BIO: C. W. Ahl, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

                             CHAPTER LVIII.

   SOUTH MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH OF MOUNT HOLLY SPRINGS.

549  SOUTH MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP.

  C. W. AHL (deceased) was born in Franklin County, Penn., February 22, 
1811, son of Dr. John Ahl, an eminent physician in that county, and who 
moved to Newville, this county, where our subject received his 
education and, when but seventeen years of age, obtained a certificate 
to teach, which profession he followed five years; then commenced 
farming and dealing in real estate.  He was a man of great executive 
ability and was very successful.  In 1859 he embarked in the iron 
business, opening mines on his lands in Pennsylvania, Virginia and 
Maryland, all of which proving successful he bought extensive tracts of 
land, and, at his death, in 1885, was owner of prosperous mines, iron 
furnaces and valuable town property and 10,000 acres of land.  Mr. Ahl 
was a man of more than the ordinary ability.  He was elected president 
of the Harrisburg & Potomac Railroad in 1879.  He was married, in 1839, 
to Catharine, daughter of James Williams, and of English origin, and to 
this union were born six children, four of whom are living.  Mr. Ahl, a 
Democrat in politics, was an enthusiastic politician but would never 
accept office.  The responsibility of conducting his large property was 
confided to his son Thomas W., five years before Mr. Ahl's death, and 
he succeeded to the presidency of the Harrisburg & Potomac Railroad.  
Thomas W. Ahl, was born in 1848, in Churchtown, this county, and is the 
next to the eldest in his father's family; he received his education in 
Dickinson College, Carlisle, whence he graduated in 1867; then embarked 
in the iron-manufacturing business at Boiling Springs, and has proved 
himself to be a thorough business man.  In politics he is a Democrat.