USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume III > Part 24
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A Republican in politics, Mr. Schneebeli was always active in party work and influential in party councils. In 1904 he was elected to Congress from the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania District, consisting of Northampton,
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Carbon, Monroe and Pike counties, a district usually Democratic. He served during the life of the Fifty-ninth Congress, "Uncle Joe" Cannon, speaker, and one of the bills he supported was the Pure Food Law, which protects the public from adulteration of food supply. He made many friends in Washing- ton, was a welcome guest at the White House, and intimate with many men of National fame. He is a member of the Moravian church, and of the Masonic order, belonging to Blue Lodge, and to the various bodies of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he holds the thirty-second degree. He is also a member of Rajah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Schneebeli married, in 1878, Carrie E. Schneider, of Loyal Oak, Ohio, and they are the parents of two sons: Ellis Clark, associated with his father in the firm, G. A. Schneebeli & Company, lace manufacturers; Louis F., who died, aged four years. Mr. Schneebeli has three grandsons, children of his son Ellis Clark, as follows: Louis, Adolph and Gustav Adolph.
The following is dedicated to the Young Men's Christian Association of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and recommended to the Young Men's Christian Association of Pennsylvania by the Hon. G. A. Schneebeli, of Nazareth, Pennsylvania :
PENNSYLVANIA (Tune America) Hail Pennsylvania ! Banner of States thou art,
Thy name is great. Thy glory is renowned, Thy equal is not found; Thou art the victor crowned,
Hail Keystone State.
When William Penn appeared, He on thy domain reared Eternal fame. Fair dealt he with the free Red man of destiny ; His precepts won for thee A glorious name.
When galled by British yoke, And independence woke, Thy sons proved true. They to the rescue came And won undying fame,
And glorified thy name
For Freedom's cause.
Hail Pennsylvania ! Fairest of States thou art, Thee we adore. To thee we'll faithful prove; We pledge our sacred love To thee and God above For ever more. Copyrighted January 5, 1919.
JOHN ANDREW MILLER-John A. Miller, whose active connection with numerous prominent and successful enterprises marks him as a man of business ability and integrity, makes his home in Nazareth, where he is esteemed as a leading citizen, his public spirit in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the community-at-large serving to gain him the regard of his fellow townsmen. Socially, as in his business relations, he ranks high, and his career stands as an example of the success to be won in life by energy combined with talent.
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The Miller family is of German origin, the pioneer ancestor being John Miller, grandfather of John A. Miller, whose birth occurred in one of the Hessian provinces, where he resided until the year 1852, when he emigrated to the United States, locating in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was a pros- perous merchant. He was a Lutheran in religion, a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Mary Ashburn, a native of Germany, who bore him eight children, among whom was Conrad, of whom further. John Miller died in Blairstown, New Jersey.
Conrad Miller, son of John and Mary (Ashburn) Miller, was born in Germany, October 20, 1838. He obtained a practical education under pri- vate tutors in his native land, and when fourteen years of age accompanied his parents to the United States. His first employment was in a brewing establishment, his remuneration being two dollars per month and board. Later he devoted his attention to merchandising in Baltimore, continuing along this line for six years, and for the following five years, during the Civil War period, served as quartermaster in Washington, District of Colum- bia, as an employee of the government. He then turned his attention to railroad contract work, and was for two years clerk and walking boss on the Metropolitan branch of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. His next contract was on the Baltimore Shore Line in Ohio, and later he built twenty miles of the South Mountain road near Harrisburg, continuing his work in that line to Blairstown, New Jersey, and he constructed the Blairstown railroad to Delaware station for J. I. Blair in 1876. Two years later he built the Belvidere Water Works, and in the same year constructed the Bangor & Portland Railroad, a distance of eight miles, and was then elected its president and manager ; in 1880 he continued its extension to Pen Argyl, and in the following year the road was completed to Nazareth. In com- pany with J. I. Blair he invested to a large extent in the slate quarries, and from 1890 to 1898 he had charge of Mr. Blair's railroad and industrial inter- ests in the West. His prominence in various lines of business led to his appointment to positions of trust and responsibility, and he served in the capacity of president of the Bangor Union Quarry ; president and treasurer of the United States Slate Quarry of Pen Argyl; president and treasurer of the Albion Slate Company ; president of the Wind Gap and Alpha Slate companies ; president of the Kansas City, Osceola & Southern Railroad in Missouri; president of the Chicago, Iowa & Dakota Railroad; president of Kansas City & Westport Belt Railroad; president and part owner of the Illuminating Gas Company, Slate Belt Telephone Company, Electric Light Company, Foundry and Machine Company ; president of the Dexter Portland Cement Company ; director of the Northampton Cement Company, and of the Nazareth National Bank ; and receiver for Jackson Brothers Slate Quarry, the Pen Argyl Slate Quarry, the Excelsior Slate Quarry, and the Diamond Slate Quarry. Mr. Miller was a Presyterian in religion, a Republican in politics, and a member of Whitefield Lodge, No. 121, Free and Accepted Masons, of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He married, August 31, 1869, Anna M. Werling, daughter of Andrew Werling, of Muncy, Pennsylvania. Chil- dren : John A., of further mention; Sarah Virginia, born March 25, 1874; Margaret Anna, born June 27, 1876. He died March 29, 1912.
