BIO:  J. W. DIEHL, Cumberland Township, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 398-401

J. W. DIEHL, farmer, P.O. Gettysburg, was born in Adams County, Penn., June 26, 
1828, a son of Peter and Anna Mary (Smyser) Diehl, natives of York County, 
Penn., but whose ancestors came from Wurtemberg, Germany.  Peter Diehl was a 
tanner, a business he was engaged in from 1821 to 1860.  His children were 
eleven in number, of whom J. W. is the third.  Our subject was reared in his 
native county, and learned the tanner’s trade with his father, which occupation 
he followed for several years.  Subsequently he went into the hotel business, in 
which he was engaged three years, from 1851 to 1854.  He carried on the tanning 
business at New Oxford and Arendtsville, this county, from 1860 to 1879, but 
subsequently turned his attention to farming, which he now follows, and deals to 
some extent in stock, but performs manual labor.  His farm comprises 157 acres.  
In 1851 Mr. Diehl was married to Isabella E., daughter of William Albright, of 
German descent, and to them have been born the following children:  William, a 
resident of New Oxford; Mervin S.; Ida K., wife of James Ross; Anna; Edwin J., a 
student of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, a graduate of Columbia Law School, 
Columbia, Mo., practicing law at Charleston, Mo.; S. May, Laura A. and Amber L.  
Mr. Diehl is a member of the Lutheran Church, in which he is an elder, Mrs. 
Diehl being a member of the German Reformed Church.  In politics he is a 
Republican.