My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE W. MACK is a very enterprising and successful young business man of Bethlehem, and owner of a tobacco and confectionery store situated on South Main Street near the Lehigh River; he also conducts a first-class restaurant on Calypso Island, in company with Mr. Beidelman. The beautiful resort just mentioned is situated in the Lehigh River, and has been continually used from very early days by pleasure-seekers. The area of the island is about thirteen acres, and pleasure boats of every variety ply the waters which surround it. The grounds have been kept as much as possible in a natural state, though many improvements have been made upon it, and everything imaginable provided for the comfort and convenience of visitors. Transportation is mainly by Mack & Beidelman’s Calypso Transportation Line, and special arrangements are granted by the neighboring railroads to picnic parties.

George W. Mack was born in Cherryville, Northampton County, February 25, 1861, his parents being Peter and Catherine (Lerch) Mack. The paternal great-grandfather of our subject took part in the War of the Revolution, and the grandfather was a well known farmer of Northampton County. Peter Mack was a carpenter by trade, and worked at that calling in Hokendauqua during his last years, dying in the fall of 1888, in his sixty-third year. For over four months he served in the Civil War, in the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, and was a strong and active worker in the Democracy. His wife, whose birth occurred near Pennsville, Northampton County, came from an old and respected family in that locality, being a daughter of Owen Lerch, a farmer. She is still living, her home being with her daughter on New Street, Bethlehem. She has attained the age of sixty-one years, and is quite an active worker in the Reformed Church. Of her four sons and four daughters all are living — one in Philadelphia, one in Buffalo, another in Pottsville and the rest in Bethlehem.

Until 1864 the years of George W. Mack were passed on a farm, after which he went to Hokendauqua, there attending the public schools until 1876. At this time he came to Bethlehem, entering the employ of Mr. Smoykeffer, who erected a building and started a restaurant on South Main Street, the one which is now conducted by our subject. At the end of two years Mr. Mack bought out the proprietor, and has run it ever since, making a specialty of furnishing oysters and ice cream in their respective seasons. In 1890 Mr. Mack purchased the Lehigh Theater, on North Main Street, which he remodeled and opened that fall. After running it successfully for four seasons he sold his interest. This theater is the only one in Bethlehem, and some of the very best companies traveling stop here. In the spring of 1893 Mr. Mack invested in the ferry-boats and restaurant on Calypso Island, the most popular summer resort in the valley outside of the Glen on Mauch Chunk Creek. The two ferry-boats make trips every ten or fifteen minutes during the summer, and eight men are constantly employed in running them. Over forty-one rowboats are also used on the river, and are kept busy by the fifty or sixty large picnics which resort here each summer.

June 11, 1893, Mr. Mack was married in this city to Miss Lydia Eshinger. a native of this place. Her father, George Eshinger, is connected with the Bethlehem Iron Company. Mr. and Mrs. Mack are members of Christ Reformed Church. The former is a member of the Board of Health of West Bethlehem, and is a prominent Democrat, having served as a member of the County Committee, and having zealously assisted in the meeting which nominated Governor Pattison. He has served on petit and grand juries, and is highly esteemed as a public-spirited man. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Order of Knights of Malta.