USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; genealogy-family history-biography; containing historical sketches of old families and of representative and prominent citizens, past and present, Volume I > Part 64
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Mr. Deisher married Ellen Phillips, who was born Aug. 25, 1849, in Maiden-creek township, Berks county, was educated at the Mooresville school in Perry township, that county, and remained at home until her marriage. Two children have been born to this union, Helena and Estelle. Helena, born May 25, 1874, is the wife of H. H. Flickinger and has three children, born as follows: Harry Holden, June 20, 1904; Helena May, May 31, 1906; John Deisher, Jan. 4, 1910. Mr. Flickinger was born April 8, 1870, in Lebanon county, Pa., and is now located at Warwick, N. Y., as chief train dispatcher for the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad Company. Mr. and Mrs. Flickinger are Lutherans, but as there is no church of their denomination at Warwick, they attend the Dutch Reformed Church. Estelle Deisher, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Deisher, was born Jan. 8, 1878, and is now employed by the govern- ment in the census department at Washington, D. C.
Sebastian Phillips, grandfather of Mrs. John H. Deisher, was of Quaker stock, though he belonged to Gernant's Lutheran Church in Berks county. He was a wheelwright, and followed his trade all his life. He owned a small tract of land in Ontelaunee township, Berks county. Politically he was a Democrat. His wife, whose maiden name was Sellers, was a native of Germany, and came to America when six years old. Their children were: Samuel, who married Anna Grett; Isaac; James, who married Mary Bell; Elizabeth, Mrs. Kauff-
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man; and Elmira, Mrs. Rickenbach. The parents are buried at Gernant's Church.
Isaac Phillips, son of Sebastian, was born in Ontelaunce township, Berks Co., Pa., and settled about one mile above Mooresville, that county, where he owned a small tract of land. He remained there about ten years, conducting a wheelwright and blacksmith shop, having learned the trade from his father. Selling out, he bought a farm of sixty acres in Perry township, and he also owned a limestone quarry and kiln, burning lime which he sold to the local farmers. He died in Maiden-creek township in February, 1876, at the age of fifty-two years. Mr. Phillips married Catherine Grett, daughter of John and Magdalena (Fink) Grett, and she died about ten years ago, at the age of seventy-eight years. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are buried at Gernant's Lutheran Church, Leesport, Pa. He was a faithful member of that church, and a Democrat in his political convictions. We have the following record of his family : Sarah is the widow of Henry Dubson, and lives at Spring City, Pa .; Ellen is the wife of John Henry Deisher; James, deceased, married Amelia Dries, who is now the wife of William Hoffman, of Hamburg, Pa .; Isaac mar- ried Mary Kershner, and they live in Maiden-creek township, Berks county ; Elmira is the widow of Henry Cook, and lives at Spring City, Pa. ; Mahlon, of Milton, Pa., married Mary Keim (deceased) and (second) Mrs. Ida Kline; Catherine, the widow of George Rubright, lives at Port Carbon, Pa .; Elmer married Sarah Hieter, and they reside near Auburn, Pennsylvania.
HENRY REINHART, formerly a farmer of East Brunswick township, and a business man of solid standing there and at New Ringgold, is now living retired in the borough above mentioned, enjoying the fruits of his industrious career. His sterling qualities and useful life have long held the regard of many citizens of this section who have had occasion to deal with him, and he is probably one of the best known members of the Reformed Church in his part of Schuylkill county. He was born Oct. 12, 1841, in Albany township, Berks Co., Pa., son of Benjamin Reinhart and grandson of Daniel Reinhart.
Daniel Reinhart, the grandfather, a native of Berks county, came to West Penn township, Schuylkill county, and bought a small tract of land where he carried on general farming. He remained on the farm until his death, which occurred when he was over eighty, years old. His wife, whose maiden name was Berk, also lived to be over eighty. She was a daughter of Daniel Berk. Children as follows were born to them: Benjamin was the father of Henry Reinhart; Jacob is deceased : John married Rebecca Foos, and both are de- ceased; Willoughby, deceased, married Annie Leininger, who resides in East Brunswick township; Mrs. John Whetstone is next in the family : Lucy mar- ried Reuben Wertman; Annie married Emmanuel Koenig; Polly married Nathan Brobst. Mr. Reinhart was a public-spirited citizen, a Democrat in political faith, and a member of Zion's Reformed Church, in West Penn town- ship. He and his wife are buried there.
