Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846; J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1018

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Lei B. Smith

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BIOGRAPHICAL

ried on with profit for many years before, during and sub- sequent to the Civil war, the estate passing into the sole ownership of one of the sons, Col. L. Heber Smith, in 1877, and the works discontinuing operations in 1905.

Upon his retirement from the active management of the iron business he removed in 1863 to Reading, where the remainder of his life was passed. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Reading in that year, and was its president from its incorporation until his death. These institutions, being government deposi- tories, and under the management of men of patriotic principles, not only built up an efficient financial system but materially aided in sustaining the credit of the gov- ernment at the most critical period of its history, and promoting the public faith in the ultimate restoration of its authority. In those troublous times Mr. Smith's most ardent sympathies and active efforts were devoted to the triumph of his country's cause. He gave freely of his means for the raising and equipping of troops for the field, and his vigilant attention to the thwarting of the opposition schemes of the enemies in the rear.

An Abolitionist in principle and an old-time Whig in his political faith, he became from the foundation of the Republican party one of its most zealous supporters. Whilst never seeking public office he was named as the Republican candidate for Congress in the Berks district in 1860, and his popularity was shown in the result at the election, when he ran considerably ahead of the State ticket. In the town- ships of the southern section of the county adjacent to his home his vote was especially strong. Having been placed the same year upon the Lincoln electoral ticket, he withdrew on the ground of the incompatibility of that position with his Congressional candidacy. At an earlier period he was upon several occasions a delegate to county and State conventions of the Whig and Republican parties. His judgment upon questions of finance was eminently conservative and sound, and the same shrewdness and forecast which he evinced in the management of his own large estate well qualified him for the successful discharge of the various business relations which he assumed to- ward others during his residence in Reading in the latter part of his life. Among these were his membership of the board of managers of the Reading Gas Company and of the Reading Fire Insurance Company, of the latter of which he was one of the organizers. Every associated effort for the literary culture and social betterment of the community received his co-operation and support.

In his denominational affiliations Mr. Smith was a mem- ber of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was a mem- ber of the vestry of St. Thomas Church, Morgantown, and a delegate for more than thirty years from that parish to the diocesan convention. In 1858 he was a delegate to the general convention which met in New York City. Upon his removal to Reading he became a vestryman of Christ Church, remaining such until his death.

Personally Mr. Smith was of a genial and companionable disposition, possessing a marked and never-failing trait of humor, which made his presence at all times enlivening and agreeable. To be just to all men and faithful to his own was the ruling principle of his character and life. After a brief illness the end came to him at his home Aug. 8, 1876, when a few months advanced in the seventy- first year of his age. His estimable wife died Dec. 16, 1882. They had ten children: (1) Nancy Valeria, born March 14, 1828, married June 12, 1855, William Hiester Clymer, whom she survived, dying Aug. 17, 1901, leaving six children. (2) Elizabeth Frances, born March 19, 1830, married June 15, 1869, the Rev. Elias J. Richards, D. D., a talented and eminent clergyman of the Presbyterian de- nomination, for upward of twenty-five years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Reading, whom, together with their only child, Jane Ellis (born April 8, 1870), she sur- vives. (3) Bentley Howard. (4) William Darling. (5 and 6) Levi Heber and Emily Annetta. (7) Mary Badger, born March 19, 1840, died May 22, 1864. (8) Horace Vaughan, born Aug. 20, 1842, died July 23, 1878. (9) Thomas Stanley. (10) Edward Hunter, born April 17, 1847, died Sept. 7, 1856. 27

