My Genealogy Hound

HENRY COLT. Among the self-made men of Lehigh County is the gentleman whose life record we will proceed to briefly trace. Formerly one of the prominent business men of Allentown, he is now living retired from labor on his beautiful farm of forty acres of land, located in South Whitehall Township.

Our subject was born in Luzerne County, this state, September 15, 1822, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Sax) Colt, natives respectively of Wilkes Barre and Luzerne Counties. The paternal ancestors of our subject came from England with a colony and located in Connecticut, in Windom County. Later, when the Westmoreland Company was formed, the Colt family received several lots adjoining the present site of the city of Wilkes Barre. The grandfather, Arnold Colt, became a prominent citizen in that place, and was one of the builders of the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Turnpike over the mountains. He held many official positions and was greatly respected and honored in his community. His wife, grandmother of our subject, was Miss Yarrington, the daughter of Deacon Yarrington.

Henry Colt, Sr., the father of our subject, dealt quite extensively in real estate in Wilkes Barre, and at the same time was a prominent surveyor and well known in the city of Philadelphia. He had held the office of County Surveyor of Luzerne County, and at his death, in 1851, our subject succeeded him in that office, having been appointed to fill his father’s unexpired term by Judge John N. Cunningham. So well did he discharge his duties that he was thereafter twice elected by ballot, thus serving as Surveyor for about eight years. Our subject was given a fine education, attending first the select, and later the high schools of Wilkes Barre. He was especially brilliant as a Greek and Latin scholar, and was under the instruction of a graduate of Princeton College. He was far advanced for one of his age in mathematics, and after completing his studies taught school for some time and also assisted his father in his official duties.

The lady to whom our subject was married, December 8, 1856, was Miss Margaret B. Jackson, also a native of Luzerne County, and the daughter of Silas and Margaret Jackson, natives of that section. Mrs. Colt came with her husband in 1859 to this county and located in the city of Allentown, where our subject began manufacturing and selling lumber and dealing in coal. In 1862 he returned to Wilkes Barre, in which place he continued to reside for a short time, assisting in surveying the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad from Penobscot to that city.

In 1864 Mr. Colt returned to the Lehigh Valley and renewed his business relations in the manufacture of lumber, which had been suspended by the destructive Lehigh flood of 1862. He engaged in the lumber business there for many years, at the same time also did quite an extensive business as a coal merchant in Allentown, to which and to the lumber yard he afterward gave his exclusive attention. He retired, however, from active life in the year 1874, and is now living on a farm of forty acres in South Whitehall Township. He has been very successful from a business point of view, and owns besides this tract of land valuable property in Allentown. He is widely and favorably known in this locality and receives and deserves in the fullest measure the respect of all. He takes great interest in the Democratic party, with which he votes, and in religious affairs is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mrs. Colt departed this life April 23, 1869, greatly mourned by a host of friends.