History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, 1887



Niemeyer Family - ADOLPH NIEMEYER Biography

Adolph Niemeyer, deceased, was during a long and useful career one of the most substantial and progressive citizens of Williamsport, a prominent factor in its business life, and a warm friend of every cause making for the welfare of the community.

Mr. Niemeyer was a native of Germany, born in the kingdom of Hanover, April 12, 1835. He came from an excellent family, and was a son of the Rev. Carl and Sophie Gade Niemeyer. The father, an eminent Lutheran divine and a ripe scholar, prepared his son for college, and placed him in the College of the City of Brunswick, from which he was graduated after completing a three years' course. For three years following young Niemeyer was engaged in a mercantile business in Brunswick. In 1855, at the age of twenty years, he came to the United States and located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he resided for two years. In 1857 he went to Wisconsin, and while there served as clerk for a county board of supervisors. His excellent clerical abilities attracted admiring attention, and in 1865 he was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Pension Department in Washington City, and rendered efficient service in that capacity during a period of three years. In 1868 be returned to Williamsport, and formed a partnership with G. E. Otto Siess in the book and stationery business. This connection continued until 1870, when Mr. Niemeyer withdrew from the business to accept the position of treasurer in the Savings Institution of Williamsport. For almost a quarter of a century (more than twenty-three years) he discharged the duties of that important post with ability and honor, and was elected to the presidency in succession to Major James H. Perkins, and served as such for twelve years and until his death. Under his administration the Savings Institution greatly expanded its business, and its substantial growth and prosperity were acknowledgedly due in largest degree to his careful foresight and excellent abilities as a financier.

While his attention was principally given to the direction of the important affairs of the Savings Institution, his progressiveness and public-spiritedness made him an active figure in all entering into the life of the community. He served as county auditor for one term, and as city auditor for two terms. He was a member of the board of directors of the Williamsport Board of Trade, and his efforts were ever in the line of the conservative yet progressive attitude which has characterized that body. He was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, a past master of Ivy Lodge, No. 397; treasurer of Lycoming Chapter, No. 222, R. A. M., from 1870 until his death, a period of thirty-five years, and one remarkable for its great duration; a member and trustee of Baldwin II Commandery, K. T.; and a member of the Scottish Rite bodies of Williamsport. With his wife he held membership in St. Paul's Lutheran church, and he was a member of its board of trustees. In politics he was a Republican, and an active and influential advocate of the principles and policies of his party.

In 1867 Mr. Niemeyer was married to Miss Louisa Hess, daughter of Godfrey Hess, who survives her lamented husband, and with her their three children : Carl Hess, Emma and Louise.

Mr. Niemeyer passed away on Thanksgiving Day, November 30, 1905. His demise was entirely unexpected, and brought profound sorrow upon the community. He had been ill but a few days and few outside his circle of intimate friends were aware of his indisposition. He was first taken with a stomach ailment, which aroused no apprehension, but later it was discovered that his heart was affected. On Wednesday evening his recovery was strongly hoped for, but nature succumbed that night and the end came on the following morning. The funeral was from the family residence, and the interment was private. The Williamsport Board of Trade, of which deceased was a foremost member, voiced the sentiments of the entire people in resolutions of sympathy transmitted to the bereaved family, and which contained the following fervent but well deserved tribute

"Mr. Adolph Niemeyer has been an honored citizen of Williamsport for more than a generation, and his life among this people has been known and read of all men. As a citizen he has been upright, energetic and thoroughly devoted to the interests of this his adopted city, and has made for himself a name and place which will make him long to be remembered, and which makes his death to be deeply regretted by every citizen. * * * As a man he has commended himself by his consistent integrity and his faithful performance of every duty, as well as by his manner and bearing in his daily life.

"We do not presume to characterize his relations with his family and more intimate friends, for they have been too sacred for our intrusion. Having passed beyond the ordinary limit of human life, and having rounded out more than three score years and ten, he has laid down the burden while he was in the full tide of his activities, and when his friends and associates little dreamed that his end was near, and that he was about to enter into his rest. Remembering his struggles and achievements, his life and its attainments, his character and his relations with us and with all his fellow-citizens and his family and friends, we the surviving members of the Williamsport Board of Trade do hereby resolve:

"First, that while we profoundly regret the death of our associate in this board, Mr. Adolph Niemeyer, we are glad that we can remember and record our remembrance of him as an upright, faithful and genial citizen, representative and man.

"Second, that while we deeply sympathize with all who feel his loss, particularly with his widow, children and the immediate relatives, yet we rejoice with them that in the providence of Almighty God he was permitted to so long be active in all of the performance of his life, and to leave a name which shall always be known and shall increasingly become an inspiration."


Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Lycoming County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1906.










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