Biographical Sketch of Joshua RINEHART (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, page 268 "JOSHUA RINEHART, one of the older, substantial and prosperous farmers of East Coventry township, is a representative of that sturdy German element which has always been prominent in the material development and growth of the old Keystone State. He was born March 6, 1813, in the township where he now resides, and has given nearly all his long and active life to agri- cultural pursuits. During his boyhood he attended the early public schools, where he acquired a good practical education, and afterward be- came an apprentice and learned the useful trade of carpenter. For a per- iod of four years he followed that occupation in the city of Philadelphia, and then returned to this county, where he has engaged in it more or less ever since, except when attending to the requirements of his agricultural work on the farm where he resides. He has met with good success in his combined employments, and is now in condition to take life easy and com- fortable. In politics he is a republican, and has been elected and served as school director of his township for three years. "On April 15, 1841, Mr. Rinehart married Amelia S. Dare, a daughter of David and Mary Dare, of Cumberland county, New Jersey, and to them was born a family of four children, two sons and a like number of daughters. The eldest son, Howard, married Anne Wauger, by whom he has five children. He is now engaged in farming, and resides on the Schuylkill road in East Coventry township. Cornelia, the eldest daughter, married J. Irwin White, who is engaged in the insurance business at Millersville, in Lancaster county. The youngest daughter, Francina, is still at home, while Edgar, the youngest son, married Lavinia Sowders, and is engaged in farming in East Coventry township. He has a family of three children. Mrs. Amelia S. Rinehart died March 23, 1891, in the eighty-third year of her age. "Joshua Rinehart is one of the eight sons born to Abram and Catharine (Brower) Rinehart, who had also three daughters. Abram Rinehart's pater- nal grandfather, Ulrich Rinehart, was a native of Germany, who left the Fatherland in early life (1733) to seek his fortunes in the newer world, then as now, attracting the attention of enterprising men in all parts of Europe, who were desirous of improving their circumstances and bettering their condition in life. After landing in America Ulrich Rinehart spent some time in considering the advantages offered by different sections, and finally settled in East Coventry township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he continued to reside until his death. His son, John Rinehart (grandfather), was a hard working, industrious man, and cleared out and cultivated a large farm, beside owning and operating one of the earliest mills in his neighborhood. His son Abram (father) was born on the home farm in East Coventry township, where he was reared and educated, and where he spent his entire life. He was an extensive and prosperous farmer, and also engaged to some extent in the business of distilling. In politics he was an old line whig, and in religion a member and local preacher of the German Baptist church. In 1792 he married Catharine Brower, a daughter of Henry Brower of East Coventry, and of their eleven children only two now survive. Abram Rinehart died in 1842, aged seventy-two years, and his wife in 1849, when in the seventy-seventh year of her age."