My Genealogy Hound

AARON B. LEVERS, who is the oldest brick manufacturer in Bethlehem, is a public-spirited citizen and a very enterprising business man. A native of this city, he is active in promoting her welfare, and is thoroughly identified with her best interests.

The paternal grandfather of our subject, Richard Levers, was of English descent, his father having removed to this country in a very early day. While a resident of England he held the position of Prothonotary. Richard Levers was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died from the effects of disease contracted in the service. He was a resident of Eastern, and his son, John J., our subject’s father, was born in Northampton County. He was apprenticed to the carpenter’s trade, and became a resident of Bethlehem, where he engaged in contracting and building, constructing bridges and doing general contract work all over the county. About 1830 he started the brickyard now carried on by his son, and continued in this business for over forty years, or until his death, in 1872, when he had attained the age of seventy-two years. His wife, Sarah, was born in Bethlehem Township, and was a daughter of John Reidnaur, also a native of that place. His brother, who was an Aide under Washington in the Revolutionary War, fought in the battle of Brandywine and while in the service lost a leg. Mrs. Levers’ father, who was a farmer and millwright, was of German descent, and was the first settler at Conshohocken, Pa., having located there as early as 1731. Mrs. Sarah Levers died in 1891, at the age of eighty-nine years.

Of the five children of John J. and Sarah Levers only two are now living. A brother, Henry R., donned the blue at the first call from the President for troops, becoming a member of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, re-enlisting in the Forty-sixth Regiment, and being finally discharged on account of physical disability. Owen J. was a member of Company C, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Regiment, in which he enlisted for nine months, and after his term had expired re-enlisted in the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania, serving under Sherman until the close of the war, and being wounded several times. Both these brothers are now deceased, having died in Bethlehem.

The boyhood of A. B. Levers was passed in attendance at the common schools of Bethlehem, and with his father he learned the trade of brickmaking. Much of his time was also devoted to agricultural pursuits, his farm comprising one hundred acres. In 1872 he bought out his father’s business, on the death of the latter, and has since continued at that occupation. This business was established over sixty years ago, and during this time there has been consumed in its operation clay which covered about a fourth of a mile in extent. In the works are two kilns, with a capacity of about one hundred and fifty thousand bricks apiece, which are operated by steam-power. Near the kilns is a well about one hundred and twenty feet deep. Among the organizers of the Bethlehem Fair and Driving Park Association was Mr. Levers, who sold them the site and remains one of the largest stockholders and a Director. This track is the finest half mile-track in the state, and the farm of our subject, which comprises forty acres, adjoins the corporation. The residence of Mr. Levers is at No. 20 North High Street. He was married in this city, in 1860, to Leanora Stocker, who was born in Nazareth, and they have two children: Harry O., of this city, and C. L., wife of C. L. Shimer, also of Bethlehem. The parentsare members of the Moravian Church, and in politics our subject casts his ballot in favor of the Republican party.