BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF
CHARLES H. NIMSON.
Page 723
Prior
to relating in outline the life of the man whose name forms the caption of this
sketch, we will present a few facts concerning his father, who was also a
well-known citizen of Carbon County. A.
B. Nimson was born Aug. 15, 1805 at Delmenhurst, in the grand duchy of
Oldenburg, Germany, and was the son of Peter Nümsen, a merchant, and his wife,
Sophia Meendsen. He came to
Philadelphia with his parents in infancy, and his boyhood was spent in that city,
Baltimore, and in the counties of Northampton and Berks, in this state. He was employed as a clerk at the iron-works
in different localities in the northern part of the latter county while yet
quite young, and later had charge of the Quincey Furnace in Schuylkill
County. It was then, about 1827, that
Mr. Nimson became a resident of East Penn Township, Carbon Co., from the border
of which the furnace was not more than half a mile distant. Having obtained a very fair education, he
was enabled to fill the position of teacher for the neighborhood, and he also
gave instruction in music; but these employments were only occasionally
followed, and were subsidiary to that at the furnace. From 1837 to 1852 his time and attention were divided between
farming and merchandising, and from 1852 until his death, in 1869, he was
chiefly occupied with public affairs, serving five terms as register and
recorder of deeds, and also filling the offices of auditor and commissioner’s
clerk. He was an active, enterprising man,
possessing the unqualified confidence of his fellow-citizens, and meriting it
by his conduct in every station of life to which he was called. In politics he was a staunch and life-long
Democrat.
Mr.
Nimson married, July 29, 1829, Hannah Andreas (born Aug. 1, 1810), daughter of
Jacob and Mary (Schoenberger) Andreas.
She was a grand-daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Washburn) Andreas, the
latter a granddaughter of John Rhoads, the original settler and owner of the Andreas,
or Nimson farm, and a great-granddaughter of Martin Andreas, who came to
American in 1849 and settled in Heidelberg township, Lehigh Co. Mrs. Nimson is still living, a resident of
Lehighton, and owns the old homestead in East Penn, a sketch of which appears
in this volume.
Charles H. Nimson, the
only child of A. B. and Hannah (Andreas) Nimson, was born in East Penn, May 19,
1834, and received his early education in the old stone school-house near by
his home. When sixteen years of age he
was placed in a drug-store in Philadelphia.
In 1852 he was employed as a clerk at the old Lehigh Furnace, and from
that time onward he has been identified with the iron interests of the
valley. In 1855 he returned to the
scenes of his early boyhood, and became identified with the management of the
East Penn Furnace and Forge. The same
year he was elected on the Democratic ticket as the surveyor of Carbon
County. In 1857 he bought the
Pennsville Forge from the Balliet estate, and a year later, in association with
Solomon Boyer, purchased the East Penn Furnace, which the firm carried on until
1860. Mr. Nimson then went to Lehigh
County, where he assumed a responsible position with the Ironton Railroad
Company, and soon after became the general manager of the company’s railroad
and mines. In 1863, in connection with
his former duties, he took charge of the Roberts Iron Company’s furnaces at
Allentown, to which – a year later abandoning the management of the road and
mines – he devoted his entire attention.
He continued in the position of general superintendent with
responsibilities constantly enlarging as other iron establishments from time to
time were consolidated by merger with the Roberts Iron-Works, and now occupies
that office with the Allentown Rolling Mill, which is the outcome of the
aggregation. During the period of his
connection with this extensive institution, large as have been his labors and
responsibilities, his attention has not been exclusively claimed by it, but he
has been interested in or engaged in managing various furnaces, rolling mills,
forges, and mining operations, demanding in the aggregate the constant exercise
of a very uncommon executive ability.
Mr. Nimson was married,
Dec. 25, 1858, to Elmira S. Hallman, daughter of Dr. Jesse J. Hallman, and
granddaughter of Stephen Balliet, Sr., the pioneer ironmaster of the
region. Two children were the offspring
of this union, - Alger and Emma S. (married to Miles L. Eckert, of Allentown,
Dec. 5, 1876). Mr. Nimson and family
reside at the old homestead in East Penn.
END
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TO THE MATHEWS & HUNGERFORD
INDEX
PAGE
From
The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
By
Alfred Mathews & Austin N. Hungerford
Published in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1884
Transcribed from the original in September 2004
by
Jack Sterling
Web page by
September 2004