USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Volume I > Part 34
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William Ward was born in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, September 6, 1807. He was a son of John and Elizabeth (Harding) Ward, the former a native of Ireland. John Ward came to America when a young man, and in Eastern Penn- sylvania married Elizabeth Harding, who was of English birth and parentage. When William was a child, his father settled on Steubenville Pike, near Robin- son's Run, and carried on a farm; but later in life went to Washington, D. C., where he held a prominent official posi- tion up to the time of his death. His wife returned to Pittsburgh and died at the home of her son William. The other Captain Ward served twelve years in the City Council, being for eight years chairman of the street commissioners ; and during this period he was also a member of the Board of Guardians of children were: Hugh Ward, who went south shortly after his marriage; Henry, who died in Washington; Catherine, wife of William Grimes, of Pittsburgh; Eliza, who married Mr. Mulholland, and lives the Poor. Always interested in politics,
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he was justly proud of the fact that he was one of the delegates who organized the Republican party. About 1875 he founded and was made president of the Taxpayers' Union, an organization to prevent municipal extravagance. As a citizen, Captain Ward was universally esteemed, always sustaining the charac- ter of a true man. His business transac- tions were conducted on the principles of strict integrity ; he fulfilled to the let- ter every trust committed to him; he was generous in his feelings and conduct towards all. He was a Universalist in religious belief.
In the year 1831, Captain Ward mar- ried Isabella McCoy. Children by this marriage: John and Louise. After the death of his first wife, Captain Ward married Mary McCoy, her sister, by whom he had eight children: John, Madison, William, Blanche, Sally (Mrs. Thomas Fulton), Mary E. (Mrs. Thomas D. Ilodkinson), all deceased; Louise, George, Leonore (Mrs. Jaspar Lawman), Matilda (Mrs. Isaac Whitaker).
In the death of Captain William Ward, which occurred December 3, 1890, Pitts- burgh lost a man whose life was a happy illustration of the honors and rewards of business fidelity and industry, when combined with high principle and un- swerving integrity, he having accumu- lated property to the amount of three millions entirely through his own energy and talent. As a business man his char- acter was unclouded and unimpeachable. He had excellent judgment, and adhered with staunch consistency to sound, con- servative and unquestionable methods of finance. His name was known among the highest circles of the business world as that of a man who could be trusted and with whom it was a satisfaction to transact business. His private life was simple and unostentatious. He was in- terested in many charitable and benevo- lent enterprises, and liberal in his gifts
along the lines of religious and philan- thropic effort. His life teaches the old and ever valuable lesson that true suc- cess comes only through tireless indus- try, guided and inspired by singleness of purpose. It emphasizes also the price- less value of unswerving loyalty to right, and the assured rewards of exemplary living. Fortunate, indeed, is the city that has such men as the late Captain Wil- liam Ward as its exemplars.
SHENK, Harry Jacob,
Merchant, Man of Affairs.
Harry Jacob Shenk, junior partner in the well known drygoods firm of C. & H. J. Shenk, is one of the leading mer- chants of Lebanon, and is a man greatly interested in the progress and welfare of the city. He is a son of the late Henry Shenk, founder of the Shenk store, and was admitted into partnership with his uncle, Christian Shenk, after the latter had succeeded to the business. The junior partner has been well qualified to take upon himself the burden of en- larging the business by the introduction of many new lines, he having been con- nected with several of the largest and most extensive manufacturers of dress goods in the country, prior to his com- ing to Lebanon; for he is not a native of this place, though his family has been established here for generations.
He was born, August 18, 1870, in Phil- adelphia, where his father was then in business, and is a descendant of one of the oldest and most interesting families in this locality. John Shenk, or Schenck, as the name was originally spelled, the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Harry J. Shenk, was one of the first pioneers of Lebanon county, coming to this section some time previous to the Revolutionary War, and founding the Shenk homestead in Heidelberg township, Lebanon county, which place is now owned by Mr. Jo- .
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seph Brubaker. The old mansion still stands, and is one of the finest resi- dences in the valley. The original name of the place, which is situated some seven miles southeast of the city of Lebanon, was Buffalo Springs. The family traces its ancestry to Holland, the first immi- grants to this country coming over dur- ing the seventeenth century.
