USA > Pennsylvania > Lycoming County > Genealogical and personal history of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Volume I > Part 22
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a German both by birth and ancestry and a representative of one of the best types of naturalized citizens.
August Koch was born April Ist, 1807, in Wurzach, in Wurtem- berg, Germany, in early life attended the public schools, and when he grew to manhood enlisted in the German army for six years. While receiving his education he had been apprenticed to a millwright, and at an early age began taking contracts for the erection of flouring- mills, building some of the largest structures of this kind in Wurtem- berg, Bavaria, Baden and Hungary. After serving three years in the army it happened that the General wanted some buildings constructed and no one could be found who had the ability, so Mr. Koch received his discharge in order that he might be at liberty to superintend the work. With the profits which in the course of time accrued from his proficiency in his chosen trade he purchased a portion of an island on which stood an old cloth-mill. This mill he tore down and erected in its place a foundry and machine-shop. While engaged in this he was boring for water for his supply, and at a depth of about six hundred feet struck a mineral stream of great value. He immediately turned this to account by building a hotel and establishing baths which soon attracted an extensive patronage and became a source of much profit. When Germany, and indeed all continental Europe, was agitated by the revolutions of 1848, foreseeing the probability of being called upon for military service, he sold his property, and with a considerable sum of money, embarked for the United States. He landed in New York whence he proceeded to Reading, and after remaining there a short time moved to Wilkesbarre. Not liking the prospects in either of these cities, he went, about 1850, to Williamsport, and took up his abode in what is now the south side. There he bought four acres of land and es- tablished a brewery on so small a scale that it is said the product was de-
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livered to customers on a wheelbarrow. After some years he built a flour and grist mill, but when the city water-works were constructed his water-power was destroyed, in consequence of which he abandoned the mill and devoted his entire attention to brewing. He added two acres to the land he had already purchased and confined his labor to one kind of product, namely, lager beer, and succeeded in building up an extensive and flourishing business. His sons, as they reached manhood, were taken into the firm, the title of which became Koch & Sons. He was a good citizen and a Republican in politics.
Mr. Koch married Wilhelmina Ferber, also a native of Germany, and they were the parents of the following children: 1. August, men- tioned at length hereinafter. 2. Alvina, who became the wife of Anton Hart, and has five children: Edmund, who resides at Watkins, New York; William, who married and resides near Harrisburg; Albert F., who is a doctor in Williamsport; Minnie, who is the wife of George Mitchell, and has two children; and Annie, who married Harry Seaton, and resides in Washington, D. C. 3. Minnie. 4. Edmund G., who married Clara Fielmeyer, and has one daughter, Alvina, who is the wife of Dr. H. M. Ritter, and the mother of a son, Edmund Koch. The death of Mr. Koch occurred May 10th, 1873, in Philadelphia, where he was under medical treatment for an affection of the throat. His life is a sermon on the text "despise not the day of small things," and a lesson on the possibilities of a man who never fails to avail himself of an opportunity and who seeks success by just and lawful means, rear- ing the fabric of his fortune on the sure foundation of integrity.
August Koch, eldest child of August and Wilhelmina (Ferber) Koch, was born in 1837, in Germany, and was eleven years of age when brought by his parents to the United States. After the completion of his education he assisted his father in the business and was soon pro-
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moted to the position of superintendent. Subsequently he and his brother, Edmund G., were admitted to the firm. After the death of his father the title was changed from that of Koch & Sons to that of the Koch Brewing Company, with August, Junior, as president, Edmund G., vice-president and Edmund Victor, secretary and treasurer. The company produces ten thousand barrels a year, for which it finds a ready market in every part of the country. Mr. Koch is an enthusiastic stu- dent of natural history, and for many years has devoted himself with special zeal to ornithology. His love for this branch of science de- veloped in his boyhood, before he left his native land, when he occu- pied his spare time in stuffing and mounting birds. He now has the finest collection of mounted stuffed birds belonging to any private indi- vidual in the United States, many of his specimens being now out of existence. He has a fine fire-proof building on his place for the pres- ervation of his treasures. He is a member of several European scien- tific societies, also all of the principal ones in the United States, and maintains a constant correspondence with savants in various parts of the world. Though feeling the interest of a good citizen in all that con- cerns the public welfare, Mr. Koch has never mingled in politics. He and his brother are Democrats.
