BIO:  John BEIDLER, York County, PA

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Wrightsville Borough and Hellam Township, Pg 74

JOHN BEIDLER.  The subject of this sketch is one of the most prominent and 
active of the business men of Wrightsville, and is now engaged in the hardware 
business.  For many years he carried on the lumber business in Wrightsville, and 
his trade extended through York and Adams Counties in Pennsylvania, and 
Frederick and Harford Counties in Maryland, and from his extended business 
connections he is well and favorably known throughout this whole region of 
country.  He has recently placed the lumber business in the hands of his eldest 
son, Harry B. Beidler, and devotes his attention to the hardware business.  Mr. 
Beidler was born in the year 1836, on the farm now owned by him, about two miles 
from Wrightsville, in Hellam Township.  This farm has been in the uninterrupted 
possession of the Beidler family since the year 1744, having been conveyed, in 
that year, by patent from John Penn, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, to Ulrich 
Beidler, the great-great-grandfather of John Beidler, and has been transferred 
from one generation to another of his descendants until it reached the present 
owner.  Ulrich Beidler, above mentioned, was one of the first of the German 
settlers of the Creitz Creek Valley, though we have no record of the exact date 
of his arrival.  The records of the family show that he and his wife Barbara 
left three sons and three daughters.  One of the daughters, Anna, was married to 
Henry Strickler, and was the maternal ancestor of many of the Stricklers now 
living in the valley.  Barbara, another daughter, was married to Jacob Blasser.  
We have no record of the descendants of the other daughter, Frena, or of the two 
younger sons, Peter and Jacob, though it is more than probably that descendants 
of Jacob Beidler, who, it is known, left children, may be found.  The eldest son 
of Ulrich Beidler, Daniel Beidler, and who inherited the home farm, married, and 
with his wife Barbara, had a family of one son and eight daughters, all of whom 
lived to grow up and become heads of families of their own.  Of the daughters, 
Barbara was married to Joseph Erb, of Warwick Township, Lancaster County; 
Magdalena, to Jacob Witmer, of Cumberland County; Anna, to Daniel Flury; Frena 
to Jacob Grove, of Hawkins County, N. C.; Elizabeth to Nathan Barns, of 
Washington County, Penn.; Mary to Melchoir Bringalf, and Catharine to ----- 
Berntheisel.  Daniel Beidler, the second, the only son, who was born March 6, 
1770, married Susanna Fitz, and on the death of his father, Daniel Beidler the 
first, came into possession of the homestead, paying to his sisters their 
respective shares of their father’s estate.  He had six children, namely:  
Jacob, born in 1804; Barbara, born in 1805; Daniel, born in 1807; Baltzer, born 
in 1808; Anna, born in 1809, and John, born in 1810.  John died when less than a 
year old, and before the death of his father.  Daniel Beidler, the second, died 
suddenly, at York, August 5, 1816, and the farm passed into the possession of 
his widow, Susanna, and his children, Jacob, Barbara, Daniel, Baltzer and Anna.  
With the exception of Baltzer these all died without having married.  Jacob died 
in 1824, Anna in 1861, Susanna (widow of Daniel Beidler the second) in 1862, 
Daniel in 1872, and Barbara in 1880, leaving Baltzer Beidler the only survivor 
and sole heir to the estate left by his father, Daniel Beidler the second.  
Baltzer Beidler was married in 1834 to Elizabeth Stoner.  They had but two 
children:  John, the subject of this sketch, and Susan, who was born August 11, 
1838, and died May 10, 1842.  Mrs. Elizabeth Beidler died January 12, 1841, in 
the twenty-seventh year of her age.  Baltzer Beidler died May 4, 1884, aged 
seventy-five years ten months and six days, when the estate passed to John 
Beidler, the only heir.  John Beidler, the only son of Baltzer and Elizabeth 
Beidler, was born in Hellam Township, York County, February 10, 1836, and 
received a common school education.  For a short time, in early manhood, he 
engaged in teaching in the public schools of the county.  In the year 1859 he 
was married to Miss Mary E. Bahn, of Hellam Township, and soon after his 
marriage he removed to Wrightsville and engaged in the lumber business.  At this 
time, Wrightsville was the center of a large lumber trade, and wagons came from 
all points south and west for a distance of twenty, thirty and forty miles, to 
the number often of as many as thirty in a single day, to be loaded at his 
yards.  A few years ago Mr. Beidler opened a large hardware store at the corner 
of Front and Locust Streets, and he has since placed the lumber business in the 
hands of his son, Harry B. Beidler.  Mr. Beidler has one daughter and three sons 
living:  Cordelia S., Harry B., Daniel and Elmer J.  His residence is in Hellam 
Township, adjoining the borough of Wrightsville.