My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH C. BACHMAN is an enterprising young business man of Bethlehem, where he carries on a coal and wood trade and also runs a flour and feed store. It is now only four years since he started in this line here, but he has succeeded in building up a good trade and his business is flourishing. The paternal grandfather of our subject, Rev. Henry Bachman, was born in Germany, and was a missionary of the Moravian Church among the Indians in Canada, devoting almost his entire life to the cause, and finally departing this life at Hope, Ind. His son, Bishop H. T., is prominent also in the work of the Moravian Church, and now occupies a pastorate in Grace Hill, Washington County, Iowa. The latter, our subject’s father, was educated in Canada, and also at Nazareth Hall, where he graduated from the college and theological seminary, afterward teaching at his Alma Mater. On being ordained he preached, for a number of years in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, after which he was made Bishop of the Northern District of the Moravian Church, succeeding D. E. Bishop A. Schweinitz. His district included from Maryland to northern Canada, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, also Alaska. Through this large territory he traveled extensively, and was in Alaska one summer for the purpose of establishing missions. He was also President of the P. E. C. until his resignation. He still holds the title of Bishop and is in active service, though he will be fifty-eight years of age in October, 1894.

The mother of Joseph C. bore the maiden name of Sarah E. Gernand, her birth occurring in Graceham, Md. Her father, Edward Gernand, who was a manufacturer in Maryland, was also an adherent of the Moravian faith. Mrs. Bachman received her education at her birthplace, and after her marriage she offered her services as a missionary of her denomination to the Indians, as workers in the field were very scarce. A lady of courageous and zealous qualities, she did a wonderful work in Alaska, where she was stationed for a year and a-half , there being only some four missions in the country at that time, she with her son John having charge of two, and two other missions being located in the northern part of Alaska. Among the Esquimaux she was known as the grandmother and her son as the prince. Resigning her work in 1890, with her son she returned to the United States bringing with them two Esquimaux by the names of George Nochneguk and David Scoveuk, who entered the college at Carlisle, Pa., to receive an education and are now back in Alaska helping the missionaries in their arduous work. Mrs. Bachman is with her husband in Iowa, and of her seven children only four survive. Edward is a farmer and stock-raiser near Osborn, Kan.; Mary is in Iowa; John is attending Nazareth Hall; and Joseph C. completes the number.

The birth of the latter occurred June 5, 1868, in Graceham, Md., where he lived until one year of age, when his parents removed to Bethlehem. In his tenth year he became a student in Nazareth, where he lived for three years, and then attended school in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, for two years. When only a youth of fourteen, he started out to make his own way in the world and for some years had a pretty difficult experience. Believing that the West afforded good opportunities, he went to Colorado and engaged in prospecting for gold near Gold Hill, in that state, making several claims and continuing operations for a year and a-half, when he sold out and returned to the East. While carrying on his gold mine he could find no place in the locality to board and lodge, and was obliged to sleep out of doors in wet and stormy weather, but when penetrating the mountains he was lucky in coming upon an abandoned log house, where he made a bed with poles, and with hay and pine needles for a mattress, covered with blankets, he managed to be more comfortable. However, during the winter season, when the snow was deep, he often suffered severely with the cold, and many a time during a blizzard he would waken in the morning to find two or three inches of snow on his bed. His nearest neighbor was three and a-half miles away, and provisions were very hard to obtain.

On returning to the East Mr. Bachman located at Gnadenhutten, where he served an apprenticeship at the carpenter’s trade, working at that vocation both there and in Bethlehem for four years. In the fall of 1890 he started in the coal and wood business in the latter city, and later opened a flour and feed store, located on Vineyard and Water Streets. Here he has a good store of 40x100 feet, for his flour and feed business, with a coal and wood yard adjoining. He keeps a full line of supplies, and is succeeding in building up a lucrative trade, keeping about three delivery wagons in constant service.

In this city, September 11, 1893, Joseph C. Bachman was married to Miss Sarah E. Clotz, who was born near Cherryville, and is a daughter of Phaon Clotz, now of Wilkes Barre. Our subject and his estimable wife are members of the Moravian Church. In politics Mr. Bachman is a Republican, and fraternally belongs to the Royal Arcanum, and to the Order of Red Men, being a member of Oppomanyhook Tribe No. 302. Besides those mentioned he is a member of the Mystic Chain, belonging to Castle No. 42 of Bethlehem.