[p. 389] who is engaged in a marble business at Princeton, has resided here since 1853. He was born March 8, 1830, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in a log house which his father built and which is still standing. He is a son of Abraham and Nancy Sechler.
The Sechler family is of German extraction and no other language than the German was used in the family through Mr. Sechler's youth, he being eighteen years of age before he spoke English. His grandparents, however, were American born and his father was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. When twenty-three years old the father moved to Butler County and settled near Harmony, where he built his house and conducted a mill for thirty years. He died in 1872. He was married three times; first, to Nancy Boyer, who died in 1832, the mother of six children, namely: John, Jacob, Abraham, Katherine, Susan and an infant. The second marriage was to Mary Bear and they had seven children: Michael, Samuel, Sarah, Mary, Lizzie, Nancy and Elizabeth. His third marriage was to the widow of Jacob Davidson, and there was no issue to this union.
Abraham Sechler resided in Butler County, attending the neighborhood school a part of the time and looking after the cultivation of a farm of forty acres, up to the age of eighteen years, when he left home and went to Allegheny, where he learned the cabinet-making trade. He remained in that city for two years and then returned to Butler County and for the next two years worked around Harmony and also in Lawrence County as a carpenter. He then bought five acres of land near Rose Point, Lawrence County, which he rented out and kept for three years. In the meanwhile, being unmarried, he lived with a family named Kennedy, but in 1853 he married Caroline Houk, a daughter of Philip and Isabella (White) Houk, and immediately moved to Princeton. He continued to follow the carpenter trade and erected a number of the buildings still standing in this neighborhood. Since 1887, Mr. Sechler has been conducting a marble business at Princeton and his sons are more or less interested in the same.
The first wife of Mr. Sechler was born October 13, 1832, and died June 15, 1886. There were nine children born to that union, namely: William W.. Edwin T., Wesley W., Samuel A., Philip H., John A., Mary E., Margaret I., and a babe that died unnamed. William W. Sechler was born May 13, 1854, married Mary Rutter and they live in Dayton, Ohio. They have four children: Lawrence, Fannie, Leonora and Minnie. Edwin T. Sechler was born March 31, 1856, married Sarah Hoon and they live in Princeton. They have one son, Harry. Wesley W. Sechler was born April 16, 1858, married Frances Criswell and they have one son, Edward. Samuel R. Sechler was born October 7, 1860, and died May 30, 1889. John A. Sechler was born April 19, 1870, and resides at home. Mary Sechler was born March 24, 1863, married J. H. Boyd and they have had these children: Katherine, Nina, Loy, Gareth, Merril, Maurice, Margaret, living, and Willie and Minnie, deceased. Philip H. Sechler was born September 9, 1866, married Agnes Boak and they live in Butler. They have three children: Gula, Jean and Wendell. Margaret E. Sechler was born July 8, 1878, and died December 7, 1898.
Mr. Sechler was married (second) March 7, 1888, at New Wilmington, by Rev. J. M. Mealy, to the estimable lady who still presides over his household. For fifteen years prior to her marriage she was an acceptable and efficient teacher in the public schools in Allegheny, Washington and Mercer Counties. Her maiden name was Mary A. Leach and she was born July 27, 1840 in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of John W. and Elizabeth J. (Moore) Leach. The father of Mrs. Sechler was born January 1, 18l7, and died December 9, 1870. His wife was born in 1809 and died in 1845. They had three children: Mary A., Elizabeth and James P. Mr. and Mrs. Sechler are members of the Hermon Presbyterian Church, in which he has been an official for many years, serving as trustee, member of the sessions, treasurer and elder, having united with this church in 1854.
Mr. Sechler has been one of the most active men in public affairs in his community ever since settling at Princeton. He has held at one time or another almost all of the township offices, including clerk, school director, auditor, judge of elections, inspector, constable and tax collector. He has ever been a loyal citizen of his country. During the Civil War he enlisted on February 21, 1865, at New Brighton, in Company I, Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, with the rank of corporal. On account of the termination of the war his company was never called into action and he was honorably discharged at Lynchburg, Virginia, July 22, 1865. He is a valued member of Princeton Post, No. 420, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is past quartermaster and chaplain.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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