BIO: Frank L. OPPEL, Huntingdon County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Dave Wilson Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************************** __________________________________________________________ McElroy, James Thomas Jr., McElroy's Family Memories, Huntingdon, PA: (Author), 1930, page 163. __________________________________________________________ FRANK L. OPPEL Mount Union, Pa. Contractor: Born at Philadelphia, Pa., at Twenty-Sixth and Oxford streets, February 1, 1866. A son of A. W. Oppel, who came from Germany, a tanner by trade in Germany. A youth apprenticed to a trade is thoroughly drilled in all the different phases that go to make a skilled workman, he followed this trade in Philadelphia, Pa. He died at the age of seventy-four years. He married Hedwigh Agnes Swoboda; she died at the age of eighty-eight years. Frank L. Oppel received an education in Black Log Valley. This section of the county was then in a wild state, and timber was in abundance, awaiting the axe of the woodsmen. He proceeded to the task of clearing these acres, and became an extensive lumberman. He operated saw mills and shingle mills, and was a farmer for forty years. He had a ten-acre peach orchard. He has a farm of two hundred acres cleared. He was postmaster at Wistie, Juniata County, Pa., from 1902 to 1919. He retired from farming in 1919, moved to Mount Union, Pa.; lives at 38 E. Shirley Street, in residential section, in a neat and commodious home. Not being contented at living a retired life, he engaged in the wood business, supplying homes with fuel; this he followed up for period of time; at the present time he has eighteen men engaged at clearing a right of way for the Penn Central Light and Power Company, from Saxton, Pa., to Lewistown, Pa. He has three brothers, George, Herman and Harry; Charles died in 1926; one sister, Louisa. In politics he is a Republican. Frank L. Oppel was married to Laura Bollinger, a daughter of Phillip and Malinda Bollinger. Mr. and Mrs. Oppel have four daughters: Olive, a graduate of Business College, Salem, Ohio; she was married to Albert Lauver, Altoona, Pa.; Freda, graduate of Mount Union High School, married to Wilbur Higgins, Philadelphia, Pa.; Ruth, a graduate of Mount Union High School. She taught school for four years; also attended Juniata College; she was married to Robert Reeder, now residing in Shirley Township, engaged in poultry raising. Mary, a graduate of Mount Union High School; she taught at Saltillo, Pa., for one year; McAlevy's Fort for one year; at Allenport for two years. She is a teacher in the Mount Union High School. Walter, a school teacher, is engaged in teaching at the consolidated schools of Newton Hamilton, Pa. He has taught for four terms. Franklin at home, and Herbert, a graduate of Mount Union High School. He was in the Mount Union High School Band; was manager of baseball, basketball, and on football team. Is now attending State College, a Sophomore; is a chorister in the Methodist church. Ralph A., a Senior in the Mount Union High School. He was captain of the Junior High football and basketball teams, and is also chorister in the Methodist church.