History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume III, Part 34

Author: Heller, William Jacob; American Historical Society, Inc
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Boston ; New York [etc.] : The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 574


USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume III > Part 34


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and for twelve years was associated with Mr. Wilbur in this connection. At the end of this period he began his present identification with the E. P. Wil- bur Trust Company as secretary of the company. His election as second vice-president followed, and in 1911 he took up his present duties as first vice- president. His position in financial circles is an influential one. He was one of the organizers and the first vice-chairman of the Bethlehem Bankers' Association, an organization formed to facilitate the handling of government securities throughout the war and continued, when that need had passed, as a means of co-ordinating and stabilizing the city's financial affairs. Among his other important business interests are his responsibilities as secretary and treasurer of the Bethlehem City Water Company, president of the Industrial Limestone Company, secretary and treasurer of the Brown-Borhek Lumber Company, treasurer of the Mineral Spring Ice Company, secretary and treas- urer of the J. M. Degnan Company, and treasurer of the Bethlehem Bridge Commission. Mr. Miller was treasurer of the "bridge fund" from the begin- ning of the subscription campaign for the great hill-to-hill bridge, and that project had no more enthusiastic supporter than he. He has been on the progressive and liberal side of all civic questions and from a keen and public- spirited interest has given of his time and effort for the general good in the development of Bethlehem's possibilities.


He is a communicant of the Reformed church. In political action he is an independent Republican. His fraternal affiliations are with Allentown Lodge No. 30, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler, and he is a member of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. the South Side Business Men's Association, and the Rotary Club, having been treasurer of the last-named organization since its formation. His clubs are the Manufacturers', of Philadelphia; Bethlehem, Northampton, Lehigh Coun- try, Northampton County Country. He is also a member of the Pennsyl- vania Society of New York and the Lincoln Republican Association. Mr. Miller finds his most enjoyable relaxation from the press of business in golt and motoring, and he spends a part of each year at his summer home at Brielle, New Jersey, and his winter residence at Clearwater, Florida, where he has extensive orange and grape-fruit groves.


Mr. Miller married, August 19, 1891, Cora May Lehr, daughter of Gen. Samuel D. and Elizabeth S. (Engleman) Lehr, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. General Lehr was a veteran of the Civil War, retiring from the service with the rank of captain, and for many years was conspicuously identified with the National Guard of Pennsylvania. He was a civil engineer by profession, and for many years served the city of Allentown in various capacities as city engineer, member of council and mayor, a man of unimpeachably high stand- ing and reputation. Mrs. Miller is interested in civic and charitable organiza- tions in Bethlehem, and was active in Red Cross work throughout the World War. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the parents of: Margaret Louise, a graduate of the Moravian Seminary ; Samuel Lehr, a student in the Bethlehem Pre- paratory School.


ELDREDGE PACKER WILBUR-The present position of Mr. Wilbur in the widespread business and financial interests that have long been asso- ciated with the Wilbur name is one that he came to not solely through inheri- tance or favor of appointment, but by the route first of regular apprentice- ship to a trade and then a clerkship in the E. P. Wilbur Trust Company, founded by his father, who continued its executive head until his death. At this time (1919) Mr. Wilbur is second vice-president of the E. P. Wilbur Trust Company, officially and financially interested in numerous business and industrial institutions throughout the Lehigh Valley, and is numbered among the citizens of Bethlehem to whose initiative, progressiveness, generosity and clear-sighted public spirit the uplift and substantial development of the city is due.


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Member of the line of Wilbur founded in Pennsylvania by Henry Wilbur, of Mystic, Connecticut, Mr. Wilbur is a son of Elisha Packer and Stella M. (Abbott) Wilbur, his father one of the strongest men-of-affairs in Pennsyl- vania in a generation that produced a number of men of great ability.


