My Genealogy Hound

TINSLEY JETER is one of the founders of Fountain Hill, and has been very active in the general improvement of the Bethlehems and vicinity. He is President of the Ryan Slate Company (owners of a quarry), was the projector and former owner of two-thirds of the stock of the Ironton Railroad Company, and is President of the South Bethlehem Improvement Association. One of the active real-estate men of the vicinity, he laid out the greater part of Fountain Hill, and has been very successful in tfrat branch of business. Mr. Jeter was one of the organizers and leading movers in the erection of the Bishop Thorpe School for Giris, having been a member of the Board of Trustees from its start. He was also one of the earliest to advocate St. Luke’s Hospital, having been Chairman of the first committee for obtaining subscriptions, and was the first Chairman of the Executive Committee. He has always continued to take great interest in the hospital, and is still a member of the Board of Trustees. This institution bears more than a local reputation, as it is considered one of the finest in the state.

The birth of Tinsley Jeter occurred in Amelia County, Va., in 1827, his father being John Tinsley Jeter, who was born in the same county in 1798. John Jeter, the paternal grandfather, a native of Amelia County, was a planter, and of English descent. The family were old and respected citizens of the Old Dominion, and John Jeter was a Captain in the War of 1812. John Tinsley Jeter also carried on a plantation, and was a merchant at Plainville until 1843, when he removed to Missouri. In that state he resided for four years, near Loutre Island, Montgomery County, and thence went to New Orleans. Subsequently he purchased a plantation on the Mississippi River, opposite Ft. Hudson, and there his death occurred in 1862. In religious faith, he was, like his father, a devoted adherent of the Baptist denomination. Our subject’s mother, formerly Elizabeth Newman, was born in Virginia, where her death occurred.

The boyhood of our subject was passed in Virginia, where he obtained a good education. Later in life he was a student for two years at the University of Missouri at Columbia. In the fall of 1847 he went to New Orleans, and in the spring of the following year went to South America, traveling there and in the Western States for three years. His object in going to South America was to attend to some business for his father in Venezuela, and this being completed he returned home. In 1851 he commenced studying law in Philadelphia and was admitted to the Bar, but never engaged in practice, as he became interested in the iron mines in Lehigh County, and made his home until 1860 in Philadelphia, Pa.

It was in 1860 that our subject came to Bethlehem, and from that time forward his attention was mainly given to the development of iron mines in the vicinity. He superintended and formed the corporation for the building of the Ironton Railroad from Ironton to Coplay, a distance of about eight miles. This railroad he continued to operate until 1866, when he sold out to New York parties, and it is now owned by the Thomas Iron Company. In 1888 Mr. Jeter opened the Ryan Slate Quarries, which produce a good quality of roofing slate. The company was incorporated, Mr. Jeter becoming its President.

In Philadelphia, Mr. Jeter was married in 1852 to a native of the city, Mary S., daughter of Thomas S. Richards. The latter was one of the early iron manufacturers of the state, and his death occurred in 1839. His father, Samuel Richards, spent his life in the Quaker City, where he died. The mother of Mrs. Jeter, whose Christian name was Harriet, was a daughter of Gen. Francis Nichols, of Revolutionary fame, whose home was near Philadelphia. The residence of the Jeter family is beautifully situated on Fountain Hill. They have three children: John T., a graduate of Lehigh University and a mining engineer in Wilkes Barre, Pa.; and Harriet and Mary, at home. Mr. and Mrs. Jeter are members of the Church of the Nativity, one of the landmarks of Fountain Hill, in the organization of which our subject was very active, and was one of a committee of three appointed to solicit subscriptions for its erection. The first service of the congregation was held in his own home, and he has in every manner possible forwarded its interests from the start. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, though he has not devoted much time to political affairs, as his time has been fully occupied with his business investments.