BIO: William K. VERBEKE, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm
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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 317-318.
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  VERBEKE, WILLIAM K., city controller, was born in Harrisburg over 
three score and ten years ago, and has seen Pennsylvania's capital grow 
from a village to a most important municipality.  His parents came from 
Holland and lived for some years in Philadelphia, subsequently moving 
to Harrisburg in 1817, when it was but a borough of about 2,000 
inhabitants.  Mr. Verbeke received a liberal education, is a fine 
scholar and a writer of much strength and elegance.  His people 
excelled in mathematics, an aptness which he seems to have inherited.  
It is doubtful if there is a single individual in Harrisburg who can 
calculate with the rapidity and accuracy he does.  This faculty which 
he possesses makes him a valuable officer to the financial department 
of the city.  In addition to this he is a thorough financier, surveying 
with an eagle eye the financial situation, and drawing conclusions 
therefrom which seldom fail to be verified and sustained.  His 
efficiency in the office of controller and the esteem in which he is 
held by the citizens generally are clearly shown in his having been 
elected to the position of controller consecutively since 1883, though 
he was pitted against the strongest candidates that could be found.
  Almost from the time Harrisburg was created a borough down to the 
present time, he has represented the citizens of Harrisburg either in 
council or on the school board, and they regarded him with such favor 
as to make him mayor of the city previous to his election as 
controller.  He is modest and unassuming in manner, and his personal 
worth and ability to discharge his official duties, the spirit in which 
he beautified the city in various ways with his means, his charity 
manifest in giving homes to many homeless, his generous contribution to 
the cause of humanity in the late war, have endeared him to the people 
and they consider that there is nothing too good to bestow upon him.  
He is their beau ideal of a man, a careful, prudent and efficient 
officer, loved and esteemed by all, and it is predicted that as long as 
Mr. Verbeke will consent he will continue to fill the office of 
controller.
  As a representative fireman, being the oldest but one in point of 
continuous service, he is just as highly esteemed for the valuable 
service he has rendered the city in that way.  He helped to organize 
toe Good Will Fire Company and has been its worthy president ever 
since, except during the years he was filing the office of mayor and 
was compelled to devote his entire attention to that office.  Nothing 
pleases him more than to relate incidents of by-gone days or to 
participate in public occasions with his brother firemen.