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 216

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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training in the public schools of the city, graduating from lighted in the companionship of younger people. , She the high school in 1897. He then entered the University was connected with the management of a number of of Pennsylvania, and in 1901 received his diploma from charitable organizations during her life time and for that famous old school, immediately afterwards taking up the study of law in his father's office. On Nov. 10, 1902, he was admitted to the Berks county Bar, and in February, 1905, was admitted to practice before the Su- preme court. Mr. Stevens is a member of the Kappa Sig- ma fraternity of the University. He is a Presbyterian in religion. He has taken considerable interest in poli- some years was Regent of the Berks County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an orga- nization which she aided not only on account of its sup- posed aristocratic tendencies, but because of the good it might accomplish in creating historical interest fos- tering national patriotism. She was the President of the Reading branch of the Needlework Guild of America, tics as a member of the Democratic party, and has en- a charitable organization designed to assist the deserving gaged in campaign work to some extent.

FREDERICK LAUER AND HIS WIFE MARY R. Gee GULDIN)

L'A Beers & Co

Frank P, Laver

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BIOGRAPHICAL

HENRY A. MUHLENBERG 3d was born in Read- ing, Oct. 27, 1848. He was educated privately, and sub- sequently spent a year at Pennsylvania College, Gettys- burg, which he left to enter Harvard University in 1868. At Harvard he was both popular and successful, and graduated with honors in history in the class of 1872. After a short European trip he began to study law, in the office of George F. Baer, Esq., being admitted to the bar of Berks County in 1875. He then devoted him- self to the practice of his profession, though he engaged more in office affairs and in the business side of law than in the active duties of court work. He was a di- rector in the Farmers' National Bank, the Reading Trust Company, the Mount Penn Gravity Railroad, and the Reading City Passenger Railway Company, being for many years secretary and treasurer of the latter organiza- tion and one of its original members. His connection with these concerns brought him in touch with the important business interests of the community and natur- ally influenced him to allow law to yield to business. He was also a trustee of the Charles Evans Cemetery Company, a vestryman of Trinity Lutheran Church, and a member of the Valley Forge Park Commission, to which position he was appointed by two Governors of the State. He was always a strong Republican, and spoke for and contributed to the party whenever such ser- vices were necessary. In 1892 he was nominated for Congress on the Republican ticket, but, as the party was in a hopeless minority in the county, he failed of election. He was an omnivorous and indefatigable reader, being interested in everything from the lightest fiction to the longest history, and possessed a fine library which he used to its full extent. He was extremely generous, charita- ble both in action and in judgment, the soul of honor, and a Christian gentleman in the true sense of the word. He never married, but almost all his life lived with his mother, Annie H. Nicolls, to whom he was devoted- ly attached and whose death he survived only for four months. On May 14, 1906, he was found dead in his library, sitting in his chair with an open book in his lap.

JOHN HENRY ZERR, former president of the Letter Carriers' Association, and one of the well known mail carriers of the city of Reading, was born in this city' May 11, 1870, son of Charles and Eliza (Bollman) Zerr.

Charles Zerr was born in lower Berks county March 6, 1833, and died at Reading Feb. 4, 1907. He was reared by his grandfather Shirey. He was a blacksmith by trade, and for upwards of forty years worked for the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company. For many years his place of residence had been at No. 1111 Spruce street. He married Eliza Bollman, daughter of John and Mary (Auman) Bollman, of Spring township, and she is now seventy-three years of age. Their children were: Charles, of Reading; Catharine, m. to John B. Gnau, of Reading; Ida V .; Anna R., m. to W. W. Wetherhold; William R .; Howard G .; John H .; Margaret, m. to Grant Schultz; and Lillie M., m. to Jacob Schmehl.

John H. Zerr received his education in the public schools of Reading, and when eighteen years of age learned the upholsterer's trade, which he followed for several years. In 1893 he took a competitive examination for letter car- rier, making a very high average, and in August of that same year was appointed to a position by Postmaster Capt. P. R. Stetson, a position he has since filled. He is a member of the Letter Carrier's Association, of which he was president in 1904. In point of service he ranks as one of the old men on the force and has a most creditable record, and is very popular among the gov- ernment employes at the Reading postoffice.

Mr. Zerr is active in the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Lodge No. 62, F. & A. M .; Reading. Lodge of Perfection; Harrisburg Consistory; and Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He is also a member of Reading Chamber, No. 26, Knights of Friendship.

On Oct. 6, 1901, Mr. Zerr married Clara E. Fair, daugh- ter of George E. and Hannah E. (Bowman) Fair, of

Reading, where Mr. Fair is identified with the Reading Railway, and has been for more than a quarter of a century. Her grandparents were Reuben D. and Mary (Schaffer) Fair, of Berks county. Mr. and Mrs. Zerr have no children.

