My Genealogy Hound

HIRAM W. HANKEE, a prominent real-estate dealer in Slatington, was born in this county March 8, 1859. He is the son of Hiram I. Hankee, whose birth occurred on the banks of the Lehigh River, at what is now Walnutport, Northampton County, October 20, 1829. He began his early career on the canal, and later engaged in teaching school, having been the recipient of a fair education.

The father of our subject on attaining his majority entered the employ of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and remained with them for a period of eleven years. He then embarked in slate quarrying, which for many years absorbed his entire attention. In 1867, however, be opened a real-estate office in Slatington and for a number of years following dealt extensively in buying and speculating in lands.

Hiram I. Hankee was married May 13, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Clause, and to them was born a family of seven children, of whom our subject was the fourth. The husband and father departed this life November 10, 1891, in Slatington, where he was one of the most influential and substantial business men. In politics he was a stanch Republican and in religious affairs a devoted member of the German Reformed Church.

Mrs. Elizabeth Hankee was born in this county and is now living in the above city, having passed her fifty-ninth birthday. Her father lived in Heidelberg Township, where his decease occurred at the age of eighty-eight years. The Clause family in this state originally came from Germany, the first representatives locating in Lehigh County in a very early day.

The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood days in Slatington, where he attended the public schools. When a lad of fourteen years, and while still engaged with his studies, he took charge of the Adams Express office in the city, which he held until reaching his majority. He then engaged in merchandising on his own account and continued thus for a number of years, when he sold out and opened a real-estate office. He still, however, retained charge of the express office and transacted the business of the company until February, 1893, when the Adams Company gave way to the United States Express Company, which our subject represents in this city.

In 1893, in partnership with David Morris, our subject organized the Morris Slate Company and engaged extensively in the manufacture of roofing and school slates, together with blackboards, for which they find a ready market throughout the United States and Canada. They give employment to about fifty men and mine the Heimbach vein, which contains a very superior quality of slate. Mr. Hankee is one of the projectors of the proposed Slatington Electric Street Railway, and is a director and a stockholder in the company which has already been organized, with R. W. Marsteller President, J. W. Balliet Secretary, Henry Bittuer Treasurer, Morris Hoats and H. W. Hankee directors. Our subject has always taken a prominent part in all public improvements and gives very liberally of his means toward every good cause.

In politics Mr. Hankee votes with the Republican party. In November, 1891, he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Justice of the Peace, of which office his father was the incumbent. On the expiration of the term, in 1892, he was elected to the position and is still serving in that capacity. Socially he is a member of the Knights of the Golden Eagle, and a charter member of the Elks of Allentown.

June 5, 1884, H. W. Hankee was married to Miss Laura C. Peters, the daughter of Hyman Peters, a native of this county. To them have been born two sons and one daughter: Violet, Eugene and Norwood. Mrs. Hankee is a member of Trinity Evangelical Church, while our subject holds membership with the German Reformed Church. In June, 1876, Mr. Hankee enlisted in Company H, National Guards of Pennsylvania, commanded by Captain Rhoades. He served as First and Second Lieutenant, and in 1885 was elected Captain of the company, holding that honored position for five years.