USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 68
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Yuengling, Frederick G., deceased, a son of David G. and Elizabeth (Betz) Yuengling, was born in Pottsville, Pa., Jan. 26, 1848, and died in that city on Jan. 2, 1899. After attending the Pottsville public and high schools he entered the State college, in Center county, graduated at a private school on Staten Island, N. Y .: in 1865, and then completed the course in Eastman's business college, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Upon finishing his education he had the management of his father's brewery at Pottsville until 1871, when he went to Europe to study the art of brewing in that country. When he returned he entered the employ of the Berger & Engel Brewing Company, of Philadelphia, for the purpose of obtaining a more practical knowledge of the business, and in 1873 he became as- sociated with his father under the firm name of D. G. Yuengling & Son. (See sketch of David G. Yuengling.) That name is still re- tained by the brewery, though both the father and son have passed to their eternal reward. The brewery is located on West Mahan- tongo street, Pottsville ; employs over 100 men in the various depart- ments ; about thirty teams are kept in constant use, distributing the product to the retail trade in the adjacent towns, while the whole- sale trade extends throughout Schuylkill. Northumberland. Dauphin, Lebanon, Luzerne and Lycoming counties, as well as to New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other large eastern cities. The eminent success of this brewery is due in a great measure to the thorough preparation and technical skill of Frederick G. Yuengling, who gave the best years of his life to improving the quality of their beer, ale and porter, which have since been kept up to the high standard he established. Mr. Yuengling was also interested in a number of other enterprises, though he is best remembered as the active head of the great brewery that still bears his name. He was president of the Pottsville Gas Company; vice-president of the Schuylkill Electric Railway Company and the Schuylkill Real Estate, Title Insurance and Trust Company ; and a director in the Safe Deposit bank and the Pottsville Water Company. In all these corporations the high order of his executive ability was demonstrated, and his associates esteemed him as a man of rare tact and discrimination in the management of affairs. In fraternal circles he was a member of Pulaski Lodge, No. 216, Free and Accepted Masons, in which he was deservedly popu-
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lar because of his liberal charity and general good fellow ship. He was a member of and liberal contributor to the Trinity Episcopal church, bis Christianty being of that practical kind that influenced his conduct in his relations with his fellow men. In April, 1873. Mr. Yuengling and Mass Minna Dohrman, of Brooklyn, N. Y., were united m marriage, and to this unton were born two children. The ellest is deceased. The widow and surviving son, Frank D., still reside in Pottsville.
Zapf. Charles, a prosperous brewer residing in Minersville, was born in Baden, Germany, June 22, 1830, a son of Charles and Cecelia Zapi. The father, who was a lumberman, reared a family of ten children, of whom but three are hving. The subject of this review received such educational advantages as were afforded by the schools of his native land and then learned the trade of brewer and cooper. !Lis residence in the United States dates from 1854, in which year he immigrated to Philadelphia. Later in the same year he went to Pottsville to enter the employ of the old George Lawer Brewing Company, subsequently working in that town for F. C. Kuenezler and J. G. Yuengling. In 1870 he came to Minersville and for five years was in the employ of Daniel Frier. Then he embarked in the brewery business on his own account and has continued in it most successfully. The concern now employ- seven men, including Mr. Zapf's two sons, and manufactures a beer noted for its purity and wholesomeness, Mr. Zapf's other business interests include a direc- torship in the Minersville Savings bank. On Aug. 17. 1856, he was united in marriage to Miss Catherina Eberly, a native of Schuylkill county, and a daughter of the late Christian and Rosena Eberly. To Mr. and Mrs. Zapf were born four children. William, the cklest, is engaged in business with his father. He married Miss Mary Hart. by whom he has one child. Earl. Fred. also engaged in business with his father, married Miss Jennie Schrop and is the father of two children, Clyde and Helen. Matilda is Mrs. Patrick Gilmore resi- ding in Williamstown; and Louisa is Mrs. James Clendenning, of Chester, Pa. The parents are both members of the German Luth- eran church, in which faith the children were reared. In 1861 Mr. Zapf enlisted at President Lincoln's call for 75.000 volunteers for three months service. The regiment was exposed to hardships and exposure in Virginia and was on the way to participate in the first battle of Bull Run when it was learned that the action had ceased. When his term of enlistment had expired he was mustered out and did not return to the service. He is a member of the Minersville post of the Grand Army of the Republic, but is identified with no secret organization. Mr. Zapf is a man of innate business sagacity. enterprising and enthusiastic and is held in high esteem by the citi- zens of the community.
