William Leonard Mitinger

WILLIAM LEONARD MITINGER, son of Samuel and Catherine (Poorman) Mitinger, was born in East Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1854, and is now numbered among the business men of Greensburg. 

He was a lad of about thirteen years at the time of his father's death, and from thenceforth was compelled largely to provide for his own maintenance and to depend upon his own resources. He was enabled to avail himself of the advantages of the public schools of his native township, and after completing his studies became a clerk in the shoe store of Theodore F. Anshutz, of Greensburg, and later became an apprentice in the foundry of the Fisher and Hawkly Company, Greensburg, where he learned the trade of iron moulding, which, however, he never followed as an occupation after completing his apprenticeship. He accepted a clerkship in the Derry office of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and after a short period o time became a locomotive fireman in the employ of the same company. In this capacity he served five years, at the expiration of which he was promoted to the responsible position of engineer, in which he continued for fourteen had half years, becoming one of the trusted an popular engineers of the Pennsylvania system. He then accepted a position as engineer for a firm of railroad contractors, after which he secured a clerkship in the office of the county recorder of Westmoreland county, a position which he continued to hold for three years. Thereafter he was employed as a salesman in the store of his older brother, John F. Mitinger, whose sketch precedes this, with whom he remained until 1903, when he was appointed secretary to Senator Cyrus E. Woods, chairman of judiciary (general committee) of the state senate, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, remaining the incumbent of this office for one term. Upon his return to Greensburg he reentered the employ of his brother, with whom he remained until the death of the latter, when he assumed charge of the business in association with his younger brother, Dr. Joseph Edwin Mitinger, whose sketch follows this, and they have continued the same most successfully up to the present time. William L. Mitinger has practically the entire active management of the business and is ably upholding the high reputation attained by the concern. In 1900 Mr. Mitinger served as census enumerator in Greensburg, and has also held other positions of trust and responsibility. He is an effective worker in the interests of the Republican party. Mr. Mitinger married, July 16, 1885, Elsie A. Slack, daughter of David and Elizabeth Slack, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and of the four children of this union only one is living, Elizabeth Catherine. Mr. and Mrs. Mitinger are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church of their home city. 

Source Pages 61 & 62 History of Westmoreland County, Volume II, Pennsylvania by John N. Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906 
Transcribed January 1, 2000 by Marilynn Wienke for the Westmoreland County History Project 
Contributed for use by the Westmoreland County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/)

Westmoreland County Genealogy Project Notice:

These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format, for any presentation, without prior written permission.