Mr. Koch married, in 1861, Sarah E., daughter of Daniel Wise, of Lycoming county, and the following children have been born to them : I. Edmund Victor, who married Annie Luppert, and is mentioned above as a member of the Koch Brewing Company. 2. Laura M., who is the wife of Elmer Hiestand and has two sons, Harry and Edmund. 3. Ida, who married Dr. Alexander Allen. 4. Clara, who became the wife of Amasa Ball, and has since died, leaving one son, August Koch Ball. 5. Harry, who died aged nineteen years.
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WALTER C. GILMORE.
Walter C. Gilmore, of Williamsport, a leading member of the bar of Lycoming county, is a representative of that class of men who win success through well directed energy, steadfast purpose and indefatigable effort. He is a man of broad and comprehensive views, and his per- sonality has been felt in the community among whom he has resided for so many years. A scholar of high attainments, he acquitted himself most creditably as an educator before he entered upon the legal pro- fession, giving evidence that he would have risen to distinction in edu- cational circles had he devoted himself to instruction as his life work.
A native of Lycoming county, he was born in Eldred township, November 26, 1859, son of John and Rachel ( Willits) Gilmore, and descended from an honorable Scotch-Irish ancestry. The name Gill- more, or Gillsmore, is Scotch, and means shield-bearer. In the mar- riage certificate of John Gilmore, father of Walter C. Gilmore, the name is spelled Gillmore, and thus he kept the family record in his own handwriting until 1859, when some other hand took up the record, and the final "1" was dropped. It is safe to say that all the Gilmores in this ancestry are of Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent, whether the name is spelled with the single "1" or two. All no doubt spring from one common stock or clan, whether blood relations or not, the pibroch of whose chief was worth more than a thousand men.
The Gilmore family in America was planted by Thomas Gilmore, who was born in Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch parentage. Thomas Gil- more came to America and settled in New Hampshire. In 1775, the first year of the Revolutionary war, he enlisted in the patriot army as a private in Captain Town's company, Colonel Gilman's regiment, for one year's service, and on the expiration of his term of enlistment at
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once enrolled himself for two years in Captain Fairwell's company in the same regiment, commanded in turn by Colonels James Reed and Joseph Tilley. He participated in the most eventful campaigns and hotly contested battles of that stirring period, including the engagement at Three Rivers, the battle of Trenton, the operations in New York which resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne, the historic battle of Mon- mouth, and General Sullivan's expedition. He acquitted himself with courage and fidelity and was honorably discharged at Pompton, New Jersey, in the autumn of 1779. In the following year he settled at Berwick, Pennsylvania, where he passed the remainder of his life. Hc was a member of the Lutheran church. He married Rachel Young, a daughter of Nicholas and Rachel Young, her father being a German and her mother an English Quakeress. During the Revolution they lived near Lake Poponoming, Monroe county. The wife of Thomas Gilmore was born on the farm which her father, Nicholas Young, bought as early as 1753, and where John Young, a lineal descendant, still lives.
Thomas and Rachel (Young) Gilmore were the parents of five children: 1. George, who married and spent the greater part of his life at Sackets Harbor, New York, and who died there about 1830 or 1831, leaving a host of kindred who still live near there. 2. Daniel, who mar- ried a Miss Houser, of Northampton county. He followed farming, and lived near Northumberland, Pennsylvania. 3. John, who remained a bachelor, spending his latter days with Colonel Weaver in Rock River Valley, Illinois. He saw much of the world in his day. He was a ship carpenter by trade, a soldier in the war of 1812, and finally an undertaker in Illinois. There were also two daughters, one of whom married Andrew Appel, in 1807; the other, Margaret, married John Eckert, a farmer. Andrew Appel and John Eckert lived near each other in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and both left large families and
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numerous other kindred to survive them. Especially may it be said that the descendants of Andrew Appel fill a large place in the religious and professional life of Pennsylvania. Rev. Dr. Theodore Appel and Rev. Thomas Appel were for years connected with the work of the Reformed church at Lancaster, and with Franklin and Marshall College. They were sons of Andrew Appel. Many lawyers, doctors, ministers and bright men in other walks of life are of this family.
