My Genealogy Hound

HON. HENRY W. KRATZ, ex-member of the house of representatives of Pennsylvania, son of Valentine and Mary (Weikel) Kratz, was born in Perkiomen township, Montgomery county, July 31, 1834. His name indicates his German origin. The family is one of the most numerous in the upper end of Montgomery and among its members are included some of the worthiest and most respected citizens of the county.

Valentine Kratz came from Germany and settled at an early day in what was then Philadelphia and is now Montgomery county. Here his son Valentine was born, reared and died. Valentine the younger had a son, Isaac Kratz (grandfather). Isaac Kratz, a farmer, removed from Perkiomen township to Upper Providence, where he died at the age of eighty-one years. In religion he was a Mennonite. He married Catherine Hunsicker by whom he had eight children: Valentine, William, Isaac, Rebecca Godshall, Catherine Rittenhouse, Mary Bean, Elizabeth Young, and Ann Cassel. Valentine Kratz (father) was born October 10, 1810, in Perkiomen township, and died at Trappe, in 1891. He was a shoemaker by trade, conducting a shop at Trappe for many years, but in after life becoming a farmer. He was a Republican and a member of the Reformed church. He married Mary Weikel, daughter of Henry Weikel, who survived her husband a number of years, dying in 1901 in her ninety-first year.

Valentine and Mary Kratz had five children: Henry W.; Catherine, who was born March 6, 1837, and died September 7, 1841; Sarah, who was born May 3, 1840, and died August 24, 1841; Dora, who was born September 27, and died March 16, 1845; and Elizabeth, born April 2, 1846, and died February 8, 1859.

Henry W. Kratz, at six years of age, was taken by his parents to Trappe, in Upper Providence township, where he resided until 1889, when he removed to Norristown. He attended the common schools and then entered the Washington Hall Collegiate Institute, receiving an English and partly classical education. His first employment was teaching, which he followed for eighteen years in his own and adjoining townships. Mr. Kratz took up the study of surveying and conveyancing, about 1870, in which he has been more or less engaged ever since, combining with it the business of real estate and insurance since his removal to Norristown.

His political career dates back to 1862, he serving for the next twenty years as justice of the peace and in other official positions. He was transcribing and message clerk of the senate of Pennsylvania at the session of 1866-7. In 1882 he was elected to the office of recorder of deeds, for which his long experience in conveyancing and kindred pursuits peculiarly fitted him. He served three years in that position but was not a candidate for re-election. In 1894 Mr. Kratz was elected a member of the house of representatives at Harrisburg, which position he filled in a highly creditable manner, rendering valuable services to his constituents, and maintaining a dignified and honorable attitude among his associates in the work of legislation. Thoroughly conscientious and solicitous rather that he should perform his duty faithfully than that he should secure his own promotion, he was a model law-maker. He has since had strong support among Republicans for another term at Harrisburg, either as a member of the house of representatives or as senator, but he has never seen his way clear to yield to such solicitation and become an applicant for further political honors at the hands of his party.

Mr. Kratz’s conservative views of business and financial undertakings have caused his counsel to be sought in such enterprises, and he has been actively interested in several of them. He was one of the organizers of the National Bank of Schwenksville, and a member of its board of directors from 1874 to 1891. In the latter year he was elected its president, a position for which he has shown peculiar fitness and which he still holds. He has served as manager in different insurance, bridge and turnpike companies, is treasurer of the Times Publishing Company at Norristown, and was a member of the state board of agriculture from 1887 to 1893. Since 1868 he has been officially connected with the board of trustees of Ursinus College of which he has served as president since 1873. He enlisted with the emergency men in 1863.

On May 26, 1857, Mr. Kratz married Myra Bean, daughter of William Bean, and their children are: Mary T., wife of Augustus W. Bornberger, an attorney and assistant cashier in the United States mint at Philadelphia, by whom she has had six living children- Helen, Julia, Margaret, Mary, John and Robert, and one deceased, Walter; Kate E., wife of Horace T. Royer and the mother of six children, J. Donald, Harry K., Jacob G., Lewis, Isabella and Catherine; Harry E., who occupies a position in the office of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Philadelphia, and married Mary Royer, by whom he has five children, Harold R., Lawrence T., Jerold B., Ellen and Robert F.; and Irwin B. and Jane, both deceased. Mrs. Kratz died October 17, 1888, aged sixty years, and on February 17, 1892, Mr. Kratz wedded Emily Todd, of Philadelphia, who was born October 20, 1835. She is the daughter of Hon. John Todd, who was a native and resident of Montgomery county, and of Scotch descent. He was born in Upper Providence township, May 25, 1779, and died July 2, 1862. He served as sheriff for two terms and as member of the legislature for one term. His other children were: Dr. John, of Pottstown; Dr. Samuel, of Boyertown; Brooke, a resident of Reading; William, a resident of Norristown; and Christiana Royer, whose husband, the late Horace Royer, was a state senator in 1866 and 1867. Both Mr. and Mrs. Todd are deceased.

Henry W. Kratz is a member of the St. Luke’s Reformed church, of which he has been a trustee for fifteen years, and of whose choir he was the leader for many years. He is a member of the Warren Lodge, No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons; Norristown Chapter, No. 190, Royal Arch Masons; and Hutchinson Commandery, No. 32, Knights Templar. He is also a prominent member of the Montgomery County Historical Society. He served for two terms as chairman of the Republican county committee.