BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF
JOSEPH OBERT.
Pages 737 & 738
Mr.
Obert is of German descent, and the youngest son of Mathias and Catherine
Obert. He was born in Baden, Germany,
in 1821, where he remained until 
twenty years of age. After limited advantages of education, he
was at the age of fifteen apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, and after a service
of two years worked until twenty years of age as a journeyman. He was then drafted for military duty, but
in consequence of an accident during his early youth was exempted from service,
and in 1841 sailed for the United States, his first engagement as a
cabinet-maker having been at Bath, Northampton Co., and his second at Mauch
Chunk. He then removed to Lehighton,
and followed his trade for a period of twenty-five years, having in 1842
started a business of his own, and soon after embarked in the lumber
business. About the year 1850 he also
became interested in farming, and conducted it successfully with various other
interests. In 1867 he opened a store
for the sale of dry goods and groceries.
He had previously engaged in the slaughtering of hogs, which enterprise
so increased in proportions that he found the erections of spacious buildings a
necessity. In 1876 the establishment
was entirely destroyed by fire, but with Mr. Obert’s characteristic enterprise
was at once rebuilt. The business now
ranks as the leading industry of Lehighton, though a more detailed description,
found elsewhere in this volume, renders repetition here unnecessary. Mr. Obert was, on the 26th of
December, 1849, married to Miss Catherine, daughter of John Heberling, of
Kreidersville, Pa., whose children are John, Charles, William, Frank and
Emma. He has been identified with the
Second National Bank of Mauch Chunk as director, and as a Democrat was, in 1857,
appointed postmaster of Lehighton, and elected member of the Town Council when
it was created a borough. In religion,
Mr. Obert is a member of the Reformed Church, and now holds the office of
elder, and also that of treasurer of the church of that denomination at
Lehighton. In all measures pertaining
to the moral and material growth of the borough he fills a conspicuous
pace.
END
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TO THE MATHEWS & HUNGERFORD
INDEX
PAGE
From
The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
By
Alfred Mathews & Austin N. Hungerford
Published in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1884
Transcribed from the original in November 2003
by
Jack Sterling
Web page by
November 2003