B. Franklin Vogle

B. FRANKLIN VOGLE, one of the editors and proprietors of the Westmoreland Democrat, was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1854, and is the youngest son of Augustus and Mary Ann Vogle. 

His grandfather, Augustus Vogle, lived and died in Germany, where he was in active military service for fifty-six years, during the greater part of which he held the high rank of chief-of-staff in the army of the Grand Duke of Hesse. On his retirement from the army he was signally honored by a banquet given by the king, who also presented him with a silver tankard on which was engraved a befitting inscription as a token of esteem. 

Augustus Vogle (father) was born in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, October 1, 1815, and was educated in the military institutions of that country. Shortly after his graduation he was placed in command of the military post at Mayence, on the Rhine, a strongly fortified station of much importance on the border between France and Germany. He held the rank of captain, and had flattering prospects of high advancement, but owing to some differences with his superior officers, and being a firm believer in the Republican form of government, he resigned his position and came to the United States in 1839, being then twenty-four years of age. Coming to Westmoreland county almost directly, he engaged in the tanning business at Greensburg, and soon invented a process which so facilitated the art of tanning that results formerly requiring nine months were attained in one-fifth of that time. His new process was adopted widely throughout the country, and the art of tanning was practically revolutionized. He was successfully engaged in the tanning business until his sudden death, which resulted from drinking ice water while heated by work; he died March 9, 1856. Mr. Vogle was a man of literary taste and ability, and left behind him a number of sketches and short poems, some of which gave evidence of much merit. He was one of the founders of Odd Fellowship at Greensburg, having organized the first lodge of that place. Decided in his convictions strong and impulsive in disposition, upright in character and bright in intellect, he was a man whose influence for good was felt, and whose impress was necessarily left on his generation. He was a typical blue eyed German, a pronounced Democrat, and an active member of the Lutheran church. His wife was Mary Ann, a daughter of Michael Winsheimer, by whom he had five children. The Winsheimers originally came to this country from near Nuremberg, Germany, at an early period in the history of Westmoreland county. Mrs. Mary A. Vogle died at her home in Greensburg, September 12, 1892, in the sixty-seventh year of her age. 

B. Franklin Vogle, a "worthy son of an illustrious sire," received his education in the public schools of Greensburg, and began active life as a printer, learning the trade in the office of the Democrat, edited at that time by Edward J. Keenan, a distinguished lawyer and noted politician. After completing his trade he and a company of others purchased the equipment of Frank Cowan's paper and established, in September 1875, The Democratic Times, which had an existence of two years, Mr. Vogle being the real, and E. I. Keenan, Esq., the apparent editor, because of the almost continuous illness of the latter during that time, Mr. Vogle became, in 1877, the editor of The Oil Times, owned by James F. Campbell, and published in the active oil field town of Edenburg, Clarion county, Pennsylvania. A year later he became city editor of The Daily Breeze, of Bradford Pennsylvania, which was afterwards merged into an established paper of that place, The Daily Era, of which journal he was for three years city and managing editor, and was at the same time the representative of the Associated Press for the northern oil region. During that period Mr. Vogle was likewise the special correspondent of that busy petroleum centre of several of the leading newspapers of New York and Philadelphia. Mr. Vogle removed to Pittsburgh early in 1882, and was employed on the staff of The Leader of that city, and also did considerable work for several of the morning papers at the same time. He returned to Greensburg in November, 1882, and in company with T. R. Winsheimer purchased The Westmoreland Democrat, which they have ever since edited and published. The Democrat is a live weekly Democratic journal, and circulates largely among the old families of the county, being the second paper founded west of the Allegheny mountains, having been established on May 24, 1799. Mr. Vogle was the author of an interesting and beautifully illustrated history of Greensburg, published by Vogle and Winsheimer in 1899, the centennial anniversary of the incorporation of Greensburg as a borough. Mr. Vogle was elected a director of the Greensburg school district for terms covering a continuous period of ten years. From June 1890, to June, 1900. He was also chosen and served as president of the school board for several years. At the regular annual meeting of the Pennsylvania State Editorial Association, held at Harrisburg, in January 1903, Mr. Vogle was honored by election as president of the association for the ensuing year. He married, June 10, 1901, Minnie Jane Frederick, daughter of John C. Frederick, Esq., and Mrs. Martha Oliver Frederick, of Irwin. To Mr. and Mrs. Vogle has been born a daughter, Alice Augusta Vogle. 

Source: Page(s) 111 –112 , History of Westmoreland County, Volume 2, Pennsylvania by John N Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906. 
Transcribed June 2001 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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