Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 619] is a respected citizen of the city of New Castle, and a prominent wholesale and retail dealer in hides, pelts, furs, and tallow. His birth took place April 24, 1832, in the State of Prussia, German Empire, and he is a son of Adam Knobloch, a citizen of that country.
At the age of seventeen years our subject left the ancestral home to seek his fortune in the young Republic across the seas, and after arriving in the United States came to New Castle, where he secured employment in the nail mills, and in the next ten or twelve years worked in all the principal mills in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. In 1861 he became a resident of the State of Michigan, where he engaged in tilling the soil for two years. In 1863 he moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he engaged in the manufacture of nails as a feeder. He then came to New Castle and engaged in the butcher business until 1870. That year marks his initial step in his present prosperous and extensive business; he purchased the fur and leather business of Henry Diedmor, who succeeded Isaac Dickson, who was one of the pioneers in the leather and tanning industry of New Castle. From a humble beginning he has managed, by economy and well-spent energy, to raise himself to a station where he commands the deep respect of all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance, either from a purely business or social standpoint. Among the best of our American citizens we include thousands of the sons of the Fatherland, who are an example by their industrious lives to all classes of native-born citizens. When he came to New Castle first, soon after arriving in this country, it was Aug. 5, 1849, he travelled with his brother from Youngstown, Ohio, by the way of Mahoningtown to the metropolis of Lawrence County, crossing the river at County Line Street on the wooden-covered bridge, then spanning the Shenango River at that point. He had scarcely enough money to buy food to appease his hunger, but there being no lazy bones in his body and upheld by a great desire to make his way in the world of business, he succeeded in years of toil in accumulating enough to launch him in his present profitable venture. He has proven himself to be a man of more than ordinary business ability, and as one who will surely be successful wherever his lot in life may be cast. He casts his ballot uniformly in support of the Democratic party, but having exercised his right of manhood suffrage there his interest in politics ceases.
In 1857 Mr. Knobloch was joined in marriage to Amelia Baker, daughter of Christian Baker, a native of Germany, but later a resident of New Castle, Pa. They have reared to noble manhood and womanhood the following children: Carolina; Margaret; Wilhelm, who married Agnes Kildoo of Slippery Rock township, and has three children, Olive, Gertrude, and Hazel; Harry; and Edward, who married Lydia Ullrich, and resides in Hazleton, Pa. They have one child, Elizabeth, as a fruit of the union. Mrs Knobloch died January 9, 1896. Our subject and his family are German Lutherans in their religious attachments.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 23 Jul 2001