USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 42
USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 42
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The Industrial Fire-Brick Works, owned by Joseph Downing, may properly be called one of the manu- facturing industries of the city, though located just outside its limits in East Allentown. The works were established in 1873 by Downey & Lewis, who were succeeded in 1875 by Mr. Joseph Downing, who has since conducted them. Several buildings are occu- pied, and there are in use two kilus, their capacity
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THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN.
being thirty thousand and thirty-three thousand brick, respectively. The number of hands employed is thirty, and the number of bricks produced average one hundred and ten thousand per month. Mr. Down- ing manufactures brick of all kind, including fire- briek, furnace-blocks, stove-brick, and makes a spe- cialty of rolling-mill, blast-furnace, and gas-briek. Although having a very large number of brick pat- terns on hand and in use, Mr. Downing manufactures other patterns of peculiar sizes and shapes to order. The clay used is that from the mines at Woodbridge, N. J., and the sand is seenred at Lehigh Gap.
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Building Bricks were manufactured at least fifty years ago by John Nonnemacher, Henry Worman, and Jacob Egge. John Nonnemacher, son of the above-named, began brick-making about the year 1838, and followed it until very recent years. The business is still continued by his sons, who have two kilns, one at the foot of Fifth Street and the other at Third and Union Streets. The capacity of the two is not far from two million bricks per season. William J. Egge, son of the early briek-maker, Jacob Egge, is one of the present manufacturers in this line, and has a partner,-W. P. Huber. They started in business about 1877. They employ a number of hands, ope- rate two kilns, and produce on the average twelve to fifteen thousand bricks per day. S. & W. Roth carry on the business quite extensively at the corner of Third and Gordon Streets, and on Tenth Street. In both together they have employed as many as sixty men, and manufactured as many as thirty thousand bricks per day, or three and a half million per season. The large yard on Third Street was opened in 1857 by Samuel Roth, who conducted the business alone until 1861, when his brother was admitted to partnership. Others engaged in this branch of industry are David Mastern, on Tenth Street above Liberty; Daniel Schmoyer, on Ninth Street ; and C. C. Sensenbach, at the foot of Penn Street.
Marble Works .- The first marble cutter mentioned in the publie prints is Jacob Biebighouse, who had a shop in 1812 near the German Lutheran Church. There were doubtless others before him in the same time and after. The business is now carried on by .1.
Lentz, and W. J. Weiden. J. M. Romig started in the business in 1875, and one year later his brother, William J., and Oscar J. Keck became associated with him. The latter retired in 1879, since which time the firm-name has been as at present. This firm employs sixteen to eighteen hands. They manufac- ture all kinds of monuments, tombstones, and mantels, and deal in marble, brownstone, and granite. 1. W. Seluneyer & Co. were established a number of years ago, but have been operated by the present firm only sinee 1880. They employ ten hands, and produce almost everything in the line of monuments and archi- tectural work. Walter Losch established himself in the business in 1867.
Tanning .- A tannery was established by one Mertz on Water Street about fifty years ago, and carried on by him for a long period. He was suc- ceeded by William Moser, who in turn was followed by his son and namesake in 1878.
The largest tannery in the county is that of Mosser & Keek, located in East Allentown, but practically one of the industries of the city, of which the pro- prietors, J. K. Moser and Thomas Keck, are both natives. The business was established in 1859 by Moser, Keck & Co., which constituted the firm until 1875, when the present one was organized. Though originally founded upon a limited scale, the resources of the firm have gradually increased, affording facili- ties at the present time for the transaction of a trade which extends throughont the country. Two plants are owned and operated by the firm, one of which is located in East Allentown, and the other at Williams- port, Pa. The former is desirably situated on the Le- high and Susquehanna Division of the New Jersey Central Railroad, and occupies abont four acres of ground, upon which are extensive buildings, shed- dings, etc. The main building is three hundred and sixty-six feet long, forty-two feet deep, with two wings, forty by fifty each. Forty to fifty men are engaged here, and the mechanical appliances, which are very complete, are operated by an eighty horse- power steam-engine and a battery of three boilers. The firm manufacture exclusively the Union sole leather, using in its tanning about twelve to fifteen per cent. of oak and eighty-five per cent. hemlock bark. They annually tan about thirty thousand hides, and use about seven hundred car-loads of bark of ten tons each. Besides the Williamsport tannery, which is still larger than the one here, the firm has extensive warehouses in New York and Boston.
