Portrait and Biographical Record ~ Pages  985 & 986

Kindly submitted by: Nancy Tweedie 

WILLIAM B. SHAFFER is President of the Pennsylvania Paint and Ochre Company of Allentown. The progress and prosperity of the city are due to its inhabitants, and the enterprising spirit of our subject has aided materially to the advancement and upbuilding of the community in which he now resides. He is a public-spirited and valued citizen, and it is with pleasure that we present to our readers the record of his life work.

Mr. Shaffer was born on the 27th of November, 1851, near Breinigsville, Lehigh County, PA where his father, Levi Shaffer, also was born. The latter married Julia Barber, who was also born in Lehigh County, and is a daughter of Stephen Barber, who was a native of England, and came with his parents to the United States during his infancy. Mr. Shaffer’s father died in 1888, but his mother still survives, and now makes her home in Allentown. They were the parents of nine children, three sons and six daughters.

William B. Shaffer, the eighth in order of birth, conned his lessons in the common schools between the ages of six and ten years, and then started out in life for himself, working for the next eight years in the iron-ore mines. He was thus employed until 1869, after which he spent one year on a farm in New Jersey. He then began clerking, in the employ of J.L. Butz, of Breinigsville, with whom he remained for four years. On the expiration of that period he came to Allentown, in 1873, and for four years was employed as a salesman in the drygoods house of A.A. Huber. In 1877 he started out in business on his own account, forming a partnership with Owen Bortz, under the name of Bortz & Shaffer. They dealt in coal, wood and blasting powder, and the connection continued for two and a half years, after which Mr. Shaffer sold out and began handling mining powder. In 1880 he commenced the manufacture of powder, which he continued for about eighteen months, when he disposed of his plant to the Dupont Powder Company. After that he engaged largely in mining iron ore, and at the same time he became interested in the zinc mines of Missouri.

Mr. Shaffer is now the owner of the noted Peruvian ochre beds in the state of Georgia, a rich deposit which makes the mines very valuable. Besides making extensive shipments of the ochre throughout this country, he also ships to England and all parts of Europe. In the year, 1893, largely through his instrumentality, the Pennsylvania Paint and Ochre Company was organized with C.M. Keck as Secretary and Treasurer and Mr. Shaffer as President. The company is now operating four paintmills, one in Allentown, and the others in different parts of Pennsylvania. Their manufactories are equipped with the latest and best improved machinery, and they furnish employment to a number of men. Their paints and ochre are sold throughout the United States and Canada, and they are now doing a very extensive business.

In 1872 our subject was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Butz, a daughter of Manassus Butz, of Lehigh County. Five children grace this union: Eliza J. Minna R., Manassus W., Ella M. and Edgar B. Mr. Shaffer is a member of the Salem Reformed Church, with which he has been connected since its organization, nineteen years ago, and has been Superintendent of the Sunday-school for a period extending over eighteen years. Under his capable and efficient management it is now the largest denominational Sunday-school in the county. His time and attention have been largely taken up by his business interests, yet he never slights his duties of citizenship, and finds time to devote to church and benevolent work. He is a man of sterling worth and strict integrity, and the many excellences of his character have gained for him the high regard of all.