My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN W. HOSLER, one of the live, active business men of Carlisle, was born in North Middleton township, Cumberland county, Jan. 13, 1860, a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth ( Mordorf) Hosler.

The Hosler family is of German descent, and was founded in America at an early day. Benjamin Hosler, the father, was a native of Lancaster county, Pa., came to Cumberland county with his mother when a young man, and here learned the trade of a carpenter and builder, and for years was one of the leading contractors of Cumberland county. His home was about one and one-half miles north of Carlisle, where he owned a small farm on which many of the buildings standing to-day are evidences of his enterprise and thrift. About 1849 or 1850 he went to California, and engaged in gold mining for some eighteen months. In 1873 he went to the eastern part of North Carolina, locating near Newbern, and manufactured lumber for seventeen years. Returning to Carlisle, he associated his son Benjamin W. with him in a creamery business. Mr. Hosler died Jan. 20, 1902, aged eighty years, and his excellent wife, who was a native of Cumberland county, died in 1876, aged fifty-eight years. Both were members of the German Reformed Church. Their children were as follows: John T., deceased; Amanda, wife of Adam Egolf, of Harrisburg; Sarah, who married Jerome Kauffman of Carlisle; and Benjamin W.

Benjamin W. Hosler, the youngest of the family, was reared on the farm and educated in the public schools. Like many another farmer’s boy, upon ending his public school career he began to teach school himself, continuing thus for nine years in Cumberland county, after which he spent three years in North Carolina with his father. Returning to Carlisle, in 1890, he engaged in the creamery business, and since about 1893 he has had charge of the entire business, operating several creameries, including one in Carlisle which he founded upon locating in the city in 1893. He manufactures butter, the product being marketed to Philadelphia and Camden, and also operates a milk department which is one of the best in the city. In 1899 he began the manufacture of ice cream, which enterprise has grown to considerable proportions, Mr. Hosler selling at wholesale in different portions of the country, as well as to the retail trade. In the spring of 1903 he established a wholesale and retail milk and ice cream depot at Harrisburg (the ice cream being manufactured in Carlisle), and he also has an extensive creamery at or near Bainbridge, in Lancaster county.

Mr. Hosler has taken considerable interest in politics as a Republican, and represents the First ward in the council, although that ward is strongly Democratic; he carried it by a majority of 132. Fraternally he is a member of the A. F. & A. M., Cumberland Star Lodge, No. 197, and St. John Chapter; of the I. O. O. F., Lodge No. 91; of the K. of P., No. 56; of the I. O. R. M., Letort Lodge; of the Royal Arcanum, and the Fraternal Mystic Circle.

In 1883 Mr. Hosler was married to Miss Lizzie Gutshall, a daughter of Jacob Gutshall, of Cumberland county, and four children have been born to them: Edith, Edna, Harold, and Norman, deceased. They are all members of the Reformed Church, in the work of which they take an active part, and their pleasant home is at No. 535 North Bedford street, where they welcome their many friends.