Robert Packer Linderman (1863 - 1903)

Born 26 Jul 1863 in Mauch Chunk Borough, Carbon, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 21 Jan 1903 at age 39 in South Bethlehem, Northampton, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Robert was a son of "Garret Linderman and Lucy Packer, daughter of Asa Packer. He was educated at Lehigh University, and early became an official of the Bethlehem Steel Company, a corporation with $15,000,000 capital, of which he was president. He was also an officer in steamship and railroad companies, and head of the coal mining firm of Linderman & Skeer. His paternal grandfather was Dr. John Linderman, who was born on a farm, in the town of Wallkill that has been in the Linderman family since 1790 and is now owned by James Linderman. Robert Packer Linderman was a cousin of Mrs. George E. Bull, of Bullville, and of Mrs. C. Albert Knapp, of Goshen."^[1]

He was married to Ruth Sayre 15 October 1884 in Bethlehem. They were the parents of the following children:

Child: Ruth Evelyn Linderman

Child: Mary Evelyn Linderman

Child: Lucy Evelyn Linderman

Child: Evelyn Linderman

Child: Christine Sayre Linderman

Child: Robert Packer Linderman

Robert died 21 January 1903 at the age of 39 at South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.^[2]

Obituary:^[3]

ROBERT PACKER LINDERMAN, who was long and prominently identified with various of the most important industrial and financial interests of the Lehigh Valley, was born at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1863, and died January 21, 1903. The splendid ancestry from which he sprang is written upon other pages of this work.

At the age of thirteen years Robert P. Linderman entered Mt. Pleasant Military Academy at Sing Sing, New York, where he spent four years, being graduated with valedictorian honors. His academic course was supplemented by the knowledge and pleasure gained from travel in Europe, and upon his return to his native country in the autumn of 1880 he matriculated in the Lehigh University, and was graduated therefrom in 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. While pursuing his undergraduate course he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and was for two years president of the Alumni Association of the University. For many years he was a member of the executive committee of the board of trustees of the Lehigh University, his alma mater.

After completing his University studies he entered the employ of the firm of Linderman & Skeer, coal operators, of which firm his father was the senior partner, and upon his father's death, in September, 1885, he became the head of, the firm and conducted an enterprise of extensive proportions until the spring of 1897, when the firm retired. Various other important enterprises, however, claimed the attention of Mr. Linderman. On January 31, 1885, he was elected a director of the Lehigh Valley National Bank of Bethlehem, and at the death of his father, who was the founder of the institution, he was elected to the position of vice-president. Following the death of President Weiss he was elected his successor on March 5, 1888, and was at that time the youngest president of a national bank in the United States. He was a director in the Jurugua Iron Company in Cuba. On December 15, 1885, be was elected director of the Bethlehem Iron Company to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father; was elected vice-president in 1888, and president in May 1890. This company was merged into the Bethlehem Steel Company, one of the largest works in the county, which was capitalized at fifteen million dollars and he continued its president until August, 1901. He was one of the foremost business men of this section of the state, and his ready understanding of business situations and recognition of possibilities made him a valued factor in community affairs, and as a promoter of a number of important enterprises his labors proved of marked benefit to the locality in which he resided. He also took a keen interest in church matters, was a vestryman for many years in the Church of the Nativity (Protestant Episcopal) at South Bethlehem, and with his sister and brother erected a chancel in the church. He was a trustee of St. Luke's Hospital, which was the object of his liberal benefactions, and took a great interest in all affairs of his day and time. He was a man of winning personality, his heart ever warm with kindliness and sympathy for his fellows. Those in distress, of body or mind, found in him a ready helper. He aided many to the acquisition of home and establishment in business, but his benefactions were bestowed so entirely, without ostentation that they went unheralded save by the recipients of his bounty.

Ruth died 11 January 1938 in Easton, Pennsylvania, and her remains were buried at Bethlehem.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Robert Linderman Obituary, Orange County Genealogical Society, Obituaries, Vol. 1, page 210.
2. ↑ Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records; Northampton; Bethlehem; Episcopal; Cathedral Church of the Nativity. date of death: 21 January 1903; residence at death: South Bethlehem, PA.
3. ↑ Source: #S14 Page: p. 212
4. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial for Ruth May Sayre Linderman.