FRANKLIN PIERCE LAUER, brewer at Reading since 1882, was born in Reading Nov. 2, 1852, the day on which Pierce was elected President of the United States. He received his preliminary education in the common schools, which he attended until 1866, when he and his brother were sent to Germany for their advanced education, and they remained three years, spending two years in the institu- tions at Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart, Germany, and one year at Lausanne, Switzerland. He directed his studies more especially toward the scientific manufacture of beer, porter and ale for the purpose of qualifying himself to take charge of his father's breweries upon his return home. While at Lausanne he showed great proficiency in music, and though still a boy the vestry of the French Lutheran Church elected him as the organist, which position he filled in a very satisfactory manner during his sojourn at that place.

Upon returning home his father placed him in charge of the two breweries as brewmaster and he displayed great skill in the production of malt liquors of a superior char- acter. He discharged the duties of this responsible posi- tion with increasing success for twelve years, until 1882, when his father retired, and he organized the Lauer Brew- ing Company, of which he became the manager and princi- pal owner. 'Since then, covering a period of twenty-six years, he has directed the affairs of the company in a most successful manner, bringing its productions to a high state of perfection and purity (as evidenced by the analysis of the State authorities), and giving them a pop- ularity equal to that of any others in Pennsylvania. Its trade has been developed to extend into all the surround- ing counties, and to numerous distant places, the large shipments being made on the railroad in improved re- frigerator cars.

Mr. Laner's responsibilities at the head of his company have kept him so closely confined that he could not devote any time to political or social affairs. He, however, has been a liberal contributor to various public causes; and he has assisted in organizing several financial institutions at Reading, and participated in their management as a director : the Schuylkill Valley Bank since 1890; the Co- lonial Trust Company since 1900; and the American Cas- ualty Company, since 1903. His only relaxation for some years has been an annual vacation of several weeks with his family to Pike county, where he enjoys the privileges of membership in the Porter's Lake Hunting and Fishing Club, which owns several thousand acres of timber land on the top of the Allegheny Mountains, elevated 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. In August, 1891, he made an extended tour of three months through the principal countries of Europe.

In 1874 Mr. Lauer married Amelia Dora Heberle (daughter of William Heberle), by whom he had six children : Florence, who married William Y. Landis, of Reading; Carl Franklin; and four who died in youth. He owns and occupies a costly home on the site of the homestead on South Third street, near Chestnut, where he was born, and where his parents and grandparents had lived since 1826. In politics he is a Democrat; in religion a Lutheran, being a member of St. John's German Lutheran Church, of which his father was one of the organizers in 1860.

FREDERICK LAUER, father of Franklin Pierce Lauer, was the principal brewer at Reading for nearly fifty years from 1835 to 1882. He was born in the town of Gleis- weiler, Rhenish Bavaria, Germany, Oct. 14, 1810, and whilst a boy accompanied his father to America in 1823. He was educated in pay schools at Womelsdorf and Reading, and while growing to manhood learned the business of brewing under the tutelage of his father, who was an expert brewer; and he assisted his father until

784

HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

1835, when he and his brother George became the owners home (including large vineyards) was situated at Gleis- of the plant. The brothers continued as partners for several years, when his brother George retired and removed to Pottsville, where he carried on the same business. The younger brother, as the sole owner, enlarged the brewery and .extended the business gradually until he came to send his beer, porter and ale throughout the county and into the adjoining counties. The brewery was situated on Chestnut street below Third. He established a second plant on North Third street, beyond Walnut, in 1866; also constructing a large vault in a solid bed of limestone, and sinking an artesian well to the depth of 2,200 feet, which for many years were considered great curiosities at Reading, and the well was then one of the few deep wells in the United States. He was engaged in the business until shortly before his decease. He died in 1883, at the age of seventy-three years. He was married to Mary Reiff Guldin, daughter of Peter Guldin, in 1838, and they had two sons, George Frederick and Franklin Pierce. The mother died in October, 1891.

Frederick Lauer was a public-spirited man and labored assiduously for the development and prosperity of Read- ing: He co-operated heartily in the advancement of the place from a borough into a city in 1847; and under the amended charter of 1864 he represented the Fifth ward in the select council from 1865 to 1871, serving as presi- dent of that body in 1867. He was a devoted adherent of the Democratic party, and active in behalf of its success for many years. He represented the Berks district as a delegate to the National Convention which met at Charles- ton, S. C., in 1860, and notwithstanding the platform and the defeat of the party nominee for President, when the Civil war broke out, in 1861, he espoused the cause of the Union in a most earnest and patriotic manner. He assisted materially in organizing the Berks County Agri- cultural Society in 1852, and officiated as president for a number of years; also in projecting the construction of the railroad from Reading to Lancaster and Columbia, serving as a director for twenty years until his decease; and by special appointment of the governor he served for several terms as trustee of the Keystone State Normal School. He gave liberal support to local charities by aiding the Dis- pensary and the Relief Society.

