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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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ROBERT E. NEUMEYER, a civil engineer and Superintendent of the Water Works, was born at Nazareth, Northampton County, Pa., February 12, 1867. His father, E. A. Neumeyer, was a blacksmith prior to the year 1886, when he went to Bethlehem and engaged in the coal business. The mother of our subject, Salina (Engler) Neumeyer, was born at Dryland, Northampton County, and is the daughter of Joseph Engler, who is a prominent fanner at that place. John Neumeyer, the grandfather, a Prussian, emigrated to America, and died at Nazareth at quite an advanced age. He possessed an abundance of energy, foresight and perseverance, necessary requisites to success, and realizing the rapid growth which Pennsylvania was destined to make, he selected this state for his home.

There were eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Neumeyer, Robert being the eldest. He was reared near Nazareth, and after attending the village school at that place, went to Trach’s Academy, at Easton, Pa., in the year 1882. He then engaged in teaching, and at the same time took a complete normal course at Valparaiso, Ind. Receiving his professional papers, he continued teaching for three years, when he came to Bethlehem and helped his father in the coal business. While thus employed, he devoted all of his spare moments to acquiring a more thorough knowledge of higher mathematics, and then entered the civil engineering department of the Lehigh University, from which he was graduated with honors in 1890, receiving the degree of a civil engineer. During his junior year at the university he received second honor in an oratorical contest, and as it was his first experience as an orator, he may justly feel proud of his success. Ever since his departure from his Alma Mater he has been Secretary of the alumni of his class.

After leaving college Mr. Neumeyer became chief draftsman of the Clinch Valley Railroad, a branch of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and remained with this line for fifteen months, when he was transferred to the Ohio division of the same line. Here he was engaged prospecting for soft coal and running branch lines. After six months he resigned to accept the position of Civil Engineer of Bethlehem, and he was also at this time appointed Superintendent of the Water Works.

As the superintendent of the grading of the streets he has made quite a number of grades, and altered many others. His work is always satisfactory, for the one reason that he individually superintends both the work and the men, not trusting either to a subordinate. He is now serving his third term us Civil Engineer, having been unanimously elected each term. The simple mention of the fact that he has been a Sunday-school teacher for more than ten years, and is the present Secretary of the Northampton County Sunday-school Association, is in itself good currency, and will pass at par anywhere in the United States.

The subject of this biography has acquired considerable repute as a public speaker, and in politics he acts and believes in accordance with the principles of the Democratic party. Mr. Neumeyer is truly a self-made man, having worked his way through both college and university, and in his profession is rapidly coming into prominence. Socially he is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers of New York City.

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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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