BIO:  William Knox ZIEBER, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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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, Hanover Borough and Penn Township, Pg 72

REV. WILLIAM KNOX ZIEBER, D. D., who for many years has been a prominent and 
influential clergyman of the Reformed Church, was born at Reading, Penn., 
September 26, 1825.  His parents, Phillip and Catharine (Brukman) Zieber, are 
natives of Reading.  They brought up a family of ten children – six sons and 
four daughters.  The father was a merchant in his native city for forty years.  
The subject of our sketch attended private schools; at twelve years of age he 
had a fair English education and knew something of Latin.  During this time he 
was a classmate of Hon. Hiester Clymer.  From the age of twelve to eighteen 
years he was a clerk in his father’s store.  He entered Marshall College, at 
Mercersburg, Penn., at nineteen, and graduated in the classical cource in 1848.  
Three years later the degree of master of arts was conferred upon him.  He 
entered the theological seminary of the Reformed Church immediately after 
leaving college.  He was licensed to preach in 1849, and went to Easton, Penn., 
where he was assistant preacher, and a teacher of a private school.  He was 
ordained in 1850, and during the next year removed to Miamisburg, Ohio; he was 
pastor there for three years, and at Tifflin, Ohio, five years.  The succeeding 
two years he was engaged in the home missionary work, in the meantime traveling 
in the far West in the discharge of his duty.  In July, 1859, he came to 
Hanover, Penn., to take charge of the Emanuel Reformed Church, which position he 
held until May, 1882, when, from over-work, he was compelled to resign on 
account of physical disability.  Rev. Dr. Zieber was married at Mercersburg, 
Penn., on September 25, 1850, to Miss Sarah Good, a native of Pennsylvania, and 
a sister of Rev. William James Good.  Five children were descendants:  Annie, 
Blanche, Bertha, Grace and Paul.  Bertha is teaching in a female seminary at 
Hagerstown, Md.  Grace is also a teacher in a kindergarten in Philadelphia, and 
Paul is a druggist in the latter city.  During a ministry of twenty-two years, 
in Hanover and vicinity, Dr. Zieber preached exclusive of lectures 3,106 times, 
baptized 700 persons, added to his church 496 members, officiated at 879 
funerals, performed the marriage ceremony 254 times, and collected for 
benevolent purposes $12,000, which went to home missions, orphans’ homes, and 
for the preparation of young men for the ministry.  Dr. Zieber is well read in 
all departments of literature, a theologian of recognized ability, and has done 
much to improve the moral, educational and social interests of Hanover.  His 
home is a model of refinement and culture.