Walter J. Grimt has been engaged in the currying or finishing of leather since 1858, and Jacob Burger and Milton Focht have followed the same business respectively about seven and five years.
Breweries .- The brewery conducted by Joseph Lieberman, corner Sixth and Union Streets, was built about 1815. It comprises several substantial linldings, and is known as the Eagle Brewery. Six M. Romig & Brother, A. W. Schmeyer & Co., E. HI. For seven men are employed, a capital of about ten thousand dollars is invested (besides that in the build- ings), and about seven thousand barrels of beer are produced annually.
Mr. Lieberman, who is the son of Peter and Marta Lieberman, was born in Immendingen, Province of Baden, on the 21st of March, 1831. His boyhood was spent with his parents, habits of industry having been inculcated from his earliest years. He thus rendered himself independent in youth by employment as a teamster in various parts of the country, and during intervals engaged in general labor. In 1854, in com- pany with his father, mother, their seven children, and the grandmother, he emigrated to America, landing in New York City. Soon after the family removed to
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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Easton, Pa., where Joseph became for one year an employe of the Cooper Furnace, at Phillipsburg. This period was succeeded by a brief interval as as- sistant in a saw-mill, after which he removed to Kan- sas, and located in Leavenworth City, in the vicinity of which he remained one year. Returning to Penn- sylvania, he settled at White Haven, Luzerne Co., en- gaging for a while in general labor, and later becoming the lessee of a saw-mill. Here he resided for five years, and was, in 1857, married to Miss Waldburga Danager, of Immendingen. Their children are Mary, John B., Frank (deceased), Florentina, Joseph, and Charles. In 1860, Mr. Lieberman removed to Warren County, N. J., and a year and a half later, to Northampton County, where he engaged in farming and lumbering. In the fall of 1864, Allentown became his home. Here he speedily became identified with the business enterprises of the city as a brewer, and as director of the Elliger Real-Estate Company. He is also one of the directors of the Standard Slate Quarry, of Steins- ville, Pa., of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and was president of the Lehigh County Safe-Deposit and Trust Company. He has been largely interested in real-estate transactions and active in the erection of buildings within the city limits. In 1873, in com- pany with his wife and four children, Mr. Lieberman made an European tour, and remained ten months abroad. In 1881 he found his health greatly bene- fited by a similar trip, though limited in time to ten weeks. Mr. Lieberman, while voting the Democratic ticket, is not active as a politician. The family are all devout Catholics and members of the German Catholie Church of Allentown.
The Germania Brewery was established by Benedict Nuding in 1878. It is in the rear of the Germania Hotel, on Seventh Street, also owned by Mr. Nuding, from which it takes its name. The brew-house is fifty-one by seventy feet and three stories in height. The capacity of the brewery, when running full force, is from four thousand to five thousand barrels per year, and the demand for the article has kept the pro- duction up to the higher figure almost constantly.
Daniel Wise started a brewery in 1851, which he sold in 1859 to his son, James, who carried it on for a mumber of years.
Miscellaneous Industries. - Besides the various establishments which have already been classified and briefly described, there are others of importance. Among them Wolf & Hamakers' middlings purifier works, the Allentown Pottery, soap and candle works, etc. Another establishment, which, though not lo- cated in the city, had its origin and is now managed here, the Allentown Manufacturing Company, de- serves and will receive mention in this connection.
Candles were manufactured here as early as 1839 by Joseph Broglie. In 1876 the steam soap and eandle works were established by E. M. Earle. The manufactory occupies a large two-story building near the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station, and employs
several hands. About two hundred thousand pounds of soap and one hundred thousand pounds of candles are produced annually, for which a market is found in the Lehigh Valley, Schuylkill coal regions, and Central New Jersey.
The Allentown Manufacturing Company's works employed in the production of bone-phosphates and ready-mixed oil-paints are at Helfrich's Springs, sev- eral miles from the city, but the office is in this city. The company was incorporated in 1877, prior to which time the business was carried on by individuals.
The Allentown Pottery, located on Penn Street, near Gordon, was established by Charles Bach, its present proprietor, in 1869. Quite a trade has been built up in jars, milk-pots, jugs, flower-pots, hang- ing-baskets, vases, and other articles of earthenware manufactured here.
