Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/657

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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES

lather and grandnxithcr. Daniel Rote and w ife, having been leaders in the Society. They reared a fam ily o f seven children, four sons and three daughters, and made their home on a farm near M illville, Columbia Co.. i ’a. Their son, William H ., married M ary Ellen Lau ­ bach, and they had a fam ily o f three children, one daughter, Estclla M ., who died in in­ fancy, and two sons. H arrj' Lees Rote and George Laubach Rote. T h e form er is an ac­ countant with the Central Railroad of N cw Jersey, recently removed to No. 6 i Broadway. New Vork City, and is unmarried. George L. Rote is in the mortgage and insurance b ro k e t^ e business in Philadelphia, having his main office on the eighth floor of the North Am erican building, and his uptown office at No. 3 8 12 North Sixteenth street. H e has been active along political. Masonic and church lines. On Ju n e i, 1909. George L. Rote mar­ ried .Mary Adelaide Moore, o f I’ hiladelphia. daughter o f M r. and M rs. William Stickney Moore, and granddaughter of the late Thomas Moore, of the former chemical firm of Powers, Weighiman & Moore. Both brothers, H arry L. and George L. Rote, were educated in the DanviUe s c h ^ Is. the latter brother akso completing courses in Potts Shorthand Col­ lege. Williamsport, Pa., and Temple College, Philadelphia. William II. Rote died in Danville, Feb. 19. i8 8 t. T he first m anbers of the I.aubach family in this country came from Holland and set­ tled in Pennsylvania. John George Iju b a c h , torn in Bucks county. Pa.. Nov. l i, 1729. is the ancestor o f several branches who settled in Bucks, Northampton, Columbia and Mon­ tour counties, and reared large families. The children o f John George l.aubach w ere: S u sa n : John M ichael; Jo h n; .Anna M a y; John Christian (great-grandfather o f George L a u ­ bach R o te ); John Conrad, who died in in­ fa n c y; John Conrad ( 2 ) : .Anna M argaret; Catherine; John G eorge: W alhurg; and Elizabeth. John Christian Laubach, born in Bucks county. P a.. Ju n e 30. 1764. w as the first of the fam ily to locate in Columbia tounty. set­ tling there in 1790. Three years later he moved to Sugarloaf township, took up a tract o f four hundred acres on what is now known as Fritz H ill, and followed farm ing until his death, on Mareh 15, 1825. H e and his w ife were buried at St. O abriers Church. He was united in marriage to .Anna M ary Frutchy. who w as bom in Pennsylvania Feb. 3. 1773. and died Ju lv 8. >823. T hey reared a large

fam ily of children, nam ely: Susan, who mar­ ried John Moore, w as the mother o f eight children, and lived to the age of nincly-oiie y e a rs; John, who married Anna W ine; George, who married Elizabeth Coleman, a daughter o f Benjamin Coleman, and who was one of the early settlers o f Sugarloaf town­ ship, but during his later years resided in M ichigan; Frederick, who married M ary Larish, by whom he had eight children; Peter, a leading citizen of the county and S ta te; Hannah, who became the w ife o f Thomas Conner, of Bloomsburg, Pa., and had three sons and two daughters; Elizabeth, who was the w ife o f William Cole, and bore him nine children; Anna M argaret, who married W il­ liam ikeler, and d i ^ in Fishingcreek town­ sh ip; Polly, w ife o f John Ikeler. who moved to M ic liig ^; Catherine, who married Jo h n K. I ^ v is, was the mother o f nine children, and resided in Benton township, Columbia cou n ty; and Christian, late o f Danville. Pennsylvania. Christian Laubach, youngest in the family o f John Christian lau b ach, was bom Feb. 22, 18 16, in Sugarloaf township, Columbia Co., P a., and had lost both of his parents when he was nine years old. A t about the age o f fifteen he left the old home farm and went with his handful o f belongings to Orangeville, and later to Danville, where he lived with Peter Baldy, S r., for whom he clerked in a general store. He had attended the old li% schoolhousc in his native township. When seventeen years old he commenced his career as a merchant, and in 1837 returned to Danville, where he continued clerking until he b^;an business on his own account, in 1845. Meantime he had earned enough to en­ able him to open a mercantile establishment, and he had a profitable trade from the start, remaining in business at the same location about Nos. 3 17, 3 19 and 323 M ill street, for about fifty-five years, by industry and appli­ cation accumulating a comfortable fortune. lie w as one of the oldest and most respected mer­ chants of the borough. From time to tin>e. as his increased patronage demanded, he en­ larged the scope o f his business, and he con­ ducted the grocery and dry goods branches in separate stores when that became advisable. Few men o f his town were more proCTessivc or alive to the interests of the place. H e was associated with many c iv k and municipal organizations, and all movements fo r the bettcrmcnt o f his fellowmcn enlisted his attention and had his encouragement. He had important business investments liesides his stores, having been treasurer of the Danville M utual Insur-