John A. Miller, son of Conrad and Anna M. (Werling) Miller, was born in Muncy, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1872. His edu- cation was acquired by attendance at boarding school, Blair Hall, New Jersey, and at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in the class of 1895. He then went to Bangor, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in the railroad contracting business until 1901, when he took up his residence in Nazareth, where he has since continued to reside. His business qualifications were soon recognized and appreciated, he being chosen to fill the important position of president of the Dexter Portland Cement Company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania; the Clinchfield Portland
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Cement Company of Kingsport, Tennessee; the Albion Slate Company of Bangor, Pennsylvania ; the Pen Bangor Slate Company of Wind Gap, Penn- sylvania; the Nazareth Foundry & Machine Company; the Dexter Con- crete Manufacturing Company; the Alpha Slate Company ; and is director of the Nazareth National Bank and the Atlantic Gas & Electric Company. He is also serving as chief burgess of Nazareth. He is a member of White- field Lodge, No. 121, Free and Accepted Masons, of Nazareth; Caldwell Consistory, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; Rajah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Reading, Pennsylvania; and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He holds mem- bership in the Pomfret Club at Easton, the Northampton Country Club, and is an attendant at the services of the German Reformed Church. He is a staunch Republican in politics.
Mr. Miller married (first) Mary Alice Cope, of Nazareth, daughter of Dr. Thomas Cope, who bore him two children: Conrad C., and Mary Alice. She died February 15, 1901. On May 28, 1904, he married (second) Emily N. Moon, daughter of William W. Moon of Easton, Pennsylvania. Child, John Andrew, Jr., born November 25, 1907.
FRED RAYMOND DRAKE-Major Fred R. Drake is head of the firm of Drake & Company, one of the oldest wholesale grocery houses in the United States, and one of the largest in northeastern Pennsylvania. The business was started, in 1836, by his grandfather, John Drake, who in 1837 admitted Derrick Hulick, under the firm name of Drake & Hulick. In 1857 Samuel Drake, the eldest son of John Drake, entered the firm, which then be- came Drake, Hulick & Company, so continuing until the death of Derrick Hulick, in 1872. Winfield S. Hulick was then admitted to partnership, and the firm name was changed to J. Drake, Son & Company. On the death of John Drake, in 1873, the firm name became J. Drake's Son & Company. In 1877 Winfield S. Hulick retired and Howard Drake entered the firm, which then became J. Drake's Sons & Company. In 1889 Fred R. Drake entered the firm. In 1892 George G. Rambo became a partner. Though Samuel Drake died in 1893, the firm name remained unchanged until 1899, when it was changed to Drake & Company, its present title, with Fred R. Drake, Howard Drake and George G. Rambo comprising the firm. Howard Drake died in 1899, and four years later Jesse S. Carter, head of the credit department for many years, was admitted to the firm. In 1911 George G. Rambo died, having been connected with the business from 1866 until his death, leaving Fred R. Drake and Jesse S. Carter, the surviving partners, comprising the firm at the present time (1919).
(I) The family to which Fred R. Drake belongs was founded in New Hampshire during the seventeenth century, the American ancestor coming from Exeter in Devonshire, England. A branch settled on the banks of the Piscataway river near the present city of Rahway, New Jersey, and from that line came Imla Drake, founder of this branch of the Drake family of Warren county, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania. Imla Drake, born May I, 1751, died January 3, 1826. He married Temperance McPherson, born October 15, 1750, died January 13, 1826, only surviving her husband ten days.