Benjamin Reinhart, son of Daniel, was born in Berks county Aug. 14. 1818, and died Feb. 17, 1901. He grew up in West Penn township, Schuylkill county, and received his education there. Though he worked for his father during his young manhood he learned the carpet weaving business. When his son Henry was two and a half years old the family moved to near Hamburg. Berks Co., Pa., where Benjamin Reinhart was a tenant farmer for a few years.
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Later he again settled in West Penn township, Schuylkill county, buying a tract of sixty acres, nearly all of which was cleared, and conducted that farm for about four years. Then he sold it and removed to Rauschs, in East Bruns- wick township, this county, where he did farm work for his neighbors and in between times followed his trade of weaver. After about four years' residence at Rauschs he bought a house and lot at McKeansburg and removed there, fol- lowing his trade until almost the end of his life. He married Elizabeth Schrear, who lived to be nearly eighty years old, and they became the parents of four children : Henry is mentioned below; John W., a veteran of the Civil war and a retired engineer of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (he ran the Buffalo from Newberry to Tamaqua), married Sarah Sassaman; Hettie mar- ried Augustus J. Bock; Emma married James W. Reichwine, a carpet weaver, of New Ringgold. Benjamin Reinhart was originally a Democrat in politics, later a Republican. He was a leading member of Christ Reformed Church at McKeansburg, which he served as deacon and elder, holding the latter office at the time of his death. He and his wife are buried at McKeansburg.
Henry Reinhart commenced his schooling in East Brunswick township, and later attended the German schools in West Penn township, finishing at McKeansburg, East Brunswick township. He worked on the farm until his enlistment in the Union army, April 10, 1862, at Pottsville, in Capt. John R. Porter's Company I, 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Col. James Nagle, the commander of the regiment, was later succeeded by Col. J. K. Siegfried, and he by Col. Henry Pleasants. The regiment was assigned to the Ist Brigade, 2d Division, 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac. Its field record includes fifteen large battles and many skirmishes, among them Newbern, N. C., March 14. 1862; Second Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862; South Mountain, Sept. 14, 1862; Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862; Wilderness, May 7, 1864; Cold Harbor, June 12, 1864; Petersburg, June 15 to July 31, 1864; Pop- lar Spring Church, Sept. 30, 1864; fall of Petersburg, April 2, 1865. In the early part of its service this regiment underwent careful training and the men became so proficient in military evolutions that they moved in line of battle, in the charge on the defensive, with the steady tread of regulars, and always reliable when nerve and endurance were required. The regiment has a glorious record from the beginning to the end of the war. Though struck three times hy minie balls, Mr. Reinhart was not badly wounded, but he contracted rheu- matism in the lower limbs through exposure while in the service, and was con- fined in the field hospital four weeks by illness. He was honorably discharged from the service in June, 1864.
Returning from the army Mr. Reinhart was married to Polly Rarich, born Feb. 1, 1840, a daughter of Jonas and Lydia (Wertman) Rarich, and three children were born to this union: Mary married Sylvester Behler; Amanda married Penrose Sassaman; Ida married Henry Behler (who is deceased) and (second) Benjamin Sassaman. The mother died Feb. 22, 1898, and is buried at the Frieden's Church, at New Ringgold. For his second wife Mr. Reinhart married Mrs. Ellen (Wessner) Miller, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Gracely) Wessner, natives of Albany township, Berks Co., Pa. She was the widow of Jacob Miller, by whom she had two children: Carrie, Mrs. John H. Fetter; and John, at home. Mr. Reinhart has no children by his second marriage.
After his first marriage Mr. Reinhart bought a farm of sixty acres, nearly all cleared, in East Brunswick township, and operated this place for about
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thirty years. In connection with his agricultural work he also did a successful business as a dealer in farm implements, fertilizers, roofing and other supplies, having a large trade, which he built up by courtesy and satisfactory service to all his customers. Moving to New Ringgold in 1899, he sold his farm to his son-in-law, Penrose Sassaman, in 1900, but continued the implement and fer- tilizer business until 1911, when it was bought by Frederick Nester. Mr. Reinhart has since lived retired. Throughout his career he bore an untar- nished reputation for integrity and uprightness in all his transactions, and he is highly thought of in the community. His fellow citizens showed their con- fidence in his ability by electing him to the office of school director, which he held for eighteen years. He also served a year as supervisor. He is a Repub- lican on political views. A prominent member of the Frieden's Reformed Church of New Ringgold, he has been an officer of that congregation for forty years, holding every position in the gift of his fellow members. He has been trustee, and was treasurer and secretary of the building committee when the present church at New Ringgold was under construction. He has always contributed generously to that church and its enterprises.
