of the Bustleton Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded by his father. He married (first) February 22, 1872, Emma Jane, daughter of Jesse and Sarah Ann (Taylor) Dungan, of Philadelphia, and they were the parents of the following children : Samuel Herbert, of Bustleton, Pennsylvania; Elizabeth Dungan, wife of William Humphreys Garrigues, of Germantown, Philadelphia ; William Paul, see below. The death of Mrs. Starkey occurred April 20, 1892, and Mr. Starkey married (second) in Bustleton, Pennsyl- vania, August 15, 1894, Miss Virginia Byers, daughter of Joseph and Frances (Bartlette) Byers, of Philadelphia. The Yerkes family made their appear- ance in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1700, locating in War- minster township, where they purchased land. The name Yerkes is probably of Holland-Dutch origin, and has been vari- ously spelled Jerghes, Gerghes, Gerches, Yerkes. About the year 1700, two broth- ers Yerkes came from Europe and located on the Schuylkill river: Anthony and Herman, or Harmon; they were natural- ized in 1729; Harmon finally settled on the Pennypack creek in Moreland town- ship, Montgomery county, near Shel- mire's Mill; he had two sons, Harman and Anthony; Harmon married and had eight sons; Anthony married and had seven children, four sons and three daughters. The Yerkes family furnished a number of soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Jane (Yerkes) Starkey, the wife of Daniel Starkey, was born at Hunting- don Valley, Montgomery county, Penn- sylvania, near the "Lady Washington Hotel," December 15, 1800, died Febru- ary, 1892. Children of Daniel and Jane (Yerkes) Starkey : Elizabeth Banes, born November 3, 1823, deceased ; William (V) William Paul, son of Samuel Cox and Emma Jane (Dungan) Starkey, was born March 9, 1879, in Bustleton, Phila- delphia. His education was received in the public schools and at the Northeast Manual Training High School, Philadel- phia. He later graduated from Lehigh University with the class of 1900, degree Headley, born September 9, 1825, living in Torresdale, Pennsylvania; Thomas, born October 22, 1828, deceased; Caro- line, born February 4, 1830, deceased ; John Fletcher, born April 6, 1832, de- ceased ; Samuel Cox, born April 28, 1834, see below; Achsa (twin), born October
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of Mechanical Engineer. For six months he held the position of electrical engineer in the Boys' High School, Philadelphia, after which he was employed in the plant of William Cramp & Sons' Ship and En- gine Building Company as a draughtsman for a short time, after which he was for a year with the Pencoyd Iron Works.
In 1901 Mr. Starkey came to Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, where he entered the employ of the Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Company as draughtsman. His ability was soon recognized, and he suc- cessively filled the positions of chief draughtsman, chief engineer, assistant general superintendent, and later be- came general superintendent and director, which position he is now filling. This concern is one of the largest enterprises of its kind in America, and has a national reputation for the superiority of its pro- ducts, which includes, at present (1918) munitions for the United States govern- ment and her allies.
Mr. Starkey is influentially known in various concerns, serving as director of the First National Bank of Harrisburg, Harrisburg Trust Company, Chamber of Commerce of Harrisburg; vice-president and director of the Starkey Produce Com- pany of Philadelphia; director of the Young Men's Christian Association. He is also a large stockholder in various finan- cial and industrial institutions through- out Eastern Pennsylvania. His clubs number the Harrisburg Club, the Coun- try Club of Harrisburg, of which he is also a director; Colonial Country Club of Harrisburg, University Club of Central Pennsylvania, and he is a member of the Engineers' Society of Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the Alumni Associa- tion of Lehigh University. Mr. Starkey is a member and trustee of Grace Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and a liberal but unostentatious giver to charity. Polit-
ically he is an Independent. Keenly public-spirited, nothing that makes for the advancement of Harrisburg finds him unresponsive, and he serves as chairman of the Industrial Campaign, United War Work. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Starkey has attained to the Thirty-second degree, being a member of Harrisburg Lodge, No. 629, Harrisburg Consistory, Pilgrim Commandery, Knights Templar, and Zembo Shrine.
On July 14, 1902, Mr. Starkey married Miss Gertrude C., daughter of the late John and Emma Rankey, of South Beth- lehem, Pennsylvania, and they are the parents of the following children: I. Austin Clarence, born June II, 1903. 2. William Paul, Jr., born August 27, 1904. 3. Samuel Arthur, born May 26, 1908.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Starkey are active socially, and their home is the seat of a gracious hospitality. Mrs. Starkey is a member of the Civic Club, the Young Women's Christian Association, advisory board of the Y. M. C. A .; member of the Wednesday Club, Country Club of Harrisburg, and serves as treasurer of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church Red Cross Auxiliary.
Gifted in manner, disposition and taste, enterprising and original in business ideas, personally liked most by those who know him best, and as frank in declar- ing his principles as he is sincere in main- taining them, the career of W. P. Starkey has been rounded with success and marked by the appreciation of men whose good opinion is best worth having.
GAERTNER, Frederick,
Physician, Surgeon and Pathologist.
A man of international reputation and a thorough American requires no intro- duction in a work of this character, and therefore, the biographer, in inscribing
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A. Frderick Gaertner.
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L
Baertner
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the name of Dr. Frederick Gaertner, of Pittsburgh, simply announces a physician and surgeon eminent on two continents. Dr. Gaertner has a world-wide renown as a microscopist, scientist and author, and is frequently called in consultation, and especially into court as an expert witness in cases of medico-legal complications; both the learned council and opposing physicians respect his great ability as a man of extraordinary learning.
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