USA > Pennsylvania > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Vol. II > Part 47
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Elias Bittner, youngest child of Jacob and Sarah Bittner, worked on the paternal farm until fifteen years of age, when his father hired him out for a year to a New Jersey farmer as a farm hand, but principally to learn to speak English, which in that locality was not even spoken in schools. From the age of sixteen to twenty he clerked in the store of Owen Hunsicker at Newside. For the five years following he was associated as partner with Owen Hunsicker, at Jordan, Pennsylvania, in a hotel and general store. After the death of Mr. Hunsicker the bus- iness was continued by Elias Bittner and his brother, Peter Bittner, for ten years, and at tl expiration of this period of time Elias sold out his interest to his brother. He then engaged in the retail dry goods and grocery business with the sons of his former partner, Owen Hunsicker, under the firm name of Bittner & Hunsicker Bros., at 813 Hamilton street, Allentown, Penn- sylvania. Later they removed to 805 Hamilton street, where they discontinued the grocery busi- ness. In 1880 they removed to 729 Hamilton street, and in 1888 began an exclusive wholesale dry goods business. Henry Hunsicker then re- tired, and Frank D. Bittner was admitted to the firm. From there they moved to 16 and 18 North Seventh street, and still later to 23 and 25 Nor:] Seventh street, where they are now located, hav- ing grown to be one of the largest wholesale dry goods concerns in the state outside of Philadel- phia or Pittsburg.
For three years Elias Bittner was a director of the Allentown National Bank; from 1895 to 1902 was director of the poor of Lehigh county, having been twice elected and once appointed by court to fill an unexpired term. For the past ten years he has been president of the Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Of late years l'e has retired from business, and now looks after
his real estate exclusively. Through good and poor times his faith in Allentown real estate never wavered, as his constant building opera- tions attest.
On September 11, 1857, Mr. Bittner was mar- ried to Mary Ann Miller, daughter of George Miller, who passed away on January 18, 1904. Three sons were born to them, namely : I. Frank D., mentioned hereinafter. 2. George E., born October 13, 1862, who married Kate E. Croll, and their children are: Alfred, born December 3, 1888, died June 8, 1891 ; Mary E., born August 17, 1887, died May 3, 1903 ; Edna A., born Oc- tober 30, 1893, died April 9, 1896; and Helen C., born April 7, 1899. 3. Dr. Albert J., born June 14, 1869, who married Martha M. Runyon, daughter of Charles W. and Sarah Runyon, of Bloomsburg, June 6, 1898. Their children are : Mark R., born May 30, 1900: Margaret E., born April 17, 1902; and Robert E., born August 25, 1903.
Frank D. Bittner was born in Lynn town- ship. He spent his boyhood days at Pleas- ant Corner, and at the age of fifteen came to Allentown, Pennsylvania. He attended the district school at Pleasant Corner, the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania, the Key- stone State Normal School at Kutztown, Penn- sylvania, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Penn- sylvania, and Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. He then returned to Allentown, and for ten years was employed as bookkeeper for the firm of Bittner & Hunsicker Bros. Subsequently he became a member of the firm as stated above, taking charge of the finances and also purchasing the dry goods. He is an intelligent and successful man of affairs and performs all the duties of life in a highly crer1 itable and commendable manner. He was one of the organizers and is now a director of the Mer- chants' National Bank. He has been actively identified with St. Michel's Lutheran church since its organization, represented it at their meetings at the synod many times, and served as super- intendent of the Sunday school connected there- with for a number of years. At the present time (1904) he is connected with Christ's Lu-
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theran church of Allentown. He is a director of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mount Airy, Pennsylvania. Politically, he is a Demo- crat.
Mr. Bittner married Emma R. Person, June 29, 1879, and their children are : M. Cena, born November 12, 1881, now the wife of Louis R. Albright, and mother of one child: Dorothy Louise, born March 7, 1904; Florence R., born June 30, 1882; Warren E., born January 26. 1885 ; Alma M., born May 21, 1893; and Paul F., born May 9, 1896.
