My Genealogy Hound

HON. JOSEPH P. ENGELMAN, M. D. This prominent member of the medical profession is engaged in practice in Cherryville, by whose residents he is held in high esteem. He was born in Bath, Northampton County, April 30, 1833, and is the son of Abraham and Mary (Patterson) Engelman, the former of whom was born in Lehigh County, and is descended from an old and prominent family who located in that vicinity prior to the Revolutionary War, in which conflict the grandfather of our subject lost a limb. On his mother’s side Joseph P. is of Scotch-Irish descent, and the Pattersons were early settlers in the Monocacy Valley. Abraham Engelman was for many years a well-to-do business man in Bath, and engaged extensively in the manufacture of a good grade of cigars. He departed this life at the age of seventy-six years.

Dr. Engelman was reared to man’s estate in his native place, and in his youth learned the cigar trade from his father, for whom he worked until attaining his majority. He received his education in the public and private schools of Bath, and although early in life determining to follow the medical profession, he was obliged to abandon the idea until he could secure the means to pay his way through college. In 1855 he left home, and going to Philadelphia, engaged in the manufacture of cigars for nine months, when he returned to his native city and continued to follow that trade for three and one-half years, working for his father six hours per day, and devoting the remainder of the time to his medical studies, reading under the tutelage of Dr. W. E. Barnes. With the money thus saved from his labors, together with the assistance rendered by his brother, Henry P., he was enabled to enter Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1861 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. While in the office of Dr. Barnes, who was the physician for the Northampton County Alms House, he secured much valuable information and experience in assisting him in his labors.

When looking about for a suitable location Dr. Engelman took up his place of abode in Cherryville, where he has been engaged in practice since, and that he has been successful is evident from the busy life which he leads. He was married in 1864 to Miss Catherine, daughter of Peter and Sarah (Kuntz) Shafer, who were born in Northampton County. The father of Mrs. Engelman is deceased, and her mother, who is now in the eighty-third year of her age, makes her home in her family. To the Doctor and his wife have been born three children: Emma A., the wife of Elwood Kuntz, who resides in Mauch Chunk; Henry P., a druggist, engaged in business in Woodbury, N. J., and William S., who is attending the civil and mechanical engineering school connected with Harvard University.

Dr. Engelman was in 1883 elected a member of the Lower House of the Pennsylvania Legislature on the Democratic ticket, and on the expiration of his term was re-elected. He is a member of the Northampton County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society and the National Medical Society. In religious affairs he is prominently identified with the Reformed Church in Bath and seeks in many ways to secure the furtherance of the good cause in his community. He belongs to the Masonic order in Bath. His reputation is well established as a man of honor, reliability and true worth, and he is respected in due proportion.