The eldest son, Bentley H. Smith, born Dec. 6, 1832, at Mt. Airy, Berks county, attended the academy of Wil- liam F. Wyers, at New London, Chester county, and en- tered Amherst College at the age of fourteen, graduating in 1851. He was a bright scholar, especially versed in the classics, and three years after his graduation received from the college the degree of A. M. He was engaged the greater part of his active life in the iron manufactur- ing business, principally at Joanna, in partnership with his father and brothers, and subsequently as member of a firm owning and operating the Temple Iron Works, in Muhlenberg township. At the outbreak of the Rebellion he enlisted in the first three months' service, becoming a corporal in Company A, 14th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, mustered April 27, 1861, and before the ex- piration of his term was promoted to the second lieu- tenancy of Company K. In the latter part of June, 1863, at the time of the Confederate invasion of the State, he raised a company which was attached to the 42d Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, enlisted for ninety days, and upon the regimental organization was appointed major. Retired from business for many years, he devoted himself to general literature, his reading embracing the works of all the great writers of the age in science, philosophy and theology. Of ecclesiastical lore he had an accumulation which would have qualified him for a professorship of Bible exegesis in the faculty of a university. In addition to habits of close and careful reading he was a profound thinker and clear reasoner, ever searching for truth, and rejecting the illogical and unscientific. His was a mind alike gifted and discriminating. His native geniality of dis- position made him a most agreeable and entertaining com- panion. One of his most marked traits was his benevol- ence of heart, evidenced by his open-handed and unosten- tatious charities toward all classes and conditions of un- fortunates. The possession of such qualities distinguished him as one of nature's noblemen, and won for him a wide circle of devoted friends. He died Jan. 19, 1909, when a little upward of seventy-six years of age.

L. Heber Smith, born Oct. 18, 1837, at Joanna Furnace, attended Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., and, with his father and brothers, engaged in the iron manufactur- ing business. He was captain of Company A, 128th Regiment, P. V., mustered August, 1862, for nine months' service, and was promoted Feb. 1, 1863, to lieutenant-colo- nel; was taken prisoner at the battle of Chancellorsville and confined for a time in Libby prison, being subsequently exchanged. After the death of his father he acquired the sole ownership of the Joanna estate, and carried on the works until within a few years of his death, which occurred Aug. 5, 1898. He married June 17, 1868, E. Jennie Grubb, of Lancaster, Pa., who, with six children, sur- vives him,

Thomas Stanley Smith, M. D., was born at Joanna Furnace, Jan. 25, 1845, graduated at Amherst College in 1865, and at the Jefferson Medical School in 1868. He subsequently spent a year at the University of Leipsic, Germany, pursuing studies in chemistry, a branch in which he specially excelled. Upon his return he filled the posi- tion of lecturer on physical diagnosis in the summer course at the Jefferson College. He practised his profession in Reading for a period of ten years, devoting his attention particularly to ophthalmology, in which he acquired no- table skill. Dr. Smith's scientific attainments were of a high order, and had his ambition been for eminence in his profession, he possessed the genius to attain it. His health failing, his career was cut short by death, Nov. 25, 1887, in the forty-third year of his age.

CAPT. AARON ZIEGLER, proprietor of one of the largest retail wall-paper establishments in the city of Reading, with business rooms at No. 355 Penn street, is one of the leading citizens of .the city, and a man whose services to his country in the dark hour of her need were of such value that he merits highly the title by which he is always known. Captain Ziegler is an honored member of the old guard whose fast depleting ranks is a reminder that Time's ceaseless march is removing us farther and

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

farther from one of the greatest wars of history-a war fought on both sides with a courage and tenacity of pur- pose unequaled, and befitting the Anglo-Saxon blood which, commingling in fratricidal strife, cemented the na- tion's disjointed parts into a splendid and magnificent compact structure, alike worshipped by her loyal people, and revered by the whole world. The story of Captain Ziegler's movements during the Civil war would, if told in all its lights and shadows, be worthy the pen of a novelist of the realistic school. The necessary brevity of this review precludes relating much of interest, but if the reader will "read between the lines," he will be ready to give credit where credit is due.

Of German ancestry, Captain Ziegler comes of a line of agriculturists who settled in Bunker Hill, Lebanon county, Pa., in pioneer times, and who in their different generations were distinguished by loyal service to the commonwealth. In this county Daniel Ziegler, grandfather of Captain Aaron, passed his life as a farmer. The father of the Captain, also named Daniel, was in his turn a coll- tractor and builder, with residence at Myerstown, Pa. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-four, dying in 1883. His wife was Martha Catherine Shepler, daughter of Henry Shepler, a farmer of Lebanon county. The fam- ily of which the Captain was the youngest member con- sisted of nine children.