Cigar-box manufacture was begun by John M. Ste- vens in 1876, who has occupied sinee 1881 a three- story brick building forty feet square. He employs steam-power, and gives work to a number of hands, prodneing as many as seventy-five thousand boxes per week.
Paper boxes and paper bags are manufactured by H. T. Rose, who employs six hands at his establish- ments, started in 1880. R. M. Rex is also engaged in this industry.
Benjamin F. Heinbach has been engaged since 1859 in the manufacture of burial-easkets and the various goods required by undertakers. Hle employs about half a dozen hands.
A brush manufactory was established by B. Os- wald in 1877, and his business has increased so that he now occupies a good-sized two-story building, and employs twelve or more hands.
A manufactory of belting is carried on by W. R. Hicks.
Wolf & Hamaker, at their works on South Third Street, employ about thirty men in the manufacture of their middlings purifier, which was patented in 1879 and 1880.
The manufacture of blank-books of all kinds has been extensively carried on by Wright & Keiser since December, 1882. J. IL. Wright began in the business in 1876, and his partnership with F. B. Keiser was formed six years later.
The Press of Early Days and the Present .- The oldest paper in the county is the Uuabhængige Re- publikaner (the "Independent Republican"), estab- lished two years prior to the formation of Lehigh County by Christian Jacob Intter, who was also the publisher of a German and an English paper at the county-seat,-Easton. The first number ap- peared on July 27, 1810, the size being seventeen by twenty-one inches. It was eondueted by Charles L. Hutter, a son of the proprietor. The paper always has been, and is to-day, Democratic in its politics, but in order to explain its peculiar title it is necessary to state that at the time it was established the new
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THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN.
Democratic party was named the Republican or free government party, while the opposition party showed some loyalty to the British government. In his salu- tatory to the readers of the paper the editor said,-
"I am a Republican in the strongest sense of the word; I love lib- erty, my country, and its laws, and despise all despotism. I shall act independently in all things, but shall obey all laws made by the repre- sentatives of the people. All striet partisans I shall follow with a watchful eye, for they are either men who do not think for theumselves or are office-liters. I shall oppose all men who, under the mask of Federalism, promote the interests of the king of England ; and finally, I will not take a man for what he pretends to be, but will judge the tree by its fruit."
Charles L. Hutter eondueted the paper until July, 1812, when he became the proprietor, as his father, Christian J., who was captain of a military company, was called into active service in the war between the United States and Great Britain.1 Mr. Hutter re- tained the proprietorship of the paper until No- vember, 1820, when George Hanke became the pro- prietor of the establishment. He died in February, 1824, and the paper was published by his wielow until June of the same year, when Charles L. Hutter, the former proprietor, again assumed eoutrol, and con- tinued to be its editor and proprietor until his deeease, which occurred in September, 1830. His brother, Edwin W. Hutter (who afterwards became a minister of the gospel), then took charge of the paper, and continued its publication for a number of years.
From the time of its establishment until 1834 no great improvements were made on the paper; it was printed with large type on coarse dark paper. In the latter year, however, it was enlarged to twenty- one by twenty-eight inches, better paper was used, and the general appearance of the paper assumed a. more modern style.
In March, 1839, Reuben Bright became the proprie- tor, who published the paper until December, 1841, when it passed into the hands of James W. Wilson, a relative of the Hutter family. In June, 1849, he enlarged the paper to twenty-two by thirty-two inches, and in January, 1853, to twenty-four by thirty-eight inches. Mr. Wilson also made other marked im- provements, giving the paper a business-like and prosperous appearance.
In August, 1854, Reuben Bright and Ephraim B. Harlacher purchased the establishment. With this change the paper passed from the hands of the Hutter family, who had, with the exception of a few years, control of it for forty-two years. In January, 1858, Mr. Bright withdrew from the firm, and B. F. Trexler took his place. In June of the same year Nelson Weiser entered as a partner, the firm-name being Trexler, Harlacher & Weiser. The subscription- list of the paper had now assumed such proportions that the hand-press, on which it had been printed for
so many years, was too slow to supply the demand, and a power-press was substituted in its place.
