My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES E. SHECKLER, Sr., Chief of Police and Tax Collector in the city of Catasauqua, has attained to a place in the regard of the people second, perhaps, to no other citizen. He is also engaged in the real-estate business, and the story of his life proves that the successful man is he who employs his powers with the greatest industry and the most perseverance. An energetic business man, he has been the source of benefit to his community, and has aided its material progress in no small degree.

Our subject is a native of this state, and was born in Easton, October 22, 1847. He is the son of Edward Sheckler, who was born in Lehighton, Carbon County. His father, Jacob Sheckler, was a farmer near Mauch Chunk, of which place he was a native. Later he removed to Lehighton, where he spent the remaining years of his life. The great-grandfather, Frederick Sheckler, was a native of Allentown, and the great-great-grandfather, who came from Wurtemberg, Germany, located there before his son’s birth.

Edward Sheckler, who was a fine workman, took a contract, in company with a Mr. App, to build the Lehigh Valley Railroad from Slatington to Lehigh Gap, a distance of five miles. After its completion he removed to Slatington, and embarked in the butcher’s business, at which he had been engaged early in life, and which he there followed until his removal to Bethlehem. After the late war he located in this city, where he opened a meat-market and carried on a good trade until retiring from business. His decease occurred in Philadelphia, when in his seventy-sixth year.

The mother of our subject, Mrs. Elizabeth (Kessler) Sheckler, was born in Allentown, and was the daughter of Jacob Kessler, a native of New Jersey, but of French descent. The father of Mrs. Sheckler farmed on the land which now forms part of the site of Allentown. She departed this life in 1863.

Of the four children now living of the parental family, Charles E., of this sketch, is the eldest, his sisters and brother being Amanda, Laura (now Mrs. Brierly, of Philadelphia), and William E., who is engaged in the meat business in Texas. Charles E. was reared to man’s estate in Lehigh Gap and Slatington. In the former place he tended his father’s flocks until the spring of 1862, when he went to Slatington and learned the butcher’s trade. In 1864 he removed to Bethlehem, and March 24 of the following year, the Civil War being still in progress, enlisted in Company G, Two Hundred and Fifteenth Pennsylvania Infantry, and was mustered into service in the Quaker City when a little past sixteen years of age. He was first sent with his company to Alexandria Court House, Va., and afterward to Ft. Delaware, where they did garrison duty. He was discharged in July of that year, and, returning to Bethlehem, made his home there for one month, when he came to Catasauqua, where his father was the proprietor of a meat-market. He engaged with him in that trade for a time, and then purchased a store and outfit in Seigfried’s Bridge, which he operated for a time alone, and later in partnership with his father. In April, 1875, however, he disposed of his interest in the business, in order to accept the public position to which he had been elected.

In 1875 Mr. Sheckler assumed the duties of the responsible position of Chief of Police, and was re-elected the following spring, since which time he has continued to hold the office. He is now serving his fourteenth year as Tax Collector, first by appointment, and later, after the election law was passed, by the unanimous vote of the people.

The original of this sketch is also a real-estate dealer in the city, having his office located on Church Street, near Front. He occupies a commodious residence on Second Street, and owns three other dwellings in another portion of the city. Mr. Sheckler was married in Slatington, in 1869, to Miss Maria Rehrig, a native of that place. To them have been born nine children, seven of whom are living, viz.: Charles E., Jr., who owns a wallpaper establishment; Alfred Grant, in the employ of the Bryden Horse-shoe Works in this city; and Sally, Frances, Helen, Robert and Harry, at home with their parents. Those deceased were William and Minnie.

Socially our subject belongs to Fuller Post No. 378, G. A. R., and in politics is a true-blue Republican. He is a member in good standing of the German Reformed Church, and is a gentleman greatly respected throughout Lehigh County.