My Genealogy Hound

JOHN E. LENHART, a well known farmer of Hatfield township, is a native of Cheltenham township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he was born October 14, 1862. He is a son of the late John F. Lenhart, of that township.

He was educated in the public schools of Cheltenham, and on leaving school engaged in farming on the homestead, which he continued for several years with great success. He then rented a farm on shares, remaining on it nine years. In 1893 he removed to Hatfield township, near Colmar, having purchased a fine farm on which he now resides, being the old Peter Evans farm, of one hundred and thirty acres. In June, 1886, Mr. Lenhart married Miss Catherine Mann, of the city of Philadelphia. The children of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Lenhart: John A., George E., Ruth E., Catherine M., Edith V., Joseph E., Lydia B. Mr. Lenhart is a Democrat in politics. He is an active member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics. He is a successful farmer, and a man who is respected by the community in which he lives. He and his family attend the Baptist church.

The Lenharts are an old family in Montgomery county, of German origin. George Lenhart, born March 8, 1754, emigrated from Germany to the United States when he was seventeen years of age, in company with his brother Peter, their parents, who accompanied them, both having died and been buried at sea. The young men were sold to pay for their passage, and George served three years and nine months with Jonathan Tyson. At the expiration of his term of service he located in Upper Dublin township, then Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in lime burning and in buying and selling real estate. He married Catherine Hoffman, who died January 31, 1783. The children of the couple were John, George, Jonathan and one who died young. Mr. Lenhart married (second wife) Christiana Kohler, their children being Mary, Henry, Joseph, Sarah, Christiana and Margaret. George Lenhart, who was the great-grandfather of John E. Lenhart, subject of this sketch, was an active and exemplary worker in the Reformed church of Germantown.

Of the children of George Lenhart, Joseph (grandfather) was born January 30, 1788, in Upper Dublin township, but in 1801removed with his parents to the farm in Cheltenham on which John E. Lenhart was born. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Funk, of that vicinity. Their children: John F., Margaret (Mrs. David Heist), and Catharine (Mrs. Isaiah Campbell). Joseph Lenhart died January 7, 1845.

John F. Lenhart (father) was born November 25, 1821, on the homestead in Cheltenham township, where he was employed in farming his entire life. On the death of his father he inherited a portion of the estate and purchased the remainder. He gave much attention to horticulture, and propagated several fine varieties of fruit, and was generally a very successful farmer. Mr. Lenhart married, November 13, 1851, Ruth, daughter of Joseph Addis, Moreland township. Their children: Amy (deceased); Margaret (Mrs. John D. Stout), Joseph (deceased), Eliza (Mrs. Franklin P. Bryan), John E., subject of this sketch, and one who died in infancy. Mr. Lenhart was a director of the Limekiln Turnpike Company, and also of the Willow Grove and Germantown Turnpike Company. In politics he was a Democrat. In religious faith hi was Presbyterian, and he and his family attended Market Square church, in Germantown.