My Genealogy Hound

ADAM BRINKER is Vice-President of the South Bethlehem National Bank, President of the Lehigh Valley Cold Storage Company, and for over a quarter of a century has carried on a retail harness establishment. Besides the enterprises mentioned in which he is interested, he is a member of the firm of Brinker & Wagner, dealers in all kinds of building, crossing and flagging stones.

The birth of Adam Brinker occurred in Forks Township, Northampton County, February 3, 1846, and there his lather and paternal grandfather, who both bore the Christian name of Jacob, followed farming. Our subject’s father in later life removed to Williams Township, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in 1848. He married Susan Wilhelm, a native of Easton, who died at the age of sixty-seven years, in 1880. Of their eight children six are living: Jacob, a resident of Jeddo, Pa.; Sarah, Mrs. Knecht, in Plainfield Township; David, of Washington, N. J.; Sabine, Mrs. Gillen, of Danville, Ill.; Joseph, a retired farmer living in Davis, Stephenson County, Ill.; and Adam.

Adam Brinker was reared on a farm in Northampton County, where he remained until September, 1862, then enlisting in Company A, One Hundred and Fifty-third Pennsylvania Infantry, being mustered in at Harrisburg, and sent to join the Army of the Potomac. He did guard-duty until he was taken sick and was obliged to stay for some time in the hospital. On his recovery he went to Washington and Philadelphia, being honorably discharged in July, 1863. Afterwards, in September of that year, he went to Washington and entered the Government employ, working in the harness shop, and remaining until 1864. For about a year he carried on the old farm, and April 5, 1865, he commenced working as a harness-maker with Henry Long. In 1867 he located in South Bethlehem, then a new town of only about two thousand inhabitants. He started his enterprise on Second Street, and for nineteen years was in business on Third Street, where the Taylor’s Son store is now situated. In 1888 he built his fine building at No. 119 East Third Street, with a frontage of twenty-seven feet and eighty-five feet in depth, with three stories and basement. He occupies the basement and first Moor and keeps on hand a stock of about $10,000 worth of goods. The workshop is in the rear, and there several men are employed. Though Mr. Brinker’s business is mainly in the retail trade, he also does considerable in the wholesale line. He helped to incorporate the South Bethlehem National Bank, was made a Director, and in 1890 became Vice-President. He assisted in incorporating the Lehigh Valley Cold Storage Company, which is just completed, and has a capacity of one hundred and sixty carloads of produce and a daily output of thirty tons of ice, and of this concern he is President. In everything relating to the upbuilding of South Bethlehem he has been very active. For nine years he was Chairman of the Street Committee, and held a similar position on the Fire and Market Committees, also on the Finance and Appropriation Committees. The stone quarries of Brinker & Wagner, which were opened in 1882, are located a half-mile west of the Lehigh Valley Depot and are among the finest quarries in the locality.

In this city Mr. Brinker was married in 1867 to Lydia Sloyer, who was born in Mahoning Township Carbon County, and has become the mother of two children: Martha, Mrs. Schremple, of South Bethlehem, and Lillie. For two terms Mr. Brinker was a Trustee in the Moravian Church of South Bethlehem, to which he belongs. Socially he is a Knight of Pythias, one of the oldest members of his lodge, of which he has been Treasurer twenty-one years. For some time he was Treasurer of the Knights of Malta lodge and is a member of Waneka Tribe No. 183, I. O. R. M.; Knights of the Golden Eagle; and a member of Robert Oldham Post No. 527, G. A. R. In politics he is a supporter of the Democratic party.