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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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DR. J. P. SCHOLL. The name of this prominent and respected citizen of Bethlehem, Pa., is indissolubly associated with the history of the Old Bangor Slate Company, of which he was the old founder and the first President. The property on which the quarry is situated at Brush Creek, Northampton County, was purchased by him and Samuel Straub from Phillip LaBarre in 1886, and in April of the following year they and a few of their friends who had associated with them were incorporated with a capital stock of $150,000. He became the President, and continued at its head for twenty years, until three-fifths of the property was sold to a party of gentlemen from Philadelphia in the railroad interests.

The enterprise was then re-organized and incorporated as the Old Bangor Slate Company, capital $250,000. To his judicious and careful management the success of the enterprise was largely due. He was strenuously urged to continue to be the head of the management, but as he was overworked in business and past the prime of life, he deemed it prudent to decline. However, he still continues to serve as Director. Upon his resignation, F. C. Yarnall, of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, became the acting President, and continued so until his death, in 1890.

The Old Bangor Slate Company was a success from the beginning, and is now the largest quarry in the country. Its products are principally roofing slates of the very best quality. It also produces large quantities of school slates, which are manufactured for use at Bangor by the Hyatt School Slate Company.

When Dr. Scholl commenced operating at this quarry, there were a tavern and a small cluster of houses near the quarry, called Uttsville. As there was no postoffice he proposed to the people that he would get an office established there and name the town after the quarry. This was agreed to and accomplished. The place has since grown to be a town of fine houses, good schools, churches of nearly all denominations, banks, first-class hotels, good streets, many fine stores and shops, electric lights, and water-works that supply the town with the best of mountain spring water. In short, it is now a prosperous borough, settled with an active, enterprising, thrifty and intelligent people.

Our subject is of German and French descent, his great-grandfather having been a native of Germany, and his great-grandmother of France. He was born in Northampton County, and was taken by his father to western New York State in its early settlement He was a child of a few years when the family settled at Dansville, Steuben (now Livingston) County, and there he attended the common and academic schools. His father built and operated au iron forge on Mill Creek, near Dansville, where he died at the age of about fifty years. When about fifteen years old our subject returned to Northampton County, and made his home with his grandfather, Peter Scholl, who operated a flouring and saw mill on Monocacy Creek. After his grandfather’s death, he went to Easton, where he learned the watchmaking and jewelry business, and remained until his father died. Returning to New York State, he took charge of his father’s family, and afterward studied dentistry, which profession he followed for some time.

In 1844 Dr. Scholl began the practice of dentistry in Bethlehem, and for the first few years also practiced in Allentown. He succeeded in building up a good clientage and a fine personal and professional reputation. His office and home were for many years on Market Street, near Main. On account of impaired health, resulting from constant close confinement, he deemed it advisable to adopt a business which would give him the benefit of the open air. About 1864 he retired from his profession and began prospecting in the slate regions, and at the end of a few years concluded to locate for a quarry at Uttsville, now Bangor.

Associated with Mr. Straub, the Superintendent, Dr. Scholl laid out a tract of land where part of Bangor now stands. The lots he sold at a low figure in order to induce workmen and others to build and become permanent citizens. He has been interested, in many local industries and has large investments in the iron business. He was one of the organizers of the first bank in Bethlehem, the title of the same being the First National Bank. At one time he was Burgess, but has uniformly refused political honors, his time being thoroughly taken up with his business affairs, and he has, therefore, abstained from the political arena. With his ballot he is a conservative Democrat.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the book, Portrait and biographical record of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties, Pennsylvania published in 1894 by Chapman Publishing Company. 

View additional Northampton County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Northampton County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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