John Shenk's son Joseph, born October 12, 1779, was one of the earliest Lebanon county farmers. He married, October 17, 1802, Fannie Ober, of Mastersonville, Lancaster county, and they had eighteen children, namely: John, Barbara, Jacob, Elizabeth, Henry, Mary, Fannie, Joseph, Mary, Molly, Catherine, Anna, Rebecca, John, Sarah, Lydia, Susanna, and one unnamed. At the death of Mrs. Shenk, April 23, 1856, there were living eighty grandchildren and thirty-two great- grandchildren. Of the children above named, the third child, Jacob, born in 1806, became the father of Mr. Henry Shenk. He was a resident of Lebanon county all his life, working hard upon Henry Shenk, the eldest son of Jacob Shenk and the father of Mr. Harry J. Shenk, remained on the farm until he was eighteen years of age, receiving an ex- cellent education in the public schools and doing good work at home on the old place. He entered business life as a clerk in a general store in Berks county, whither he went when he decided to make his own way in the world. He was industrious, prudent and enterprising, and by hard work and economy was en- abled to save about three hundred dollars during the period in which he was thus engaged. In 1851 he used this capital in opening a store for himself at Ham- lin, in Lebanon county, which he very successfully conducted for about six years. He then sold out and came to Lebanon, where he engaged as a clerk with George & Pile, and continued with them for about two years. In 1859, how- the farm, and becoming in later years one of the successful and progressive farmers in this region. In early man- hood he married Magdalena Miller, and they had eiglit children: Henry, the father of the present Mr. Shenk; Joseph and Fannie, who are now deceased; John, also deceased, lived in Illinois ; Christian, the senior member of the Shenk drygoods firm, in Lebanon; Cath- erine, who is married to Abraham Ober- holtzer, of Lebanon; Jacob M., who is living in retirement in Lebanon; and Michael, the youngest, who is also liv- ing in this city. Jacob Shenk, the father of these children, who died in the year 1874, was a man of great ability and a member of the Republican party. He be- longed to the Reformed Church and was an upright man and Christian gentle- man. Jacob M. Shenk, the next to the youngest son, before his retirement was ever, he again went into business for
a prominent citizen and capitalist of Lebanon. He was born in 1847 on the old place in Heidelberg township, and was reared on the farm, receiving a good education. In 1868 he came to Lebanon and entered his brother's store, where he remained for a year. He then went west, and at Sterling, Illinois, became a mem- ber of the drygoods firm of Edson, Shenk & Martin. In 1873 he returned to Lebanon, became associated with his brother Christian in the drygoods, queensware and carpet business, and con- tinued thus for ten years when he dis- posed of his interest in the drygoods department. He became identified with many of the principal industries and en- terprises of Lebanon in various capaci- ties, as founder, director, or officer; was prominent in the Republican party, and was an important servant of the State in council and convention. He married Lydia, daughter of Daniel Stichter; they had one daughter who is now deceased. The mother also died many years ago.
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himself, purchasing the stock of Reizen- stein & Brother, and opening a clothing store. After conducting this business for three years, he sold out his stock of clothing, and established a drygoods store, which he conducted very success- fully for a while and then sold out to his brother Christian, who had been as- sociated with him in the business for several years.
Henry Shenk then removed to Phila- delphia and became connected with the firm of Hood, Bonbright & Company, and so remunerative and congenial was this engagement that he remained with the firm for ten years. At the end of this time, having accumulated consider- able capital, he associated himself with a Mr. Hall, and opened a wholesale dry goods store in Philadelphia, under the name of Hall, Shenk & Company. For eight years he continued in this business, which proved a successful one, and then he retired from active life altogether, re- turning to Lebanon, where he passed his remaining years. He became prominent in public life here and was always in- terested in the progress and betterment of the city. He died on December 23, 1903, greatly beloved and respected. In January, 1851, about the time that Mr. Henry Shenk first went into business for himself in Hamlin, Lebanon county, he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Groh, a resident of the same county. She was born in 1830, and died in 1896; having four children, three of whom grew to maturity. They were Mary and Catherine, now deceased; and Harry Jacob, the present junior partner of the Shenk dry goods firm. Henry Shenk was a member of the old Lutheran church at Lebanon, was a Republican in his political views, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was an exceptionally well preserved man for his years, and possessed a remark- able memory to the last.
