William F. Scheibler
WILLIAM F. SCHEIBLER. The Scheibler family is German. The first member of the branch which located in Pennsylvania was George Scheibler (I), who came from Germany in 1700 and effected settlement in Montgomery county. His wife's christian name was Catherine. They were pioneer farmers, and reared two sons and one daughter: George, Catherine and Frederick Scheibler. They were of the Zwingle Reformed church faith. The son George went to North Carolina and became judge of the circuit court. Catherine remained at home, single.(II) Frederick Scheibler, youngest child of the American ancestor and his wife, was born 1763, died in 1843, aged eighty years, and was buried in Hempfield township, in the old schoolhouse cemetery grounds known as Feightners. They espoused the Reformed religious creed and were devout members of that body. Politically Frederick Scheibler was a firm supporter of Jeffersonian Democracy. He owned a farm, and taught school in the German language in the borough of Greensburg in an old log school house. He had the honor of establishing the first bank of Greensburg, and used to drive back and forth from his farm nights and mornings while attending to the banking business. His early life was an exceptional one for hard experiences, hair-breadth escapes and real romance. When but fifteen years of age he, being well developed physically, was received as an enlisted soldier in the Continental army. He was soon captured and made a prisoner of war by the British forces and sent to the military prison on one of the West India Islands, but made his escape by being befriended by an American sympathizer who conducted a tavern an the island. When he entered the tavern he was a dejected, dirty, ragged youth, whose very condition appealed to the sympathy of the innkeeper, who told him unless he would disguise that very night the officers from the prison would be there in the morning and doubtless recapture him. Consequently, it was planned that he be thoroughly cleaned and dressed in a goad suit of clothes and provided with a wig, or queue, then commonly warn. To the queue as a disguise he attributed his escape, and he continued to wear the queue up to his death. The officer came, to search the tavern in the early morning and was informed that no person of the description given was there. He then went to the bar of the inn and there beheld his prisoner in the role of a neatly dressed bartender, so perfectly disguised that he was not detected. He, too, was questioned about the escaped prisoner of war, but feigned to be entirely ignorant of the person sought after by the British officer, who finally purchased a drink and drank with the new bartender. The sequel of this narrative was that he remained in the employ of the innkeeper for six years, during which period he accumulated a good sum of money, and then sailed for New York, but was shipwrecked off the coast and clung to the wrecked vessel for forty-eight hours, after which he was picked up by a passing boat and landed in New York. From that city, he walked the entire distance to his home in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, having lost all of his possessions when ship was wrecked except two dollars in his vest pocket. His ambition while on the islands was to save his money, return home, purchase a fine team of horses and give his people a big surprise, but the fates decreed otherwise. The family during these seven long years of absence had never heard from him and believed him dead. Just as he was nearing the home place he met his father and brother, who were haying. A small stream had to be crossed by means of foot-logs, one of which was on either side of the wagon road. The father started on one and the "prodigal son" was about to take the same log, thinking his father would know him, but the father then retraced his steps towards the other foot-log and they finally passed over the stream on different paths - the son going on to the house in which he was born. His shoes had given out and he was barefooted, and his attire covered with dust of travel made him present a sorry sight. He seated himself on the door step beside a sister who was spinning, and said he by her permission would rest a while. He asked many questions and finally called for the "lady of the house," from whom he requested something to eat. This was soon provided him. While eating he asked the good woman what had become of a lock of hair she had taken from his head in childhood, whereupon the mother carefully scrutinized her caller and soon discovered her own long lost boy. The timid maiden who had been so shy threw off her restraint and embraced her brother. He was of a roaming disposition, and after a short stay at home started westward, and finally halted in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, having walked from Montgomery county over the mountains. Here he settled and married Salome Leichty, of a prominent family, and the greataunt of the late Hon. Eli Leichty. She was born in 1763, died February 5, 1839. By this union one son was born - John Jacob Scheibler. Frederick, the father, was of the Reformed church, and in politics a Democrat.