(II) Samuel Drake, son of Imla and Temperance (McPherson) Drake, was born April 26, 1774, and after his marriage located on a farm near Asbury, Warren county, New Jersey. He married, March 3, 1796, Cath- erine Hulshizer, born September 14, 1775, died March 17, 1853, daughter of John Martin Hulshizer, born January 8, 1747, died April 9, 1810, and his wife, Margaret (Mellick) Hulshizer, born August 20, 1757, died February 25, 1822. Samuel and Catherine (Hulshizer) Drake were the parents of five daughters and six sons : Rebecca, married (first) Joseph Osman, (second) Jesse Stewart; Margaret, married Thomas Moffet; Sarah Jane, died in infancy; John, of
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further mention; Martin, married Sophia S. Meginley, and moved to Dodge county, Wisconsin; Imla, died in infancy ; Temperance, married Luther Cal- vin Carter; Mary, died at the age of forty, unmarried; Samuel Stewart, married Susan Axford Vliet, and moved to Wisconsin; William, married Rachel Morgan Axford, and for many years resided in Hackettstown, New Jersey ; David Andrew, married Lucy Bau.
(III) John Drake, grandfather of Major Fred R. Drake, of Easton, eldest son of Samuel and Catherine (Hulshizer) Drake, was born at the home farm near Asbury, Warren county, New Jersey, December 19, 1803, and died at Easton, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1873. He remained at the home- stead until twenty-five years of age, then removed to the village of Broad- way in the same county, there conducting a hotel and a small country store. He remained there three years, then for two years operated a saw mill and kept a store at Townsbury. Later he was a merchant at Branchville, New Jersey, until 1836, when he located in Easton, Pennsylvania, and inaugurated the business now conducted under the firm name, Drake & Company, now in the eighty-fourth year of its existence. With Derrick Hulick as partner, first as retailers then as wholesalers, they gathered into the town of Easton the produce of the surrounding country, and shipped it to New York and Philadelphia by means of wagons and boats, this being before the era of railroads. While one partner managed the store and finances, the other partner traversed the surrounding country, this method resulting in their virtual control of the trade of a large section of the country surrounding. John Drake, as head of the firm Drake, Wilson & Company, established a line of canal boats between Easton and Philadelphia. He was largely instrumental in the development of the iron trade of the Lehigh Valley, being one of the founders and first directors of the Thomas Iron Company and of the Carbon Iron Company, and was one of the five original owners of the Delaware Roll- ing Mill. He was a director of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, later the First National, and in all ways sought to promote the progress of Easton. He was a Whig in his political faith, and when that party outlived its use- fulness and gave up the ghost he allied himself with its youthful but vigorous successor, the Republican party.
John Drake married, September 25, 1827, Margaret Stewart, born Sep- tember 21, 1809, died in Easton, Pennsylvania, June 6, 1877, and with her husband was buried in the Easton Cemetery. She was the daughter of Samuel and Catherine (Carpenter) Stewart, and granddaughter of Thomas and Rachel (Dewees) Stewart; Rachel Dewees was a daughter of William Dewees, of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and Catherine Carpenter was a daughter of Balser Carpenter, of Sussex county, New Jersey. Samuel Stew- art and Catherine Carpenter were married, January 20, 1807. John and Margaret (Stewart) Drake were the parents of six sons and five daughters: Catherine, died in Easton, March 27, 1906; Samuel, of further mention ; Thomas Stewart, a lifelong resident of Easton or vicinity, married Mary Ann Pyle; Ellen, married William Branlow Semple; Sarah Stewart, died July 2, 1883, unmarried; Lewis Clewell, shipping agent for the Thomas Iron Company at New York for many years, died unmarried, 1883; Mary Car- penter, died at the age of twenty, in 1862, unmarried; Emily, married James Whitfield Wood, died 1919; Howard, born April 3, 1847, died suddenly at Watkins Glen, New York, July 7, 1899, a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Drake & Company, married Annie L. Shouse; Frank, connected for many years with the firm of J. Drake's Sons & Company, died, unmarried, 1894; John, Jr., with J. Drake Sons & Company, for a time, died, unmarried, at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1880.
