Biographical Sketch of Frank H. STAUFFER (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. 572-4. "FRANK H. STAUFFER, the well-known journalist and literatus of Berwyn, who is also an active, enterprising and successful business man, is the eldest son of Col. Jacob and Sarah (Birch) Stauffer, and was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1832. He was liberally educated, and after leaving the school room entered the printing office and grad- uated in that great modern university, the practical school of daily jour- nalism. Long before attaining his majority he began writing for the press, and when only sixteen years of age wrote a poem entitled 'To the Stars,' which was so meritorious that for a time it was attributed to George D. Prentice. About the time he reached his twentieth birthday he established the Mount Joy (Pennsylvania) Herald, which is now in its fortieth year of successful publication, and it afterward held editorial positions on the Lancaster Inland Daily, the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, Woonsocket Patriot, Philadelphia Saturday Night, and Philadelphia Evening Call. Some years ago he engaged in what might be called literary journalism, becoming a contributor to many of the leading magazines and other periodicals of this country. Among others, he is now writing sketches, poems, stories, and short articles of various kinds for St. Nicholas, Harper's Bazaar, Harper's Young People, Youth's Companion, Out Little Ones, Christian-at- work, Epoch, Life, Detroit Free Press, Golden Days, Ladies' Home Journal, The Interior, Wide Awake, Out Little Men and Women, and Kate Fields' Washington. "Mr. Stauffer has a well defined streak of humor in his composition, and not a few of the clear cut squibs that sparkle in the columns of Harper's Bazaar, Life, Tid Bits and the Detroit Free Press are from his pen. His witticisms have a distinguishing pungency of their own, and are readily recognized by those acquainted with his style. Among his longer stories and novelettes that have appeared in print we may mention 'Dorlan the Scout,' 'Fanchett the Fawn,' 'Nameless Man,' 'Missionary Madge,' and 'Sacrificing her Fortune.' He has also published two volumes. One of these was a volume of poems, in 1876, from the press of J. B. Lippencott & Co., Philadelphia, entitled 'Toward Sunset, and Other Poems. Mere Amber Beads at Random Strung.' It was received with great favor. The other was published in 1882, and is a compilation called 'The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical.' "In political faith Mr. Stauffer has been a life long republican, having cast his first vote for John C. Fremont in 1856, although he lived only seven miles from the residence of James Buchanan, the democratic candidate. He served as assistant assessor of internal revenue for Lancaster county during President Lincoln's administration, and in April, 1892, took out his commission as a justice of the peace for Easttown township, Chester county, having been previously elected to that office three times and as often refused to receive the commission. He is also engaged to some extent in the real estate and insurance business. Mr. Stauffer was one of the organizers of the Berwyn Building and Loan association, incorporated November 9, 1877, and was elected its first president, in which position he is still serving. He is a prominent member and elder of the Presby- terian church at Berwyn, and superintendent of its Sunday school; and is also well known and popular in secret orders, being a member of William B. Schneider Lodge, No. 419, Free and Accepted Masons, of Philadelphia, and a member and past grand in good standing of Mount Joy Lodge, No. 297, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Mount Joy, Lancaster county. "On September 26, 1861, Mr. Stauffer was united in marriage to Etta D. Marshall, a daughter of Julius P. Marshall, a grand-niece of the noted scientist, Humphry Marshall, and a descendant of the English Quaker preacher, Abraham Marshall, who came to America from England about 1685. To Mr. and Mrs. Stauffer were born two children, one son and a daughter. The son, Frank M., is now an employee in the Pullman Palace Car works at Jersey City, New Jersey, where he resides. He married Anna L. Cobourn, by whom he has two children, Raymond and Lila. The daughter, Etta M., is living with her parents in their beautiful home at Berwyn. "The Stauffers are of original Swiss stock, the paternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch having been born among the blue mountains of that ancient republic, which he left at an early age to find a home in the new world. His son, Christian Stauffer (grandfather), was born in this State about 1786, and resided during most of his life in Lancaster county, where he died at an advanced age. "Jacob Stauffer (father) was a native of Lancaster county: born November 30, 1808, and died at Lancaster city, March 22, 1880. He was a man of considerable scientific attainments, widely known on this continent and to some extent in Europe, on account of his erudition and discoveries in entomology, botany and ichthyology. His investigations in these various fields of scientific research brought him into communication with some of the most learned men of his time, and his name is permanently linked with ichthyology by having a species of fish named for him, the Staufferania. He was a man of such versatile ability as to be able to write, set up, illustrate and print his own works on scientific subjects. There was also a military side to his nature, and he served as major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel in the State militia of Lancaster county. When a lad he re- ceived an appointment as cadet to the military academy at West Point, but his father refused to let him accept it. In 1830 he married Sarah Birch, a daughter of Francis and Mary Birch, of Eastwood, near Nottingham, Eng- land. To this union was born a family of three children, all sons, the eldest of whom is Frank H., the subject of this sketch. The second son, Alfred F. Stauffer, resides in New York city, where he is engaged in the printing business. David M. Stauffer, the youngest of these three brothers, is now one of the editors and proprietors of the Engineering News, a prominent trade paper of New York city, where he resides. He received a fine classical education and then studied mechanical and civil engineering, graduating from Franklin and Marshall college. He afterward served in the United States navy under Commodore Porter, having command of an ironclad vessel for some time during the civil war. He is a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, and is a man of high standing in his pro- fession. The mother of these sons, Mrs. Sarah Stauffer, was born in East- wood, Nottinghamshire, England, and was a direct descendant of the Earl of Moreland. She died May 27, 1843, and was greatly esteemed for her many rare qualities of heart and mind."