Captain Ziegler was horn at Myerstown, Lebanon county, Feb. 20, 1841. His boyhood, passed in humble but honest toil, laid the foundation of a splendid physical constitu- tion, without which he would no doubt have succumbed to the rigors of the war in which he was called to engage ere he had reached maturity. He became quite an expert at the trade of his father, while being helpful to him at odd times, giving his attention more to the artistic feature of decorating, in painting and paperhanging. It was while engaged at this occupation that the Captain heard the toc- sin of war resounding through the country, and responded to the call of the President for the defense of "Old Glory."

Aaron Ziegler had as a boy and youth watched with keen interest the oncoming storm, and while the Presi- dential campaign was on, which precipitated it, his blood warmed for the inevitable struggle. During that winter he participated in the feverish anxiety of the people, and was ready when the call was made to offer his services to his country. It is true that like all the others of the first enlistment, the boy was mightily afraid the strife would be over before he could get to the front, but that does not detract from the bravery of the act. Suffice it that "he got to the front" in splendid style, and with such vigor as to carry him even beyond the lines for a period, during which he was an unwilling boarder at some of the famous, or rather infamous, Confederate "ho- tels." The first enlistment of the Captain was in the My- erstown Rifles, Captain Jerome Myers, for the three months' service. This company was not attached to any regiment, and when they reached Harrisburg, the quota for the three months' service being filled, the company was ordered to Camp Curtin, where it remained until the pass- ing of the Act organizing the Pennsylvania Reserves. He then re-enlisted in Company I, 7th Pennsylvania Reserves, the company being commanded by Captain Jerome Myers and the regiment by Colonel Elisha B. Harvey. To follow this company through the vicissitudes of the war which drew out its cruel length through the ensuing four years would be but the relation of battles fought and hardships endured. It is enough to say that it was with the Army of the Potomac in all of its struggles against Lee, acquit- ting itself nobly in field and camp. This is vividly at- tested by the fact that of the ninety-five who marched out of Myerstown on that July day of 1861, but sixteen answered to roll-call as they stood again in their home town after the conflict. These ninety-five had been cut to thirty-three by the time of the Battle of the Wilderness, where the company together with the entire regiment was captured by the Confederates on May 5, 1864. Then en- sued the horrors of Southern prison life, the rigors of which carried away seventeen of the company, the rest

to be paroled in an emaciated and most pitiful condition. The Captain's personal experiences during these harrow- ing months were such as came to all, with the exception of those which occurred during an attempted escape from the prison at Columbia, S. C. Getting well away from his captors, he spent three weeks in the swamps and low- lands, pursued by fierce blood hounds and fiercer men. Weak and almost exhausted from hunger and exposure, he one day became aware that they were close on his trail. With the blood hounds baying closely behind him, he attempted to vault a rail fence, and in his weakness fell in such a manner as to injure his right leg-and the game was up. He was recaptured and thenceforth treated with greater severity than ever. The injury was so severe that it will continue to cause the Captain trouble through all his life. During his prison experience the Captain was con- fined in the following places : Danville, Va .; Macon, Ga .; Savannah, Ga .; Charleston, S. C. (where 500 officers were confined and lay under the fire of their own guins on Morris Island for three weeks, being in constant danger of exploding shells) ; and Goldsboro, N. C .; the time of imprisonment covering eleven weary months. Carrying 180 pounds not one of which was superfluous. strong and healthy at the time of his capture, Captain Ziegler returned after his parole broken in health and weighing but 120 pounds. The Captain's title came to him by brevet for gallant conduct at the battle of the Wilderness. He had risen by successive promotions from the ranks to second sergeant, to first sergeant, second lieutenant, and first lieutenant. He was in command of the company while first sergeant for five months, and for over a year while first lieutenant, and led it in many of its fiercest engage- ments.

"All honor to the Old Guard, They did their best; They have laid aside the old sword, Shall it not rest ?"

The war over, Captain Ziegler and his compatriots sur- prised many European critics by returning quietly to the avocations of peace. He took up the tangled threads where he had cast them aside four years before, and con- tinued that line of work until 1871 in his home town, when he moved to Reading, where he has since resided. His business location was for a time at Seventh and Court streets, and later at No. 425 Penn street, where he operated successfully for eleven years, from which place he re- moved to his present location, No. 355 Penn street, where he conducts one of the largest wall paper and paint houses in the city.

