Biographies from Historical and Biographical Annals by Morton Montgomery

GODFREY,
HAMILTON

p. 1020

Surnames: GODFREY, CARSON, DONOHOWER, ROSS

Conspicuous among the well known business men of Reading is
Hamilton Godfrey, owner of the “Farmers’ Hotel and Rathskeller” and
successful real estate dealer. He was born in Cape May county, New
Jersey, where the Godfrey family has been known for several
generations.

Nicholas Godfrey, grandfather of Hamilton, lived
and died on the family homestead in New Jersey.

Samuel Godfrey, son of Nicholas, became the
owner of the old farm in Cape May county, located two miles from
property owned by his son Hamilton, situated in Great Egg Harbor at
Beesley Point. He married Martha Carson, and their children were:
Bradford, dealer in real estate in New York; Carlton, president of
the Guarantee Trust Company, and of the West Jersey Title Company,
Atlantic City, N. J.; Hamilton; and Lottie, wife of Somers Ross, of
Ocean City, N.J. Samuel Godfrey, the father, died in June, 1907.

Hamilton Godfrey was reared on a farm, receiving
the advantages usual with farmers’ sons. The schools of the
neighborhood afforded him his only educational opportunities. At
the age of twenty he engaged in the real estate business at Ocean
City, at that time in its incipiency. This was the beginning of a
successful career, and two years later he went to Atlantic City,
where for eleven years he was engaged in the same line of business,
meeting with unvarying success. He still holds valuable interests
there. In 1891 he came to Reading, and opened an office and
prosperity has attended his efforts. In 1905 he purchased the
“Farmers’ Hotel” property at the corner of Fifth and Washington
streets, the title from the Penns being but four transfers removed.
The building was erected in 1760, but additions have been made
since them. Mr. Godfrey has also acquired other holdings in
Reading. He belongs to Lodge No. 115, B. P. O. Elks.

Mr. Godfrey married Anna E. Donohower, daughter
of William Donohower, of Reading.

GOETZ FAMILY

p.
540

Surnames: GOETZ, POTTEIGER, ROSENTHAL, BILLMAN, RUMER, MILLER

Among the leading business enterprises of Reading, Pa., is that of
Ferdinand Goetz Sons Company, with main offices at No. 26 Spruce
street, New York City.

The business now conducted by this firm was
first established in Reading in 1869, by Winters & Blotz. Mr.
Ferdinand Goetz, who was admitted to the firm upon Mr. Blotz’s
retirement, was born in Germany in 1850, and emigrated to America
in 1868, first setting in Maryland and finding employment as a farm
laborer. In 1870 he came to Reading, here finding employment as a
laborer in the building trade. He then secured a position as
reporter on the German Daily Post, owned and published by Mr.
William Rosenthal, but finally he became acquainted with the firm
of Winters & Blotz. Upon Mr. Blotz’s retirement, Mr. Winters
offered Mr. Goetz an equal interest in the business, which the
later subsequently accepted. From the start the business prospered,
and from a poor farm laborer Ferdinand Goetz became one of
Reading’s best-known business men. At the time he joined the firm
they were operating their tannery at the foot of Jefferson street,
but in 1882 it was removed to its present quarters, formerly
occupied by the Fink Planing Mill Company. Her the business was
conducted under the style of Winters & Goetz until 1904, when
Mr. Goetz died, the business being reorganized into a stock company
under the style of The Ferdinand Goetz Sons Company, with the
following officers; Fred W. Goetz, president; W. C. Billman,
secretary and treasurer; and Karl Goetz, George Rumer, and Charles
E. Miller, as members of the corporation. This company manufactures
the white and fancy colored alum tanned lamb, sheep, calf skins and
hides for suspender, shoe and belt work, and white and fancy
colored slipper calf as specialties, their straight line bearing a
world-wide reputation. Each member of the firm is an expert in the
business and takes an active part in conducting one of the several
departments.

Fred W. Goetz, president of the firm, was born
in the city of Reading, in 1877, received his education in the
common schools and also took a course in a business college in
Brooklyn, N. Y. While still a boy he worked in the tannery of his
father, learning all the details of the business. He married in
1899 Miss Elizabeth B. Potteiger, of Stouchsburg, Pa., and to this
union have been born two daughters, Ruth and Grace. The family are
Lutherans in their religious belief.

GOLDMAN,
EDMUND

p. 1068

Surnames: GOLDMAN, COHN

Edmund Goldman, a well-known business man of Reading, whose “Bon
Ton” millinery establishment has been located in the city since
1886, was born in Austria in 1858. His education was secured in
Philadelphia, Pa., where he was first employed in a wholesale
millinery establishment. In 1886, in company with Mr. A. S. Cohn,
Mr. Goldman established his present business, the partnership being
dissolved in 1903 on Mr. Cohn’s withdrawal.

Mr. Goldman has been very successful in his
business enterprise, his employes numbering about one hundred
people, fifty to sixty of whom are milliners and trimmers. He is a
very heavy importer, doing an extensive wholesale business
throughout eastern Pennsylvania, besides commanding the leading
retail trade in the city. Some idea of his business may be
estimated from the fact that his semi-annual openings are attended
by from 6,000 to 7,000 ladies of Reading and the surrounding
country. His store building, which is 25 x 150 feet, three stories
and basement, brick, is fully equipped with the modern fixtures and
appurtenances.

Mr. Goldman is a very popular, both in business
and social circles. He is a member of Reading Lodge, F & A. M.,
No. 549; Harrisburg Consistory, thirty-second degree, and Rajah
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He is also a member of Lodge No. 115, B.
P. O. E.

