My Genealogy Hound

HENRY WILSON STAHLNECKER, one of the most active and successful of the younger members of the Norristown bar, is a native of Flourtown, Springfield township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He was born June 27, 1878. He is the son of Edwin S. and Anna R. (Yeakle) Stahlnecker.

Edwin Schantz Stahlnecker (father) was for many years engaged in the livestock business at Flourtown, from which he retired many years ago and removed to Norristown, where he was engaged as a real estate and general business agent until several years ago, when he retired, owing to ill health. He had a common school education, and early in life joined the Reformed church, He is a veteran of the war for the Union. Since the breaking out of the rebellion he has been a Republican in politics, although prior to that time a Democrat. Mr. Stahlnecker served three terms as county auditor. In 1883 he was the Republican candidate for sheriff of Montgomery county, and was elected to the office in November of that year. He entered upon the duties of the position on the first Monday of January, 1884, and served the full term of three years. In 1899 he was again a candidate on the Republican county ticket, having been nominated for county treasurer. He was defeated at the polls in November of that year by Jacob Fegely, Democrat, but on the death of Mr. Fegely, in February, 1890, Mr. Stahlnecker was appointed by the county commissioners, on whom it devolved to fill the vacancy, to serve the unexpired term, and served to the first Monday in January, 1892. In the spring of 1890 he was elected to town council in the second ward of the borough of Norristown, but declined the honor. Mr. Stahlnecker married Anna Regina Yeakle, daughter of Jacob Yeakle, who was a brother of the late County Commissioner Daniel Yeakle, being a son of Isaac Yeakle, whose grandfather, Christopher Yeakle, built the old log cabin still standing in Chestnut Hill. Mr. Stahlnecker’s brother, Jacob, married Mrs. Stahlnecker’s sister, Elamina.

Edwin S. Stahlnecker was born October 1, 1836. He is a son of George Stahlnecker, a farmer and blacksmith, and a member of a well-known Lehigh county family of that name. He married Anna R. Yeakle, August 30, 1860. The mother of E. S. Stahlnecker; was a member of the Schantz family, also numerous in Lehigh county. The children of Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Stahlnecker: Lydia, born March 26, 1866, died in infancy; Laura, born March 1, 1868, died in infancy; Alice, born July 29, 1871, married March 24, 1897, to Charles H. Wolford; Yeakle, born October 16, 1872, died in infancy; Henry Wilson, subject of this sketch. Anna R. Stahlnecker, the mother, died August 27, 1896.

H. Wilson Stahlnecker entered the public schools of Norristown on September 1, 1884, went through the various grades, and graduated from the high school, June 28, 1895. He was Class President and Salutatorian. He entered the college department of the University of Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1895, and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts with honors, in June, 1899. He received the first prize for sight reading of Greek in the sophomore year; second prizes in Greek and Latin in the junior year; and first prize for best Latin essay written by a member of the graduating class in the senior year. He was also appointed to the Harrison scholarship in classics for 1899-1900, and spent one year in the Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in June, 1900. In the fall of 1900 he entered the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in June, 1903. While studying law he also acted as special deputy prothonotary during terms of the civil court, and was also a registered law student in Norristown, in the office of J. P. Hale Jenkins. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in June, 1903, and to the Montgomery county bar July 7, same year. He was the first law student from Montgomery to take and pass the examination by the state board, and was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Pennsylvania, February 1, 1904. He is associated with John Faber Miller in the practice of law.

Mr. Stahlnecker is a Republican in politics, and exerts himself to secure the endorsement of the principles and candidates of the party at the polls. He was elected a member of the Norristown school board at the election in February, 1903, taking his seat on June 1, following. He has been for several years one of the reporters of court news for the “Norristown Herald” and the “Norristown Register,” performing those duties in the most satisfactory manner. He is a member of the Reformed Church of the Ascension, at Norristown. He is connected with the following college societies: Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Hare Law Club (vice-president in 1902), and was a member of the board of editors of “Red and Blue,” of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1896 to 1900; and of the board of editors of the “American Law Register” from 1901 to 1903. He is a member of Charity Lodge, No. 190, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Norris Lodge, No. 430, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, both of Norristown. He served for two years as president of the Norristown High School Alumni Association, and one year of the Montgomery County Alumni Association. At the dedication of the Montgomery county court house, he delivered the address transferring the building from the contractors to the county commissioners.

Mr. Stahlnecker’s maternal grandfather, Jacob S. Yeakel, was the son of Isaac and Regina (Schultz) Yeakel. He was born October 16, 1802, and married Lydia, born January 18, 1807, daughter of Philip Brey. Their children: Caroline, born February 28, 1831; Amanda, born, November 17, 1833; Elamina, born November 10, 1835; Anna Regina (mother), born May 27, 1842; Franklin, born July 1, 1849. Lydia (grandmother) died April 28, 1862. Jacob S. Yeakel lived and died on his farm in Springfield township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He died May 30, 1863.

Isaac Yeakel (great-grandfather) was the son of Abraham and Sarah (Wagner) Yeakel. He married Regina, daughter of Andrew Schultz, November 4, 1800. Jacob S. (grandfather); Sarah, born 1805; Samuel, 1807; John, 1809; Charlotte, 1811;Emeline, 1814; Daniel, 1816; Mary, 1818; David W., 1821. Isaac Yeakel died October 23, 1847. He lived on the farm afterwards occupied by his son Daniel (recently deceased), in Springfield township. Regina, his widow, died January 16, 1860. The greater part of the farm is now occupied by Chestnut Hill Park, but the old farm house still stands just above it.

Abraham Yeakel (great-great-grandfather), son of Christopher and Maria (Schultz) Yeakel, born March 14, 1752, married October 10, 1776, Sarah Wagner. Their children: Isaac (great-grandfather); Samuel, born 1779; Jacob, 1780; Susanna, 1782; Maria, 1784; Christopher, 1787. Sarah, wife of Abraham Yeakel, died May 28, 1833. Abraham died June 17, 1841. He resided in Springfield township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on the farm recently occupied by his grandson, Daniel Yeakel, now deceased.

Christopher Yeakel (great-great-great-grandfather), son of Regina and Christopher Yeakel, married, August 9, 1743, Maria, daughter of Susanna and Balthazar Schultz. Their children were: Susanna, born 1744; Maria, 1747; Regina, 1749; Abraham (great-great-grandfather), 1752; Anna, 1755; Christopher, 1757. Maria Yeakel died March 4, 1807, aged eighty-nine years. Christopher Yeakel died January 3, 1810, aged ninety-one years and nine months.

Christopher Yeakel was about eighteen years of age when he came to Pennsylvania with the Schwenkfelders, accompanying his mother, then a widow, in 1734 He apprenticed himself to a cooper, and continued through life to follow the trade. He built the log house in 1743, still standing at Cresheim, Germantown, Philadelphia, which was his dwelling nearly to the time of the Revolutionary war, when he purchased the property at Chestnut Hill, and died there at a very advanced age. He owned considerable property at his death. His descendants are very numerous in Philadelphia and in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and many of them are prominent citizens. His mother, Regina Yeakel, was a Heebner.