CHARLES ANTHONY REPPLIER
CHARLES ANTHONY REPPLIER was born in Philadelphia, March 25th, 1804. During his infancy his parents moved to Reading. There he remained until early manhood, and received a common school education. On leaving school he was placed by his father in 
the counting house of an old friend, a French importer in New York. During his ten years' service in this house he made frequent voyages, as Supercargo, to New Orleans and the West Indies. This was ultimately the cause of his return to Philadelphia. He found that the climate of the tropics was gradually undermining his health; so he abandoned the position and came to Philadelphia. Shortly after settling in Philadelphia he married Elizabeth Myers Rees, daughter of George and Elizabeth Rees, of the same city. They had two children who are known to have reached adulthood, Mary Louise and George Rees Repplier.
In this city he associated himself as senior partner with his two brothers in the coal business. The Repplier Brothers united with courage and determination, rare judgment and foresight. These sterling qualities combined with boldness in business operations brought to them wealth before they attained the meridian of life. In 1838, the subject of this sketch, was solicited by the residents of North Mulberry Ward, Philadelphia to represent them in Councils. He consented and was elected on the old Whig ticket. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected, and served until the riots occurred in 1844. Then, disgusted with the brutal excesses of lawbreakers and the criminal passiveness of rulers, he withdrew for life from all active participation in politics. During the period of his public life he served with distinction as one of the Girard Commissioners, then engaged in the erection of the noble college buildings that have since added so much to the beauty and fame of Philadelphia. He retired from active business, in 1852. In the summer of the same year he sailed for Europe, and joined in Paris his only daughter, Mary Louise, the future wife of Judge Bolivar D. Danels, of Baltimore, whom he had sent there to be educated. With her he made an extended tour through France, Germany, and Italy, visiting nearly all the scenes of historic interest in those 
lands. During his stay in Rome he formed an intimate friendship with the celebrated Dr. Kirby, President of the Irish College, and on several occasions had the honor of a private interview with the Pope. On his return to Philadelphia he purchased the old Catholic Herald, and published it for several years. During 1855 he wrote for it a series of letters, forty in number, chiefly descriptive of Catholic art, religious institutions, churches, etc., in Continental Europe. During his absence in Europe he was elected President of the Beneficial Saving Fund in Philadelphia. To its management he brought long and varied business experience, and his wise and able administration of its affairs raised it from a small beginning in a private house on Thirteenth street to a place among the most successful institutions of the kind in the city. He was one of the principal projectors of St. John's Orphan Asylum, an institution in which he occupied a prominent office. He was one of the warmest patrons of St. Joseph's Hospital from the time of its organization, and was its Treasurer for more than two decades. In the building of the Cathedral he displayed an earnest interest, and always promoted to the best of his ability the welfare of St. Charles' Seminary, of which he was Trustee and Secretary.
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