My Genealogy Hound

PHAON DIEHL, the efficient County Commissioner of Lehigh County, makes his home in Allentown, where he is proprietor of a freight line and sale and exchange stables. He has the honor of being a native of the Keystone State, his birth having occurred in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, on the 11th of October, 1842. He is a son of Solomon Diehl, who was also a native of this county, born in 1808, and a shoemaker by trade. His death occurred in 1880, at the age of seventy-one. His wife, who was born in 1816, bore the maiden name of Susanna Guth. She was also born in Lehigh County, and her death occurred in Allentown in the year 1887.

The subject of this sketch is the sixth in order of birth in a family of twelve children. His boyhood days were passed on his father’s farm, and he was early inured to the arduous labors of the field. He attended the common schools, and was also a student in a select school for a short time. In 1859, at the age of seventeen, Mr. Diehl commenced to learn a trade, that of harness-making, under T. A. T. Wartman, of Saegersville. In 1862, at the age of twenty, he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, under Capt. David Schadt, and Col. A. A. Lechler, of Philadelphia. He remained in the army eleven months, and was then honorably discharged. In 1863 he came to Allentown, and for six months worked at his trade with C. W. Rau, after which he went to Philadelphia. He worked at his trade in Philadelphia, at No. 5 Callow Hill, for three years, and for the next two years kept a grocery at No. 7 Girard Avenue. In 1869 he came to Allentown, commencing in the freight-line business. He thoroughly understood his work, and his capable management won him signal success. He has always made the most of his opportunities, improving the advantages which were before him, and thus his efforts have been crowned with prosperity.

Mr. Diehl is doing an extensive and thriving business along this line, it having steadily increased from the beginning. He has in use twenty horses and nine teamsters in the transfer and freight business. He uses large and powerful horses and heavy story-platform spring wagons. He is also engaged in buying and selling horses, and has a large five-story barn, equipped with all modern conveniences, the best of the kind in Allentown, and in which there is an elevator for hoisting his wagons, hay and grain.

On the 20th of October, 1864, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Diehl and Miss Ellen Good, daughter of Elias Good, of North Whitehall Township., They have two sons, Harvey H. and Eddie P. In his political views Mr. Diehl is a Democrat, and in 1874 he was elected a member of the Common Council from the Fourth Ward (which was strongly Republican), and was re-elected three times. After that he was elected for three terms to the Select Council. In November, 1893, he was elected County Commissioner, entering upon the duties of his office in January, 1894. In public office he has ever been faithful and true to the trust reposed in him, discharging his duties with a promptness and fidelity that have won him high commendation. He and his wife are members of Zion’s Reformed Church. They have a pleasant home at No. 224 North Eighth Street.