| GEORGE HAUCK SHECKLER, one of the
best
known and most popular men of West
Buffalo township, Union County, is a farmer as far as owning a good
farm
is concerned, but his occupation is that of a lecturer, in which he has
evinced rare ability. He also uses a stereopticon to illustrate
the
subjects of his discourse. Mr. Sheckler was born September 21,
1851,
in the house where he resides, it being the old
ancestral
home of the Haucks, his maternal ancestors. He was the only
child of Conrad and Mary A. (Hauck) Sheckler,
honored
and valued citizens of Union County. She
was the eldest child and only daughter of George and Mary (Moyers)
Hauck,
who died in Union County, the latter at the advanced age of ninety
years,
and both were laid to rest in the Mifflinburg
cemetery.
By trade the grandfather was a shoemaker.
Conrad Sheckler, the father of our project, took a prominent and active part in public affairs. Being elected justice of the peace in 1854, he acceptably filled that office for forty years, or until 1894, when succeeded by his son, who still holds the office to the satisfaction of all concerned. The latter attended the public schools of Union County, but also received valuable instruction from his father, who in early life followed the teacher's profession. He also learned surveying with his father, who for nearly half a century followed that occupation in Union County. In 1858 Conrad Sheckler planted the first vineyard in West Buffalo Township, and two years previous had also set out a fine peach orchard. He was a progressive, enterprising man, and was widely and favorably known. On July 7, 1896, he departed this life at the age of seventy-three years, surviving his wife about two years, her death occurring October 28, 1894, when she had reached the age of seventy. For three terms, from 1873 until 1875, George H. Sheckler successfully engaged in teaching, but at the end of that time entered the lecture field, and has since devoted most of his energies to that calling. In the fall of 1880 he married Miss Hannah C. Miller, the accomplished and beautiful daughter of Josiah Miller, a teacher of Northumberland County, Penn., who died in the spring o f 1878, in Milton, where his remains were interred. Her mother's death occurred in 1884, and she was buried at Mifflinburg. Six children grace the union of our subject and his estimable wife, whose names and dates of birth are as follows: Linn, September 26, 1881; Harold, August 31, 1883; Lulu, July 8, 1886; Mary A., March 3, 1889; Alvin, August 16, 1891; and Bruce, November 26, 1893. They have been called upon to mourn the loss of one child--Lulu, who died November 2, 1887. In his political affiliations, Mr.Sheckler is a stalwart Republican, and in religious views is a Unitarian. Although he cares nothing for official distinction, he has served six years as school director, and in that capacity did much to advance the educational interests of his community. Progressive and fully abreast with the times in every particular, he and his wife occupy an enviable position in social circles, and their attractive home is ever open for the reception of their many friends. |