(IV) Samuel (2) Drake, father of Major Fred R. Drake, and eldest son of John and Margaret (Stewart) Drake, was born in Broadway, Warren county, New Jersey, July 16, 1830, and died at Spring Lake, a summer resort on the New Jersey coast, June 29, 1893. He was but six years of age when
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his parents moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, and there his after life was spent. He was educated in the Vandeveer School in Easton, and in 1847 entered business life under the guidance of his father, then senior member of the firm, Drake & Hulick. In 1857 he was admitted a partner, and through all the changes of firm name and personnel continued his interest, being the last surviving partner of the old firm. He was active in the firm until his death, having been connected therewith forty-six years and a partner thirty-six years. He was also a director of the First National Bank of Easton; director and vice-president of the Thomas Iron Company and of the Edison Illuminating Company of Easton; director of the Easton Trust Company ; and a manager of the Fire Insurance Company of Northampton county. In politics he was a Republican from the very organization of that party, but was strictly a business man, never seeking nor desiring public office. He was affiliated with the Masonic order and with the Second Pres- byterian Church. He passed away deeply mourned, a just man and loyal citizen.
Samuel Drake married, January 16, 1862, Sarah Arndt, born June 30, 1837, died June 14, 1884, daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Stewart) Arndt, of Greenwich township, Warren county, New Jersey. Samuel and Sarah (Arndt) Drake were the parents of four daughters and one son: Mary Virginia, born July 15, 1863, married, November 15, 1888; James Madison Porter, born May 10, 1864, and they are parents of one son, James Madison Porter 4th, born March 7, 1896; Fred Raymond, of further mention ; Estelle, born 1867; died in infancy ; Carrie Arndt, born April 30, 1869, married, Jan- uary 5, 1898, John Rice, son of Capt. George and Belle (Potts) Rice, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and are the parents of a daughter, Virginia, born August 8, 1899, and a son, John Rice, 2nd, born June 18, 1903; Laura Edna, born September 12, 1874, married, January 28, 1913, Edward Eldridge Swift, of Detroit, Michigan; they have one son, Edward Eldridge, Jr., born Feb- ruary 25, 1918.
(V) Fred Raymond Drake, only son of Samuel (2) and Sarah (Arndt) Drake, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1865, and is now head of the wholesale grocery house, Drake & Company. He began his education in the public schools, continued it under private tutors, entered Lafayette College in 1882, and was graduated, Bachelor of Arts, class of 1886, receiv- ing his Master of Arts in 1889. He was a winner of the Shakespeare prize in his junior year, and was a commencement day speaker at graduation. In 1886 he became associated with Drake & Company, a firm established by his grandfather, John Drake, just half a century earlier, and with which his father, Samuel Drake, had been connected since 1847. In 1889 Fred R. Drake was admitted a partner and is now the directing head (1919). He is also director and vice-president of the Thomas Iron Company, which his grandfather aided in founding; vice-president of the Northampton Trust Company ; vice-president of the Commonwealth Water and Light Company of New Jersey ; president of the Lakewood and Coast Water and Electric Company of New Jersey ; from 1910 to 1911 president of the Easton Board of Trade; from 1910 to 1911 president of the National Wholesale Grocers' Association of the United States.
Major Drake entered the military service of his State in 1898, when he organized a company for service in the Spanish-American War, which was sworn in as Company E, Eleventh Regiment, Provisional Guard. He was elected first lieutenant of the company, July 12, 1898, and promoted captain, September 27, 1898. The company was not called into National service, but in 1899 was transferred as Company I to the Thirteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard. Captain Drake served in that rank, com- manding Companies E and I from his election until his appointment as aide de camp, with the rank of captain, on the staff of Brig .- Gen. J. P. S. Gobin, commander of the Third Brigade, Pennsylvania National Guard. He
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received his promotion to General Gobin's staff, December 5, 1900. Captain Drake brought his command up to a high standard of soldierty efficiency, and at each succeeding brigade inspection the company received the highest rating. In 1902 he served with the Third Brigade in the anthracite coal region, and was acting brigade quartermaster during a great part of the ninety-five days they were on duty. He was commissioned major, April 3, 1906.
As the record of his military service shows, Major Drake is not a slave to his business interests, important though they be. Still another side of his nature is revealed in his connection with the Easton Public Library, which he aided in founding. He serves as vice-president of its board of trustees, and is librarian of the Shakespeare Society of New York City. His literary tastes are further shown in his valuable private library, which includes several editions of his favorite Shakespeare. He is a member of the Pomfret Club of Easton, the Northampton Country Club, of which he was one of the organizers, and of the University Club of New York. Polit- ically he is a Republican. While a student at Lafayette he became a mem- ber of Zeta Psi, and has ever retained his interest in that fraternity. In 1891, at Providence, Rhode Island, he was elected a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha, and at Easton in 1898 was elected a member of Phi Alpha (interna- tional president in 1898) and from 1895 to 1909 was a member of the Com- mittee of Patriarchs. He is also president of Tau Chapter Association of Zeta Psi, of Easton.
