My Genealogy Hound

HARRY WILBUR, a civil engineer and transit-man for the Lehigh Valley, and a resident of Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pa., was born at Bethlehem, February 19, 1866. The father was Warren W. Wilbur, a native of Mystic, Conn. He was a coal shipper, and was a man of energetic character, well adapted to the upbuilding of material interests. Going to Philadelphia, he there followed his trade for some time, and then returned to Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pa., and engaged with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. About the year 1859 he located in Bethlehem, engaging in business at South Bethlehem ss a coal agent. He next entered the hardware business, later worked as a clerk in a coal office, and from that position he was promoted to be head shipper for the Schruyder Coal Company, and represented them in Bethlehem until his demise at that place, at the age of sixty-two. He was a Democrat in politics, and a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church.

The mother of Harry Wilbur, Helena Wilbur, was born at Pottsville, Schuykill County, and was the daughter of Colonel Henry. The Colonel was a coal operator and shipper at Philadelphia, and a native of this state. He was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The family were Quakers, and belonging as they did to the Society of Friends, they believed in no outward ceremony, no religious observances, but held that no form of worship is so good as a patient waiting on the Lord in silence. Colonel Henry died at the advanced age of seventy years. The family traditions preserve the fannily patronymic through its descent on the mother’s side, and trace it unmistakably to the fountain-head, which was that of Cotton Mather, of Massachusetts.

Our subject entered Lehigh University in 1884, taking a course of study in civil engineering, and remaining for two years. While he was thus endeavoring to obtain an education, his father’s health failed, and he was compelled to leave school and battle with the world. In 1886 he entered the employ of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company at the bottom round of the ladder, in the civil engineering department. Pleasing his employers, he was promoted to the position of transitman on the Lehigh Valley Railroad at South Bethlehem.

Mr. Wilbur was married at Staten Island, N. Y., in October of the year 1893, to Miss Caroline Erwin, the daughter of Ambrose J. Erwin, formerly Burgess of Bethlehem, and a member of the Assembly of this state. He was extensively engaged in the dry-goods business at Bethlehem, the city of his birth, as it was that of his daughter, Mrs. Wilbur. Mr. Wilbur is a member of the First Presbyterian Church at South Bethlehem.