My Genealogy Hound

OWEN SCHADT. The simple record of an honorable life is the best monument that can be reared to any citizen, and we shall therefore not attempt to enlarge upon the history of the gentleman above named, who was formerly one of the best known residents of Schadts, Lehigh County. He was a native of that county, having been born in North Whitehall Township, June 29, 1824, and was the son of Abraham and Susanna (Peter) Schadt. Further mention will be made of the parents in the sketch of Monroe Schadt elsewhere in this volume.

The subject of this sketch grew to mature years in his native county, in the meantime being given a fair education in the common schools. Upon attaining his twenty-third year, he opened a hotel in Ruchsville, of which he was the proprietor for over forty-five years. he was also Postmaster of the place, the name of which was afterward changed in his honor to Schadts, the name by which it is now known.

Our subject departed this life April 5, 1891, loved and respected by all who knew him, and in his death the county lost one of its most active and valued citizens. The lady to whom Mr. Schadt was married March 5, 1848, was Miss Sarah Burkhalter, who was born in this county March 26, 1826, and was the daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Mickley) Burkhalter, also natives of the above county. The great-grandfather of Mrs. Schadt, John P. Burkhalter, was the founder of the family in America. He was a native of Germany, whence he came to the United States prior to the Revolutionary War, and purchasing a large tract of land in North Whitehall Township, became one of the wealthy and prominent residents of that locality.

Daniel Burkhalter was a farmer in North Whitehall Township and reared a family of twelve children, namely: William, a resident of Indiana; Nathan, who lives in California; Daniel, who makes his home in Ohio; Hannah, a resident of the Hoosier State; Mary, deceased; Sarah, the wife of our subject; Eli, also deceased; Stephen, a resident of this state; Susan, the wife of Louis Kern, who lives in Indiana; Catherine, Mrs. Solomon Woodring, who lives in Iowa; Peter, a resident of Oregon; and Franklin, who makes his home in Indiana. Mr. Burkhalter was a member of the Reformed Church in Egypt.

To our subject and his estimable wife there were born ten children, of whom the following five survive: Rosa, the wife of Henry George; Alice, Mrs. Louis Erdman; Stephen, Alfred and Owen. Those deceased are Ellen, Milton, Mary, Barbara and Sarah S.

Mr. Schadt has been Auditor of North Whitehall Township, and also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lehigh County Alms House. In politics he was a stanch adherent to Democratic principles, and in religious affairs a consistent member of the Reformed Church, to which denomination his good wife, who is at present living in Schadts, also, belongs. The manly character and useful life of our subject exerted an influence for good over ail who knew him or learned the record of his life.