Henry W. Schreffler, Chief Burgess of Elizabethville, Pennsylvania, was born in Washington Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, 13 November 1839, a son of Jonas Schreffler and Elizabeth [Witmer] Schreffler.
Gottfried Schreffler, the grandfather was a native of Berks County, and married a Miss Lebo, in Northumberland County, where he settled on a farm in Lower Mahanoy Township, and later located in Washington Township, Dauphin County, where he died, aged seventy years. His wife died about the same time. Their children are:
Joseph Schreffler;
John Schreffler;
Peter Schreffler;
Fred Schreffler;
Jonas Schreffler;
Jacob Schreffler;
Daniel Schreffler;
Susan Schreffler;
Elizabeth Schreffler;
Lydia Schreffler; and
Eva Schreffler.
Jonas Schreffler, the father, was a native of Northumberland County, and was a shoemaker by trade, which occupation was his principal employment. For some years he was in poor health and unfitted for business. His death occurred in Mifflin Township in 1852, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. His children by the mother of Henry W. Schreffler are:
Henry W. Schreffler;
Sarah Schreffler;
Mary Schreffler;
Benjamin Schreffler;
Elias Schreffler;
Jonas Schreffler;
Walter Schreffler; and
Son who died in infancy.
Henry W. Schreffler first attended a school taught by a German teacher in an old house owned by Elijah Byerly, two miles from his own home. When he was eleven years old his parents removed to Mahantango Township, same county, where he continued his education in German for one year, when another removal of the family took place, and their new location was in Mifflin Township, Dauphin County. At the age of thirteen years he worked with his grandfather for two years for his board and clothing, after which he came home and got $2 a month in summer, and his board and clothing in the winter and schooling. After the death of his father his mother hired him out to farmers on these same terms, $2 per month for eight months and his board, clothing and schooling for four months. At the age of twenty years he began to learn the carpenter trade in Washington Township, with Jacob Miller, and served an apprenticeship of two years, and from 1858 to the present time has followed that trade. His work has called him all over this and adjoining counties. During the war in 1861 business was dull and he was engaged at his trade in Juniata County. During the later years of his life he received good wages.
Henry W. Schreffler was married, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, in 1865, to Miss Mary J. Matter, who died in 1877. The had six children, of whom two are living:
Annie E. Schreffler, wife of William J. Lloyd, Camden, New Jersey; and
William H. Schreffler, married Annie Deibler, Elizabethville, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Schreffler was married secondly in 1878, to Sally Weaver of Mifflin Township, and to them have been born two children:
Alice A. Schreffler; and
John W. Schreffler.
Mr. Schreffler has taken a prominent part in politics as a member of the Democratic party. He is now Chief Burgess and is nominated for a third term. In religious views and fellowship he is a Lutheran and an active worker in the church. in 1887 he withdrew from the Odd Fellows and Free Masons.
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The above information was modified/edited from Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, published in 1896 by J. M. Runk and Company of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. A free download is available from the Internet Archive.
See also:
Findagrave Memorial #105132077. Henry W. Schreffler died on 25 February 1913 in Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He is buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery at that place.