REV. JACOB STEINHAEUSER, D. D., for a period of almost ten years pastor of St. Michael's Lutheran church of Allentown, was born in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1850, a son of Conrad and Ursula (Yauch) Stein- haeuser. His parents were natives of Germany,. the father coming to America in 1846 and the mother in 1847. They were married in the Uni- ted States and established their home in Roches- ter. They were the parents of fifteen children, of whom four are living at this writing in 1904: Elizabeth, who married Conrad Hiltebrant, and had four children-Elizabeth, Ray, Stephen D., and Clarence. William S., who married Louise Miller. Agnes, who married Delbert Marsielj, by whom she had three children-Florence, Del- bert, Jr., and Arthur. Margaret, who married Stephen Kendall, and had two children, George and Edna.
Jacob Steinhaeuser obtained his carly educa- tion in parochial schools, afterward became a student in the public schools of Rochester, and subsequently attended the academy of Rochester. He was next sent to Hartwick Seminary in Ot- sego county, New York, the oldest Lutheran seminary in this country. When he had com- pleted his course of study there he went to New York city and matriculated in St. Matthew's Ger- man-American Academy, and completed his edu- cation in the Philadelphia Seminary, where he was graduated in the class of '75. His studies had been pursued with a view to entering the ministry, for he had determined to devote his life
to that calling. His first charge was the Lutheran church in Boonville, New York, where he re- mained as pastor for two years. He then went to Cohocton, where he also spent two years, and afterward was pastor of the Lutheran church at Kingston on the Hudson for ten and a half years, 1878-1888. On the expiration of that period he returned to Rochester to accept the presidency of Wagner Memorial Lutheran College, remaining: at the head of that institution for six and a half years. In 1894 he accepted a call to Allentown, and for almost ten years, or up to the time of his death, was pastor of St. Michael's Lutheran church. In this work he was ably assisted by his eldest son, Albert. Since 1895 he also filled the chair of Hebrew in Muhlenberg College, which institution conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1902.
Rev. Jacob Steinhaeuser, D. D., was married August 19, 1875, to Marie C. Becker, of Buffalo, New York, a daughter of Philip B. and Marie (Wingert) Becker, of that city. Her parents had a family of five children : Philip, Jr., who mar- ried Caroline Wendt; Marie, the widow of our subject ; Rev. Theodore H., of Buffalo; he mar- ried Sophia Goembel, by whom he has five chil- dren-Otto, Theodore, Jr., Emma, Julia, and Alexander ; Emma, who married Gustav Klein- dinst, and they have two children, Gertrude M., and Harry G .; and Anna, who married Elias Haffa, by whom she has one child, Elsa. Rev. and Mrs. Steinhaeuser have seven children. Al- bert, who was educated in Rondout, New York, graduated from Wagner College at Rochester, 1894, pursued a post-graduate course in the Uni- versity of Rochester, and finished at Mount Airy, Pennsylvania, in 1898. His first pastoral charge was in New Holland ( 1899-1903), from where he was called in 1903 to become his father's assistant in St. Michael's. The other children are : Walter P., Elsa M., Arthur F., Hilda E., Alma L., and Elmer D.
The Rev. Dr. Steinhaeuser was suddenly called home on Sunday, September 25, 1904. He had suffered three strokes of paralysis during an interval of eight years, but had recovered a large
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measure of his former good health, when unex- pectedly, in the midst of a sermon he was preach- ing on Ephesians 4, 1-6, the last and fatal stroke descended. He was rendered unconscious at once, and practically died in his pulpit, proclaiming the message of life, going from the Word of God to the God of the Word. His son and assistant led him from the chancel, and on the strong shoulders of members of his church council he was carried to his home, where death released him within two hours. His sudden death was a severe shock to .his family and congregation as well as to the en- tire community and the Lutheran church at large. Messages of condolence came pouring in from near and far. The funeral, held September 30, iin St. Michael's church, was one of the largest ever held in Allentown, and the floral tributes were many and magnificent. In beautiful Fair- view Cemetery, near Allentown, his mortal part awaits the glorous resurrection of the just. His memory as husband, father, pastor, educator and friend will ever be blessed. His works do follow him.
