Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Allebaugh, Elmer S. December 30, 1868 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net November 14, 2025, 6:17 pm

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

  ELMER ALLEBAUGH, one of the best-known contractors of 
Norristown, is a member
of a family long resident in that 
part of Montgomery county. He was born in
Towamensing 
township, December 30, 1868. The family removing to the 
county-
seat when he was a child, he grew to manhood in 
Norristown, attending the
public schools until he was 
fourteen years of age. He then became an apprentice
with 
James M. Famous, at that time a bricklayer and contractor. 
Having learned
the trade of bricklaying in three years, he 
remained with Mr. Famous four years
longer as a journeyman. 
After leaving Mr. Famous he worked for different
contractors 
until 1898, when he started business on his own account.

  Mr.
Allebaugh's first work as a contractor was the 
building of six handsome
residences in pairs on Haws avenue, 
Norristown, for Mr. McGrath. Among other
operations are the 
following; twelve houses for Harry A. Keeler, on Haws 

avenue, and about forty for Ellwood Roberts, partly on Haws 
avenue and partly
on Elm and other streets. In 1902 Mr. 
Allebaugh built the Kauffman Stoker
Factory in Bridgeport; 
for J. Frank Boyer twenty houses; for the Hamilton
Terrace 
Company forty houses; and a woolen mill for George Watt at 
Buttonwood
street and the Schuylkill river.

In addition he erected one of the Gresh Cigar
Factory 
buildings at Marshall and Corson streets; another for the 
Diamond
State Fibre Company in Bridgeport, and many others 
in Norristown and vicinity.
He started out with his own 
earnings as his capital and owes his success to
close 
attention to his business and to the fact that he believes 
in doing well
whatever he undertakes to do.

  In politics Mr. Allebaugh is a Republican and
has been a 
member of the borough executive committee. He is also a 
member of
the following orders: Norristown Lodge, No. 620, 
Free & Accepted Masons;
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, 
No. 714; and Minnie Kaunee Lodge of Red
Men. In religious 
belief Mr. Allebaugh is attached to the Reformed church.

                          
  Benjamin V. Allebaugh (father) was born in Lower
Salford 
township, Montgomery county, on March 15, 1837, and grew to 
manhood in
that locality, working on his father's farm until 
he reached the age of twenty-
one years, when he entered the 
grist and saw mill, owned by his father, Jacob
G. Allebaugh, 
which he managed until 1867.

  Having married, he then bought a
part of his father's 
farm, on which he built a house and outbuildings, and 

followed the occupation of farming until he removed to 
Norristown in 1876. He
has worked at the carpenter trade 
although he never served an apprenticeship,
but he is to a 
certain extent a born mechanic, displaying much originality 
in
that direction. He was two years in the furniture 
business and spent a year in
serving a milk route in 
Norristown. Mr. Allebaugh was in the grocery business
for 
five years. After the grocery was sold he erected a stocking 
factory on
Blackberry Alley, in West Norristown, which he 
operated successfully for eight
years.

  Benjamin V. Allebaugh is a member of the Reformed Church 
of the
Ascension, on Airy street, Norristown. His wife, one 
son and two daughters are
also members of that church. He is 
a member of the Brotherhood of the Union,
and of Sincerity 
Home, No. 16.

  He married, September 25, 1862, Miss
Catharine Ann, 
daughter of Joseph  and Catharine (Reiff) Swartley. She was 

born in Skippackville, January 23, 1842. Their children are 
as follows: Ella
K., born August 13, 1863, married George 
Lee, of Norristown, they having four
children, Norman, Anna, 
Florence and George; Clayton S., born March 30, 1865, 

married Florinda Wagner, who is now deceased, leaving two 
children, Hannah and
Clayton; Jacob S., born October 8, 
1866, and residing in Atlantic City, married
Anna Hepting; 
Elmer S. is the subject of this sketch; Norwood Penrose, 
born
May 16, 1870, unmarried, is a resident of New York 
city, and a traveling
salesman; Florence S., born July 20, 
1880, was graduated from the Norristown
high school in 1899 
and resides with her parents. Jacob G. Allebaugh 

(grandfather) was a lifelong resident of Lower Salford, 
where he was a farmer
and miller.

  David Allebaugh (great-grandfather) was a farmer in 

Skippackville.

  The Reiffs were an old Montgomery family for generations 
and
were influential in that section of the country. Jacob, 
maternal great-
grandfather of Elmer S. Allebaugh, was for 
many years a merchant at
Skippackville. He reared a family 
of five children, two sons and three
daughters. The sons 
were both farmers.

  Joseph, son of Jacob Reiff, had two
children, Elias and 
Catharine Ann, the latter the wife of Benjamin V.
Allebaugh. 
Elias removed to Florida in 1890, where he engaged in orange 

growing. In 1895 he came to Norristown on a visit, and had a 
stroke of
paralysis from which he died, leaving a widow and 
five daughters. The wife died
in 1900. The daughters are all 
married and have families.

  Elmer S. Allebaugh
is a prominent member of the Hancock 
Fire Company. He is alert and progressive
in his business. 
Several years ago he introduced the method of raising bricks 

and mortar to the tipper stories of buildings which he was 
engaged in erecting
by means of a portable engine, thus 
dispensing with the labor of several hod
carriers, and 
enabling the work to proceed much more rapidly than it could 

under the old system. There is no doubt that some such plan 
will ultimately
come into general use, so as to prevent the 
necessity for such exhausting labor
on the part of workmen 
employed on the upper stories of buildings.

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