George Seiler

GEORGE SEILER. The march of improvement and progress is accelerated day by day and each successive moment seems to demand of men a broader intelligence and greater discernment than did the former so that successful men must be live men, with power of initiative and with ability to control and direct the enterprises with which they are identified. Among the able and representative business men of Westmoreland county is numbered Mr. Seiler, who has been the maker of his own success, and who is identified with important industrial activities, having been secretary and treasurer of the Enterprise Coal Company and also treasurer of the Loyalhanna Brewing Company, while he is one of the popular and honored citizens of Latrobe, with whose civic and business interests he has long been concerned. Mr. Seiler claims the old Keystone state as the place of his nativity, and here he has continued to live during the entire course of his life, never wavering in his allegiance to the fair old commonwealth. He was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, September 10, 1856, and is a son of George and Kuniganda (Shiswohl) Seiler, both of whom were born and reared in Germany, whence they came to America when young, locating in Pennsylvania, where they continued to reside during the remainder of their lives, the father having been a tanner by vocation.

George Seiler attended the public schools of his native city until he had attained the age of eleven years, when he began the battle of life on his own responsibility, turning his hand to whatever work he could find about the city in which he had his home. At the age of sixteen years be began an apprenticeship at the butcher's trade, to which he continued to devote his attention for seven years in Allegheny City. He was then married and shortly afterward, in 1879, came to Westmoreland county and located in Latrobe, where he opened a meat market and gave himself earnestly to the building up of a profitable trade. He gained the confidence and good will of the community and was careful and discriminating in his methods, so that the years brought to him a large measure of prosperity, and he was able to expand his field of operations through well directed capitalistic investments. He continued in the meat market business for a quarter of a century, and then disposed of his interests in that line, while he has since given his time and attention largely to his other interests, the more notable of which have already been mentioned. He is a man of sterling character, and well merits the confidence in which he is held in the community which has so long been his home. He has a desirable residence property and other realty in Latrobe, and is one of the public-spirited citizens of the town. In politics he is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, but he has never been an aspirant for public office. He is a member of the Catholic church, and is a member of the Catholic Knights of St. George of Latrobe. Mr. Seiler married in 1879, Anna Gote, born in the kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, whence she came with her parents to America when a child. She died June 19, 1896, in Latrobe, and is survived by four children: Edward G., born September 13, 1880; Eleanor K., October 30, 1883; Hilda K., April, 1887; and George A., April 22, 1893. Edward G. married and is a resident of East Pittsburg, where he is in the employ of the Westinghouse Electrical Company. The other children remain at the paternal home. Mr. Seiler married (second), February 1, 1898, Rosa Elizabeth Weis, born in Latrobe, September 1, 1857, a daughter of Michael and Rosa Elizabeth (Keiser) Weis, both or whom were born in Wurtemberg, Germany.

Source: History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Volume II, by John N. Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906, Page 279-80.
Transcribed by Carol C. Eddleman 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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