HON. EDWIN ALBRIGHT, lawyer, legis- lator and jurist, was for forty years a member of the bar of Allentown, and gained a most notable position as a representative of the profession in the Lehigh valley, leaving the impress of his in- dividuality upon its legal history of eastern Penn- sylvania, while in the memories of his contempo- raries he lives encircled with the halo of a gra- cious presence, charming personality, profound legal wisdom, purity of public and private life and the quiet dignity of an ideal follower of his calling.
Judge Albright was born in Lower Milford, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1838, and was of Saxon and English ancestry. The Albright fam- ily was established in Pennsylvania during the colonial epoch in the history of the country, and John and Elizabeth (Hensel) Albright, the grand- parents of Edwin Albright, were residents of Philadelphia. The former died when his son Michael H. Albright was but seven years of age, and the mother afterward married John Ruch, of
Plover, Lehigh county, who was the owner of a farm of one hundred and twenty-eight acres. The death of Mrs. Ruch occurred in 1858, when she was eighty years of age.
Michael H. Albright was born in Philadelphia, and for many years devoted his energies to agri- cultural pursuits in Lower Milford. He mar- ried Maria Schaeffer, who was also born in Lower Milford township, and was a daughter of Abra- ham Schaeffer, an early settler of that locality. Michael H. Albright removed with his family to Dillingersville, where he resided for many years and in public office rendered valuable service to his fellow townsmen. He served as a member of the school board for ten years, and in 1860 be- came justice of the peace, acting in that capacity until 1873, when he removed to Allentown, where his remaining days were passed, his death here occurring June 16, 1892, when he was eighty-one years of age. His wife died July 17, 1894, at the age of eighty-four years. For fifty-nine years they had traveled life's journey together, and had reared a family of ten children, of whom four are yet living : William H., who was con- nected with the "Daily City Item," of Allentown, and died in June, 1904; A. Eliza, the widow cf Henry Moyer, and a resident of Allentown ; Frank, a practicing physician ; Mrs. Israel Wam- bold; and Mrs. Henry Ackerman, of Philadel- phia. Those who have departed this life are John, who was a physician of Philadelphia ; Angeline, of the same city ; George, of Pennsburg, Pennsyl- vania ; Henry, of Dillingersville, who was a twin brother of William, and William H., who recently died as before stated.
Judge Albright, like the other members of the family, spent the days of his childhood and youth upon the home farm, and his education was ac- quired in the public schools. The thoroughness with which he mastered the branches of study therein taught prepared him for the work of an educator, and he began teaching on the Krupp's Berg, near Passer, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Although denied the privileges which many deem essential to a successful professional career-a college education-he largely supplemented his
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early mental training by means of private instruc- tion and attendance at academic institutions, the money which he personally earned making this possible. The elemental strength of his char- acter was soon manifest in the determined man- ner with which he compensated for the lack of collegiate advantages. He early determined upon a legal career as a life work, and began his read- ing .as a law student in the office of Samuel A. Bridges, later member of congress and now de- ceased. He afterward became a student in the law department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, and upon the 7th of April, 1862, was admitted to the bar. For a number of years he had but one senior in years of connection with the Lehigh county bar, where for four decades he stood as one of the strongest representatives of the profession, the work of which is to formulate, to harmonize, to regulate, to adjust and to ad- minister those rules and principles which under- lie and permeate all government and society, and control the varied relations of men. Success came soon to Judge Albright, because his equipment was unusually good, and within a short time he was enjoying a distinctively representative client- age. His reputation as a lawyer, however, was won through earnest, honest labor, and his stand- ing at the bar was a merited tribute to his ability. In the year of his admission he was appointed by Herman Fetter, sheriff of Lehigh county, as his solicitor, and thus served until 1865, when he was elected district attorney for a three years' term. Each time when he was called by popular suffrage to public office, his greatest majority was received in his home locality or county, a fact which indicates that he was held in the highest esteem where best known, and where his life rec- ·ord was as an open book to his fellow townsmen. The duties of his private law practice were inter- spersed by public service, all of which, however, was in direct connection with his profession.