III. John Jacob Scheibler, only son of Frederick and Salome (Leichty) Scheibler, was born in 1788, in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, at a point near the present borough of Youngwood. He died October 7, 1861. He was a sturdy farmer, and supported the Democratic party. He, too, was of the Reformed church faith. He married Catherine Truxel, daughter of John Truxel and wife; she died May 4, 1841, and was buried in the cemetery aforementioned. To John Jacob and Catherine (Truxel) Scheibler were born: John, Jacob, William, Elizabeth, Hannah and Sarah. John and Jacob remained at home and fell heir to farms formerly possessed by their father. William migrated to Iowa, where he spent the greater part of his life and where his descendants reside.
IV. John Scheibler, eldest son of John Jacob and Catherine (Truxel) Scheibler, born April 22, 1810, died October 2, 1887. He married, May 13, 1830, Mary Sell, daughter of Jacob Sell and wife, Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke performing the ceremony. Mrs. Scheibler was born April 4, 1811, died May 5, 1883, and was buried in the old cemetery, but the remains were removed to the St. Clair cemetery at Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. John Scheibler were: Simon G., born March 25. 1832, of Greensburg, Pa.; Sarah, born June 7, 1834, married Jackson Baker, of Holton, Kansas; Hannah, born October i6, 1836, married Rev. T. F. Stauffer, of Sioux City, Iowa, and is now deceased; Julia, born January 1, 1839, married Josiah Rumbough; Uriah Frederick born March 23, 1841, married Mary Sutman; he died June 7. 1905; John S. born January 29, 1844, married Sally Clarke, of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania; she died in 1881; he moved to Abilene, Kansas, where he still resides; Jacob, born August 24, 1846, died April 12, 1890; Isaac P. O., born June 23, 1849, died single September 8, 1873; William F., born September 28, 1851, of whom later; Eli, born January 24, 1854, married Alice Weimer, resident of Hempfield township.
V. William F. Scheibler, the second youngest son of John and Mary (Sell) Scheibler, born September 28, 1851, obtained a good common school education and attended the county normals. He then followed the profession of a teacher in the Westmoreland county schools for a period of eleven years. He farmed some during this time and taught winter school. In the spring of 1889 he removed to the Fifth ward of Greensburg borough, known as "Bunker Hill," where he engaged in general merchandising, which business has grown to one of large proportions and which he still conducts. His annual sales have been as high as $35,000. He began in a, modest way and his good wife attended to the little store, while he "hustled" in the country purchasing and trading for live stock and country produce, until the town grew up around him, increasing his trade until his whole time with that of several clerks was required to handle the large volume of business. He also handled real estate to quite an extent, and became a prosperous business factor of the borough. For several years he has been engaged by the officers of the Street Railway Company to secure right-of-way along the rural lines. In brief his has been an active career, built up by energy and strict integrity. While other men have sought ease and trifling pleasures, Mr. Scheibler applied his every energy in the direction of his business, which has been crowned with an almost phenomenal success. He is a Democrat in politics. While too busy in the marts of trade to seek out public office, he served his native township as school director, and upon moving to the borough of Greensburg, where he has lived and operated the past sixteen years, he was made a justice of the peace, serving five years; also member of the school board.. He and family are members of Reformed church.
He married, September 29, 1874, at Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Catherine E. Brugh, daughter of Jacob and Catherine Brugh, the ceremony being performed by Rev. T. F. Stauffer. Their children were: Stella L., born December 25, 1875, married Harry E. Blank, an attorney of Greensburg, and they have a daughter, Catherine Virginia, born September 12, 1902. Harry S., born July 27, 1877, married Jessie Overly, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and their children are: Ruth E., born March 13, 1900, and Helen Reed, born October 12, 1902. He is a traveling salesman for the Allen Kirkpatrick Grocery Company, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Florence Ethel, born November 11, 1885, at home. At both the store and the residence of Mr. Scheibler are to be seen the evidence of education and refinement. The family are greatly attached to one another, even to the rosy-cheeked grandchildren, who are of the seventh generation from the founder of the family in America, George Scheibler, who landed in a strange land in 1700.
Source: Page(s) 95-97, History of Westmoreland County, Volume II, Pennsylvania by John N Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906.
Transcribed February 2006 by Nathan Zipfel for the Westmoreland County History Project
Contributed for use by the Westmoreland County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/)
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