A splendid soldier, Captain Ziegler has been equally faithful as a citizen, ever true to his ideals of good govern- ment. A Republican in politics he has never sought office, though in 1890 he was prominently mentioned for appoint- ment to the postmastership of the city. He holds member- ship in many of the best fraternities, notably the Odd Fel- lows, the Red Men, and the Knights of the Golden Eagle : and he of course is a popular member of the different soldier organizations,-the Grand Army of the Republic, the Veteran Legion, and the Ex-Prisoners of War Asso- ciation. His church affiliation is with the First Reformed Church of Reading.

On Nov. 25, 1866, Captain Ziegler married Miss Clara Bennethum, daughter of John L. Bennethum, who for many years conducted a hotel at Myerstown, and later was in the clothing business in Reading. To the Captain's mar- riage one son was born, named Aaron D., now in attendance in the public high school. Full of years, passing into a happy and peaceful old age, with many of the friends of his youth on this side to do him honor, this old soldier looks back on a life well spent, receiving the grateful ac- knowledgments of a united republic, and meriting the universal esteem which is accorded him.

WILLIAM FRANKLIN BOND is of mixed English and Pennsylvania-German blood, son of Edwin Bond and Catharine Anne (Stump). He was born Oct. 31, 1861, the anniversary of the German Reformation, in Green- wich township, Berks Co., Pa., near Lenhartsville, a town-

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BIOGRAPHICAL

ship noted for teachers who have become ministers of town, and Sarah, wife of Frank Diehl, of St. Clair, the latter two still living in Schuylkill county.

the Lutheran and Reformed Churches.

Edward Bond, his paternal grandfather, emigrated to America with several older brothers, John and Thomas, from Longington, on the Itching rivulet, a branch of the Avon river, in Warwickshire, England, ten miles from Coventry and eight from Warwick, near the place where Shakespeare was born. These three brothers, with a number of other English emigrants sailed from Liverpool in the vessel "Montezuma," landing in Philadelphia June 14, 1829. Being craftsmen in wood and iron industries, Grandfather Bond and his brothers sought employment in Schuylkill county, then new territory, in which much construction work was going on, the coal production being yet, however, in its infancy-though the mining of the "black diamond" was the excitement of the country at that time, attracting adventurous laborers from all over the world. The older brothers, John and Thomas, having been married, later on settled in Tamaqua, where Bond's drug store and Bond's blacksmith shop are well known to this day. Grandfather Edward Bond came across the Atlantic as a single young man and remained settled at Port Clinton in the Schuylkill Water Gap, the very "port" or mouth of the anthracite coal region. There he married Miss Mary Magdalene Yenser, reported to have been of German-French descent.

It was at Port Clinton that Edwin Bond, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born on Feb. 22, 1839. When he was only nine years old his mother died, and his father, a carpenter, lost his life by accident, Aug. 25, 1854, while working on a bridge of the Little Schuylkill railroad. He helped to construct that road, which was at first laid with wooden rails, covered with iron sheathing. The coal cars were moved originally with horse-power. An interesting incident is remembered in this connection, which shows that the Bonds early took an active interest in public education. It is known that the adoption of the public school system was originally submitted to the voters of the various precincts. The cause had been several times before the voters, but had been as often defeated in the Port Clinton district. It so happened that a deep snow fell the night before another election, when the matter was before the voters again, and the anti-public school party not being on their guard, John Bond, one of the emigrant brothers, who furnished some half dozen or more teams to haul coal down the Little Schuylkill, on the morning of election day said to his men: "Now, boys, this is our opportunity. We can't haul coal today. Let's haul pro- school voters to the polls." They did; and the result was that the public schools were adopted in that precinct somewhat earlier than in the adjoining districts, and it became a leader in the line of progress. and enterprise.

When yet a half orphan Edwin Bond was temporarily placed by his father with James Moyer, a wholesale cigar dealer and manufacturer of Hamburg, this county. When his father so soon also died, he was given a more perma- nent home at his own request by his maternal uncle, George Yenser, who lived in Albany township, Berks county. Thus by a strange coincidence the father of our subject, Edwin Bond, was confirmed in the Lutheran faith in the same New Bethel Church of Albany in whose ceme- tery the remains of his great-great-grandfather, Hans Georg Stump, were resting. Later George Yenser moved to Greenwich township, near Lenhartsville, where he be- came a prosperous farmer and was one of the prime mov- ers in the erection of the Friedens Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church of that place.

