Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Binder, William J. September 30, 1843 - 
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Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  WILLIAM J. BINDER, editor and proprietor of the Daily 
Pottstown Ledger and the Montgomery Ledger of Pottstown, was 
born in East Nantmeal township, Chester county, 
Pennsylvania, September 30, 1843. He is the son of John and 
Anna Mary (Steltz) Binder.
  John Binder (father) was born at Yellow Springs, Chester 
county. He learned the carpenter trade, following it to some 
extent. He also farmed for a few years. The greater part of 
his life, however, was spent in teaching school. He was 
reared mostly in Montgomery county and in 1835 returned to 
Chester county where the remained until 1856, when he 
removed to Pottstown, where he died. He taught in the 
schools of both counties and after going to Pottstown 
conducted a private school there. During his residence in 
Chester county he taught school and farmed at the same time, 
spending his winters in the former occupation and his 
summers in the latter. He owned a farm in East Nantmeal 
township. He died in 1866, at the age of fifty-eight years. 
His wife died in 1878, at the age of seventy-six years. Both 
were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he 
took an active part. He was a Democrat until the time of the 
Civil war when he became a Republican and remained so until 
his death.
  John Binder married Anna Mary Steltz, daughter of 
Valentine Steltz, of New Hanover township, Montgomery 
county. She was born at Falckner's Swamp, New Hanover 
township, Montgomery county. They had four children Aaron M. 
(deceased), a soldier in the Civil war, of Company A, Second 
Minnesota Veteran Infantry, Fourteenth Corps; Elizabeth, 
wife of David Herst, of Easton, Pennsylvania; Tamsen, widow 
of Jeremiah H. Binder, of Pottstown; and William J. Binder.
  Jacob Binder (grandfather) was born in Pennsylvania and 
was a farmer. He died well advanced in years. His wife was 
Susanna Binder, who lived to a very great age. They had a 
large family. The father of Jacob Binder was Jacob Binder, 
Sr., (great-grandfather). His father was Moses Binder 
(great-great-grandfather). His father was Casper Binder 
(great-great-great-grandfather), and his father was Rohland 
Binder ( great-great-great-great-grandfather) . Moses Binder 
was the emigrant and the founder of the family in America. 
He came from Wurtemberg, Germany, in the ship Francis and 
Elizabeth, and landed at Philadelphia, September 21, 1742. 
He located near Sassamansville, New Hanover township, where 
he died and was buried in the Lutheran cemetery at Falckner 
Swamp. He was an active member of that church.
  The maternal grandfather, of William J. Binder was 
Valentine Steltz, a native of Pennsylvania. He had eight 
children. He married the second time and had other children. 
He was a farmer and died at an advanced age. He was buried 
at Sassamansville.
  William J. Binder lived in Chester county until he had 
reached the age of thirteen years, when he removed with his 
father's family to Pottstown and has lived there ever since. 
He attended the country schools while living in Chester 
county and graduated at the Pottstown high school, afterward 
entering the Hill school at Pottstown, then conducted by its 
founder, Professor Matthew Meigs, LL. D.
  At the age of seventeen years he began to learn the 
printing trade in the office of the Montgomery Ledger, 
founded October 1, 1843, and served an apprenticeship of 
four and a half years. In 1863, Mr. Binder enlisted in the 
Twenty-sixth Emergency Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
Colonel Jennings commanding. He also saw service in the One 
Hundred and Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment in 1864, 
and early in 1865 was a private in Company E, One Hundred 
and Fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Colonel Miller 
commanding. Altogether he served eleven months. He was at 
Petersburg and participated in the operations culminating in 
the surrender of the army of northern Virginia, under 
General Lee at Appomattox Court House. He was honorably 
discharged in June, 1865.
  After the war he returned to the printer's trade in 
Indianapolis, Indiana, and in April, 1866, purchased a half 
interest in the Montgomery Ledger, of Pottstown, 
Pennsylvania, from William L. Williamson, and thirteen years 
later, in September, 1879, became the sole proprietor of the 
paper, and has conducted the business ever since. October 1, 
1873, he established the Pottstown Ledger, in partnership 
with Lewis H. Davis.
  December 26, 1867, William J. Binder married Mary A. 
Hilton, daughter of James and Margaret (Walmsly) Hilton. 
They had nine children, as follows: Hilton S., assistant 
editor of the Ledger; Mary E., a stenographer; Ella M., a 
clerk in the Ledger counting room; Bessie A., at home; Edith 
H., a teacher in the public schools of Pottstown; Laura D., 
who died at the age of six years; John K., a reporter on the 
Ledger; Florence M., at home; and Chester a printer in the 
Ledger office.
  Mr. and Mrs. Binder belong to the Methodist Episcopal 
church, where he is an official member and has local 
deacon's orders. In politics Mr. Binder is a Republican.
  He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and also of M. Edgar 
Richards Post, No. 595, Grand Army of the Republic. He 
resides at No. 267 King street, in his own residence, and 
also owns the property at the corner of High and Charlotte 
streets, where his printing office is established. He 
published a "History of Methodism in Pottstown and in the 
neighboring regions," in 1902.
  James Hilton, Mrs. Binder's father, came here from England 
when he was twenty-one years of age and was a woolen 
manufacturer at Manayunk, Philadelphia, and afterwards at 
Glasgow, Pennsylvania. His wife, Margaret Walmsly, was 
brought here a babe in arms. They had six children who are 
living: William; Mrs. Binder; Joseph, of Philadelphia; 
Elizabeth, wife of A. W. Shick, of Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania; 
James, of Philadelphia; and Ella M., widow of Colonel H. A. 
Shenton, of Pottstown. Mrs. Binder's father died in Glasgow, 
this county, in 1872, at the age of fifty-six years. Her 
mother died in 1900, at the age of eighty-three years.


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