Harry Jacob Shenk, who was born during his father's sojourn in Philadel- phia, received his education in the pub- lic schools there, and afterwards at- tended Pierce's Business College. After the completion of his studies he entered the dry goods business, and was con- nected with some of the leading manu- facturers of dress trimmings. The ex- perience which he acquired in his deal- ings with the great mercantile establislı- ments in the country admirably equipped him to handle the retail end of the busi- ness when, in the year 1901, he was taken into partnership by his uncle, Christian Shenk, who had succeeded to the estab- lishment in Lebanon. The name of the firm then changed to C. and II. J. Shenk, the business was revivified, several de- partments were enlarged, and from then onward the store has been conducted along the latest lines, and so successfully that it furnishes a most favorable com- parison with the larger metropolitan con- cerns.
Christian Shenk, the present senior member of the firm, is a younger brother of the late Henry Shenk, having been born in the year 1836, at the old Shenk homestead. His earlier education at the schools of the district, the State Normal School at Millersville, and a private school at Hagerstown, Maryland, was supplemented by a course at the Busi- ness College of Poughkeepsie, New York. After this, in 1864, he became a salesman for the Philadelphia firm of Riddle, Gill & Company, and then be- came connected with Hood, Bonbright & Company, of the same city. In 1869 he returned to Lebanon, and entered his brother's store, was taken into the busi- ness in 1871, and shortly afterwards be- came the sole proprietor, when Henry Shenk removed to Philadelphia. He con- ducted the store alone until the year 1901, when Harry J. Shenk was taken into the partnership. Christian Shenk
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has been very active in local affairs out- the Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and side of his business duties, and has been Protective Order of Elks, being a trustee of the latter. at various times closely associated with many of the leading enterprises of the city. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Lebanon County Historical Society, the Pennsyl- vania German Society, etc., and is a di- rector of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua. He is also a trustee and member of St. John's Reformed Church. As a mer- chant and business man he has been in the front rank of Lebanon's most dis- tinguished citizens.
Upon Mr. Harry J. Shenk's active en- trance into the firm the business was con- ducted with new impetus. His popu- larity in the community, of which the family have been members for so many years, is due as much to his own per- sonality as to traditional feeling, and the patronage of the store has been largely increased. The excellent reputation which the firm has enjoyed in this and adjoining counties has been greatly ad- vanced, and additional stability bestowed upon the oldest and most prominent dry goods firm in this city. In addition to his reputation as an enterprising busi- ness man, Harry J. Shenk has acquired eminence in public, civic and social af- fairs. He has the welfare of the city and community keenly at heart, and is a member of the Lebanon Business Men's Association, the Lebanon Board of Trade, and the Pennsylvania Chautau- qua, of the latter of which he is also treasurer and director. He is a member of the Lebanon County Historical Soci- ety, the Pennsylvania German Society, the Pennsylvania Society of New York, the Travelers Protective Association, and the Lebanon and Steitz clubs; also a director of the Lebanon Mutual Fire In- surance Company, and is serving in the city council and on the school board. Mr. Shenk is also a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the Mystic Shrine,
On November 16, 1892, Mr. Shenk was married in Philadelphia to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Beaumont Hempstead, daughter of Robert and Ida Elizabeth (McFadden) Beaumont. Mrs. Beau- mont later married De Los Balch Hemp- stead, and the daughter bore the sur- name of her step-father. Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Shenk have three children, as follows: Henry De Los Shenk, born March 11, 1895; Beatrice Elizabeth Shenk, born September 11, 1900; and Christine Ida Shenk, born January 10, 1904. Mr. Shenk is an elder in the Salem Lutheran Church, his family all being members of St. John's Reformed Church. They occupy as well known and promi- nent a position in church and social cir- cles as does Mr. Shenk in business and commercial life.
MILLER, John Henry,
Financier, Insurance Underwriter.
John Henry Miller, one of the public- spirited and prominent citizens of Leb- anon, has been in the insurance business in this city for the last fifty-two years, and is connected with almost all of the great fire insurance companies of the country. He is the city's chief authority upon all such matters, as he is indeed upon many other subjects and enter- prises, having been associated with the promotion and organization of a great number of the leading financial, indus- trial and social institutions of this place. His life has been influential and helpful along many lines, and he has been ac- tively engaged in other interests prior to his connection with insurance matters, in all of which he has shown the capac- ity for mastery and successful adminis- tration.