In June, 1867, Mr. Trexler withdrew from the firm, and Messrs. Harlacher & Weiser continued the pub- lication of the paper. In 1869 the paper was en- larged to twenty-eight by forty inches, and otherwise improved. In March, 1874, Mr. Weiser withdrew, and Mr. Harlacher became the sole proprietor of the establishment. In July, 1875, he sold it to Rinn & Schlechter, who are the present proprietors. In March, 1878, the paper was enlarged to thirty by forty-five inehes, which is its present size.
The paper had, during the many years of its exist- ence, its " ups" and " downs," like other similar un- dertakings, but at the present time it is in a most flourishing condition. Lehigh County being Demo- eratic, it is the German official organ. The principles as propounded by the founder of the paper are still upheld, and the paper is true to its name and its mis- sion. Of the former publishers only three are now living, viz. : James W. Wilson, Ephraim B. Har- lacher, and Benjamin F. Trexler.
Der Friedens Bote (" Messenger of Peace") and Leche County Anzeiger was the second paper established in Allentown, and was by a little more than two years the junior of the Republikaner, its initial issue being made Sept. 28, 1812. The proprietors were Joseph Ehrenfried and Heury Ebner. In politics the Frie- dens Bote was independent, but it was opposed to the war which had then opened with Great Britain, and hence its name. In September, 1814, Mr. Ehrenfried was drafted for service in the war which he had edi- torially deprecated, and marched with the militia to Mareus Hook. The paper was from that time con- ducted by Mr. Ebner alone until June 1, 1821, when Frederick (. Rütze became associated with him, under the firm-name of Henry Ebner & Co. On Jan. 1, 1831, the paper was bought by Augustus Grater and Alexander A. Blumer, who continued to issue it for four years, under the firm-name of Grater & Blumer. On Jan. 1, 1834, the firm became Alexander A. & W. H. Blumer. The paper, which was originally and up to this time a four-column sheet, eleven by seven- teen inches, was now enlarged to five columns, making the size of the page fourteen by nineteen inches. The publication-office was removed to the building on Hamilton Street, opposite the German Reformed Church, and one door below the present office. Vic- i tor Blumer became associated with his brothers ou Jan. 1, 1840. A little over two years later, May 4, 1842, Alexander A. BImmer died, and the paper was then carried on by V. & W. Blumer until Jan. 1, 1844, when the firm became Blumer & Bush, Victor Blumer retaining his interest and Charles S. Bush buying that of his brother. In 1847 they enlarged the sheet to six columns. E. D. Leisenring entered the firm Jan. 1, 1850, the style becoming Blumer, Bush & Leisen- ring, and so remaining until July 1, 1857, when Mr. Bush withdrew. The paper was again enlarged, and
! On the 9th of September, 1814, the editor made the announcement that he and two of his employes had enlisted in the military service, and would leave for the seat of war, in consequence of which the paper would only be issned in half-sheets nulil their return.
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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
on Jan. 1, 1858, Henry A. Blumer became a partner in the house. On July 4, 1860, he gave place to Eli J. Saeger. Vietor Blumer died Ang. 24, 1860, and in the spring of the following year the firm-name was changed to Saeger, & Leisenring. On Sept. 6, 1865, Mr. Saeger withdrew, and I. F. Walter and J. T. Col- ver became associated with the remaining partner, under the firm-name of E. D. Leisenring & Co. Two years later the paper was enlarged to its present size, -eight columns, -- and in 1870 a new firm was formed, under the name of Leisenring, Trexler & Co. Mr. B. F. Trexler brought into the house thus formed the Welt Bote, the publication of which was continued in connection with the Friedens Bote. In September, 1877, J. T. Colver retired from the firm and W. J. Hartzell entered it, but no change in name was made. On Feb. 20, 1882, occurred the death of Mr. E. D. Leisenring, and then the firm beeame as at present, Trexler & Hartzell. The cirenlation of the Friedens Bote is claimed to be larger than that of any other paper in the county. It is a model of German local journalism.
The two other seeular German newspapers pub- lished by Messrs. Trexler & Hartzell, although much less venerable than the Friedens Bote, we will briefly treat of in this connection for the reason that both were established by Mr. B. F. Trexler.