In 1870 Judge Albright was elected state senator to represent Lehigh and Northampton counties in the upper house of the assembly, and in 1873 he was chosen from the district then com- prising Lehigh and Carbon counties. He served
during an important period in legislative history, for a new state constitution had been adopted in 1874, and it became the task of the assembly to frame many acts to carry the constitutional pro- visions into effect. Judge Albright served on the judiciary committee which framed these en- actments, and also on the sub-committee that drafted a civil code for the state. During his last year in the senate he was the Democratic nominee for president of that body. He had also during this period been active in shaping the policy of his party, and as a delegate to various conven- tions took part in its councils. In 1867 he was sent to the Democratic state convention, and again in 1878, while in 1872 he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention, and was one of about twenty who voted against the candidacy of Horace Greeley for the presidency. He was a close and earnest student of the great questions which have given rise to the dominant political organizations, and had a statesman's grasp of affairs, combined with a most patriotic attach- ment to his country and her free institutions.
The judicial service of Edwin Albright cov- ered twenty-four years, for he did not live to complete the third term of ten years each to which he had been elected. In 1878 he was made the Democratic nominee for president judge of the Lehigh county courts, and was triumphantly elected, taking his seat on the bench on the first Monday in January, 1879. Ten years of fair and impartial ruling, based upon a comprehensive knowledge of the law, so ably demonstrated his ability that the Republicans placed no candidate in the field, and he received the almost unanimous endorsement of the Democracy in convention in 1888. In 1898 he had no opposition at the pri- maries, and was also endorsed by the Republicans. He was frequently mentioned for higher honors in the judiciary of the state, and received the unanimous support of the bar of his county for the supreme court bench in 1899, polling a very strong vote in the convention. A man of unim- peachable character, of strong intellectual endow- ments, with a thorough understanding of the law, patience, urbanity and industry, he took to
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the bench excellent qualification for the respon- sible office, and his record as a judge was in har- mony with his record as a man and lawyer, dis- tinguished by unswerving integrity and a master- ful grasp of every problem which presented itself for solution.
Judge Albright, intensely interested in com- munity affairs, was a co-operant factor in the social, educational and moral development of his city and county. He belonged to the Livingston Club of Allentown, to the Pennsylvania German Society and the Lehigh Saengerbund, and affilia- ted with Barger Lodge, No. 333, F. & A. M., and Allentown Lodge, No. go, K. P. He never ceased to feel an interest in the occupation to which he had been reared, and furthered the welfare of the farming community through his membership in the Lehigh County Agricultural Society. In 1886 he became a trustee of Muhlenberg College, and thus served for ten years, while his religious con- nection was with St. John's Lutheran church, of which he was long a devoted member.
On the 19th of June, 1866, Judge Albright was married to Miss Rebecca Young Sieger, a daughter of John and Mary Young Sieger. Her paternal grandparents were John and Barbara (Schrieber) Sieger, the former a tanner by occu- pation. Her maternal grandparents were Chris- tian and Catherine (Strausburger) Young, the former a school teacher. Christian and Catherine Young had a large family, as follows: Joseph, who is engaged in the hardware business ; Samuel, a physician ; William, a manufacturer ; Mark, a hardware merchant ; Ebenezer, a harness-maker ; James, a merchant of Philadelphia ; Andrew, who is a minister, and was the founder of the first boarding school at Allentown, the Willow Grove Seminary, and one of the first professors of Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster ; Oliver, Mary, Hannah, Rebecca, Catherine and Annie.
Judge and Mrs. Albright had three children, Mary G., the youngest, died at the age of ten months. Bertha became the wife of Allen H. Sieger, and has two children-Rebecca Albright, now deceased ; and Catherine Albright, born Feb-
ruary 22, 1895. Roderick Edwin Albright is a practicing physician at Allentown; he married Martha Yost, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and they have one child, Josephine, born April 13, 1904. The family home for thirty-five years has been and now is at the southeast corner of Fifth and Hamilton streets, in what was formerly the Greenleaf mansion, and there Judge Albright died after a brief illness of two days, December, 13, 1902. "His death," said a leading lawyer of Allentown, "was in the nature of a public calam- ity," for he had so long occupied a position in the public service as to render his career one of signal usefulness and value to his fellow men. Fault- less in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in reputation,-such was his life record. Few men endear themselves to so great an extent to their professional associates and to those with whom they come in contact in the discharge of their public duties, and he was no less honored in public than he was loved in private life.