Eldredge P. Wilbur was born August 10, 1877, and as a youth attended the Haverford Grammar School, of Haverford, Pennsylvania, the Lawrence- ville Preparatory School, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and the Berkley School, of New York City. Foregoing a college course in favor of practical technical training, he entered the machine shops of the Lehigh Valley railroad, of which his father was president, at Sayre, Pennsylvania, with the intention of learning railroading in its every department. For a year and a half he worked at the machinist's trade, then, in 1901, returned to Bethlehem and entered the E. P. Wilbur Trust Company in the capacity of clerk. Entrusted from time to time with heavier responsibilities, he became assistant treas- urer of the company, and in 1912 was elected to the second vice-presidency, an office he now fills. In addition to his official duties in this company, which represents such a vast amount of earnest thought and devoted labor in the name of Wilbur to have given it the high position among the financial institu- tions of the State that it now occupies, Mr. Wilbur is engaged with many other business connections, among them the vice-presidency of the Mineral Spring Ice Company, and the second vice-presidency of the Sayre Land Company, the Sayre Water Company, and the J. M. Degnan Company, of all of which he is a director.


Mr. Wilbur is a participant in the activities of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and the South Bethlehem Business Men's Association for a greater business and industrial city. He took leading part in the campaigns that placed Bethlehem prominently among the leaders in the various war interests of the government and relief organizations, and in the needs of every day, as well as in emergencies, has proved himself a faithful, unselfish friend of the charitable and social service institutions of the city. His social connections are with the Northampton, Bethlehem, Lehigh Country and Northampton County Country clubs, his fraternal affiliations with Bethlehem Lodge No. 191, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Wilbur is fond of the out-of-doors and there he finds his recreation in gunning, fishing, motoring and golf.


Mr. Wilbur married, May 27, 1902, Lilian Linderman, daughter of Dr. Garrett B. and Frances (Evans) Linderman. Mrs. Wilbur, like her husband, is intimately concerned with the welfare of charitable and civic institutions. She is a loyal supporter of St. Luke's Hospital, serving on its Women's Auxiliary, and during the World War served as president of the Bethlehem Chapter of the American Red Cross, which accomplished splendid results under her capable leadership during the years of the conflict. Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur are the parents of two sons: Donald Eldredge and Arnold Jackson.


J. UPTON MYERS-The line of Myers of which J. Upton Myers, of Bethlehem, is a member, was founded in America by Nicholas Myers, who with his wife and sons came from Amsterdam, Holland, in 1753. He located in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and ten years afterward purchased nine hundred acres of land in Adams county, moving to that county and locating near Round Hill in the vicinity of York Sulphur Springs. His children were : John; Jacob, of whom further ; David, William, Ludwick, Nicholas, Jr., Eliza- beth, Susan, Margaret J. and Mary.


(II) Jacob Myers, son of Nicholas Myers, the founder, was born in 1760. He married Hannah Smith, and in 1796 moved to Conewago Mills, later to New Chester. He died aged eighty-five years, his wife's death occurring when she was seventy-five; both are buried in the Bermudian Cemetery.


(III) Henry Myers, son of Jacob and Hannah (Smith) Myers, was born April 1, 1791, and died at New Chester, Pennsylvania, February 29, 1868. He


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was a man of prominent standing in his community, and in 1842 was elected to the State Legislature. He married, at the age of twenty-one years, a first cousin, Nancy Jameson, daughter of James Jameson, who married a daughter of David Myers. Children of Henry and Nancy (Jameson) Myers: Jacob A., of whom further; Singleton, Henry Jameson, Ann E. J., Horatio Gates, David P. and William.


(IV) Jacob A. Myers, son of Henry and Nancy (Jameson) Myers, was born in New Chester, Adams county, Pennsylvania. He became the owner of a farm on the Little Bermudian creek, and built and operated the Good Intent Woolen Factory. In 1855 he became associated with his brother-in- law, John B. McCreary, in coal mining, and with his wife and five children moved to the coal regions of Tremont, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. Here the family resided for one year, and then moved to Audenried, Carbon county, where the Honey Brook coal mines, of which he became owner, were situ- ated. In 1865 he retired from business, and the family located permanently in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Jacob A. Myers married Sarah Ann Deardorff, born at Deardorff's Mill, near Petersburg, Adams county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1821, daughter of John Deardorff and descendant of George Dear- dorff, a German Tunker, who settled in Germantown in 1729, and became one of the organizers of the first Tunker (or Dunkard) church in that place. Jacob A. Myers died in September, 1865, the father of six children, who were educated in the Moravian schools and the local universities.