Zerbey. Joseph Henry, editor and proprietor of the Pottsville Daily Republican and Weekly Schuylkill Republican, who, by his own personal efforts and with the assistance of his two newspapers. has done much to build up his native town of Pottsville. Pa., was
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born June 15, 1858, the third one of the five sons of William Merkle Zerbey and . his wife, Sarah. Louise. The father, William Merkle Zerbey, was born in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county, in 1824, and twenty years later removed to Pottsville, in which place he resided until his death, in 1891. Father Zerbey was possessed of unusually lovable, energetic characteristics and was noted for his strict integ- rity and perfect habits. He originally learned the trade of carpenter, but early in life engaged in the manufacture of window decorations, and for many years he was one of Pottsville's prominent merchants, being admired by all with whom he came in contact. Quiet and un- ostentatious, he refused political preferment a number of times, being content to act as an official of, first, the Evangelical, and afterward the Methodist Episcopal church, and also of several financial institu- tions. The mother, Mrs. Sarah Louise (Swalm) Zerbey, also a na- tive of Orwigsburg, was born in 1832 and is still living at the time of the publication of this sketch. The children born to William M. and Sarah L. Zerbey were Ella, widow of Charles D. Elliott, for some years the associate editor of the Daily Republican; William, deceased ; Adelia E. married Frank A. Harper, an official of the Phil- adelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company, and after his decease she married Horace S. Kirk, a foreman of the Philadelphia & Read- ing car shops ; John F., for years a bank cashier, next clerk to the county commissioners, and latterly national bank examiner ; Heber S., formerly a tutor by profession and afterward succeeding to the business of W. M. Zerbey & Son, window decorations, stationery, etc. ; Robert A., for several years associate business manager of the Daily Republican, died in 1893 ; Frederick E., division superintendent Wilkes Barre district, Lehigh Valley Coal Company; and Sara Fran- ces, wife of W. B. Hill, engaged in the manufacture of pianos, etc., in New York. Joseph H. Zerbey, the subject of this sketch, was married June 16, 1880, to Cora E., daughter of Gen. Joshua K. Sig- fried, of Pottsville. Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Zerbey have had a family of five children : Miss Frances, Miss Edith, deceased; Joseph Henry, Jr., and two little girls, Misses Mildred and Elizabeth. The family home is located on Howard avenue, at the corner of Fifteenth street. Joseph H. Zerbey was educated in the excellent schools of Pottsville and graduated from the high school in 1875, before he was seven- teen years old, standing one of the highest in his class. Shortly there- after he took up permanent work at his chosen vocation, in the office of the Schuylkill Republican, then being published at Minersville, a suburb of Pottsville. He thoroughly acquainted himself with all the duties of the various departments of the newspaper and publishing business, starting in as the latest apprentice, although he was urged to at once devote all his time to the business department, but he 1 worked as a printer in the daytime and at night labored long hours at the business and reportorial work. The Schuylkill Republican, which in its prime was undoubtedly the most wide-awake and best representative weekly newspaper ever printed in the Schuylkill coal region, was established Dec. 14, 1872, by Charles D. Elliott and John
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(. Beck, at that time both well known practical printers, actively engaged in the newspaper business in the county seat. Deenning that there was a first-class opening for a good, up-to-date county news- paper representing the free, unbiased, untrammeled views of the people of the region, these veterans combined their energy and ex- priences, and on the above date began the publication of this old- time, splendidly popular newspaper at Mmersville, four miles from Pottsville. With varying fortunes the two partners worked in har- mony until June of 18744, when, as a result of falling health, Mr. Beck retired and C. D. Elliott became the sole editor and proprietor, continuing at the business until Sept., 1878, when J. H. Zerbey, the subject of this sketch, who had been in charge of the Pottsville branch office from, and set type for, the first publication of the paper in 1872, and afterward a regular employe of the concern, became a partner, and, a year later, in 1870, Mr. Zerbey acquired the sole ownership of the entire establishment from Mr. Elliott, who went west.to engage in the newspaper business in his native state of Wis- consin. For a weekly newspaper without any daily paper affiliation the Schuylkill Republican always maintained a widespread reputa- tion as a fearless, outspoken exponent of the interests of the people. favoring anti-ring Republicanism, opposed to corporation and class domination, and at all times advocating the rights of the masses as against the usurpation of the classes. With the inception of Mr. Zerbey's sole ownership and active editorship new life was put into the publication in every department, as well as the latest machinery and appliances added to the equipment, and with this and the new energy thus directing its management the paper took on fresh im- petus and soon was commanding such an extended influence in the coal region, and had such a large number of readers, that it was deemed best to move the publication office to Pottsville, which was done in April. 1884. The proprietor felicitated himself with what was considered a splendid achievement at that time, making the change without interference with the regular publication of the paper, the printing office apparatus being moved from the one town to the other and continuing its publication uninterruptedly without assistance from any other establishment. In Pottsville the Schuyl- kill Republican was located in the Clay building. opposite the Acad- emy of Music, within half a block of Center street, on Mahantongo street. almost exactly on the site of the first carly-day postoffice of the town, a place which had been the scene of numerous newspaper failures, which same fate was predicted for the Schuylkill Repuh- lican at that time by many people, even counting among these some of the paper's best friends; but there never was such a word as fail in the make-up of the proprietor of this newspaper establishment. After a busy experience as a weekly paper, at the end of five months, without any preliminary preparations, it was suddenly decided by Mr. Zerbey, on Oct. 28. 1884. to start the publication of an every-day- except-Sunday issue, and on that date the Pottsville Daily Republican was born. In size the new candidate for public favor was hardly
