HON. JOSEPH P. ENGELMAN, M.D. This
prominent member of the medical profession is engaged in practice
in Cherryville, by whose residents he is held in high esteem. He
was born in Bath, Northampton County, April 30, 1833, and is the
son of Abraham and Mary Patterson Engelman, the former of whom was
born in Lehigh County, and is descended from an old and prominent
family who located in that vicinity prior to the Revolutionary
War, in which conflict the grandfather of our subject lost a
limb. On his mother's side Joseph P. is of Scotch-Irish descent,
and the Pattersons were early settlers in the Monocacy Valley.
Abraham Engelman was for many years a well-to-do businessman in
Bath, and engaged extensively in the manufacture of a good grade
of cigars. He departed this life at the age of seventy-six years.
Dr. Engelman was reared to man's estate
in his native place, and in his youth learned the cigar trade from
his father, for whom he worked until attaining his majority. He
received his education in the public and private schools of Bath,
and though early in life determining to follow the medical
profession, he was obliged to abandon the idea until he could
secure the means to pay his way through college. I n 1855 he left
home, and going to Philadelphia, engaged in the manufacture of
cigars for nine months, when he returned to follow that trade for
three and one half years, working for his father six hours per
day, and devoting the remainder of the time to his medical
studies, reading under the tutelage of Dr. W.E. Barnes. With the
money thus saved from his labors, together with the assistance
rendered by his brother, Henry P., he was enabled to enter
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which he graduated
in the spring of 1861 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
While in the office of Dr. Barnes, who was the physician for the
Northampton County Alms House, he secured much valuable
information and experience in assisting him in his labors.
While looking about for a suitable
location Dr. Engelman took up his place of abode in Cherryville
where he has been engaged in practice since, and that he has been
successful is evident from the busy life that he leads. He was
married in 1864 to Miss Catherine, daughter of Peter and Sarah
(Kuntz) Shafer who were born in Northampton County. The father of
Mrs. Engelman is deceased and her mother, who is now in the
eighty-third year of her age, makes her home in her family. To
the Doctor and his wife have been born three children: Emma A.,
the wife of Elwood Kuntz, who resides in Mauch Chunk; Henry P., a
druggist engaged in business in Woodbury, N.J. and William S. who
is attending the civil and mechanical engineering school
connected with Harvard University.
Dr. Engelman was in 1883 elected a
member of the lower house of the Pennsylvania Legislature on the
Democratic ticket, and on the expiration of his term was
reelected. He is a member of the Northampton County Medical
Society, The Pennsylvania State Medical Society and the National
Medical Society. In religious affairs he is presently identified
with the Reformed Church in Bath and seeks in many ways to secure
the furtherance of the good cause in his community. He belongs to
the Masonic Order in Bath. His reputation is well established as
a man of honor and true worth, and he is respected in due
proportion.
Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Lehigh,
Northampton and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of
the Counties, Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the
Presidents of the United States. Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co.,
1894