Major Drake married, June 15, 1911, Pearce Kinkead Fox, of East Orange, New Jersey. They are the parents of a daughter, Margaret Kinkead, born January 17, 1914, and of a son, Frederick Raymond, Jr., born February 26, 1915.
Major Drake's Arndt ancestry through his mother, Sarah (Arndt) Drake: Hans Arndt, "farmer and inhabitant of Weipen, District of Cos- wick in the Electorate of Anhalt, Germany," had a son, Martin Arndt, who was, in 1678, a burgher of the town of Zerbst in the same Electorate. He married Maria Sager, daughter of Hans Sager, "of the Electoral body guard and a burgher of Zerbst, in 1687." They were parents of son, Martin C. Arndt.
Martin Conrad Arndt, who, in October, 1678, received from the burgo- master and councilmen of the city of Zerbst a certificate of character show- ing that he was "born of good German blood and not Wendischen blood, and of an otherwise and honorable family, no man's bondsman nor a Lett" "Therefore both on account of legitimate birth and origin and his conduct, he may be admitted to all corporate fraternities, guilds and asso- ciations, to have, to hold, and to use their privileges after the Accustomed." With this certificate he moved to the dukedom of Zweibrucken, Germany, married, and was succeeded by a son, Bernhardt Arndt.
Bernhardt Arndt, born at Zweibrucken, Germany, married there Anna Maria Decker, daughter of Andreas Decker, of Coburn, in the dukedom of Zweibrucken, and settled at Baumholder in the adjoining canton of Lichten- berg, whence, in 1731. he emigrated with his family to Pennsylvania, and in 1739 was living in Salford township, now Montgomery county.
Jacob Arndt, son of Bernhardt Arndt, was born at Baumholden, Lichten- berg, Germany, March 24, 1725, and was brought by his parents to Penn- sylvania in the ship Pennsylvania Merchant, arriving in Philadelphia, Sentem- ber II, 1731. He grew to manhood within the limits of the present Mont- gomery county, but after his marriage he purchased a farm in Rockhill township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, upon which he resided until 1760, when, in June, he bought a mill property and one hundred and fifty acres of farm land in Forks township, Northampton county. Pennsylvania. re- moved to his new purchase. and there died. August 3, 1805. His service to the Colonial cause was extensive. He raised and was commissioned a cap- tain of provincial forces in Bucks county in 1756, a major in 1758, and saw N. H. BIOG .- 29
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conspicuous service in the French and Indian wars. He was in command of the important posts of Fort Allen, Fort Morris, Fort Augusta, and Fort Bedford, and after his removal to Northampton county was Colonial jus- tice, 1761 until 1775; member of the Committee of Public Safety, 1774 until 1777; Council of Safety, 1777; Supreme Executive Council, 1777 until 1780; captain of Forks Township Associated Company, 1775; delegate of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1776, and to the several provincial conventions of 1775, 1776 and 1777. Major Jacob Arndt married Elizabeth Gieger, daugh- ter of Jacob Gieger, of New Hanover township in the same county, and his wife, Anna Mary, who had recently emigrated from Germany, where one of his sons was still living, at the death of his father, Jacob Gieger, in 1772. Among the children of Major Jacob Arndt was a son, Abraham.
Abraham Arndt was born in Rockhill township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1759, and died in Greenwich township, Warren county, New Jersey, December 2, 1845. He was a private in Northampton County Militia during the Revolution, and about 1785 married Ann Hann, daughter of William Hann (or Henn), of Morris county, New Jersey. She was born August 2, 1764, died April 15, 1843. Both Abraham and Ann are buried at St. James Lutheran Church in Greenwich township, as are their son Abraham, his wife Margaret, and grandson, Hart J. Arndt.
Jacob Arndt, son of Abraham and Ann (Hann) Arndt, was born Sep- tember 2, 1788, and died in Greenwich township, Warren county, New Jer- sey, May 28, 1852. He married, January 25, 1817, Sarah Stewart, born Octo- ber 26, 1801, died June 21, 1842, daughter of Robert and Mary Stewart. They were the parents of a daughter, Sarah.
Sarah Arndt, born June 30, 1837, married, January 16, 1862, Samuel Drake, of previous mention, and came to Easton in that year. Their son, Fred Raymond Drake, is also of previous mention, his children being of the tenth recorded Arndt generation, and of the seventh generation in Penn- sylvania.
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