Biographical Sketch of Henry Eppehimer (1835-); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** From "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania, comprising a historical sketch of the county", by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Philadelphia, PA, 1893, pp. 255-256. Henry Eppehimer, a reliable business man, and vice-president of the Schuylkill Valley Stove Manufacturing Company, of Spring City, is a son of George and Eliza (Ortlip) Eppehimer, and was born at Lawrenceville, Chester county, Pennsylvania, June 11, 1835. His paternal great-grandfather, Eppehimer, was a native of Switzerland, and left his mountain home to settle in Montgomery county, where his son, Valentine Eppehimer (grandfather), was born and reared. Valentine Eppehimer learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed in his native county until the construction of the Schuylkill Canal, when he was employed as tool dresser, and died from malaria caught while thus engaged. He married a Miss Yokum, by whom he had four children, three sons and one daughter: Mary, George, Jonas and John. George Eppehimer, the second son and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1809, in Potts Grove township, Montgomery county, and at fifteen years of age went to Philadelphia, where he learned the trade of tailor, which he followed until 1832. In that year he came to Lawr3enceville, this county, and opened a tailoring establishment, which he conducted up to his death in October, 1879, when he was well advanced in the seventy-first year of his age. He was a democrat in politics until 1856, when he identified himself with the Republican party, which he ever afterwards supported. He married Eliza Ortlip, who died in May, 1875, aged fifty-nine years. To their union were born five sons and one daughter: Henry; William, who was killed in a steamboat explosion on the Delaware river in 1854; Frank, who operated a stove foundry for some years, and is now engaged in general mercantile business at Royer's Ford; Mary, married Albert Hartman, and after his death wedded Andrew Anderson, who is now dead; Howard P., who is in the employ of the Schuylkill Valley Stove Manufacturing Company of Spring City; and Addison, who is a merchant tailor of Royer's Ford, Montgomery county. Henry Eppehimer was reared at Lawrenceville, received his education in the common schools of Chester county, and learned the trade of molder, which he followed at various places until 1889. In that year he became a member of the Schuylkill Valley Stove Manufacturing Company, of which has served as vice- president ever since. On May 1, 1858, Mr. Eppehimer married a Miss Schueck, daughter of Matthias Schueck, of Montgomery county. Mr. and Mrs. Eppehimer have eight children, four sons and four daughters: Alice, wife of Lewis Caldwell, of Philadelphia; Minerva, William K., Harry C., Edmund S., Stella, Maggie M., and George. The Schuylkill Valley Stove Manufacturing Company was organized in the spring of 1889, and purchased its present plant of a company which had erected it under the auspices of the Knights of Labor. The plant is in the southern part of the borough, and consists of a large four story warehouse, an engine and boiler house, a cleaning room, a two story cupola house, and a molding room. The buildings are all of brick, and have been thoroughly equipped throughout with the best of machinery for the manufacture of stoves. The company employs a for4ce of eighty-five skilled workmen, and the annual output of their works is valued at one hundred thousand dollars. The company has been remarkably successful, and has a steady demand for its stoves in nearly every State of the Union. Henry Eppehimer is a republican in political sentiment, and has been a member for several years of Spring City Lodge, No. 553, Free and Accepted Masons. He is a skilled workman and a through-going business man. He is fully conversant with every detail and feature of his important industry, and ranks as a substantial and useful citizen of his borough.