My Genealogy Hound

MAJ. MORRIS L. KAUFFMAN, who is recognized as one of the ablest lawyers of Pennsylvania, is a member of the Bar of Allentown, where for a number of years he has been engaged in legal practice with success. He was born in this city on the 11th of June, 1848, and comes of an old family of the Keystone State. His father, Franklin E. Kauffman, was also a native of Allentown, and for many years engaged in the real-estate business in this place.

The early education of our subject was acquired in the Allentown Academy. Later he was graduated from the Highland Military Academy of Massachusetts, also from the Hudson River Institute and Claverack College of New York. With the desire to make the practice of law his life work, he began fitting himself for the profession in the law office of Hon. Robert E. Wright, Sr., and was admitted to the Bar in Lehigh County on the 4th of April, 1870.

Since then Mr. Kauffman has been engaged continuously in legal practice, and has steadily worked his way upward, until he now occupies an enviable position as an attorney. In former years he also engaged extensively in real-estate dealings, but during the past decade the greater part of his attention has been devoted to legal practice. He has aided materially in the growth of new industries, and was one of the original committee sent to Paterson to induce the Phoenix Manufacturing Company to locate its silk mill, the “Adelaide,” at Allentown. It was his individual check of $1,500 given before any money was subscribed by the citizens as a pledge of their good faith that secured the signing of the contract. It was also largely through his instrumentality that the Iowa Barb Wire Company and the Allentown Spinning Company located in this city. He is a Director in the Allentown Gas Company, the Allentown Spinning Company, the Bethlehem Silk Company, and for a number of years, was a Director in the Allentown National Bank.

Among the other enterprises in which Mr. Kauffman is interested may be mentioned the Allentown Steam Heating and Power Company, of which he is Treasurer, and the Lehigh Valley Trust and Safe Deposit Company, of which he is trust officer. He was one of the promoters and Directors of the Lehigh Valley Traction Company, and afterward was associated with the parties who were instrumental in consolidating its rival, the Allentown & Bethlehem Rapid Transit Company, and its underlying corporations, with the Traction Company. Besides his connection with other business enterprises, he is Director in the following corporations: Allentown & Lehigh Valley Traction Company, Lehigh Valley Traction Company, Bethlehem & Allentown Street Railway Company, Bethlehem & South Bethlehem Electric Railway Company, Allentown Passenger Railway Company, Manhattan Park and Hotel Company, and the Catasauqua & Northern Electric Railway Company.

For many years Mr. Kauffman has been active in the Republican party, and is one of its most influential members in this part of the state. His counsel has frequently been sought by its leaders, and he has done a large amount of work to advance its interests. He is an easy, graceful and logical speaker, and by his strong and cogent reasoning makes his principles and personality felt, whether it be at the hustings or before a court or jury. He has served as Councilman, but has otherwise refused to accept office. While in Europe, however, he was nominated by the Republican State Committee of 1891 as a delegate to the proposed constitutional convention.

In military affairs Mr. Kauffman has also taken considerable interest. He was commissioned by Governor Hoyt as Paymaster and Inspector of the Fourth Regiment, N. G. P., with the rank of Captain, and afterward as Aide-de-Camp to Gen. J. F. Hartranft, Division Commander of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, with the rank of Major. Socially he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic fraternity, being a Past Eminent Commander of Allen Commandery No. 20, K. T. He was the second President of the Livingston Club of Allentown, which is one of the finest in the state outside of Philadelphia.

In October, 1875, Mr. Kauffman married Miss Arabelle, daughter of Stephen Balliet, formerly one of the most prominent iron-ore and furnace operators in the Lehigh Valley. The family is descended from French Huguenots, who settled in this country prior to the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Kauffman belongs to the Order of the Daughters of the Revolution. By her union with our subject have been born two daughters, Leila M. and Adele B. Mr. Kauffman is certainly a public-spirited and progressive citizen, and his efforts have aided not a little in the promotion of the best interests of Allentown. He well deserves representation in this volume, and with pleasure we present to our readers this record of his life.