BIO: Joseph Milleisen, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2009.  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 XXXIX. 

                        BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

425  BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

  JOSEPH MILLEISEN, coal and lumber dealer, Mechanicsburg, was born in 
Lower Paxton Township, four miles east of Harrisburg, Dauphin Co., 
Penn., September 19, 1813, on the old homestead of his father, where he 
remained until his marriage, in February, 1844, with Miss Barbara, 
daughter of Christian and Mary (Brookhart) Martin of Cumberland County.  
Mr. Milleisen, in February, 1845, came to Mechanicsburg, where he 
engaged in the grain and product trade until 1859, when he established 
his present coal and lumber business.  Our subject has been actively 
identified with the best interests of Mechanicsburg.  He, with Dr. Ira 
Day, Jacob Mumma, S. P. Gorgas, John Brandt and George Bitner organized 
the water and gas company which supplies the town.  He was elected and 
served as treasurer of the Gas and Water Company for three years, when, 
retiring, his son, John, was elected in his stead.  He has also held 
other local offices of trust in Mechanicsburg, and is a director of the 
Mechanicsburg & Dillsburg Railroad.  The Milleisens are, as the name 
indicates, of German descent, and are members of the Reformed Church at 
Mechanicsburg.  To our subject and wife were born seven children, four 
of whom are living, and all were born in Mechanicsburg:  George C., 
John J., Alfred W. and Martin.  George C., born January 24, 1847, 
married Miss Mary, daughter of John and Frances (Bowman) Baker, who was 
born near Churchtown, this county, and to this union were born two 
children:  Fanny and Joseph.  George C. lost his first wife by death in 
1872, and November 29, 1874, he married Miss Emma, daughter of Conrad 
Kime, of Cumberland County.  He is now in partnership with his father 
in the lumber and coal business, under the firm name of Milleisen & 
Son.  He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Mechanicsburg Lodge, No. 215, 
Wildey Encampment, No. 39, and a member of the Improved Order of 
Heptasophs, J. H. Conclave, No. 105 Mechanicsburg.  John J., second son 
of our subject, learned the druggist business, but was afterward 
appointed station agent at Mechanicsburg for the Cumberland Valley R. 
R., which position he filled for three years, when, after a short time 
passed in Shippensburg, he engaged in mercantile business at Topeka, 
Kas., and in 1881 was persuaded by Mr. Talmadge, general manager of the 
Wabash & St. Louis Railroad, to accept a position on this road, with 
headquarters at Jacksonville, Ill.; he married Miss Jennie, daughter of 
John Thompson.  Alfred W., of the firm of Milleisen & Keefer, is 
engaged in the hardware business here; is a mason and member of the I. 
O. O. F. and Heptasoph societies; he married Miss Ida, daughter of 
Henry G. Rupp, of Mechanicsburg.  Martin is first teller in the Second 
National Bank of Mechanicsburg.  Joseph Milleisen is one of the active 
and energetic business men of Cumberland County, with which he has been 
identified for a period of nearly half a century.  In politics he was 
first a Whig, but on the rise of the Republican party became a 
Republican, and has since given that party his support.  His brother 
Jacob is still living (the third generation of this family) on the old 
homestead in Paxton Township, Dauphin Co., Penn.