Mrs. Polly (Rarich) Reinhart was born in West Penn township, daughter of Jonas Rarich, a farmer of that township, who was the owner of 100 acres. He died on his farm aged over sixty years, and his wife, Lydia (Wertman), died when about eighty-five years old. They had children as follows: David, who married a Miss Leininger; Jonas, who married Polly Loch; Mary, who married John Stapleton, both deceased; and Polly, Mrs. Reinhart, deceased. Mr. Rarich was a Democrat and a member of Zion's Lutheran Church in West Brunswick township. He and his wife are buried there.
Peter Wessner, father of Mrs. Ellen Reinhart, was born July 4, 1836, and is now a retired farmer in Albany township, Berks Co., Pa. He owns a small tract of land. His first wife, Elizabeth (Gracely), died at the age of forty-four years, the mother of the following children: Ellen, Mrs. Reinhart ; James, who married Emma Rabenhold; Ida, Mrs. Moses Miller; Sarah, Mrs. Jonas Frey ; and Emma, Mrs. Henry Weidner. The mother is buried at Wessnersville, Berks county. For his second wife Mr. Wessner married Mary Henry, daugh- ter of John Henry, and they had children as follows: Victor married Emma Bailey, and both are deceased ; Herbert married Emma Stoyer, who is deceased. Mr. Wessner is a regular attendant of the German Lutheran Church at Wess- nersville, Berks Co., Pa. He is a Democrat in politics.
Jacob Miller, Mrs. Reinhart's first husband, was born in Wessnerville, Berks Co., Pa., April 7, 1856, and early in life was a farmer. For ten years he was engaged in huckstering from New Ringgold to Mahanoy City, buying his produce, and later entered the employ of the Philadelphia & Reading Rail- way Company, with whom he continued until his death, three years later. His run was from Tamaqua to Philadelphia. He was killed at the Reading Water Station July 3, 1893. Mr. Miller was a member of Washington Camp No. 100, P. O. S. of A., of New Ringgold, and of the Lutheran Church at Wessnersville, Berks county. He is buried there.
FREDERICK REICK, of Cressona, is one of the substantial citizens of that borough, where he has been engaged in the mercantile business for the last thirty years. At present he and his son are doing a thriving business under the name of Frederick Reick & Son.
Mr. Reick is a native of Germany, born April 9, 1840, in Wurtemberg, son
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of Jacob Reick, who brought his family of twelve children to America in 1851. Landing at New York, they proceeded to Philadelphia, and then continued their journey to Schuylkill Haven, Pa. For a time the family lived at Pottsville, this county, and also at Trevorton, Northumberland Co., Pa., thence removing to Tremont, Schuylkill county, and to Cressona. The father was employed on railroad construction work and later on repair work until his death, which was accidental; he was killed on the railroad at the age of fifty-nine, and is buried at Schuylkill Haven. The mother, whose maiden name was Agnes Frausch, died at the age of fifty-six years, and is buried in Luzerne county, Pa. They had children as follows: Jacob, George, William, Frederick, John, Bernhard, Christian, Charles, Albert, Nicholas, Theodore and Christina, the only daughter.
Frederick Reick began work as errand boy in the employ of the Mine Hill Railroad Company. Later he learned the trade of shoemaker. About the time of his majority he became employed as a switch tender for the Reading Com- pany at Mine Hill Crossing, being thus engaged for twenty-four years, and was also crossing watchman at Minersville and Cressona for some time. Thirty years ago he engaged in the general business on Railroad street, Cressona, which he has since conducted, having built up an excellent trade by honorable methods and obliging attention to the wants of his customers. The business has expanded to such an extent that he has taken his son into partnership, and they are known to all who have had dealings with them as enterprising and reliable merchants. Mr. Reick has led an upright life, and is deservedly re- spected among his fellow citizens. He married Esther Reber, daughter of John and Lydia (Leonard) Reber, who had a large family, namely : James, Wil- liam, Hattie, John, Albert, Elizabeth, Annie, Mary, Esther and Lydia. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Reick: Charles, now deceased ; Lulu, deceased ; Agnes, wife of John Buehler, of Pottsville, Pa. ; and William Henry.