Mr. Miller is the descendant of a long
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line of ancestors of German origin, the Henry, was born March 31, 1810; and first of whom to come to this country was was in early life a millwright, but in John Miller, who came from the Palatin- ate, on the Rhine, in the year 1729. He was one of a hundred and eighty passen- gers who sailed from Rotterdam in the ship "Mortonhouse," of which James Coultas was master. The vessel touched at Deal, England, and was cleared June 21, 1729, arriving at Philadelphia in Aug- ust of the same year ; on the nineteenth of this month the passengers signed a declaration of their allegiance to the King of England, George II. They settled among the Indians in the wilderness, about seventy-five miles west of Phila- delphia, in the section of the country now including Lebanon, Lancaster and Dauphin counties, Pennsylvania. The history of these Palatinates in Pennsyl- vania is of great interest and importance in the development of the country's many sided and cosmopolitan civiliza- tion, for they contributed to the sum- total of American citizenship a sober in- dustry, practical success and simple faith, which have made their names hon- ored and revered by the succeeding gen- erations, and at this day their descen- dants are to be found in all ranks and walks of life in this broad land.
Daniel Miller, the first descendant of John Miller of whom there is record, was born May 19, 1781, in West IIan- over township. Dauphin county, and died June 23, 1859. He was married to Cath- erine Ensminger, who was born Septem- ber 22, 1786, died September 7, 1861 ; and they had eleven children: John, Daniel, Henry, Elizabeth, Catherine, Peter, Mary, Adam, Susan, Christian, and David W. The family was large in size as well as in numbers, four of the sons being over six feet in height, and the daughters all tall women. It was also a remarkable family for longevity.
The third son, Henry Miller, who af- terwards became the father of John
later years a farmer, which vocation he adopted in order to secure employment for his children. He was a man of much influence in his community and one keenly interested in the political life of the nation. In politics he was at first a Whig, afterward becoming a Repub- lican, and at various times had the priv- ilege of voting for many of the great men of history. His first vote was cast for Henry Clay, in 1832; in 1840 he sup- ported General Harrison in his candi- dacy, and in 1888 voted for his grandson, Benjamin Harrison. In 1860, he voted for Abraham Lincoln, and from that time cast his ballot for every Republi- can candidate up to the time of McKin- ley, for whom he voted in 1900. He was, in 1885, elected director of the poor in Lebanon county, being then seventy- five years of age. His death occurred April 25, 1903, when he was but a few years under the century mark, his long career covering a period of many changes in public and commercial life, and usher- ing in new eras of invention and dis- covery. His wife, to whom he was mar- ried on April 4, 1833, was a Miss Sabina Tittle; she was born September 14, 1812, and died May 3, 1883, being seventy-one years of age at the time of her death. Beside John Henry, the eldest son, there were the following children: Catherine Anna, Mary Anna, David W., twins who died young, Daniel, Sabina, Emma Lydia, Jeremiah, John Adam, and Jennie Frances. After his wife's death Mr. Henry Miller passed the remaining twenty years of his life in the old home with his two daughters, Emma and Mrs. Jennie F. Shaak, and there terminated his long and useful career.
John Henry Miller was born March 3, 1834, on the old Daniel Miller farm in South Annville township, Lebanon coun- ty, about two miles south of the town of
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Annville. Ilis early boyhood days were passed on the farm, where he assisted his father, doing work also on other farms in North and South Annville and in East Hanover townships. Meanwhile, he attended the common schools of Leb- anon county, and later entered the Ann- ville Academy. After the completion of his studies he turned his attention to teaching, for which he found himself well qualified, although then only eigh- teen years of age. His first school was in Union district, after which he taught in North Annville, East Hanover and North Cornwall townships, completing five terms in all by adding two sessions in the city schools of Lebanon, to which place he came in 1858, teaching during 1861 and 1862. He also entered mercan- tile business here, and, in 1860, became connected with general insurance, in which he has continued with success ever since.