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larger than a window panc, but it was "chuck fuil" of news and original matter. From the start the paper at once jumped into public favor, and notwithstanding the field was supposed to be thoroughly occu- pied by the then well established daily papers, morning and evening, yet the newcomer made rapid strides on the road to ultimate great success, and at the end of two years was enlarged, receiving telegraphic dispatches and putting in new presses and type. From 1884 to 1895 the Daily Republican continued in its original quarters, although it needed more elbow room and additional facilities, as the business kept on constantly increasing, with the paper being enlarged from time to time. On July 5, 1895, the entire plant, with its afternoon and weekly publication business, together with a well organized job and book binding trade and all the extensive equipment necessary thereto, was moved to an old foundry building at the corner of Howard and Rail- road streets, without losing a single edition of the daily paper, the entire publication being continued with the office's own equipment and the whole business going on uninterruptedly as if no heavy machinery or hundreds of tons of apparatus had to be moved. While the paper was being published in these temporary quarters, work on a new build- ing on the site of the old one, and the gathering in of the latest ma- chinery and up-to-date appliances were pushed ahead. On Dec. 9, 1895, the handsome new four-story, specially constructed printing- office building was declared completed, the old equipment was moved back, and then, with the addition of the new machinery and other appliances, including linotype, stereotyping and perfecting-press ma- chinery that had already been put in place in the new home, the pub- lication of-the daily paper, at that time running five editions a day, was continued without interruption, notwithstanding the removal from the temporary to the new permanent building, several squares apart. For weeks after the new building was occupied, in the midst of one of the bitterest winter seasons, heavy canvas had to be used to take the place of the regular basement front, which had been unavoidably delayed, and yet in spite of these and other mechanical difficulties the different editions of the paper were printed uninterruptedly. From the occupancy of this new building and the addition of its splendid, fresh equipment, the progress of the Pottsville Daily Republican was specially pleasing to its editor and proprietor, a wonderment to its friends and the envy of its enemies. To-day the Pottsville Republican enters into nearly 12,000 homes within a radius of twenty miles of Pottsville, and it stands forth as one of the most successful newspaper ventures the interior of the state has ever witnessed, this result being the outcome of the tenacious determination and unceasing hard work of Joseph H. Zerbey, the editor and proprietor since 1879 of the Schuylkill Republican, weekly, and of the Pottsville Daily Republican, founded by him in 1884. In its time the Pottsville Daily Republican, under Mr. Zerbey's able direction and careful editorship, has accom- plished great work for the home community, and has always been found leading the vanguard in the battle for additional local indus- tries, purification of home government, building up of the hard-coal
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region and the elevation of the condition of the people generally. Among the special results accomplished by Mr. Zerbey and his Daily Republican were the inception of the movements that led to the present day extensive Tilt silk null, and the numerous shirt and stocking factory industries; the affording of rival steam railway facilities for the lower Schuylkill coal fickl, whereby, through the Republican's advocacy, the Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania railroad companies built into Pottsville : the improvement of the telegraph and telephone facilities ; the active encouragement and participation taken in the organization of the Steam-Heat, the Anthracite and Edison Electric Light and other local utihty companies; the erection of the first private business building, the Daily Republican office, of fire-proof construction; the building of the electric railway in Pottsville, with Mr. Zerbey as the secretary, his father-in-law, Gien. J. K. Sigfried. president, and his brother. John F. Zerbey, the treasurer, which was the sixth organization of its kind to be started in the United States; the establishing of a Board of Trade, of which Mr. Zorbes has been the president for many years; and the popularizing of the Pottsville Mutual Fire Insurance Co., a conservative institution that has done much for the town, and of which for nearly a score of years Mr. Zerbey has been president. Besides all these, he is a director in a number of public institutions and associations, a member of the Potts- ville club, and one of the active spirits in the Outdoor club, with hand- some quarters in the western limits of town; and also specially worthy of note is the very prominent part taken by Mr. Zerbey, and endorsed by his newspaper, in the construction of the magnificent $100,000 church edifice of the First Methodist Episcopal congregation, a structure which is undoubtedly the most imposing at this time of all the public institutions that have yet been erected here in Pottsville. Mr. Zerbey was chairman of the congregational meeting that decided to enter upon the construction of a new church, and