My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE ANEWALT, who is engaged in the wholesale liquor business and also runs a retail flour and feed store, has been longer engaged in the latter business than any other man in Bethlehem, has been successful in his business enterprises, and is now independently well-to-do. His birth occurred near Kreidersville, Allen Township, Northampton County, April 9, 1832, and both his father and grandfather, whose Christian names were Peter, were also born on the same homestead, and followed agricultural pursuits. The paternal great-grandfather, Valentine Anewalt, was a native of Germany, who came with the wave of immigration which settled on farms in this county, and his location was made in Allen Township, on the farm that was handed down to four generations. They were all members of the Lutheran Church and honest, thrifty agriculturists.

Peter Anewalt, father of George Anewalt, was a prosperous farmer, and owned two hundred and thirty-two acres at the time of his death, which occurred in 1841, when he was in the. prime of life, being only forty-three years of age. He was an old-line Whig and a member of the Lutheran denomination. His wife, Elizabeth, who was also born in Allen Township, was a daughter of Rev. Mr. Bleim, a minister in the Mennonite Church, whose death occurred while he was in the pulpit. Mrs. Anewalt died in her fifty-sixth year, leaving five children, of whom Stephen is a resident of West Bethlehem; John and Samuel live in Allentown, the latter being engaged in the hat business; George is next in order of birth; and Lucy, Mrs. Scholl, makes her home in Bath. William and Elizabeth are long since deceased.

The boyhood of George Anewalt was passed on his father’s farm until he was twelve years of age, his time being passed in working with his father and in attending the common schools. He was only twelve years old when he hired out to farmers in Allen Township, and thus he continued for seven years. For the three years succeeding he served an apprenticeship as a miller at a point near Kreidersville, after which he became an employe in the mill owned by Jacob Lilly, in Bethlehem Township. At the end of a year he returned to Allen Township, and for five years had charge of the mill owned by Mr. Heistand. In 1858, going to Allentown, he became a miller on the Little Lehigh.

It was in the spring of 1859 that Mr. Anewalt became a citizen of Bethlehem, where for a year he engaged in the hay and grain trade, afterward starting in the retail flour business on Broad Street, where he was located until 1866. In 1861, in partnership with Mr. Lilly, he embarked in the wholesale liquor business, and five years later entering into partnership with Mr. Herman, the firm of Anewalt & Herman started in business as dealers in wholesale liquors and rectifiers of spirits, continuing until 1880, when Mr. Anewalt bought out the interest of his partner. Two years later he took his son into the business, the firm becoming Anewalt & Son. In 1890 he purchased his son’s interest, and has since carried on the business alone. The store is located at No. 37 Broad Street, and the warehouse is 23x36 feet in dimensions. He is the pioneer in the wholesale liquor business, and also in the feed, flour and grain business in this city. He is the owner of two residences in West Bethlehem, his home on New Street, and other property. He erected the block in which his business is located, which has a frontage of sixty-four feet, and is ninety-six feet in depth, consisting of three stories and a basement.

In 1855 Mr. Anewalt was married, in Bath, to Miss Sarah Dech, who was born near Hecktown, and her death occurred at the end of a year. For his second wife he chose Miss Sarah, daughter of Thomas Stewart, a farmer of Lehigh Township. Their marriage was celebrated in Cherryville in 1868, and of their union were born eight children. Willis, the eldest, died in September, 1891; Celestia, who resides in Baltimore, is the wife of George Greenwood; Rosa is Mrs. Sherry, of Bethlehem; Anderson A. is a bookkeeper for Swift & Co. in Chicago; Francis G. is employed in a hotel in the same city; Stella is the wife of Frank Gadshalk, of Bethlehem, and the two others died in childhood. The mother of these children was called from this life in 1877. Ten years later Mr. Anewalt married his present wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Riegle, daughter of Henry Fry, of Saucon Township, Lehigh County. Mrs. Anewalt was born in Germany, and was brought by her parents to the Keystone State in infancy. With her husband she holds membership with the Grace Lutheran Church. In his political affiliations Mr. Anewalt is a Republican, and is greatly interested in public enterprises.