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William P. Lauster
WILLIAM P. LAUSTER, proprietor of the Yatesboro Roller Mills, at
Yatesboro, Pa., was born March 2l, 1874, in Cowanshannock township, Armstrong
county, son of Henry and Christena (Koch) Lauster, and a grandson of Eniest
Martin Lauster.Ernest Marti Lauster was born in 1800, in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, where
he followed milling until he came to America in 1848. He was accompanied by
his family and they landed at Baltimore, Md., from there proceeding to
Pittsburgh, Pa. Shortly afterward he secured land in what is now East Liberty
and followed gardening until 1855, when he moved to Armstrong county and
bought a f arm of 150 acres from Samuel Beers, in Kittanning township. Mr.
Lauster remained on this farm until 1866, when he moved to the farm of a son
in another part of the township, living there until 1881, at which time he
removed to his son Henry’s home in Cowanshannock township, where he died in
1888. His wife was also long-lived; born in 1799, she died in 1885. They were
interred in St. Paul’s cemetery, in Armstrong county. They had three sons:
George, residing on the old homestead in Kittanning township; Peter, formerly
a successful business man of Pittsburgh; and Henry.Henry Lauster, son of Ernest Martin Lauster, was born Feb. 7, 1837, in the
town of Axel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. When eleven years of age he
accompanied his parents to America and was about nineteen when his father
bought his farm in Armstrong county. Henry learned the milling business about
this time and later was associated with J. A. Boyer, under the firm name of
Boyer & Lauster, the firm later becoming Lauster, Sowers & Co., and
the North Star mill was erected, three miles southwest of Yatesboro. In April
1889, the business of the mill became very poor, and Henry Lauster together
with his brother, Peter Lauster, then of Pittsburgh, bought out the interests
of the other partners and remodeled the mill to the roller system. Henry
Lauster was in charge of the mill business and it prospered under his
management, which continued until 1903, when he retired, and what was widely
known as Lauster’s mill was sold. After a. year of rest on his farm in
Kittanning township, he built a comfortable residence at Rural Valley, and was
about ready to move into it when he sustained an injury to his foot, which,
after much suffering and a surgical operation in the hospital at Kittanning,
Pa., caused his death, Nov. 13, 1906. He was buried in the cemetery connected
with St. Paul’s Reformed Church, near Blanco. Among his fellow citizens
generally, Mr. Lauster was held in very high regard. It was said of him that
he was a kind-hearted, generous man, of unimpeachable integrity, a good
husband and a loving father. In 1858 Henry Lauster was married to Christena
Koch, of Kittanning township, Armstrong county, and four children were born to
them, three sons and one daughter. In 1882 the family was stricken with
typhoid fever and on Oct. 18th two of the children succumbed, the only
daughter, who was seventeen years old, and the son John, who had reached his
twenty-second year. Two other sons survived the epidemic, Henry F. and William
P.Henry F. Lauster was born Nov. 13, 1862, and was associated in the milling
business with his younger brother, William P., until he died, Feb. 7, 1908. He
married Narcissa Wagner, and three sons survive him: John B., Wilbert E. and
O. Elsworth.Mrs. Christena (Koch) Lauster was born May 11, 1839, and resides at Rural
Valley. She took possession of the new residence while her husband was at the
hospital, hopefully preparing the home to which he never returned alive. Her
parents were John and Anna (Reichert) Koch.William P. Lauster attended the public schools and then took a summer
business course at Kittanning, after which he learned the milling business
with his father. Immediately after his father’s retirement and sale of the old
mill, Mr. Lauster, in partnership with his brother, the late Henry F. Lauster,
erected the Yatesboro Roller Mills at Yatesboro. Under the firm style of
Lauster Brothers the mills continued to be operated until the death of Henry
F. Lauster, and in 1909 William P. Lauster bought the interest of his
brother’s heirs and -since then has the business under his own name. The mills
are modern in every way, being thoroughly equipped with improved machinery.
The product is a high grade of spring and winter wheat flour, and a specialty
made of highgrade buckwheat flour. The mills are headquarters for oats, corn,
hay, straw, feed of all kinds and poultry supplies. The business is in a very
flourishing condition.Mr. Lauster married Ida McGregor, daughter of James McGregor, of Kittanning
township, and they reside at Yatesboro. In politics Mr. Lauster is a Democrat,
and in this connection is quite prominent, in 1910 serving as a delegate to
the State convention, and at present is being a member of the council of Rural
Valley. In the early spring of 1912 Mr. Lauster’s many friends in the party
throughout Armstrong county insisted on his becoming a candidate for the
Legislature. For business reasons he could not see his way clear to acquiesce
and did not certify for the primaries, but there was a surprise when the
result of the primaries was announced showing that he had been voluntarily
nominated, After a spirited and clean-cut campaign he was defeated by a very
close margin, in a county which hitherto had been overwhelmingly Republican.Source: Pages 438, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 2001 by Vaughn Davis for the Armstrong County Beers
Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
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