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Below is a family biography included in the book,  Portrait and biographical record of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties, Pennsylvania published in 1894 by Chapman Publishing Company.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HENRY B. YINGLING is a leading representative of the business interests of Allentown. He is now at the head of the firm of H. B. Yingling & Son, contractors and builders, and does a large amount of work in his line. His entire life has been passed in Allentown, which is his native city. He was born on the 9th of May, 1846, and comes of a family of German origin. His great-grandfather, Andrew Yingling, was a native of Germany, and on emigrating to America became one of the pioneer settlers of what is now Lehigh County, but was then a part of Bucks County, Pa. Here was born his son, Abraham Yingling. The father of our subject, John O. Yingling, is also a native of Lehigh County, born in 1818, and is now a hale and hearty gentleman of seventy-six. He was joined in wedlock with Miss Mary S. Beitel, who was born in 1816, and is a daughter of Christian F. Beitel. She still travels life’s journey as the companion and helpmate of her husband, and the worthy couple, now well advanced in years, have the high regard of all with whom they have been brought in contact.

Henry B. Yingling is the only child of the family. He had a sister, Catherine, but her death occurred in her fifteenth year. His education was acquired in the public schools of Allentown, in the Allentown Academy, and in the high school, and the knowledge there gained well fitted him for his life work. At the age of eighteen he began learning the shoemaker’s trade, serving a four-years apprenticeship, during which time he completely mastered the business. In 1868 he began shoe-making on his own account, built up an extensive trade, and continued operations along that line until 1873, when he began contracting and building. He has erected three hundred and twenty-two houses, and has therefore aided materially in the progress arid advancement of this place. He has just completed a fine stonefront flat building, containing eighteen flats, built in a modern style of architecture and supplied with all conveniences.

Mr. Yingling was united in marriage, in 1867, with Miss Eliza J. Kleckner, daughter of James and Mary Kleckner. By their union has been born a son, John J., who is now associated with his father in business.

In connection with his other interests our subject is now engaged in the manufacture of brick, as President of the H. B. Yingling Brick Company, of which his son is Secretary and Treasurer. He has also been Secretary of the West End Improvement Company since its organization in 1888, and the various enterprises with which he is connected owe much of their prosperity and developmemt to his untiring efforts in their behalf. He is one of the live and wide-awake business men of Lehigh County, possessed of the enterprising spirit of the times, and though he has met with some obstacles and difficulties, he works but the harder on account of these, and always carries forward to a successful completion whatever he undertakes. He had no capital with which to begin life, but from an humble position he has steadily worked his way upward, and has furnished to the community an example which might be profitably followed by many.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in the book, Portrait and biographical record of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties, Pennsylvania published in 1894 by Chapman Publishing Company. 

View additional Lehigh County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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