(V) J. Upton Myers, son of Jacob A. and Sarah Ann (Deardorff) Myers, was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1853. He was educated in the Moravian schools and Bloomsburg Normal School. He has been an ardent sportsman, and spent many seasons hunting and fishing in the Rockies when the West was in its wilder and more romantic period. He is a member of the Bethlehem Club, the Northampton County Country Club, and was a member of the old Frohsinn, a singing society of male voices, which was an outstanding feature of Bethlehem life for many years.


Mr. Myers married, May 23, 1900, Elizabeth Fetter Lehman, daughter of B. E. and Harriett Matilda (Fetter) Lehman, and they are the parents of one son, Richmond Elmore.


Harriett Matilda Fetter was a daughter of Herman M. Fetter, known throughout this section of the State as "Sheriff" Fetter and as the genial landlord of the old Fetter's Hotel. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The Fetter family is old in Pennsylvania, Jacob Fetter, the founder, having left his home in the Palatinate in 1729 to seek religious freedom in the New World. He allied himself with the Moravians when Count Zinzendorf established the settlement in Oley, Pennsylvania. A strong artistic feeling was the leading characteristic of this family, which numbered musicians and artists among its members in different generations. Peter (2) Fetter, son of Jacob (1) Fetter, was the first permanent resident of the family in Northampton county, where they have ever since resided. The Lehman family is also of Moravian ancestry, but did not come to Northampton county until 1832, when Ernest Ludwig Lehman arrived from Berlin and established in the business of coppersmith, the first in the Lehigh Valley. This little business developed into a brass foundry, and Bernhard E., son of Ernest Leh- inan, took his father's place and became well known as the proprietor of the Lehigh Valley Brass Works, being succeeded, in his turn, by his son, John George Lehman. The Lehmans were intensely musical and were members of the old Bethlehem Philharmonic Society and Moravian Trombone Choir. Bernhard E. Lehman was a member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society and the Moravian Historical Society. His daughter, Elizabeth F. Myers, belongs to these societies, and to the Northampton County Historical Society, and has written papers upon various historical subjects for them. A book, "A Century of Moravian Sisters," was written by Mrs. Myers and published in 1918, and another is in preparation. Mrs. Myers is State chairman for


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Pennsylvania of the Needlework Guild of America, and has served as vice- president of the Women's Club of Bethlehem, and secretary of the Bethlehem Chapter of the Red Cross.


JOHN OWEN GRIFFITHS-John Owen Griffiths, secretary of the Yo Eddie Club, of Bethlehem, an organization of patriotic purpose, has been commendably active in public affairs in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, during the years of war, and by his executive work for the club and his personal efforts in other activities of patriotic character has come prominently before the residents of that city, especially during the last two years.


John Owen Griffiths was born in Wilkes-Barre, July 6, 1890, the son of Owen and Elizabeth Jane (Davies) Griffiths, of that place. Owen Griffiths was born in England, but after his emigration therefrom settled in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, where he married and where two years after the birth of their son, John Owen, he died. His widow, Elizabeth Jane (Davies) Grif- fiths, came to America when seventeen years of age. She is a native of Barmouth, Wales, and after the death of her husband, Owen Griffiths, she married again, her second husband being David Thomas Jones, also a native of Barmouth, Wales, but at the time of their marriage and since an employee of the Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. Six children were born to them, four girls and two boys, the boys, however, both dying in infancy. It was in the home of his mother and stepfather at Wilkes-Barre that John Owen Griffiths was reared.


He was educated in the public schools of Wilkes-Barre, and eventually graduated from the Wilkes-Barre High School. Immediately after leaving school, he took on responsible work of an educational character, being mainly responsible for the direction of the Boys' Industrial School at Wilkes-Barre, an institution organized by Mrs. H. W. Palmer, of that city. For a time Mr. Griffiths was vice-president of the association, and liked his work among the boys. He is of active habits, and athletic inclinations; for five years he managed baseball and basketball teams in his home town. In February, 1912, he removed to Bethlehem to take the management of a cigar store owned by A. H. Barhold; later he opened a restaurant in Bethlehem for R. A. Kresge, and held the management of that restaurant until 1914. For a year thereafter Mr. Griffiths followed insurance, in the employ of the Prudential Insurance Company. In June, 1916, when this nation became involved with Mexico over the Villa raids into United States territory with resultant loss of life, John Owen Griffiths left for the Mexican border as a member of Company M, Fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard. He was on active service until January, 1917. Soon after he returned to Bethlehem he took over the management of the Bethlehem business of the United Cigar Store Company, continuing until January 1, 1919, then he was made manager ot one of the finest billiard and bowling academies in Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, for Kurtz Brothers.


