BIO: David L. Glatfelter, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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Pennsylvania A History - Biographical.  George P. Donehoo, Editor-in-Chief.
Chicago/New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1928.
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Page 289-290

DAVID L. GLATFELTER – Among those entitled to representation in an Encyclopedia 
of American Biography, few are more worthy than the bank executives who, in 
strengthening and building up the banking and savings institutions of a 
community, greatly enhance general prosperity.  David L. Glatfelter has 
performed this function for the Columbia Trust Company, of Columbia, 
Pennsylvania.  He has also been a potent factor in a variety of financial and 
civic enterprises.

Mr. Glatfelter is a descendant of a pre-Revolutionary family, and represents the 
fifth generation of the Glatfelter family living on American soil.  The 
patriarchal immigrant, Casper Glattfelder, came to the United States from 
Switzerland in 1743, and this pioneer was himself a descendant of one of the 
oldest of Helvetic families, whose genealogy extends unbroken back into the 
sixteenth century to one Hans Glattfelder, for many years the presiding officer 
(Burgmeister) of Glattfelden, Zurich, Switzerland.  Record is preserved of his 
marriage in 1596 with Margrat Bernhart; their son Felix became the grandfather 
of the pioneer, Casper Glattfelder.  A word concerning the derivation of the 
name Glattfelder is pertinent: The student of German instinctively thinks of the 
name as “Feld der Glatt,” meaning “the smooth field.”  A village which grew up 
in mediaeval times near Zurich was given this name because of its geological 
situation on a plain, and, as was often the case, supplied its own title as the 
last name to the early family living there.  Casper Glattfelder was born in the 
village of his ancestors, July 25, 1709.  He came with his wife and four 
children to the United States in 1743, sailing from Rotterdam on the good ship 
“Francis and Elizabeth,” and landed at Philadelphia, where he qualified as an 
American citizen August 30, 1743.  The new American settled in Springfield 
Township, then part of Lancaster, now York, County, and there pursued his trade 
of millwright.  Three children were born to him after his arrival in America.  
He died March 22, 1775, just at the outbreak of the Revolution.

The greatest evidence of the rapid Americanization of the family is the fact 
that Casper’s five sons served in the War for Independence.  Casper, Michael, 
Henry, Felix, and John Glatfelter all served in the 7th Battalion, 6th Company, 
under Colonel David Kennedy and Captain George Geiselmon. (See Archives of Pa., 
6th Series, Vol. 2, p. 571).  Casper, the youngest of the brothers, also served 
later on in Captain William Dodd’s Company and in Captain John Erman’s Company 
of the York County Militia.  (See Archives of Pa., 6th Series, Vol. 2, pp. 571, 
639, and 694.)

Casper Glattfelder, II, born in 1753, died in 1823 after his term of military 
service married Eva Kerst and became a prosperous farmer and landowner.  Of 
their family of six sons and two daughters, John (born July 22, 1793, died March 
2, 1864) carried the line.  Like his grandfather, he became a millwright.  He 
married Margaret E. Keyser (1799-1865) and had four children: Samuel, John, 
Julian, and Isaac K., born July 7, 1825, died November 30, 1895.  He was a 
school teacher in early life, but later became a farmer.  Isaac K. Glatfelter 
married Sarah Feiser, who was born September 25, 1828, and died July 4, 1908, 
daughter of Peter Feiser, a farmer.  The youngest of their nine children was 
David L. Glatfelter, subject of this record.

David L. Glatfelter, son of Isaac K. and Sarah (Feiser) Glatfelter, was born on 
the home farm in York County, February 29, 1872.  After a preliminary course in 
the York public schools, he attended York Academy, at York, Pennsylvania.  
Following a brief experience of teaching, he entered, in 1889, the employ of the 
Drovers’ and Mechanics’ Bank at York.  In 1891 he moved to Columbia, 
Pennsylvania, where he became discount clerk in the First National Bank, and 
from which office he was several times promoted during his stay of eight years.  
When the Columbia Trust Company was organized, in 1900, he accepted the position 
of chief clerk.  He was elected treasurer in 1905 and continued to fill that 
post until his election to the presidency of that prosperous institution in 
1926.  No small part of the development of the Columbia Trust Company has been 
due to Mr. Glatfelter, who is everywhere considered a sound banker and an able 
business man.

Other activities have had the support of Mr. Glatfelter.  He is secretary of the 
Home Building and Loan Association, which he organized thirty years ago, and 
which has become one of the most successful in the State.  Since 1907 he has 
been associated with William S. Ohmit, packer and dealer in leaf tobacco; for 
more than twenty years he has been treasurer of the Keystone Truck and Chemical 
Engine Company of Columbia, the largest volunteer fire company in the county.  
On November 6, 1923, public confidence in him was expressed in his election to 
the treasureship of Lancaster County, on the Republican ticket.  He is a 
director and secretary of the Columbian School Board, a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and participant in all forward-looking activities.  During 
the World War he performed valuable service in advancing Liberty Loan drives and 
with the Columbia Trust Company “went over the top” on every loan.

On January 11, 1894, David L. Glatfelter married Annie L. Crider, daughter of 
Henry M. Crider, a bookseller and publisher of York, Pennsylvania.  Children: 1. 
David K., born February 9, 1895, treasurer of J. A. Koehler & Company, Inc., of 
Columbia; patriotic, as his ancestors, he enlisted as a private, September 2, 
1915, was in service until November 19, 1919, being advanced to ranking 
sergeant-major in the Coast Defense Station at Portland, Maine; he married Helen 
E. Hughes, of Newburgh, New York, by whom he has these children: David J., born 
October 28, 1919; John, born November 19, 1920; Joseph, born May 8, 1922; 
Thomas, born December 11, 1923; Helen, born January 29, 1926.  2. Frank 
Glatfelter, born June 29, 1896, State bank examiner in Pennsylvania, with 
headquarters in Philadelphia; married Mary Walker, of Columbia, Pennsylvania, by 
whom he has a daughter, Mary Ann, born July 2, 1926.  3. Sarah, born March 19, 
1899, married Lloyd O. Loechel, D. D. S., of Columbia, and they have a daughter, 
Sylvia, born December 11, 1920;  4. Philip, born November 24, 1907, attending 
Princeton University as a member of the class of 1929.  5. Richard, born 
December 16, 1910, a student at the Columbia High School.