. MORRIS L. KAUFFMAN, who is recognized as
one of the ablest lawyers
of Pennsylvania, is a member of the Bar of
Allentown, where for a number of years he has been engaged in
legal practice with success. He was born ill this city on the
11th of June, 1848, and comes of an old family of the Keystone
State. His father, Franklin E. Kauffman, was also a native of
Allentown, and for many years engaged in the real-estate
business in this place.
The early education of our' subject was
acquired in the Allentown Academy. Later he was graduated from
the Highland Military Academy of Massachusetts, also from the
Hudson River Institute and Claverack College of New York. With
the desire to make the practice of law his life work, he began
fitting himself for the profession in the law office of Hon.
Robert E. Wright, Sr., and was admitted to the Bar in Lehigh
County on the 4th of April, 1870.
~since then Mr. Kauffman has been engaged
continuously in legal practice, and has steadily worked his way
upward, until he now occupies an enviable position as an
attorney. In- former years he also engaged extensively in
real-estate dealings, but during the) last decade the greater
part of his attention has been devoted to legal practice. He has
aided materially in the growth of new industries, and was one of
the original committee sent to Paterson to induce the Phoenix
Manufacturing Company to locate its silk mill, the "Adelaide,"
at Allentown. It was his individual check of $1,500 given before
any money was subscribed by the citizens as a pledge of their
good faith that secured the signing of the con tract. It was
also largely through his instrumentality that the Iowa Barb Wire
Company and the Allentown Spinning Company located in this city.
He is a Director in the Allentown Gas Company, the Allentown
Spinning Company, the Bethlehem Silk Company, and for a number
of years was a Director in the Allentown National Bank.
Among the other enterprises in which Mr.
Kauffman is interested may be mentioned the Allentown Steam
Heating and Power Company, of which he is Treasurer, and the
Lehigh Valley Trust an d Safe Deposit Company, of which he is
trust officer. He was one of the promoters and Directors of the
Lehigh Valley Traction Company, and afterward was associated
with the parties who were instrumental in consolidating its
rival, the Allentown & Bethlehem Rapid Transit Company, and its
underlying corporations, with the Traction Company. Besides his
connection with other business enterprises, he is Director in
the following corporations:
Allentown & Lehigh Valley Traction Company,
Lehigh Valley Traction Company, Bethlehem & Allentown Street
Railway Company, Bethlehem & South Bethlehem Electric Railway
Company, Allentown Passenger Railway Company, Manhattan Park and
Hotel Company, and the Catasauqua & Northern Electric Railway
Company.
For many years Mr. Kauffman has been active
in the Republican Party, and is one of its most influential
members in this part of the state. His counsel has frequently
been sought by its leaders, and he has done a large amount of
work to advance its interests. He is an easy, graceful and
logical speaker, and by his strong and cogent reasoning makes
his principles and personality felt, whether it be at the
hustings or before a court or jury. He has served as Councilman,
but has otherwise refused to accept office. While in Europe,
however, he was nominated by the Republican State Committee of
189 I as a delegate to the proposed constitutional convention.
In military affairs Mr. Kauffman has also
taken considerable interest. He was commissioned by Governor
Hoyt as Paymaster and Inspector of the Fourth Regiment, N. G.
P., with the rank of Captain, and afterward as Aide-de-Camp to
Gen. J. F. Hartranft, Division Commander of the National Guards
of Pennsylvania, with the rank of Major. Socially he belongs to
the I independent t Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic
fraternity, being a Past Eminent Commander of Allen Commandery
No. 20, K. T. He was the second President of the Livingston Club
of Allentown, which is one of the finest in the state outside of
Philadelphia.
In October, 1875, Mr. Kauffman married Miss
Arabelle, daughter' of Stephen Balliet, formerly one of the most
prominent iron-ore and furnace operators in the Lehigh Valley.
The family is descended from French Huguenots, who settled in
this country prior to the Revolutionary War. 1\1rs. Kauffman
belongs to the Order of the Daughters of the Revolution. By her
union with our subject have been born two daughters, Leila 1\1.
find Adele B. 1\11'. Kauffman is certainly a public-spirited and
progressive citizen, and his efforts have aided not a little in
the promotion of ~.he best interests of Allen town. He well
deserves representation III This volume, and with pleasure we
present to our readers this record of his life.
R PETER STECKEL is one of the progressive
and prominent business men of Allen_ town, and the interests
with which is connected add greatly to the prosperity and
enterprise of the city. He was born in Catasauqua, Lehigh
County, Pa.. September 15, 1849, and is a son of Robert Steckel,
a native of South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County. The father
was a farmer and followed that pursuit during the greater part
of his life. In 1874, however, he abandoned agricultural
pursuits and removed to Allentown, where he entered the hardware
business, with which he was connected for several years as a
member of the firm of M. S. Young & Co., his death occurred in
September, 1886, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was a
successful business man, and as the result of his sagacity and
well directed efforts won a handsome compet0ncc. He was a
prominent citizen, and in 1873-74 represented his district In
the State Legislature, having been elected on the Democratic
ticket. With Zion's Reformed Church he held membership and to
its support contributed liberally. He was one of the building
committee at the time the present fine house of worship was
erected. The best interests of the community ever found in him a
friend, and at his death the county lost a valued citizen.
The mother of our subject bore the maiden
name of Hannah Frederick. She was also horn in South Whitehall
Township, and was a daughter of George Frederick, of Catasauqua.
A devoted Christian lady, her life was full of good deeds, and
all who knew her held her in the highest regard for her sterling
worth and many excellences of character. The paternal
grandfather of our subject, Peter Steckel, was also born in
Lehigh County, and was one of the pioneer settlers of this
section of the Keystone State.
Under the parental roof Mr. Steckel of this
sketch was reared to manhood, received a good education, and was
trained to habits of industry and enterprise. With the family he
came to Allentown, and upon his father's death succeeded to his
interest in the hardware business as a member of the firm of M.
S. Young- & Co. For several years he carried on operations along
that line, and the store received It liberal patronage, but on
the 1st of June, 1893, he sold out. Since that time he has
devoted the greater part of his attention to tile banking
business and to agricultural interests. He owns a most excellent
farm of one hundred and sixty-one acres, under a high state of
cultivation, and has it well stocked with a high grade of mules
and cattle, making a specialty of the breeding of that stock.
Upon his place is a fine barn, a good dwelling, all necessary
outbuildings and the other improvements which are found upon a
model farm of tile nineteenth century. For the past five years
Mr. Steckel has also been a Director in the Allentown National
Bank. He is a man of good judgment, whose conclusions are the
result of earnest and careful deliberation.
In 1874 Mr. Steckel was united in
marriage-e with Miss Rebecca A., daughter of Charles Henneger,
of South Whitehall. Their union has been blessed with one
daughter, Esther' A. Their' home is a fine brick residence at
No. 239 North Seventh Street, and in it hospitality reigns
supreme. The parents are both members of St. John's Lutheran
Church, and in social circles they hold a prominent position. In
his political views Mr. Steckel is a stanch Democrat. He has
been a member of the Select Council for the past foul' years, as
representative from the Fifth Ward, and his present term will
not expire until 1896. He takes quite an active part in
political affairs, and is a worthy exponent of the principles of
Democracy. He is a careful business man, and the prosperity
which has come to him is largely the reward of his own labors.