Though early deprived of parental love and influence, Edwin Bond did not forget, as Moses in Egypt did not, the religion taught by his mother. He was of a pious and devoted turn of heart and mind. Edwin's brother, John Bond, left the drug store to his namesake in Tam- aqua and moved to Kansas. A younger brother, George, has lived for many years in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he invented a practical feature of the air-brake system. There were three sisters: Ellen, who died a few years ago in Pottsville, Katie, wife of Jacob Boyer, of Lewis-

Whilst our subject is the third generation in this country of paternal English descent, he is the fifth gener- ation as to his maternal German lineage. The first ma- ternal ancestor in America was John George Stump, who emigrated from Germany, it is believed from Wurtemberg, between the years 1717 and 1720. Bayard Taylor, in his "History of Germany," states (pp. 437-444) that this was a trying period for many German citizens, when the rude and arbitrary Frederick William I. ruled over Prussia. "The collective history of the German States-for we can hardly say 'History of Germany,' when there really was no Germany-at this time, is a continuous succession of wars and diplomatic intrigues, which break out in one direction before they are settled in another." The War of the Spanish Succession raging along the Rhine kept the southern part of Germany in a state of convulsion for some years. The luxury, jealousy and extravagance of the petty princes made life hard for the common people. "In Würtemberg the Duke Eberhard Ludwig so oppressed the people that many of them emigrated to America be- tween the years 1717 and 1720 and settled in Pennsyl- vania." This history well corresponds with what our subject remembers related by his maternal grandparents about the hardships the earlier ancestors endured in the mother country; that they came to this "land of the free" as serfs, being obliged to earn off their passage across the waters after they had landed on these shores. But they prized their religious and political liberty higher than their homes and landed possessions yonder, which by the rav- ages. of war and cruel confiscation were to them of little value. That the Stumps came from Würtemberg, Ger- many, is further substantiated by an account found in "Thirty Thousand Emigrants," which states that Philip Stumpff came across with 290 passengers on the ship "Ja- cob," Adolph D. Grove, captain, sailing from Amsterdam, by way of Shields, England.

Family tradition says that John George Stump was "bound" out in one of the lower sections of Pennsylvania, possibly near New Hanover, Montgomery county, until he had earned his freedom, when he moved with others from New Hanover to Albany township, Berks Co., Pa. For it is stated by Rev. Prof. W. J. Mann, D. D., and Rev. B. M. Schmucker, D. D., in "Halle Reports," that "Alle- maengel," as Albany township was first called, was largely settled by people from New Hanover (Vol. I, p. 415). The name "Allemaengel" is said to be of German origin, and is supposed to designate the poverty and misfortune of the first settlers, who found a barren country where there was a "want of all good and necessary things." But this idea is not sustained by others; for the Rev. Dr. Schmidt, who was secretary of the Ministerium of Penn- sylvania in the year 1796, has added in the written minutes of the Synod by way of explanation the word "Allemin- gao," showing that the former name for "Albany" was of Indian origin, and likely meant the very opposite of "wanting all good and necessary things." Furthermore, the Rev. J. H. Dubbs, in his "History of the Lehigh Val- ley" (p. 304), compares "Allemaengel" with "Egypt," as a section of country at the southern slope of the Blue Mountains known for its fertility. It is a fact established by research on the part of our subject that the earliest Church Record and Constitution of the New Bethel Luth- eran and Reformed Church located in this very "corner" of Albany township names the community as "Das Rosen- thal," that is, "The Valley of Roses," and hence instead of being "sterile" it was a land "flowing with milk and honey." Besides, why would a barren country attract new settlers? The New Bethel Church Record dates back to 1761, and John George Stump must then have lived for some time in that community. At any rate, he was one of the earliest members, if not founders, of that church. It is also a matter of record in the "Halle Re- ports" that the Rev. Pastor Schaum, an associate and co- worker with the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D. D., was married on Aug. 7, 1753, to a Miss "Maria Dorothea Stumpf," who may have been a near relative, for the

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Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846; J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1018

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846; J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1018