Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Bach, William P. September 20, 1845 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net November 11, 2025, 3:38 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  WILLIAM P. BACH, postmaster of Pottstown, was born in 
Germantown, Philadelphia, September 20, 1845. He is the son 
of Francis S. and Mary P. (Price) Bach, the former a native 
of Bucks county and the latter of Chester county, 
Pennsylvania. They had five children, two sons and three 
daughters, as follows: Elizabeth P., wife of Aaron S. Burns, 
of Frick's Lock, Pennsylvania; William P., of Pottstown; 
Irvin P., of Peoria, Illinois, manager of the Central 
telephone; Emma P., wife of Aaron Hartenstine, of Pottstown: 
and Rebecca P., wife of Allen Davis, of Norristown.
 
  Francis S. Bach (father) was a carpenter by trade, 
spending most of his life in Germantown where he died in 
1883, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife is now living 
in Norristown, at the age of eighty-four years. They were 
both members of the German Baptist Brethren church. In 
politics he was an ardent Republican. During the Civil war 
he served twice in the emergency call.

  The paternal grandfather was also a carpenter and worked 
at his trade until his death at the age of eighty-six years. 
He was a native of Bucks county, but was of German descent. 
He had six children.

  John Price (maternal grandfather) was a native of Chester 
county. He was a prominent minister of the Brethren church. 
His wife was Mary Rinehart and he was the father of twelve 
children.

  The great-grandfather was George Price. The founder of the 
Price family in America was John Price, who spelled his name 
Priez. He came to this country from Germany and located in 
Bucks county. 

  William P. Bach was reared on a farm in Chester county, 
south of Pottstown. He attended the district schools and 
later what is now known as the Hill school, Pottstown, which 
at that time was a boarding school, conducted by Professor 
Matthew Meigs.

  In 1862 he enlisted in Company H, Sixty-eighth 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He served as a private 
twenty-one months, when he was discharged on account of 
wounds. At the battle of Fredericksburg he was wounded in 
the right hand, and at the battle of Gettysburg in the left 
leg and right foot, these being the only two engagements in 
which he took part.

  After the war he carried on the harness business in 
Pottstown for thirty-seven years and still has an interest 
in that business, which is now managed by his son William P.

  On June 30, 1866, he married Miss Elizabeth May, daughter 
of Thomas May. They had seven children, four sons and three 
daughters, as follows: George, Percy, William, Harry, 
Evelyn, Blanche and one who died in infancy. George is a 
conductor on a street railway in Camden. He married Orpha 
Rhoads. Percy died aged seven years. William is in the 
harness business in Pottstown. He married Mary Yorgey. They 
have two children, Leon and Edith. Harry is a salesman in 
the harness department of Strawbridge & Clothier's store in 
Philadelphia. The other children are at home.

  Mr. and Mrs. Bach are members of the Baptist church of 
which he has been a trustee for twenty-four years. He was 
made postmaster under Harrison for one term and again 
appointed by McKinley, in September, 1898, and re-appointed 
by Roosevelt, February 19, 1903. He was chief burgess of 
Pottstown for three terms, and president of the school board 
two years, holding both offices at the same time. He has 
been actively identified with the affairs of a public 
character, especially in politics, in Pottstown for the past 
twenty-five years. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum and 
the Loyal Association, also M. Edgar Richards Post, No. 595, 
G. A. R., and of Union Veteran Legion Encampment, No. 22.

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