John Gilmore, father of Walter C. Gilmore, was born in 1814, near Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He was reared a farmer, and early learned the trade of hatter. When he had mastered the latter calling, with his two brothers he became a stage driver and followed that occu- pation until canal packets superseded the stage. About 1850 he bought a farm in Eldred township and moved upon it with his family, after- ward moving to Hepburn township and to another farm which he had purchased. His education was not from schools, but of his own gath- ering. He was a great reader, and kept abreast of the events of the day. He was a member of the Evangelical church, a Democrat in politics, and was often honored with local offices, such as school director, overseer, collector, etc. October 25, 1842, he married Rachel Willits, who was born near Warrensville, Pennsylvania, in 1826. She was of English ancestry, of Revolutionary stock, having some Quaker for- bears, and was of a decidedly intellectual turn. Her father taught school in the early twenties, and died at his school teacher's desk when but a young man, leaving a number of very small children. The three Gilmore brothers, Joseph, George and John, lived in or near Williams- port from the thirties, Joseph and George being residents of that city at their deaths. All their families have always been closely identified with the progress of the city.
Walter C. Gilmore was educated in the common schools of Lycom-
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ing county, at Lycoming Normal School at Muncy, Pennsylvania, and at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. At college he received the English prize, the Shakespeare Society prize, and was valedictorian of his class at graduation. He gave himself for some years to educational work, and with marked success. He taught one year ( 1884-85) in Lenox Academy, Lenox, Massachusetts, and was principal of the Will- iamsport High School for two years ( 1885-86). He read law in the office of Hon. Robert P. Allen, and was admitted to the bar of Lycom- ing county, July 2, 1887, since which time he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession, making a specialty of practice in the orphans' court. He was district attorney of Lycoming county, 1890- 1893. He has always given his aid to all public measures having for their object the welfare of the community, and has ever given his influ- ence in behalf of all its interests, material and moral. He is particu- larly interested in educational affairs, serving as a member of the school board in the eighth ward for three years, and now serving in his fifth year as solicitor of the board. Mr. Gilmore is staunch in his advocacy of the principles of Democracy, and for two years creditably and effi- ciently conducted the transactions of the Democratic county committee in the capacity of chairman. He has attained high rank in the Masonic fraternity, affiliated with Williamsport Lodge No. 106, F. and A. M., in which he is a past master; Lycoming Chapter, R. A. M .; Baldwin I Commandery, Knights Templar, in which he is captain-general; and Adoniram Council-all of the York Rite; and with the Scottish Rite bodies up to and including the thirty-second degree; and is a member of Howard Club of Knights Templar, of which he has been secretary since 1902. In 1878-79 he was a member of Company D, Twelfth Regi- ment, National Guard of Pennsylvania.
October 6, 1884, Mr. Gilmore married Miss Jennie Rentz, a daugh-
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ter of Charles A. and Sarah Rentz. She was educated in the common schools and high school at Danville, Pennsylvania, and the Lycoming Normal School. To Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore were born three children : I. Charles Edmund, born July 2, 1885 ; he graduated from the Williams- port high school in 1904, and is now pursuing his studies in Lafayette College, class of 1908. 2. Anna, born November 24, 1887, who is at- tending the Williamsport high school, class of 1906. 3. Helen, born January 12, 1889, died March 18, 1903. The family are communicants of St. Paul's Lutheran church, taking an active part in the work con- nected therewith. Mr. Gilmore has for many years served as deacon, and was a delegate to the general synod at Mansfield, Ohio. Mrs. Gil- more is president of the Ladies Aid Society of the church, and is also filling her second year as president of the Ladies' Auxiliary of Baldwin I Commandery. The family of Mr. Gilmore enjoys the friendship of a wide circle of friends, and their home is known for its generous but un- pretentious hospitality.
