Biographical Sketch of Phillip Henry SIPLER; Delaware County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Cyndie Enfinger <cyndiee@tampabay.rr.com> Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* Jordan, John Woolf, A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people, Lewis Hist. Pub., 1914, p.934. SIPLER An essentially representative and energetic citizen in Darby, Pennsylvania, is Phillip Henry Sipler, who is here most successfully engaged in the hardware business. He is well known as a man of sterling character and one who has ever been fair and honorable in his business dealings. Mr. Sipler is descended from a very old Pennsylvania family and he traces his origin back to staunch Dutch descent. His great-great-grandfather was Phllip Sipler, who was a farmer in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the early pioneer days of that section. His son, Simon, conducted a tavern at Dunks Ferry, now Croydon, near Bristol, Pennsylvania. Simon Sipler had seven sons, all of whom grew to maturity, and one of whom was Phillip Sipler, grandfather of the subject of this review. A native of Bucks county, this state, Phillip Sipler was born April 1, 1810. He opened a harness shop in Darby in 1837, and conducted the same with considerable success during the remainder of his lifetime. He passed to the great beyond September 6, 1901, at the patriarchal age of ninety-one years. He was an old- style Democrat until the emancipation of the slaves when he ceased to vote. He married Margaret Egee, and to them were born the following children: Mary G., was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools of Delaware county for nearly half a century, she died in 1903; Edward D., is mentioned in the following paragraph; Rebecca, died as the wife of Dwight Ferris, who died in Missouri; Emma, married J. W. Thorley, and they reside in Ohio; Theodosia, was the wife of Frank Miller at the time of her demise, he lives in Paulsboro, New Jersey; George S., married Kate Jordon and they lived in Darby until 1898, when they removed to Philadelphia where he died one year later. The mother of the above children died in Darby, July 4, 1850. Edward D. Sipler, father of Philip H. Sipler, was born at Darby, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1840. As a boy he attended the public schools in his native place and subsequently engaged in the harness business with his father, eventually succeeding him when the latter died in 1901. He is seventy-three years of age at the present time (1913), but is still active and is carrying on a fine business to-day. He had just reached manhood at the time of the inception of the civil war and immediately responded to Lincoln's call for volunteers by enlisting for service in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Colonel J. W. Hawley commanding. He served as a gallant and faithful soldier in that regiment until it was mustered out of service in 1863, when he re-enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Ninety- seventh Pennsylvania Regiment. He participated in many of the most important engagements of the war, and at its close was honorably discharged from service. He attended the great reunion at Gettysburg, July 4, 1913, and had a very interesting time exchanging anecdotes with the old veterans gathered together in patriotic friendship from the North and the South. He is a stalwart Republican in his political proclivities and was a school director at the time when the big school building was erected at Darby. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Daily, was born in Ireland, and when a mere child came to live in the home of Christian Gaul, in Philadelphia. She was very young when she came to America and remembered nothing of her parentage. She bore her husband four children: Phillip Henry, of this notice; Mary G., is the wife of Joseph Smith, of Darby; Edward D. Jr., is in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Philadelphia; Horace T., is engaged in the harness business with his father. Mrs. Sipler is still living at the age of seventy-two years, and she and her husband are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was a trustee for many years. They are both deeply beloved by all with whom they have come in contact, their geniality and generous hospitality winning them friends all over the county. Phillip Henry Sipler, first born in a family of four children, is a native of Darby, Pennsylvania, where his birth occurred August 29, 1865. After a thorough public school training he worked for a number of different business concerns until he entered his grandfather's harness shop, in which he was employed for eighteen years, at the expiration of which he engaged in the hardware business at Darby, opening a well stocked store under the name of P. H. Sipler. He is now the owner of a fine, modern establishment and controls a splendid patronage in Darby and the territory normally tributary thereto. He has money invested in a number of business enterprises in Darby and is a member of the board of directors in the Building and Load Association of Darby. In politics he maintains an independent attitude, preferring to give his support to men and measures meeting with the approval of his judgment rather than to vote along strictly partisan lines. His fraternal affiliations are with Prospect Lodge, No. 578, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Moores, Pennsylvania; and with Orphans Rest Lodge, No. 132, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Darby, having passed through all the official chairs of the latter organization. He and the members of his family attend the Presbyterian church. November 24, 1901, Mr. Sipler married Esther J. Boyer, a native of Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Abram Boyer, who followed the industry of farming in the same county during his active career. He is now living retired at Darby, in the home of Mr. Sipler. He and his wife, who was Catherine Long in her girlhood days, had two children; Esther J. and Edith. Mrs. Boyer was born in Durham, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and died in 1911, aged seventy-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Sipler have three children; Phillip Jr., born in 1902; Edward D. Jr., born in 1905; Howard Dwight, born in 1911. Mr. Sipler is a shrewd business man, a public-spirited citizen, and a loyal and sincere friend. He is very generous hearted, his charity being only curtailed by the length of his purse and by the opportunities offered. No one is Darby is held in higher esteem than he, and his exemplary life serves as an incentive to the younger generation.