Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 429] superintendent of the Prudential insurance Company at New Castle, Lawrence County, is a gentleman whose business career has been a steady progress, and whose present position has been the result of many years of faithful service to the great Prudential Insurance Company of Newark, N. J. He was born in Heidelberg township, Lehigh Co., Pa., Dec. 17, 1865, and is a son of Charles F. and Eva A. (Riedy) Ziegler. Our subject's mother was a native of Heidelberg township, and a daughter of Elias and Maria (Mantz) Riedy, the latter a daughter of David Mantz. Elias Riedy, who was a native of the Keystone State, was a farmer by occupation, and in early life was interested in milling; he lived to be upwards of seventy years of age. Our subject's father was a son of Charles and Hannah (Newhard) Ziegler, both natives of Eastern Pennsylvania. Charles was the son of one of three brothers who came to America in the last century; he was a farmer throughout his life, and owned one of the finest farms in Lowhill township, on which he lived until his death in February, 1896, at the age of seventy-five years. His son, Charles F., was born in Claussville, in Lehigh Co., Pa., in 1842; he was a man of good education, and taught school twenty-four years. Later he embarked in mercantile pursuits, keeping a general store at Allentown, until he became interested in the insurance business, to which he has since given his entire attention. He has been exclusively in the employ of the Prudential Insurance company since 1893. He is a member of the Evangelical Church.
Richard E. W. Ziegler lived in Heidelberg township until ten years of age, when the family moved to Claussville, where they remained three years before taking up their residence in Allentown, where our subject spent the remaining years of his youth, and completed his education, having passed through the high school at Claussville. After living in Allentown four years, during which period he was engaged in teaching music, an art he was very proficient in, he became in his eighteenth year a solicitor for the Prudential Insurance Company in Allentown. From that place he went to Shenandoah, and represented the company in the same capacity, remaining there from 1886 to the spring of 1887, when he was transferred to Shamokin, and continued there until July, 1887, when he became assistant in the detached office at Lancaster, Pa., where he was employed eighteen months. He next went to Reading, where he stayed until the fall of 1890, and from there to South Bethlehem, where he was until January, 1892, at which time he took full charge of the office at Catasauqua, where he remained until his appointment, Jan. 23, 1893, superintendent of the New Castle district, comprising eight counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Under Mr. Ziegler's management, the business increased so rapidly, that it was soon too large for one district, and the four Ohio districts were set off into a separate field of their own, and the four Pennsylvania counties were continued under Mr. Ziegler's management. These have been thoroughly organized with twenty-nine agents to look after the details of the field work, with seven clerks at the district office in the Pearson Block, New Castle. Our subject's particular talents lie in organizing, and in this phase of the work has he proved himself especially valuable to his employers, and has commanded their respect and esteem.
He was joined in the bonds of holy matrimony, Dec. 19, 1884, at Allentown, Pa., to Emma S. Koch, daughter of Charles D. and Helen (Heil) Koch of Allentown. To our subject and wife three children have been born, as follows: Florence Eva Eleanor; Stanley Franklin Le Roy; and Harold Ward Dryden. Mr. and Mrs. Ziegler are included among the most regular and faithful attendants and members of the M. E. Church. In his politics, Mr. Ziegler throws his influence and vote in favor of the Prohibition party.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 4 Jul 2001