My Genealogy Hound

JOSHUA B. LESSIG, secretary and treasurer of the Ellis-Lessig Steel and Iron Company of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, during a long and active business career has been known among the most conspicuously useful of his day in furthering the development of the industrial and other interests of his city, and in bringing it to its present high place in the commercial world.

In his own family and in that with which he has intermarried, Mr. Lessig represents an ancestry of age and sterling worth. His progenitors originated in Bavaria, where, in the village of Zweibrucken, resided Philip Lessig, who was presumably the father of Christian (great-grand-father of Joshua B. Lessig) and David Lessig. The two brothers came to America in 1765, Christian being then thirty years of age, and landed at Philadelphia, whence they journeyed to where now stands the city of Pottstown, and located about one mile westward therefrom, on Rattlesnake Hill, across the line, in Berks county, and here they made their homes and passed their lives. Christian Lessig was one of the progressive men of his time. He managed a farm, conducted a grocery store and operated a distillery. During the Revolutionary war he performed active service with the Pottsgrove militia. He was a devout Lutheran, and a deacon in the church. He died in 1805 at the age of seventy years, forty years having been passed in America, and he was buried in Zion Reformed church cemetery in Pottstown. He married Elizabeth Holloway, a widow, who bore him children: Philip; Christina, who married first George Bechtel, and (second) Obadiah Seeley; Elizabeth, who married Matthias Yergey; Sarah, who married Henry Bair; Rebecca, who married Jacob Obenshime, a noted trapper, hunter and Indian trader; Henry, one of whose children is yet living; Peter, of whom further; William, Michael and Samuel. Two children of the last named are now living, almost centenarians.

Peter, son of Christian Lessig, made his home in Pottstown, where he carried on a shoe manufacturing business, and he was constable for many years. In politics he was a Republican, and he and his wife were members of the Union church. He was a large robust man, a champion in athletic sports such as wrestling, and took delight in hunting, trapping and fishing, recreations to which his descendants are similarly disposed. Notwithstanding his vigor, he died comparatively young. He married Anna Bair, and to them were born children: 1. Elizabeth, born 1800, wife of Matthias Yergey; 2. Anna Maria, born 1803; 3. Catherine, born 1805, wife of Thomas Reifsnyder; 4. Peter, Jr., born 1808; 5. Joshua B., Sr., born August 20, 1811; 6. Sarah, born 1814, wife of Anthony Duke, of Philadelphia; 7. Rebecca, born 1816, wife of Isaac Yergey, of Pottstown.

The maternal grandparents of Joshua B. Lessig, the immediate subject of this narrative, were George and Caroline (Levengood) Bechtel, of West Pottsgrove township. Mr. Blechtel was an extensive farmer; in politics he was a Democrat, and with his wife he was a member of the German Reformed church. Their children were: Elizabeth, wife of Peter Lessig, Jr.; John; Christena, of whom further; George Washington; Hannah, wife of Ephraim Yergey; Augustus, Henry, Lewis and Catharine. Of this family all are deceased but Hannah.

Joshua B. Lessig, Sr., fifth child of Peter and Ann Maria Elizabeth (Bair) Lessig, resided in Pottstown throughout his life. He was an active business man, engaged at one time in the grocery trade, and then contracting and building upon a large scale. In politics he was a Republican, and he and his wife, who was Christena Bechtel, before named, were consistent members of the German Lutheran and Reformed churches, respectively. Both are deceased, the wife having survived her husband some seven years, and their remains rest side by side in the Pottstown cemetery. Their children were: John Franklin, born February 3, 1841, died August 19, 1844; 2. George E., born August 1, 1843; 3. Mary, born August 24, 1846, wife of Josiah Freyer; 4. Sarah, born September 16, 1848, who is unmarried; 5, Joshua B., of whom further; 6. Anna, born May 17, 1855, wife of Frederick Slonaker; 7. Rebecca, born August 2, 1858, wife of Charles Frick; 8. Amelia, born October 4, 1862, wife of John R. Shaner.

