EDWIN HEMMERLY
EDWIN
HEMMERLY.
Among the enterprising and prosperous farmers of Buckingham is the
subject of this sketch. He was
born in
Springfield
township, Bucks county, son of John and Catharine (Wimmer)
Hemmerly, both of German extraction, descendants of early German
settlers in Upper Bucks or Lehigh county.
John Hemmerly was born
in either Lehigh county or near the line of that county, in
Springfield
township, Bucks county, about the year 1807.
He was a blacksmith and followed that vocation in Springfield
township for many years and up to within a few years of his death.
He was one of the first in that section to manufacture the old
“Bull” plow, and did a large and profitable business.
He married (first) Catharine Wimmer,
who died in 1849. The marriage
resulted in the birth of eight children, of whom four survive:
Levi, of
South
Bethlehem
; Edwin H., the subject of this sketch; John, of
Luzerne county; and Amanda, widow of Levi Overholt,
living at Hellertown,
Northampton
county. The father married
(second) Barbara Hottle, and
had by her four sons and one daughter, of whom only one survives, Jacob Hemmerly, an upholsterer of
Philadelphia
.
A few years prior to his death John Hemmerly
retired from business and removed to
Bethlehem
,
and two years later took up his residence with his daughter Matilda, now
deceased, in
South
Bethlehem
, where he died at the age of eighty-three years.
In early life Mr. Hemmerly was a Democrat in politics, but at the organization of the
Republican party in 1856 he became a member of that party, and voted the
ticket for the remainder of his life.
In religion he was a Mennonite.
The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood days among the farmers
of Springfield township, after his mother’s death, and received a
limited education at the public schools.
On
December
22, 1860
, he married Eliza Landis,
daughter of David and
Lydia
(Jacoby) Landis, of
New
Britain
township, but raised in
Springfield
township, and began life as a farmer.
In 1862 he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Seventy-Fourth
Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served nine months, the term of his
enlistment. In 1864 he
enlisted in the Second New Jersey Cavalry Regiment, and served to the
close of the war. Returning
home he again engaged in farming. In
1875 he purchased his present farm of fifty acres, and has resided thereon
ever since. In politics Mr.
Hemmerly is a Republican, has served his township as supervisor for four
years, and in 1902 was the candidate for county commissioner, but was
defeated. He is a member of
the Lutheran church, and belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, being
a member of General Robert L. Bodine Post, No. 306, at Doylestown.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hemmerly have been born eight children, five of whom survive:
Emma, wife of David Cyrus Boyer,
of Durham, Bucks county; Lydia, wife of Linford Raike,
of Doylestown; Clinton, a carpenter and builder at Oak Lane, Pennsylvania;
David, superintendent of a large mercantile establishment in Philadelphia;
and Cora E., residing at home. A
daughter, Amanda, who was a teacher, died at the age of twenty-one years.
Text
taken from page 485 of:
Davis,
William W.H., A.M. History of Bucks
County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company,
1905] Volume III
Transcribed
February 2004 by Thera Schwenk-Hammond; tsh@harborside.com;
http:// www..rootsweb.com/~schwenk
as part of the Bucks Co., Pa.,
Early Family Project,
Published
April 2004 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb |
