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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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HON. WILLIAM H. AINEY, a lawyer, banker and iron manufacturer of Allentown, is a native of Susquehanna County. His grandfather, William Ainey, was of French descent, his Huguenot ancestors having settled in the Mohawk Valley, in Montgomery County, N. Y. His grandmother, Hannah Crawford, was from Connecticut, and her ancestors were among the early Puritan settlers in New England. His great-grandmother, Elizabeth Van Dusen, was of German lineage. The father of our subject, Jacob Ainey, was born in 1802, and in 1824 married Cathrine Kinnan, of Goshen, Orange County, N. Y., a daughter of John Morrison Kinnan, who was of Irish descent, his father, Rev. John Kinnan, having emigrated from the North of Ireland to the Empire State before the Revolution.

The subject of this sketch, after receiving a liberal education, began the study of law under Hon. E. B. Chase, of Montrose, Pa., in 1853. He was admitted to the Bar in 1857, and the same year opened an office in Allentown. After devoting himself closely and successfully to legal practice for several years, he became desirous of opening up a larger field for his active temperament than was afforded by law practice, and so organized the Allentown Savings Institution, of which he was chosen President. It prospered beyond the most sanguine hopes of its friends, and two years later a banking house was erected at No. 532 Hamilton Street. He gave his close personal attention to the business of the institution, and it soon became recognized as one of the best managed savings banks in the state.

In 1862 Mr. Ainey bought the Lehigh Register, which he edited in connection with his law practice and other duties. A ready and vigorous writer, the Register under his management became an able advocate of progressive doctrines and advanced Republican views on all the great questions of the day. Its editor was several times chosen a delegate to the Republican State Conventions, and was senatorial delegate to, and chairman of contested seats in the convention of 1863, when two sets of delegates were claiming admission from several of the Philadelphia districts. He succeeded in harmonizing the factions ou a basis of future union satisfactory to both. The following year he served on the State Central Committee and was elected one of the executive committee of nine members to conduct the campaign.

In the years 1863 and 1864 the Second National Bank of Allentown was organized, and Mr. Ainey was elected its first President, and has filled that office ever since. His management has been conservative but highly successful, and the bank has accumulated the largest proportionate surplus fund of any bank in the Lehigh Valley. In 1867 he was one of the projectors and organizers of the Lehigh Iron Company, and has since been its President.

In 1872 Mr. Ainey was elected, for the state at large, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-73. This convention framed the present constitution of Pennsylvania, introducing many needed reforms. These have since been copied and adopted as part of the fundamental law of several other states. Mr. Ainey was an earnest advocate of these reforms and an active member of that distinguished body. His remarkable readiness and practical ability were frequently shown during the sessions of the convention. An instance may be appropriately mentioned. When the Democrats and Republicans were in hostile array over section 5 of the Declaration of Fights, as follows: “Election shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere with the free exercise of the right of suffrage,” the Democrats demanded, the Republicans opposed it. The debate had become bitter and party lines were closely drawn. Up to that time political measures and discussions had been carefully avoided, as liable to prove fatal to the work of the convention, but it seemed there was no way to avoid it in this instance. At this juncture, Mr. Ainey proposed a compromise by striking out “with” and inserting “to prevent,” so as to make the section read, “ No power, civil or military, shall interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.” This was immediately accepted by both parties, and the dreaded political division happily avoided. He is the author of the proviso giving cities of sufficient population separate legislative representation, and many other important and useful provisions.

In 1879 George Brooke, President of the First National Bank of Reading, and of the E. & G. Brooke Iron Company; H. S. Eckert, President of the Farmers’ National Bank of Reading, and of the Henry Clay Furnaces; and several other prominent business men, obtained control of the extensive pipe works in Reading, Pa., and of the company then organized Mr. Ainey was elected President, which position he filled for five years, when he sold his interest in the company. Under his direction the establishment was re-organized, and what had previously been a losing business soon became a paying one. These works employed from three to four hundred men. Pipes were made of all sizes, from three to forty-eight inches in diameter. One season they furnished New York City alone over five miles of the forty-eight-inch size, the contract amounting to more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Mr. Ainey is considered one of our ablest thinkers on matters of business and finance, being fully abreast of the times, and the author of some able papers relating thereto. His suggestions with reference to the feasibility of continuing our National Banking system when the United States Bonds shall have been redeemed or become no longer available for use as the basis of the system, as it now exists, have attracted wide attention. He delivered an address on this subject before the Associated Banks of Eastern Pennsylvania in 1882. The plan he then proposed was favorably regarded at the time. The year following its suggestions were taken up by the Association, and a large committee, composed of the representative men of the leading banks of Eastern Pennsylvania, and of which Mr. Ainey was Chairman, was appointed to present the same to Congress, which was done in the beginning of the year 1884. At this time, there being United States Bonds in excess of the requirements of the banks, the committee was unable to convince Congress that the time had arrived for making the proposed change. The subject, however, was then extensively discussed by the leading banking and daily journals in the principal cities.

At the annual meeting of the Associated Banks of Eastern Pennsylvania, June 14, 1894, Mr. Ainey again delivered a very able and exhaustive address on this subject, in which the whole scheme was most convincingly presented, and its feasibility fully shown. This address was published at the time in all the leading banking journals. It is no small compliment to the well known ability of Mr. Ainey, that the plan originally proposed by him should have been first unanimously approved by the Associated Banks of Eastern Pennsylvania, and recently by the National Association of American Bankers, the latter, however, with a few but unimportant modifications. It also constitutes the essential basis of the plan for continuing our National Banking system as proposed in the reports and recommendations of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comptroller of the Currency, and in the message of the President, of December, 1894, viz.: the suggested substitute security to take the place of the United States bonds, now no longer available for continuing the system, with circulation as contemplated by the National Currency Act.

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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. 

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