My Genealogy Hound

ALEXANDER NESBITT ULRICH. The family of which this gentleman is an honored member has been identified with the history of Pennsylvania for nearly two hundred years, the first representative in America having emigrated hither from Alsace, France, in 1708 and made settlement in Annville, Lebanon County. A grandson of that pioneer, our subject’s great-grandfather, was an influential attorney of Lebanon County, and during the War of the Revolution served as Adjutant of a Pennsylvania regiment.

The grandfather of our subject, Rev. Daniel Ulrich, D. D., was for many years a noted divine of the Keystone State, and was prominent in the ministry of the Lutheran Church. For a long time he held a pastorate in Ulrieh’s Church, Lebanon County. In that county he died after seventy-six useful years. Among his children was Daniel, the father of Alexander, who was born in Lebanon County and received a splendid education, being a graduate of Princeton College, which conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. Later he entered upon the study of medicine, and was graduated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. His skill and success as a physician became widely known, not only in Reading, Pa., where he had his office, but throughout the surrounding country. In that city his death occurred in 1878. He was a devoted member of the Lutheran Church, and died in that faith.

The maternal ancestors of our subject were of Scotch origin. His mother, Henrietta, was born in Fairfax County, Va., and was a daughter of Alexander Nesbitt, a native of Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Dickinson College, who was a successful lawyer of the Old Dominion. The grandfather of Mrs. Ulricb, Charles Nesbitt, was born in Montrose, Scotland, being a son of Alexander Nesbitt, Provost of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Charles Nesbitt was famous throughout the Old World as the most learned Greek scholar of all Europe, and was so mentioned by Hon. James G. Blaine in an oration delivered at the Dickinson Centennial in 1882. His reputation as a man of letters extended into America, so that he was urged to come to the United States and accept the Presidency of Dickinson College, then about to be established. He accepted the offer and became the first President of the institution, the success of which was largely enhanced by his fame as a scholar.

The mother of our subject was reared to womanhood in the Old Dominion, where her father was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Culpeper County, though twenty years afterwards he removed to Washington, D. C., where his death occurred. Mrs. Henrietta Ulrich passed away in 1862, after having become the mother of four children, of whom the eldest is the subject of our sketch. He was born in Gettysburg, Pa., February 10, 1853, and was reared to manhood in Reading, where he completed the studies of the high school. His education was further extended by study in New England, after which he engaged in teaching.

Coming to Catasauqua in 1871, Mr. Ulrich became a teacher in the schools of the city, of which in 1873 he was elected Principal, and continued thus engaged for six years. Meantime he had commenced the study of law, which he afterwards continued while in charge of a private school. He was admitted to the Bar at Allentown in 1885, and has since engaged in practice in Catasauqua. He is a member of the Lehigh County Bar Association and is well known in the fraternity. In politics he is a Republican, and on that ticket was in 1883 elected Justice of the Peace and re-elected in 1888 and 1893.

In Catasauqua, July 11, 1878, occurred the marriage of A. N. Ulrich and Miss Irene Fuller, the daughter of Charles D. Fuller. They occupy one of the pleasant homes of this city, and are prominent in social circles. One child has blessed their union, Charles F., now a student in the Catasauqua schools.