Biographical Sketch of Mahlon S. KOLLER (1893); 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/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 442-3 "MAHLON S. KOLLER, a prosperous young farmer of Sadsburyville, who for a number of years was connected with a wholesale grocery house in Philadel- phia, is a son of James A. and Christiana (Sunday) Koller, and was born November 24, 1865, in Berks county, Pennsylvania. The family to which Mr. Koller belongs is of German origin and ranks among the oldest in Penn- sylvania. Andrew Koller, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Berks county, this State, in 1804 and lived there all his life. He was a farmer by occupation, as his ancestors had been, and was a man of great energy and industry. Politically he was a stanch demo- crat, and in religious belief and church membership a German Lutheran. He died at his home in Berks county in 1862, aged fifty-eight years. His wife was Hannah (Sunday) Koller and they reared a family of six children, all of whom now survive. "His son, James A. Koller (father), was born on the old homestead in Berks county in 1842, where he grew to manhood and was educated in the common schools. In 1862 he married Christiana Sunday, of that county, and set- tled down to farming. To their union was born a family of three children, one of whom is still living. In 1874 Mr. Koller quit farming and removed to the State of Iowa, settling in Marion county, where for a period of nearly eight years he was engaged in the milling business, dealing largely in flour. Returning to Pennsylvania in 1881, he located in Philadelphia and became a traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery house in that city, which business he still follows. Mrs. Christiana Koller is a native of Berks county, where she was born in 1844, and is consequently now in the forty-ninth year of her age. She is a strict member of the Presbyterian church. "Mahlon S. Koller lived on the farm until his eighth year, when he went with his father to the State of Iowa. There he attended the public schools until his father returned to this State, when he also came back to Philadelphia, and soon after took a course of training in the Reading Business college, at Reading, this State. In the spring of 1882 he entered a wholesale grocery house in Philadelphia as shipping clerk, and remained in that position for more than six years, or until the fall of 1888, rendering entire satisfaction to his employers and demonstrating the possession of business ability of a high order. "On November 13, 1888, Mr. Koller was united in marriage with Jennie Bricker, a daughter of Joseph and Jane Bricker, of Kansas, and they have one child, a son named George B. "Soon after his marriage, on December 1st of that year, he removed to his present farm, containing fifty-seven acres of choice land, well improved and located on the Lancaster pike one-fourth mile from Sadsburyville, in Sadsbury township. Since that time he has given his time and attention mainly to agricultural pursuits, and has been very successful. "Politically Mr. Koller is a democrat, as is his father, and gives his party an earnest and steady support on all leading questions. In religion he is a member of the Presbyterian church, and liberal in support of its various interests. He is a member of Patterson Lodge, No. 394, Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows, of Sadsburyville, and also of William Pitt Encampment, of the same place."