But it is in his connection with the activities of the Yo Eddie Club that he has come frequently before the people of Bethlehem since early in 1917. That club was organized during the Mexican campaign to keep the soldiers of the city supplied with tobacco and other comforts while on active service. Other similar clubs have arisen in different parts of the United States, but it is probable that the Bethlehem Club was one of the pioneers. It started with a membership of seven, and grew in its scope as well as its membership until, during the very much more extensive military operations the coun- try subsequently became a part of, the great World War, the club had a membership of two thousand five hundred and kept three thousand five hun- dred soldiers constantly supplied with tobacco, or with the money where- with they could purchase it. The funds came from many sources, and all by the ingenuity, talent and indefatigable efforts of the members of the Yo


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Eddie Club, which organized minstrel shows, carnivals, games and in many other ways managed to keep the fund in being. When the troops returned from the Mexican border, the Bethlehem quota received a memorable wel- come, the Yo Eddie Club entertaining all of the local troops at a banquet, which was made possible by. the profits of a previously given and very suc- cessful minstrel show. And, likewise, when the soldier boys left, under the Selective Service Law, to take part in the great European War, the Yo Eddie Club was active in maintaining a tobacco fund sufficient to constantly supply the soldiers while in camp or overseas. And when the sending of tobacco over- seas was forbidden, because of scarcity of cargo space, the club sent the men money orders of sufficient amount to enable them to buy the tobacco from the canteen. The Yo Eddie Club includes in its membership . such nationally known men as Charles M. Schwab and Mayor Johnston, and was supported in its work by all the public bodies of Bethlehem, having the endorsement of the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce. Dur- ing its existence it has collected more than $80,000 for the cause, and that sum has been expended wholly in caring for and entertaining the sol- diers. Administration expenses were borne wholly by the club members, their motto being "One hundred per cent. for the boys.". The largest shipment of tobacco sent by the club to France was valued at $1,300, but in many others ways the club cared for the Bethlehem soldiers. As secretary, much of the detail work of the club would fall to Mr. Griffiths' care, of neces- sity, but his participation in the work did not end with his secretarial duties: his services were in constant demand and readily given. He was deputed by Special Committee of Bethlehem to see that all Bethlehem boys leaving for military service left with the knowledge that the people of Bethlehem appre- ciated the service they were to give, and he was also to supervise the ship- ments of tobacco. And later, in 1918, he was particularly active in securing for soldiers passing through the town a substantial meal, amounting to a. total of seventy-two thousand men. So that altogether it may be inferred that Mr. Griffiths has spent some useful years of public service since he came to Bethlehem. On Thanksgiving Day; 1918, the mothers and wives of forty- eight Bethlehem boys who had made the supreme sacrifice were presented with baskets, and the needy ones also with checks of ten to twenty-five dollars: The following Christmas the fatalities had reached seventy-one, and similar. gifts to the heroes' mothers and wives were repeated. This club largely assumed the responsibility of reception and entertainment of the returned soldiers and sailors, and also provided the bronze "Bethlehem Medals of Honor" to all service men, and gold "Bethlehem Medals of Honor" to the wife or mother of each of the city's honored dead.


Mr. Griffiths is a Democrat, and fraternally belongs to the Independent: Order of Odd Fellows, member of Lodge No. 78, Bethlehem, and Patriotic Order Sons of America, Camp No. 39. Religiously, Mr. Griffiths is a Pres- byterian.


Mr. Griffiths married (first), March 25, 1912, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas C. and Catherine Davies, but had the misfortune to lose his wife, the death of Mrs. Griffiths occurring on April 9, 1918. There were two chil- dren born to the marriage: Lillian Anna, October 3, 1913, and Robert David, June. 25, 1915. Mr. Griffiths married (second), April 21. 1919, Florence E., daughter of Henry F. and the late Katie Brinkman, of Allentown, Penn- sylvania.