HENRY COLT, for many years a pro- moter of commercial activity in Allentown, is a representative of that class of men to whom suc- cess has come as the direct result of intelligent, consecutive and well directed effort, and now, in the enjoyment of the prosperity which has crowned his honest toil, he is living a retired life.
His birth occurred amid the mountains of Lu- zerne county, Pennsylvania, on the 15th of Sep- tember, 1822, and he is a representative of one of the old colonial families of New England. His. ancestors, coming from England to the new world, settled in Windham county, Connecticut, and at a later date, when the Westmoreland Com- pany was formed, the Colt family received several lots adjoining the present site of the city of Wilkes-Barre, and the ancestral home was ac- cordingly established in Pennsylvania. Arnold Colt, the grandfather of Henry Colt, became one of the leading and influential residents of that part of the state, and was one of the builders of the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern turnpike over the mountains. Many official honors were conferred upon him, and he left the impress of his indi-
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viduality upon public though, action and progress during that period of Pennsylvania's development. He married a Miss Yarrington, daughter of Deacon Yarrington.
Henry Colt, son of Arnold Colt, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and became a prom- inent business man there, conducting extensive real estate operations. At the same time he won more than local fame as a surveyor; and was well known in Philadelphia. He was elected to the office of county surveyor of Luzerne county, and was filling that position at the time of his death. He married Miss Elizabeth Sax, a native of Luzerne county.
Henry Colt, the only child of Henry and Eliz- abeth (Sax) Colt, was provided with excellent educational privileges. After attending a select school of Wilkes-Barre he continued his studies in the high school of that city, and under the in- struction of a graduate of Princeton College he studied languages and engineering, becoming particularly proficient in Greek and Latin. He engaged in teaching for some years after com- pleting his education, and also assisted his father in civil engineering and surveying from the age of fifteen years. Upon his father's death in 1851 he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of county surveyor, by Judge John N. Cunningham, and discharged his duties so capably that he was elected to the office for two terms, thus serving for about eight years in Luzerne county.
Mr. Colt removed to Allentown in 1859, and began the manufacture and sale of lumber. He had previously purchased some property in the Lehigh valley on which he built a lumber mill, and expanding his business he also erected other mills in Carbon and Monroe counties. He at first took his dressed lumber to the Philadelphia market, but a little later came to Allentown to dispose of his product. On establishing his yard in Allentown he stocked it with a million feet of lumber. In 1862 he returned to Wilkes-Barre, in which place he continued to reside for a short time, and during that period he assisted in survey- ing the line of the Lehigh & Susquehanna Rail- road from Penobscot to that city. When the great Lehigh freshet occurred, June 5, 1862, it
completely swept away the lumber yard of Mr. Colt at Allentown, but in 1864 he returned to the Lehigh Valley and again began the man11- facture and sale of lumber, in which he continued until about 1874, when he sold out to the Heil- man Boiler Works, and retired from active con- nection with industrial and commercial interests. He had also dealt in bark and coal, and had a particularly large trade in the latter commodity. He had invested in lands in Lehigh county, and upon his retirement took up his abode on a farm in South Whitehall township, on which he re- mained for several years. He also owns consid- erable valuable real estate in Allentown.
During his business trips in former years he was always accompanied by his wife, and on one of these occasions, when the visited Allentown, Mr. Colt, acting upon his wife's advice, pur- chased an old church property at the corner of Ninth and Linden streets. This property he at once began to improve, and he now owns several houses in the borough, the renting of which he superintends. His business career was marked by steady progress, and although he met with ob- stacles he did not allow these to bar his path to success. Upon the sure foundation of enterprise, untiring effort and capable management he builded his prosperity, and his business career is one which excites the admiration and respect of all. In his political views Mr. Colt has always been an earnest Democrat, contributing by his influence and aid to the work of the party in former years. He belongs to the Protestant Episcopal church, and his life has been actuated by high and honorable principles in both business and social circles.
December 8, 1856, Mr. Colt married Miss Margaret B. Jackson, a native of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Silas and Mar- garet Jackson , also natives of that locality. She died in 1891, and thus was terminated what was a most congenial and happy married life.
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