LAUER MONUMENT .- Mr. Lauer's great experience and success in the brewing business brought him into national prominence before the brewers of the United States, and he quite naturally became the first president of the national association upon its organization in 1870, which evidences his great popularity and influence at that time; and in May, 1885, the association erected a fine bronze statue to his memory on Penn Common, near Perkiomen avenue, on a small plot of ground set apart and dedicated by the city councils, the first public honor of the kind in the com- munity. The inscriptions on the four sides of the base are as follows :

(North Side)

. "The city of Reading commemorates the public and pri- vate virtues of an honored citizen by the grant of this location. Erected 1885, the year of the Twenty-fifth con- vention of the United States Brewers' Association."

(South Side)

"To Frederick Lauer of Reading. The United States Brewers' Association of which he was the first president has erected this monument in grateful remembrance of his unselfish labor for the welfare of the brewing trade in this country."

(East Side)

"His zeal sprang from his firm conviction that in striving to advance the brewing trade he was working for the cause of national temperance."

(West Side)

"Let his example tell the brewers of this country to maintain good fellowship, to preserve their association, and to defend their rights."

weiler, three miles from Landau. His property was sacrificed during the Napoleonic invasions of the country anterior to 1814. He carried on the manufacture of wine and beer until 1823, when he emigrated to America. Upon landing at Baltimore, Md., he was poor, having just had enough money to pay the passage across the ocean for him- self and family. The journey was made in a sailing vessel and required three months. He immediately proceeded to Reading, Berks county, where a married daughter, Mrs. Sprenger, resided; and shortly afterward he settled at Womelsdorf and started the business of manufacturing beer in limited quantities. He carried on the business for three years and then located at Reading, where he established a small brewery on Chestnut street near Third, on a rented lot (which he afterward purchased from Marks John Biddle, the attorney for the Penns, in 1833), similar to the brewery at Womelsdorf, which had a ca- pacity of five barrels, and was soon increased to ten barrels on account of the increasing demand for his product. There were other breweries at Reading at this time, but the product was of a different character. In 1831 he added the manufacture of porter and ale; and he carried on the enlarged plant until 1835, when his two sons, George and Frederick, became his successors. He married Maria Catharine Fox, of Boechingen, in Rhenish Bavaria, and by her he had nine children: Catharine, who married a Mr. Baker and remained in Germany; Elizabeth, who married John Abraham Sprenger, and had emigrated to Pennyslvania before her parents, settling at Reading; Christina, who married John Borrell; Susanna and Bar- bara, who remained unmarried, and who joined the "Sep- aratists," living with this religious society in New York for some years and then in Iowa, where they died; Margaret, who married John Yost, of Womelsdorf; George, who married Anna Wilhelmina Ehlers; Frederick, who is mentioned above; and Eva, who married Michael Rudi- sill. The father of these children died in May, 1845, aged seventy-six years, and the mother in July following, aged seventy-three years.

GULDIN GENEALOGY. The grandfather of Franklin P. Lauer on his mother's side was Peter Guldin, a farmer of Oley township, near Friedensburg. He was born in 1782 and died in 1827. Peter Guldin was a son of Daniel, also a farmer of Oley; Daniel was a son of Samuel, a blacksmith, born in Switzerland, who emigrated with his father while yet a boy, and settled in Oley in 1718; and Samuel was a son of Samuel K. Guldin, a highly educated and distinguished minister, who was born in Switzerland in 1664, emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1710, where he became the spiritual forerunner in the establish- ment of the Reformed Church, and served as a minister very successfully until his decease in 1745, at the age of eighty-one years. He is mentioned with distinction in Good's "History of the Reformed Church in the United States"; also in Miller's "Early History of the Reformed Church in Pennsylvania."

WILLIAM HEBERLE, father of Mrs. Franklin P. Lauer, was born at Rottenburg-am-Neckar, in Wurtemberg, Germ- any, in 1831, and there learned the trade of tanner and leather finisher. He emigrated in 1849, landing at Bal- timore and proceeding shortly afterward to Philadelphia, where he remained three years, working at his trade. He then removed to Reading and continued working at his trade, until 1863, when he went to Hamburg, Berks county, and carried on a tannery until 1869. He then returned to Reading and resumed his occupation, working at it until 1895, when he entered the employ of the Lauer Brewing Company, and he has continued with that com- pany to the present time. In 1853 he married Paulina Goelz, daughter of Philip Goelz, of Weilheim, Wurtem- berg, by whom he had nine children, six boys and three girls, those who survived being: Amelia Dora married Franklin P. Lauer ; Anna married Bertolet Yoder Landis; William C. married Julia Dersch and has been foreman

GEORGE LAUER. The grandfather of Franklin P. Lauer was George Lauer, of Rhenish Bavaria, Germany, whose of the Lauer Brewery since 1891.

MONUMENT IN PENN COMMON OF FREDERICK LAUER

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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 216

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