HON. CHARLES BRODHEAD-The name brodhead is so intimately associated with the history of Northampton county that no record of her prominent citizens would be complete without extended mention of this dis- tinguished family, which has contributed many men of influence in county, State and National affairs. This record is principally concerned with the


e American Historyen imacty


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life and works of Charles Brodhead, who, throughout a long life of four score years, ably upheld the traditions of a notable family and as lawyer, states- man, philanthropist and man-of-affairs wrote notable chapters in its history.


Daniel Brodhead, the founder of the family in America, was a captain in a regiment of English grenadiers, and came to the New World in the reign of King Charles II, with the expedition of Col. Richard Nicolls, which effected the capture of New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664. The Dutch depend- encies on the Hudson river, including Esopus, Schenectady and Fort Orange (Albany), were also surrendered to the British, and Capt. Daniel Brodhead was assigned with his company to maintain peace and order at Esopus, with the title of "Captain-General of the Esopus." He married Ann Tye, but it is not positively known whether she accompanied him on the expedition to America, or whether she subsequently joined him in Esopus. Among their several children were three sons, Daniel, Charles and Richard, names which continue in the family to the present. Captain Brodhead made his headquar- ters at Marbletown, a village near the Hudson, where he dispensed justice with a fair and impartial hand to his Dutch neighbors as well as to his Eng- lish followers. He died July 14, 1667. His widow, who survived him many years, in 1697 built a residence for herself and children, and it remained in possession of her descendants until 1890. Among the family possessions dating back to this early period is a pass given by the town authorities of Marbletown, Ulster county, New York, to Daniel Brodhead, a grandson of the founder of the family, who was probably the first Brodhead to visit Pennsyl- vania. The document reads as follows :


Ulster in the Province of New York.


Mattys Jensen, Major Johannes Hardenbergh and Captain John Rutsen, Justices of the Peace for the County of Ulster, assigned,


To all to whom these presents shall come, or may concern, greeting: Whereas, Daniel Brodhead, son of Captain Charles Brodhcad, hath a purpose to Travell out of this Province of New York into the Provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania :


These are to certifie that the said Daniel Brodhead hath been known unto us from the time of his nativity to this day, and during all the sd time has held himselfe as a True and Faithful Subject of our Sovereigne Lord King George and his predecessors, and is of honest and good fame, name, credit and reputation, and we desire he may be greeted accordingly.


Given under our hands and seals in Kingston, this 12th day of September, in the fifth year of His Majesty's reign Anno Domino, 1718.


(Signed) MATTYS JANSEN, J. HARDENBERGH, JOHN RUTSEN.


Daniel Brodhead did not remain in Pennsylvania, but his cousin, Daniel Brodhead, son of Richard Brodhead, a brother of Capt. Charles Brodhead, mentioned above, moved to Pennsylvania about 1735, settling on what is now Brodhead creek, near Stroudsburg, in what was then Bucks county, but is now a part of Monroe county. He laid out a town about a mile square and named it Dansbury, a station on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad, and from him are descended all the Brodheads of Pennsylvania.


The line of descent from the founder of the family came through Richard Brodhead and his wife, Magdalena Jensen. He was born in 1666, and died in 1758, while his wife died in 1707. Their only son, Daniel, who established the family in Pennsylvania, was born April 20, 1693. In 1726 he was a mer- chant in Albany, New York; a licensed Indian trader in 1730; and in 1737 or 1738 he moved to Pennsylvania, where he built the town of Dansbury and established a mill and also a Moravian church. He was commissioned justice of the peace September 25, 1747, and died in Bethlehem, July 22, 1755. His wife was Hester Wyngart, and their children were: Thomas Garton, who was born in 1723, and died at sea; Garrett Lucas, born in 1724; Richard B., born in 1726; Ann Garton, born in 1727; Charles, born September 7, 1729; Garrett, born January 21, 1733 ; Daniel, of further mention; John; and Luke.


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One of the sons, Daniel Brodhead, born October 17, 1736, was colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the Colonial Army during the Revolu- tion, and at its close, while colonel, commanding the western department, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, by special act of George Washington, and in the reorganization of the Pennsylvania troops was made colonel of the First Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental establishment. He held several State offices, and when the new organization was formed in 1789, became the first surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, which office he held until his death at Milford, Pike county, in 1809.




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