History of Bucks
County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
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HARRY B. SCHMITT HARRY B. SCHMITT. Among the enterprising and successful farmers of Buckingham township, is Harry B. Schmitt, who was born in Hilltown township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1865, a son of Leonard and Elizabeth (Baukert) Schmitt, both natives of Germany. Leonard Schmitt was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1828. He learned the trade of a blacksmith in his native country, and in 1852 emigrated to America. With him came his affianced wife, Elizabeth Baukert, who, failing to obtain the consent of her parents to marry the man of her choice, fled with him to America and was married to him at Philadelphia on their arrival. Mr. Schmitt worked at his trade in Philadelphia for about six months, and then removed to Hagersville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a journeyman blacksmith for two years, after which he removed to Line Lexington and worked one year. He then opened a shop of his own at Reiff’s corner, Hilltown, where he did a prosperous business for twenty-four years. In 1876 he took up the tailoring business, and was successful financially, but returned to the anvil after two years. In 1887 he purchased the farm in Buckingham where the subject of this sketch now resides, and conducted it until the marriage of his son, Harry B., when he retired from its active management. He died in 1900, and his wife Elizabeth died in 1892. Mr. Schmitt was a Democrat in politics. He and his family were members of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Schmitt were the parents of nine children, only three of whom survive: Harry B.; Philip, now living in Oklahoma; and Mary, a widow of James McColgan, of Philadelphia. The subject of this sketch was born in Hilltown, and removed with his parents to Buckingham in 1887. On November 18, 1890, he married Mary Kern, a native of Plumstead, daughter of John and Christiana (Saylor) Kern, the former a native of Bingen, and the latter of Baden, Germany. Mr. Schmitt assumed the conduct of his father’s farm in 1891 and purchased it in 1897, and takes pride in making it one of the neatest and most productive in the neighborhood. In politics he is a Democrat. He is a member of the German Aid Society of Doylestown, the Doylestown Mennserchor, St. Joseph’s Society, and a number of other benevolent institutions. Mr. and Mrs. Schmitt have two children, Ruth Elizabeth and Grace. Text taken from page 488 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, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html Published April 2004 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/ |
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Page was last edited:
11/15/2008