In 1860 he became secretary of the Washington Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and was in that year one of the organizers of the Lebanon County Mutual Live Stock Insurance Company, and has served continuously as its sec- retary and treasurer. This company, which covers loss by death and theft, confines its operations entirely to this county and is therefore strictly local; it is the oldest and most successful com- pany of its kind at present existing in Pennsylvania. Its president is Mr. C. V. Arnold, and of its original incorporators, who constituted its first board of direc- tors, Mr. Theodore B. Klein is the only one still living. Of the incorporators of the Washington Mutual Fire Insur- As a patriot in the dark years of war- fare between the States, Mr. Miller has also served his country faithfully and well; having been a corporal in Com- pany A, of the Eleventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Militia during that bitter period. He is now, and has been for ance Company who served as the first board of managers and first officers, J. Henry Miller is the sole survivor. It is a purely mutual company, confining its operations strictly to Lebanon county, and has paid almost $225,000 to its policy-holders during the period of its years, prominently identified with the
existence, covering losses and damages by fire and lightning; and at present it has nearly $5,000,000 worth of insurance in force.
The firm of J. IIenry Miller & Com- pany, of which Mr. Miller is senior part- ner, is the largest and most reliable in- surance and real estate agency in Leb- anon, with handsome offices at No. 812 Willow street. The assets of fire and liability companies represented are over $206,000,000, several of these companies having been continuously, for over a hundred years, in active and successful operation. Mr. Miller has been an in- fluential citizen in many other activities. In the year 1888 he assisted in organiz- ing the Lebanon Steam Company, and has been its treasurer continuously since its organization, and its secretary since 1893. He was instrumental in organiz- ing the Lebanon Market House Com- pany in 1890, of which he has been sec- retary and treasurer, resigning this office January, 1912. As far back as the year 1859 the Lebanon Cemetery Association claimed his attention and he assisted in its organization ; he was up to 1896 a di- rector, and its secretary. In the year 1894 he became one of the organizers of the North Lebanon Shoe Factory, one of the city's successful industries, and has been its president from the begin- ning. The Lebanon County Trust Com- pany, of whose finance committee he is chairman, was one of the latest of his successful efforts at organization, his at- tention having been given to it in the year 1902, and he has been a director ol this institution ever since.
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party of his political choice, in which he has exercised a wise and judicious lead- ership. He has been ward assessor and collector of taxes, and represented the Republican party in the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1877 and 1878. He was in the Lebanon Council for two terms, when the borough government existed, and was president of the last council before the form of government was changed to that of the city, he being largely instrumental in bringing about that change. Mr. Miller has also been a member of the school board for a num- ber of terms, manifesting a deep interest in the educational affairs of the city. He has been interested in Odd Fellowship and was formerly a member of the A. C. U. W., though he is not now connected with any secret society.
On August 17, 1855, he was married, at Lebanon, to Miss Rosanna Earley, a daughter of George and Catherine Earley, and a native of East Hanover, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, where she was born March 17, 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were the parents of the fol- lowing children: Luther Henry, born November 17, 1856, now deceased; Mary Alice, born November 23, 1858, now living at home; Charles Augustus, born Janu- ary 16, 1862, died at the age of thirteen months; Emma Elizabeth, born Septem- ber 10, 1864, married to John K. Royal, formerly city treasurer and now mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, having three children : J. Douglas, Donald and Elizabeth Royal; Lincoln Earley, born June 12, 1866, who is now a dentist at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, married to Lulu Slike and has two daughters, Margaret and Rosanna; Rosanna Jane, born Au- gust 31, 1870, who married W. H. Clark, of Lebanon, and has one daughter, Kathryn Clark.
Mr. Miller and his family have a wide circle of relatives in this community, his
ancestors having been residents of Leb- anon county for generations, and his father and grandfather both having left large families. David W. Miller, a younger brother, has been very active in the business and social life of Lebanon, a leader in its politics, and particularly in- terested in educational matters. He was for many years a teacher in the schools, fought during the Civil War in the Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was a member of the old firm, the Lebanon Lumber Company. This later became D. W. Miller & Company. David W. Miller died February, 1905, and the firm is now known as Miller Brothers, the partners having been David W. Miller's two sons, Dr. Charles Lincoln Miller, who died March, 1911, and Harry Mich- ael Miller, they being nephews of Mr. John Henry Miller. Both have been prominent and enterprising citizens, Dr. Miller especially having distinguished himself in the practice of his profession before his identification with the lumber business. The family are all interested in public affairs and are estimable and leading citizens.
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