BIOGRAPHY: Benjamin WIRTNER, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 457-8
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BENJAMIN WIRTNER, a retired business man and a highly respected citizen of 
Carrolltown, is a son of Nicholas and Petronilla (Greber) Wirtner, and was born 
in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, November 30, 1824. Nicholas Wirtner was a 
farmer of Baden and served for thirty-five years as mayor of the town of 
Altdorf. He was a man of standing and influence in his community and died in 
November, 1844, aged eighty years.
     Benjamin Wirtner was reared on the farm, received his education in the 
schools of his neighborhood, and left home at eighteen years of age to learn the 
trade of tanner, which he followed in Baden, until 1845. He then worked for two 
years in Paris, France, and in February, 1847, came to the United States, 
landing at New Orleans, Louisiana, which he left in a few days to locate in St. 
Louis. Not finding work as he expected in that city, he returned to New Orleans, 
and after working there till May, 1848, he came to Allegheny township, this 
county, on a visit to his brother, John, who was thrown from a horse and killed 
shortly after his arrival. His brother had a tannery, which Mr. Wirtner then 
rented and operated for seven years. At the end of that time, in 1855, he 
removed to Carrolltown and built a tannery, which he operated up to 1893, in 
which year, on account of increasing years, he retired from active business. He 
conducted a saddler shop in connection with his tannery, and when he gave up 
business in 1893, had a large patronage and filled orders from many different 
towns and cities. Mr. Wirtner is still a partner in the Carrolltown Flouring 
Mill company and owns a good farm of seventy-eight acres of land, which lies 
one-half mile west of the town, and is underlaid with coal. On this farm he has 
a custom coal mine that is quite profitable.
     He also owns a farm of thirty acres north of Carrolltown and another farm 
of thirty acres in Elder township, both of which farms are well improved and 
underlaid with coal. He is a democrat in political opinion, and has served as 
councilman and school director of his borough. Mr. Wirtner is a member of the 
Catholic church. He is a practical business man, who pursues safe and 
conservative methods, and by economy, judgment and good management has secured a 
competency and all the needed comforts of a good home. He selected a substantial 
business in early life and has quietly and steadily pursued it to a prosperous 
end.
     On September 17, 1848, Mr. Wirtner married Josephine Richter, a daughter of 
Joseph Richter, of Allegheny township. To Mr. and Mrs. Wirtner have been born 
six sons and ten daughters.