The Welt Bote (" Messenger of the World") was first issued by him on Nov. 25, 1854, and was printed reg- ularly after Jan. 27, 1855. From 1858 to 1868 this paper was published in connection with the Republi- kaner by the firm of Trexler, Harlacher & Weiser; then again by Mr. Trexler alone until 1870, when it came under the management of the firm then pub- lishing the Friedens Bote. The increase in the circu- lation of the Welt Bote has increased, on the average, about one thousand copies per year. It is sent into almost every State and Territory in the Union, and also into Canada and Europe. As its name implies, it is a newspaper for the whole world, and it is read wherever there are Germans. By the Welt Bote the name of Allentown has doubtless been made more widely known than by any other means, and it would be a serious loss to the place should it be removed to Washington or some other larger city, as has been sometimes contemplated. The size of the sheet is fourteen and one-half by twenty-two and one-half inches, and it is well filled with literary matter and news of especial interest to the Germans of the United States and those of the Fatherland as well.
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The Lecha. Bote (the " Lehigh Messenger") is a Ger- man local tri-weekly journal, started as a daily by Mr. Trexler in 1869, under the name of the Staadt und Land Bote, and changed to its present name and issue in 1877. Like the Friedens Bote and the Welt Bote, it is now published by Trexler & Hartzell.
Benjamin F. Trexler, senior proprietor and editor of the three publications of which we have given the history, is a descendant of Peter Trexler, a German,
who emigrated to America in or before the year 1723, and settled in what is now Berks County, from whence he repaired to Lehigh County as the carliest white settler in Macungie. In the direct line of de- seent was Ferdinand, a resident of the latter place, whose son Benjamin resided in Berks County, and married Rachel Wetzel, of the same county. Her children were two sons and two daughters. The youngest and only survivor, Benjamin F., a native of Berks County, was born Feb. 25, 1827, and when but a lad removed on the death of his father to Lehigh County, where his youth was spent. His educational opportunities were limited to the schools of the neigh- borhood, after whichi, at the early age of thirteen, he removed to Allentown, with a view to learning the printer's art in the office of the Friedens Bote. At the age of twenty-one he became a partner of Reuben Guth in the publication of the Lehigh Patriot, a Whig journal, which he continued to issue until 1854, when for politieal reasons his connection with this journal was severed, and he established the Welt Bote, of which he still continues the publisher. He is also the projector of a religions monthly entitled the Zeichen der Zeit and a farmer's monthly, the Bauern Journal, both of which were later sold. Mr. Trexler, in 1858, acquired an interest and became editor of The Unablengiger Republikaner, which he subsequently disposed of, and in 1868 established a German daily known as the Stadt and Land Bote, which is still issned, having been merged into a tri-weekly. In 1870 he acquired an interest in the Friedens Bote, in the management of which he actively participates. Mr. Trexler was married in 1849 to Miss Diana M. Walter, daughter of David Walter, of Allentown. Their children are two sons, Herman A. and Julius W. In his political predilections Mr. Trexler is a Democrat, though maintaining a firm neutrality in his publications. While not in the strictest sense a politician, he has evinced a keen interest in the public questions of the day, and at times participated in the active work of a political campaign. He has been more especially identified with journalistie work, and in that capacity has left his impress upon the public mind, as elneidated in the present extraet from the pen of a brother journalist : " Mr. Trexler is a gentleman of whom the English-speaking publie do not know as much as they should, because his per- sonal work and influence are applied almost wholly to his fellow-countrymen from Germany, who have come to make their homes here. In their religious interest he marked out for himself a line of action some twenty years ago, and in it he has achieved a very useful and eminent success. He undertook to counteract the quite general tendency towards in- fidelity that prevailed among the foreign Germans in America at that time, and addressed them in an edi- tion of five hundred copies of a German weekly paper called the Welt Bote, which probably started with fewer subscribers than any other journalistic
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enterprise of the kind in America, and not many of those who read the first number guessed what a power the modest enterprise would develop. Mr. Trexler's sound Protestant logie, and his ability in argument, made so favorable an impression on the German thought of this country that the Welt Bote found a glad welcome, and speedily became in very general demand. Its circulation has grown to within a few of twenty thousand copies, all of which are paid for in advance. Comparatively few copies are circulated in this vicinity, but throughout the West and Southwest, and wherever there are German settle- ments, the Welt Bote is the popular religions family journal, and a considerable edition is sent to sub- seribers in Germany. With all his scholarly attain- ments and efficient business ability, Mr. Trexler is retiring in disposition and not at all inelined to seek a conspicuous place among his fellow-men, but his true worth of character, his sterling qualities, and his benevolent and sociable disposition have made him beloved by a wide circle of friends."
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