Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Heess, Albert S. August 23, 1837 - ????
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Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 January 13, 2025, 7:09 am

Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

ALBERT S. HEESS, 
the well known and popular Altoona baker, whose goods are now used all over
western Pennsylvania, is a man who has won success in life by steadily
applied effort and that determined will power which knows no such word as
defeat.  He is a son of David L. and Catherine (Hasse) Heess, and was born,
August 23, 1837, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, in the southwestern part of
the German empire.  The family has been residents of that country for unknown
generations.  There the father of the subject of this sketch was born and
reared, and there he died, in 1848, at the advanced age of sixty-two years. 
He was a blacksmith by occupation, and a devout member of the German Lutheran
church.  He married Catherine Hasse, by whom he had a family of children.  She
was native of Wurtemberg, a member of the Lutheran church, and died in 1849,
in the forty-ninth year of her age.  
      Albert S. Heess was reared in his native town in Germany, and received
his education in the national schools of that country.  After leaving school
he learned the baker's trade in Wurtemberg, and in 1854, when only seventeen
years of age, he pushed out from his native place and started for America,
determined to find or make for himself a home in the western world.  He
landed on these shores with no capital except a stout heart and willing hand,
but was not long in securing employment at his trade in the city of New
York.  A little later he came to Philadelphia, and from that city to
Lancaster, where he worked as a journeyman baker for sometime.  Energetic and
self-reliant, he soon determined to start in business for himself, and casting
about for a location, was attracted by the young and bustling city of
Altoona.  Here he located, in the fall of 1860, and opened a small bakery. 
His means were moderate and his business small, but his work gave
satisfaction, and as the years went by his trade increased and he began to
prosper.  He worked on with the steady persistence of a man who knows he is
bound to win at last, and in 1873 added a complete outfit of cracker
machinery to his plant, and began furnishing all kinds of crackers in
addition to his bread and cakes.  His business continued to increase, and
everything moved along successfully until April, 1886, when a disastrous fire
completely destroyed his fine bakery.  This was a circumstance calculated to
test the grit of any man, but Mr. Heess was not dismayed nor discouraged.  He
immediately set about rebuilding on a still larger scale.  His establishment
is located on the corner of Thirteenth Street and Eighth Avenue, employs nine
men and three girls, and has a capacity requiring more than twenty barrels of
flour per day.  The building is sixty by one hundred feet in dimensions, and
is supplied with the latest and most approved machinery and appliances of
every kind, all driven by a twenty horsepower engine.  The product includes
bread, cakes, and crackers of every description, which are disposed of at
retail and wholesale, not only in Altoona, but all over western
Pennsylvania.  He owns considerable valuable real estate in this city. 
      In 1859 Mr. Heess was wedded to Amelia Engle, a daughter of John and
Gertrude Engle, of the kingdom of Prussia, in northern Germany.  To Mr. And
Mrs. Heess has been born a family of six children, four sons and two
daughters:  Albert, John, George, Louis, Emma, and Gertrude.
      Politically Mr. Heess is a democrat, and while not taking an active
part in politics, has been elected and served for two years as a member of
the city council, and was also a member of the school board for a number of
years.  He is a member of the Episcopal Church, active in the support of
church interests, and stands as a worthy type of the successful
businessman.  His career vividly illustrates the fact that perseverance and
industry must finally win in the battle of life.  He is public spirited and
enterprising, and is now serving as president of the Fairview Cemetery
association, and is also a stockholder in the Mountain City Electric Light
Company.  Mr. Heess is a prominent Mason, being connected with Mountain
Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Masons; Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal
Arch Masons; and Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar.  He is a
pleasant, genial gentleman, and quite popular.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Tina Erb

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