Joshua Bechtel Lessig, fifth child and son of Joshua B. and Christena (Bechtel) Lessig, was born in Pottstown, July 25, 1851. At the age of fifteen he left school, well grounded in a practical education, to enter upon an active career as a stone and brick mason, and in this vocation he displayed from the very first a remarkable mechanical aptitude and ability. From an age when he was barely able to handle a brick and trowel, he had worked with his father during his school vacations, and when only thirteen was so skillful a workman that he was entrusted with the running up of outside walls. One year after leaving school and giving himself entirely to his trade, under his father, he was, at the age of sixteen, pronounced to be a master workman in all points except ending of his apprenticeship time. When he was seventeen his father promised him his freedom as a journeyman at the expiration of another year. This time limit having expired, young Lessig borrowed from his father five hundred dollars, and with this capital he entered into partnership with his elder brother, under the firm name of George R. Lessig & Brother, They were equally ambitious and industrious, and both were incomparable workmen. They so prospered during their first year that they found themselves with a neat bank account to their credit, and at the beginning of their second year they entered upon larger undertakings. Going outside their contracting business they built upon their own account a number of brick edifices, which they disposed of as soon as they could make a profitable sale, then investing the proceeds in the construction of other buildings for the market. This method was pursued with gratifying success for a period of five years, when the elder brother withdrew from the firm to engage in other business, Joshua B. Lessig continuing in the contracting and building business upon his own sole account, and extending his operations to an unprecedented degree. In 1884 he abandoned this business in order to give his attention to other important interests. Notwithstanding the broad scope of his transactions he slighted nothing. He watched his workmen closely at every stage of their progress, never suffering the use of improper material or slighting of work, bringing all up to the highest standard, and ever ready in case of necessity or for example’s sake to pick up a trowel and bring his own masterly skill into use.

Meantime, and before abandoning this business, Mr. Lessig had engaged in a real estate business which had grown into large proportions, and had also made a beginning in manufacturing. In 1879 he associated with himself his brother George, Jacob Fegely, H. H. Hartman and H. G. Kulp, and purchased ground upon which they erected the Hope Iron Company’s works at Pottstown. This plant was successfully inaugurated, and was sold ten months after it had been put into operation. October 29, 1884, in company with George B. Lessig, William S. Ellis and Thomas Searles, was incorporated the Ellis-Lessig Steel and Iron Company, with a capital stock of $300,000, for the manufacture of steel nails. Somewhat later shovel plate and muck bar were added to the products of the works, and at the present time the larger portion of the output is of the last named. The plant occupies about fourteen acres of ground, situated at the west end of the city of Pottstown. Its business is of vast local importance, affording employment to some six hundred operatives, and stands among the foremost of the manufacturing industries of the Schuylkill Valley. The officers of the corporation are as follows: George B. Lessig, president and general manager; Joshua B. Lessig, secretary and treasurer and assistant general manager; and these, with Thomas Searles, J. B. Lessig, Jr., and Frank Wickersham, form the board of directors.

While Mr. Joshua B. Lessig has from the time of the organization of the Ellis-Lessig Steel and Iron Company given his time almost wholly to its service, his progressive public spirit has been manifested in his interest in various other enterprises conducive to the prosperity of the city. He has been one of the principal factors in conducting the affairs of the Pottstown Water Company, in which he is a member of the board of managers, and in an entirely personal way he is among the foremost in all worthy causes. He is an earnest friend of education, and has rendered intelligent service as a member of the school board. He is affiliated with Stichter Lodge, F. and A. M., and Nativity Commandery, K. T., both of Pottstown. In politics he is a Republican.

Mr. Lessig married, in 1874, Miss Amanda H. Bliem, daughter of Jacob (born August 30, 1806) and Mary (High) Bliem, whose children were: Frank, Catharine and Amanda (Mrs. Lessig).

The children of Joshua B. and Amanda H. (Bliem) Lessig were: Othniel, born June 8, 1875, a graduate of the Hill School, Pottstown, and Yale College, and now a professor in the Pottstown High School; Caroline B., born February 4, 1878; and Joshua Bliem Lessig born February 8, 1880, now a student in a military academy at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. The mother of these children died in 1883, and her remains rest in the Pottstown cemetery.

Mr. Lessig married in 1888, Miss Emma Steinman Dickinshied, daughter of John Henry and Amanda (Steinman) Dickinshied, and of this marriage was born a daughter, Ruth, February 16, 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Lessig are members of Emmanuel Lutheran church, of Pottstown. The family home, “The Maples,” is one of the most beautiful residences in Montgomery county, and is located immediately north of the borough limits of Pottstown, upon a part of the old Bliem homestead, where members of the Bliem family have resided uninterruptedly since 1735. The family residence was erected by Mr. Lessig in 1894.