WILLIAM HENRY REICK, youngest of the family of Frederick and Esther (Reber) Reick, was born at Cressona Jan. 17, 1882, and has been reared there. His education was received in the common schools, and he afterwards learned the trade of paper-hanger, which he followed for some time. He has become a skillful musician, performing on various stringed instruments, and has at- tained considerable local reputation as a teacher of music in that line. Besides his association with his father in the general store he has interests of his own, having opened a picture show house on Front street, Cressona, Oct. 16, 1912. It is known as the "Idle Hour," and has been well patronized from the start, Mr. Reick's good judgment in catering to the public interests being very well demonstrated in its success. Socially he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Reick married Ivy Maud Bobb, daughter of James R. and Isabella H. (Hog) Bobb, of Berks county, Pa. They have one child, Margaret.
WILLIAM NELSON EHRHART, A. M., Ph. D., late of Mahanoy City, was in control of the public school system of that borough for so extended a period that any account of its development for almost two decades would be practically a chronicle of his life during that time. He did valuable work as an educator wherever placed; but his reputation rests chiefly upon this, his crowning achievement, for which he will be remembered all over Schuylkill county.
Professor Ehrhart was a native of Perry county, Pennsylvania, born near
W. n. Chrhart
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Newport, Feb. 15, 1848, son of John and Eleonora (Super) Ehrhart, of whose family one son and four daughters still survive, viz .: David M., of Juniata township, Perry county; Mrs. D. M. Numer and Mrs. Jerome Toomey, of Newport, Pa. ; Mrs. George Black, of Harrisburg, Pa. ; and Mrs. Cyrus Mogel, of Wila, Pennyslvania.
Prof. Ehrhart's paternal grandparents, Michael and Sarah ( Wolf) Ehrhart, were both natives of York county, Pa., the former born in 1795. He died in Ohio in 1859. The latter was born in 1795, and died in Huntingdon, Pa., in 1875. They were the parents of eight children, John, Mary, David, Michael, Sarah, Susan, William and George. All have long since been deceased. The family was prominent and early established in York county. Prof. Ehrhart's father was born in 1818 in York county, Pa., and died in Perry county, Pa., in 1898. His mother, Eleonora (Super) Ehrhart, was born in Perry county in 1823, and died at Wila, Pa., in 1909. His father was a carpenter and builder, and also engaged in agricultural pursuits. The last fifteen years of his life he lived retired. He had a well merited reputation in the county as a man of unquestioned honor and high Christian character. He and his wife were members of the Lutheran Church. The Ehrhart family is well known and highly esteemed.
On the maternal (Super) side, the oldest member of whom record has been kept was born in Würtemberg in 1700. The immediate ancestor of the family was the son of the foregoing. His name was Johann, and he was born in 1742, and died in 1831. His wife, Christina, died in 1818. To them cight children were born, viz .: Conrad, John Jacob, John, Barbara, Catherine, Maria, Agnes and Christina. Grandfather John Jacob Super was born in August, 1775, and died in December, 1854. His wife's grandfather, Alex- ander Ruediger, was a native of Saxony. He came to Tuebingen, Würtem- berg, and settled there. One of his sons, Sigmund, born in 1746, was edu- cated at the University of Tuebingen. Henrietta Eleonora ( Mr. Ehrhart's grandmother) was his only daughter. She was born in 1783. Her father died in Nufringen, where he had been pastor of the Lutheran Church from 1792 to 1805. He received the degree of D. D. in his twenty-sixth year. Grand- father Super was in the German army twenty years. He came to America with his wife and four children, Rudolph, John. Jacob, and Christina ( Henry W .. Eleonora and Barbara were born in this country), landing in Philadelphia in 1819. He afterwards lived in Baltimore, Md., but spent the latter years of his life in Perry county, Pa. A number of the descendants of grandfather John Jacob Super have attained to high literary eminence, notable among them Dr. Charles W. Super, professor and later president for about seventeen years of the State University at Athens, Ohio, and Ovanda B. Super, for many years professor of the languages at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. The former attended the Tuebingen University, Würtemberg, and was a student there just a century after his great-grandfather, Sigmund Ruediger, was a student at the same university. Prof. Ovanda B. Super attended the Univer- sity of Leipzig, Germany, and the University of Paris, France. Both are eminent writers and authors of text-books used in the leading universities in this country. Both have now retired. The first of grandfather Super's brothers to come to America was John. He passed most of his life in Balti- more, where some of his descendants still live, and are promiment and honored Vol. I-28
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citizens. His youngest son, Henry W., was a long-time professor and after- wards president of Ursinus College, at Collegeville, Pa.