also was a very active member of the building committee in charge of its construc- tion, and was chairman of the finance committee of the board of trustees These are some of the many splendid achievements which are drawn out of the laborious work of the editor and the important influence of his newspaper. In political work Mr. Zerbey, with his newspaper, has been very influential and successful, always being ready to assist in curing the evils in the Republican party whenever they became too glaring. During its career the Republican has been very largely instrumental in revolutionizing the conducting of the county's business affairs, and for the eight years preceding 1906, it formulated and made a success of the system whereby the county was given the best administration of the county commissioners' office that it has ever had, resulting in numerous economies and a very heavy decrease in the county's debt and tax rate. Several times in its history the Republican has seen fit to assist in the defeat of unworthy party candidates, and one year, by maintaining its own county organization, the Republican elected an entire reform legislative delegation, where- by the local professional lobbyists were relegated to the rear, never
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to get back their complete control of the party's machinery. Before the publication of the Daily Republican was started it was only a very unusual exception for a Republican nomince to be elected to any office in Schuylkill county, but as a result of the Republican's efforts to improve the administration of local affairs and the thorough sup- port given its movements by the general public, the political com- plexion of the county has been reversed and Schuylkill placed among the regular Republican majority districts of the state. Mr. Zerbey has always been a strong friend of the working men and has assisted very materially in ameliorating their condition ; he is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party, and while taking an active part in politics has nevertheless always refused political preferment. de- clining all proffers of nomination and appointment to office, declaring his unswerving devotion to his newspaper work, and considering that of sufficient honor and prominence, a field wherein he may act at all times, free and untrammeled, for what he thinks will be for the best interests of his party and of the people generally. His unrelenting battles against public wrong and his plain, outspoken utterances have made him at times bitter enemies, but he has never let these or any thoughts of personal comfort swerve him from doing what he con- siders is right. He is known for always making his word good, and for his willingness to lead the forlorn hope in matters of public im- portance, by his tenacity of purpose frequently turning impending disastrous defeat into splendid success. In his profession Mr. Zerbey is very highly thought of, and has been frequently importuned to en- gage in newspaper ventures in some of the large cities. For a quarter of a century he has been the resident correspondent for the coal region of the Associated Press and its affiliated organizations, besides acting as regular correspondent for such prominent metropolitan pub- lications as the New York Sun, New York World, Philadelphia Record, etc. At present he is president of the Schuylkill County Edi- torial Association, and when the newspaper men of the state in- augurated their movement for advertising and purchasing business co-operation Mr. Zerbey was made the president of the Publishers' Business League branch of the Pennsylvania State Editorial Associa- tion ; he is also a member of the Pen and Pencil Club. with head- quarters in Philadelphia. Mr. Zerbey has been a great traveler, al- ways declaring that travel was the best means of self-education. He is an intense American, and the only secret society he ever acquiesced in joining was that of the Patriotic Order of Sons of America.
Zimmerman, John H., a well known contractor and builder of Pottsville, was born in the borough where he now resides, Nov. 28, 1856. His father, Henry Zimmerman, was born in Northumberland county, in 1819, and his mother, whose maiden name was Abigail Heiser, was a native of Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill county. In 1832 Henry Zimmerman, then thirteen years of age, came to Pottsville and entered upon his apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade. When he was twenty-one he began work as a journeyman and he continued in this way for several years, when he engaged in contracting for him-
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self, conducting the business successfully until 1888, when he prac tically retired, though the work was carried on under his name until his death, in 1805, at the age of seventy -six years. During his active carcer he erected many residences in Pottsville and vicinity, as well as a number of bank and business blocks, and several public build- mgs. He left a family of mine children, viz. : Catherine, Charles E., Emma, John H., Samuel 11 .. Anna, Mary, Carrie, and William Il. catherine is now Mrs. C. W. Wells; Anna is Mrs. E. 11. Powell ; and Carrie is Mrs. W. R. Whitney. John H. Zimmerman received his education in the Pottsville pubhe schools, graduating in the high school with the class of 1825. He then learned the carpenter's trade with his father, and in 1885 became a partner in the business, soon afterward assuming the active management, and upon his father's death, he became the sole proprietor. His long experience has emi- nently qualified him for the erection of any class of buildings, and his wide acquaintance in his native county has placed him among the foremost men in his line. Promptness and good workmanship are his distinguishing characteristics, and it has always been his policy to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of his contracts. He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows ever since he attained his majority, is a Republican in his political belief, and takes an active interest in every movement that has for its object the advancement of the moral and material welfare of Pottsville.
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