G. FRANKLIN BELL, M. D.
Dr. G. Franklin Bell, a graduate from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Maryland, and one of the prominent and rep- resentative members of the profession in the city of Williamsport, where he has been engaged in active practice since 1886, is the fifth child in order of birth in the family of Stephen and Amelia (Litzelman) Bell, the former a native of Frankfort, Germany, and the latter of Cherry township, Sullivan county, Pennsylvania. Stephen Bell ( father) was one of the pioneer millwrights in Lycoming county, erected many of its oldest mills, and conducted an extensive and remunerative business. He was a staunch adherent of the principles of Democracy, casting his vote for the candidates of that party since he became a citizen of the
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United States, and was the incumbent of several political offices in Mifflin township, where he took up his abode.
G. Franklin Bell acquired his rudimentary education in the public schools of Salladasburg, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, where he was born September 27, 1860, and later for one year pursued advanced studies at Dickinson Seminary and for two years at the Muncy Normal School. He subsequently taught for three years in Mifflin township, a vocation for which he was well qualified both by education and dispo- sition. He began the study of medicine with Dr. Thomas W. Meckley, of Jersey Shore, and graduated from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1885. He began the practice of his profession in Cogan House township, and continued until the fall of 1886, when he came to Williamsport and opened an office in Newberry, where he has since been engaged in the active duties of his chosen calling. In 1887 he was elected coroner of Lycoming county, re-elected in 1890, and for three years was a member of the Williamsport board of health. He is one of the chief general surgeons of the Williamsport Hospital, and has been ever since the hospital was established. He is a member of the Lycoming County Medical Society, and was a member of its board of censors for two years; a member of the State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, and was a delegate to the medical convention held at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1890, and the American Medical Association held at Portland, Oregon, 1905. The work of Dr. Bell in both his professional and public career has been prosecuted and carried out in an intelligent manner, and in the best interests of the whole community.
Dr. Bell married, July 23, 1885, Minnie J. Thomas, daughter of the late John M. Thomas, of Millville, Pennsylvania. Their children are: Stephen Roscoe, Warren Dalton and Lalla C. Bell.
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ISAAC BARTON.
Isaac Barton, vice-president and superintendent of the Keeler Com- pany of Williamsport, is numbered among the oldest and most promi- nent of the ironmasters in the state, his useful activity having extended over the long period of a half century. During this time he has wit- nessed an entire revolution of working methods and the introduction of various improved types of boilers as they supplanted each other from time to time, and he has been a prime factor in the industry at all stages of its development. An accomplished mechanic, he is at the same time possessed of those larger business qualifications and traits of personal character which mark the ideal citizen, and which have endeared him to all with whom he has been at any time associated. The story of his career is of peculiar interest, exemplifying, as it does, a life of such toil and persistent endeavor as is seldom experienced, but which bears splen- did fruit in the formation of a sterling type of character, and accom- plishments of the highest value to the community at large.
Mr. Barton is a native Pennsylvanian, born in Berks county, May 2, 1838, the only child of Isaac and Mary Ann (Maitland) Barton. The father was the village blacksmith and general mechanic, and was, more- over, a man of strong character, who took an active part in all community affairs, and was a devout Christian, as was his wife.
The son, Isaac, was left fatherless by death when he was only two years old, and was taken into the home of his great-grandfather, John McGowan, in Union township, Berks county. He was there cared for, reared to habits of industry, performing such labor as he was capable, and attending the poorly equipped schools of that day until he was eleven years old. Mr. McGowan dying at this time, the lad came under the care of his grandmother, Martha Maitland, and from this time on he
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earned his own living. His protector almost immediately removed to Reading, and there he worked the first summer on the canal towpath. Large for his age, he was then entrusted with the duties of mail carrier between Reading and Phoenixville, making his journey of thirty miles on horseback every day except Sunday. So faithful was he and so heedless of exposure or fatigue that during a period of two years he did not miss a single trip. In 1854, when fifteen years old, he was appren- ticed to Thomas, Corson & West, boilermakers at Norristown, in whose establishment was his relative, Thomas Maitland, who had charge of the department to which the young workman was assigned. Having mastered his trade he worked as a journeyman in various parts of the country-in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the south. He was in Memphis, Tennessee, when the rebellion broke out, and his sturdy pa- triotism moved him to leave a region where treason ran rampant. Re- turning to the north, he took employment in the shops of the Dixon Manufacturing Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he found as fellow workmen his former foreman, Thomas Maitland, and his brother William.