William N. Ehrhart was reared in the locality of his birth, and acquired his early education in the public schools there. Then he attended the State Normal School at Bloomsburg, Pa., where he was graduated upon completing the ele- mentary course, and a few years later graduated in the scientific course from the State Normal School at Millersville, Pa. He later, upon completing the regular course of study, had the degrees of A. M. and Ph. D. conferred upon him by Taylor University, Indiana. Practically all his life was devoted to educational work and the improvement of public school facilities, either as teacher or in an administrative capacity. For some time during his early manhood he taught in his native county, but Schuylkill county was the field of his labors for more than forty years, and the results of his influence here in behalf of her public schools may be most appropriately cited as the true memorial of the work to which he dedicated body and soul during all that period. His first position in this county was as principal at Llewellyn, where he was engaged for two years. Becoming principal of the high school at Tamaqua, he filled that position for nine or ten years with marked efficiency, so that he changed (in 1884) to enter upon greater responsibilities as principal of the high school at Shenandoah. There he continued for about nine years, during which period the school experienced the growth characteristic of Mr. Ehrhart's supervision everywhere. He was one of the promoters of, and took an active interest in, the Free Public Library of the Shenandoah school dis- trict, giving much painstaking labor to the advance of same. Resigning in 1893 he removed to Pottsville, where he was in business for a couple of years, but his heart was still in his profession, and when the principalship of the Mahanoy City high school was offered him in 1895 he accepted. It was the sphere for which he was eminently fitted, and he did such promising work that after a year the board of education concluded he would be most valuable in the superintendency, and for the next eighteen years all the schools of the borough had the benefit of his guidance. Here he also greatly interested himself in the Public Library, and to his efforts, and the Board of Library Trustees, too much praise cannot be given for the large and fine Free Public Library of Mahanoy City school district. Though he kept up his duties until within a year of his death, retiring at the close of the school year in the spring of 1914, he had been ill for about a year and a half. About a month before his death he was obliged to take to his bed, and he passed away March 31, 1915, at his home in Mahanoy City.
The record made by the Mahanoy City schools under Prof. Ehrhart's super- vision is one of distinct progress, and an index of his superior qualifications no less than a creditable page in the history of the community. Though pri- marily a student, and all his life devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, he was as well grounded in the other requirements of successful pedagogy as in pure scholarship. He was a great reader, and delighted in the classics, science, history and fiction. He was the possessor of a large and carefully selected library. Moreover, he loved the young as much as he loved his books, and his understanding of the child's nature, and sympathy with youthful pro- clivities, made him a friend of his charges in the truest and broadest sense. He was greatly beloved and highly esteemed by teachers and pupils. When he
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assumed the reins over the Mahanoy City schools he gave his undivided atten- tion to placing them in the first rank among similar educational institutions, and such is the standing they now occupy. His vigilance in every department, the inspiration of his personal example to high ideals, his readiness in making the best of existing circumstances until they could be bettered, his tact and thoughtfulness for all with whom he came in contact, are some of the tokens by which his strong personality is recalled in the circles where he was the moving spirit for almost a score of years. And it is not too much to say that to many he is still the guiding hand. He had the honor of being one of the members of the State Board of Examiners every year at the State Normal Schools during his superintendency, with the exception of the year of his illness. He is especially missed at the county institute, in whose activities he took part for years with unabated interest. He was a prominent member of the Schuylkill County Educational Association from its organization, and was its treasurer until he was obliged to relinquish the office owing to failing health. He was a member of the National Educational Association, the State Teachers' Asso- ciation, and the National Geographic Society. He was one of the brilliant lights of that group whose names will always be associated with the most notable era of educational development of this section, a friend and co-worker of Robert F. Ditchburn, B. F. Patterson and S. A. Thurlow, all like himself prominent educators. In mathematics as well as literary culture he had the highest reputation. "By his removal one of the best mathematicians in eastern Pennsylvania is called away." Such was the general opinion regarding his intel- lectual acquirements. For his personal characteristics also there was nothing but eulogy. The teachers who worked so long with him found him a loyal friend and helper, and upon his retirement from office, to show their appre- ciation, placed in the high school his portrait, painted by a celebrated artist, and' bearing the inscription: "From the Teachers of Mahanoy City." His fellow citizens in every walk of life found him conscientious, enthusiastic and unsel- fish, ready with counsel, influence or other assistance to reinforce any good movement. When he retired after a career of unselfish fruitfulness it was hoped that he had many years of enjoyable leisure to reward him, and his death was widely and sincerely mourned.
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