jacob lancaster repplier
Jacob Lancaster Repplier, a gentleman who was held in high repute by the citizens of Reading, was one of the enterprising and progressive businessmen of that city, where he was a wholesale dealer in coal and coke. He was the second son of John George and Mary McGauley Repplier, Jr. and was born May 15, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His older brother (John) George Repplier, was born four years earlier. Their mother died at a young age when Jacob was just two years old. Shortly thereafter their father remarried a woman from Westminster, Maryland named Agnes Mathias. They had three children who survived to adulthood; Mary, Agnes and Louis.
Jacob Lancaster Repplier, after completing the common and high schools of Reading, took a course in St. Michael’s Seminary at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of which he was a graduate. It being his father’s desire that he should enter the National Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, he entered the shops of the Reading Railroad where he could acquire experience in drafting and engineering. He failed to get an appointment to the Naval Academy, and upon the outbreak of the Civil War enlisted in Company A of the 128th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry for a term of nine months, in which period he participated in the battles of Antietam and Chancellorsville, escaping unscathed, although his regiment met with heavy losses. In 1863 after his term of enlistment had expired, he went to San Francisco and later to Washington Territory, where he was engaged in mercantile business for three years in Waitsburg and Walla Walla (at least part of that time accompanied by his friend, Haggerty). He then returned to the East and located in Boston, where he was New England agent for the firm of which his father was a member. For a period of six years he was engaged in business in the principal cities of that region, after which he returned to Philadelphia, as his father had retired from the business and his uncle died.
Later he came to Reading, Pennsylvania and took the agency for the Philadelphia & Reading Iron Co. as a wholesale dealer in coal, being one of the first agents of that company. After continuing for that capacity for one year, he moved to Harrisburg, where he formed a partnership with H. B. Mitchell, but soon after returned to Reading and took the agency for the Reading Coal & Iron Co., which position he held with good results until 1889, when the Sidney Coal Co., of which he was a one-third owner, was organized. This company was formed for the purpose of reworking or washing culm banks for the coal that had been deposited therein, their operation being the first of any magnitude in that line in Schuylkill County. He also helped in the organization of the Broad Mountain Coal C., whose work also lay in that direction. He was actively engaged in supporting these enterprises up to April 1, 1898, at which time he engaged in the selling and shipping of coal and coke in large quantities. Mr. Repplier was a man of superior business propensities, and his every business venture was characterized by the best of judgment. He possessed the unwavering confidence of his neighbors and fellow citizens and stood high in the estimation of all with whom he was acquainted.
He was joined in wedlock with Mrs. Sidney Haggerty (nee Berghaus) of Harrisburg, and they were the parents of three children, - Sidney Joseph Repplier, Mary Josephine McGauley Repplier and John George Repplier, III. Socially he was a member of the Sons of the Revolution; and of the Gen. William H. Keim Post, G. A. R. of Reading. He enjoyed the game of golf and was a member of the first board of directors of the Berkshire Country Club where he suffered a serious injury in 1899. Religiously, he was an active member of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Reading, and a member of the St. Vincent DePaul Society, a universal society which was organized for the relief of the poor. He aided materially in establishing this society and served as president for a number of years.
He died in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1901 at 57 years of age.