October 1, 1864, Mr. Barton came to Williamsport, which was des- tined to be thenceforward the scene of his life work. While apprentice and journeyman he had devoted his spare hours to the study of me- chanics and kindred subjects, and the knowledge which he had acquired, with his mechanical skill, afforded him ample equipment for entering upon a career of his own. He, with the two Maitlands before men- tioned and Joseph Heathcote, opened a boiler shop on the site of the present Williamsport Machine Company's plant. He well combined the abilities of the business man with those of the mechanic, and he was made superintendent. Originally known as the firm of J. Heathcote & Company, the works were continued on the first location until 1868, when
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they were removed to the site now occupied by the E. Keeler Company, which was organized in 1878, and which was incorporated in 1890. This at present is officered as follows: C. LaRue Munson, president ; Isaac Barton, vice-president; S. A. Corson, secretary ; F. T. Moore, treasurer ; I. B. Maitland, general manager; W. E. Gray, assistant man- ager.
The history of this company is in large part that of Mr. Barton, who directed its affairs through various critical periods, and even saved it from extinction. Its establishment cost a heroic struggle to begin with. At the outset Mr. Barton laid down as a foundation rule that it was better to hold the goods of the company in stock than to take risk by selling them to customers who would burden the company with poor book accounts. He was not, however, permitted to carry his ideas into effect, and in a short time after its entering upon business it found itself indebted to two of the local banks in the sum of $27,000 entailing the payment of a large interest account. This was too heavy a burden to be borne, and, notwithstanding the creditors extended every possible len- iency, the company was finally obliged to confess failure, the banks as- suming its paper and taking a collateral judgment against its property. This disaster, it is to be said, might have been avoided had it not been that during the financial panic of 1873 the company incurred a loss of $12,000 on bad debts of which it could collect but seven hundred dollars. Another event which entered into the failure was an experiment on the part of one of the partners of Mr. Barton, who in 1878 became impressed with the idea that money was to be made out of petroleum, and who undertook to liquidate the affairs of the company with oil-an experi- ment which was entirely disastrous. To the time of the failure of the Heathcote Company Miss Ella Keeler was bookkeeper, and had become familiar with all the details of the business, and when the property of
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the company was brought to sheriff's sale it was bought in her name. At this juncture William Rhoades, of Philadelphia, who reposed the utmost confidence in Mr. Barton, extended to him the privilege of draw- ing upon him to the extent of $10,000, and upon this capital the Keeler Company made its beginning. With this pecuniary aid also came en- couragement of another sort which was almost as helpful. There were friends enough who had implicit confidence in Mr. Barton, such as Pro- fessor Davis, who remarked that " that man did not know how to achieve success until he had once failed." At another unpropitious moment, an- other friend of Mr. Barton, George W. Sands, extended timely aid by associating himself with him. As soon as the company was once estab- lished it unexpectedly received an order for six boilers, and before these were completed other orders came, and the business gradually developed into its present large proportions. At the first hand work only was em- ployed, but Mr. Barton and his colleagues were quick to accept improve- ments, and introduced every practicable innovation as it appeared. It is also worthy of note, as a contrast to the methods of to-day, that Mr. Barton and his early partners bore their relations to each other without written contract or agreement, relying implicitly upon each other's un- supported verbal assurance. Mr. Barton has witnessed the growth of - the business of which he was the prime founder, until, through various additions, the property of the company has come to cover all the ground between West Third street and the canal, and the company is known throughout the length and breadth of the land as one of the largest boiler makers in America.
Mr. Barton's long connection with the business epitomized above was fittingly celebrated on October 1, 1904, a date which signalized the fiftieth anniversary of his beginning with it. He was surprised by a summons to the boiler room of the Keeler Company's works, where he
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