RAUCH, EDWARD H.
Portrait and Biographical Record – Pages 124-125
Kindly submitted: Joanne Chubb
EDWARD H. RAUCH, one of the prominent
citizens of Mauch Chunk, was born in Lititz, Lancaster County,
Pa., July 19, 1820, and was educated at the Beck Academy at that
place. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice to the
cabinet-maker’s trade in Lancaster, and in 1840 he went to Mullica
Hill, N.J., and although only twenty years of age, took an
important part in the memorable Presidential campaign, supporting
“Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” In 1842 he returned to his native
county, and followed his trade until 1844, when he was appointed
Deputy Prothonotary of Lancaster County, and in 1848 was appointed
Deputy Register, serving three years. In that year he was also
sent as delegate to the Whig County Convention by the “Woolly
Head” faction, and supported Thaddeus Stevens for his first
Congressional term, when he won the nomination by a single vote.
In 1851 a stock company was formed, chiefly
under the leadership of Mr. Stevens, to publish a weekly and daily
paper at Lancaster, the Independent Whig and Inland
Daily, representing the anti-slavery element of the Whig
party, and Hon. Edward McPherson and E. H. Rauch were appointed
editors and conductors of the paper. In 1854 our subject sold his
interest in the establishment and started the Lehigh Valley
Times at Bethlehem, which he disposed of in 1857, purchasing
the Mauch Chunk Gazette. In 1859 he was elected one of the
Transcribing Clerks of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,
and at the session of the following year was elected Chief Clerk
of the House, and was re-elected in 1861 and 1862. His last
election was under peculiar circumstances. In the fall of 1861 he
recruited an infantry company at Mauch Chunk, and was mustered in
as Captain in November. He joined the Eleventh Regiment,
commanded by Col. Richard Coulter. At that time he was yet clerk
of the house, but going into the army, he deemed it sufficient
notice that he would not be a candidate for re-election. On the
first Monday in January, 1862, when the regiment was in winter
quarters at Annapolis, he obtained leave of absence for six days
to enable him to perform his last duty as the retiring Clerk. On
his arrival in Harrisburg, he was surprised to learn that he had
been nominated for another election by a coalition of Republicans
and war Democrats. He finally consented to the re-election upon
the condition that he could resign and rejoin the regiment within
five days in case of failure to obtain formal leave to serve
during the session. Such leave was granted and he served, but
devoted all his spare time between sessions to his company at
Annapolis.
Mr. Rauch was wounded at the second battle
of Bull Run, which occurred in August, 1862, but rejoined his
regiment in time to participate in the engagement at
Fredericksburg on the 13th of December. Several days
later he was attacked with rheumatism, which became more and more
intense until he was totally disabled, and in March, 1863, was
discharged. He has been a very severe sufferer since then, and
both hands, feet and knees are crippled for life.
On his return from the army Mr. Rauch found
his printing establishment all run down, but instead of
reconstructing and endeavoring to win back success, he was induced
to go to Reading and start a paper there; but he gave it up after
two years, the venture proving a failure. In May, 1868, in
partnership with Thomas Cochran, of Lancaster, he established a
Republican campaign paper called Father Abraham. It became
very popular owing to the Pennsylvania Dutch letters of Pitt
Schweffelrenner, and reached a circulation of fifteen thousand,
but soon after the campaign ended it was discontinued. Mr. Rauch
then became city editor of the Morning Review, but several
years later its owner failed, and in 1872 he joined the liberal
Republican movement for Greeley, serving during the campaign as
one of the Secretaries of the Liberal State Committee, subordinate
to Col. A. K. McClure as Chairman. In 1876 he supported S. J.
Tilden for President, and made forty-six speeches in Lancaster
County.
In September, 1878, when Hon. Robert Klotz
was first candidate for Congress, the editor of the Mauch Chunk
Democrat being his personal enemy, Mr. Rauch was induced to
take charge of the Carbon County Democrat, and conduct it
until after the election, reserving the right then to retire or
buy the establishment at first cost. He did the latter, and
continued its publication until 1882, when the two papers were
merged under the proprietorship of E. H. Rauch & Son, who still
own the same. In December, 1893, they established the Daily
News in connection with the weekly, and the latter paper is
meeting with good success. For many years Mr. Rauch has enjoyed a
high reputation in this and other states as an expert in
handwriting, and as such he has during a period of nearly forty
years attended to cases of disputed handwriting in Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, New York, Kentucky, Virginia, and Washington, D. C.