GOLDMAN, WILLIAM I.

p. 946

Surnames: GOLDMAN, IBACH

William I. Goldman, whose elegant studio is situated at No. 516
Penn street, Reading, comes, on the paternal side, from ancestors
who have lived in Berks county for generations.

John Goldman, his grandfather, was a farmer.

Isaac Goldman, son of John, was a
merchant-tailor of Wernersville, Berks county, but died in Reading,
in 1870, aged forty-seven years. He married Wilhelmina Ibach,
daughter of Gustave Ibach, who came from Germany when six years
old, settling in Newsmantown, Pa., where he died. Eleven children
were born to Isaac and Wilhelmina (Ibach) Goldman, four of whom are
now living: William I.; Charles I. of Chicago; Elmer E., of
Philadelphia; and Henry H., an undertaker of Chicago.

William I. Goldman was born in Wernersville,
Berks county, March 27, 1856, and was educated in Reading, in which
city he worked in stores until 1876. He then became an apprentice
at photography, and worked at it for others fifteen years. In 1891
Mr. Goldman engaged in business on his own account, at the corner
of Penn and Sixth streets, the site of the present colossal
department store of Dives, Pomeroy & Stewart. There he remained
until 1900, when he removed to his present location, where he
produces photographs the equal of any in the State.

Mr. Goldman belongs to the Masonic fraternity,
and is a member of the Rajah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine, as well as a member of the Harrisburg
Consistory. Mr. Goldman also belongs to the B. P. O. E., the Odd
Fellows, the State Photographers’ Association, of which he has been
treasurer from the date of its organization in 1896, and of the
Photographers’ Association of America, a national organization
which numbers among its members first-class photographers from all
over the country.

GONSER, JOHN
R.

p. 1718

Surnames: GONSER, ZIEGLER, HEFFNER, AHRENS, WALBERT, REGAR, RITTER,
EDDINGER, KEIM, HUNTZINGER, KOPPELBERGER, QUESTRO, NARRAGANG

John R. Gonser, one of the leading and most influential citizens
and business men of Berks county, was born and reared on a farm
near Gechter’s Inn, in Exeter township, this county.

As a boy Mr. Gonser attended the schools of his
home district, but being ambitious to secure a good educational
start in life, he also attended advanced schools at Amityville, and
in Reading, and later also at McAllisterville, Juniata county. Like
many of the successful men of the nation, Mr. Gonser started life
as a country school teacher, and in this profession, as well as in
later enterprises, made a distinct success. He taught school for
four terms in Alsace, Upper Tulpehocken and Longswamp townships,
and spent his vacations on his father’s farm, where he received a
thorough training in agriculture.

In 1866 he entered the employ of Yocum, Kline
& Co., a firm of enterprising Berks county lumbermen, becoming
manager of their extensive operations at Moscow, Luzerne county.
The firm cut a large quantity of timber which was manufactured and
marketed under his direction in a very profitable manner. Mr.
Gonser proved his mettle as a business man in this first
enterprise, soon becoming a partner in the concern, and spent four
years in this business. The practical business experience received
at this time proved of the greatest value to Mr. Gonser in his
later enterprises. Upon returning to Berks county he became
associated with William Ziegler in the grain, coal and lumber
business at Farmington, in Longswamp township, along the Catasauqua
& Fogelsville Railroad, but retired from this firm six months
later to locate at Kutztown, where he engaged more extensively in
the same lines of business, forming a partnership with James S.
Heffner. The firm was known as Gonser & Heffner. In 1876 Mr.
Gonser sold his interest in this business to Mr. Heffner to engage
in the wholesale lumber and roofing slate business, which he still
continues with great success. His operations have been very
extensive and profitable.

Mr. Gonser is very widely known as a producer of
natural ice, in which his interests are very large. He first became
interested in the ice trade while located at Moscow as a lumberman,
when he began to cut and store large quantities of natural ice at
Salford station, along the Perkiomen railroad, individually
operating this business until 1894, when his brother-in-law, Phaon
S. Heffner, became associated with him as a partner. The new firm
continued this station until 1904, when it was disposed of to the
Pelham Ice Company, of Philadelphia. In 1881 he formed a
partnership with Henry Ahrens, now residing in Reading, for the
storage of ice along the Irish creek (at Dauberville) near its
outlet into the Schuylkill river a mile north of Leesport, and also
along the Angelica creek, this stream entering the river a few
miles below Reading. Large storehouses with an aggregate capacity
for the annual storage of 50,000 tons of ice were erected. In 1906
a similar plant was built at Rausch’s station, along the Little
Schuylkill river, nine miles above Port Clinton. The three
operations have been handled successfully and are extremely
valuable to the firm, who have refused many handsome offers for
their properties.

Mr. Gonser has always retained his early
interest in farm life and is a consistent advocate of the
improvement of agricultural conditions generally. Besides owning
the old Gonser homestead farm in Exeter, he owns six large model
farms located in three counties, Berks, Lehigh and Montgomery, in
which he takes the greatest pride. Nothing is spared to make them
among the finest farms in eastern Pennsylvania. They are equipped
with the best buildings, are well stocked, and have reached a high
state of cultivation.

As a financier Mr. Gonser has few equals in the
county and his advice is eagerly sought by men of affairs. He has
served continuously as a director of the Farmers National Bank, of
Reading, one of the influential financial institutions of the Berks
capital, since 1894, and has contributed his share toward making it
one of the financial bulwarks of the commonwealth. When the now
successful Kutztown National Bank was organized, in 1897, Mr.
Gonser proved to be an ideal man to head the institutions as
president, owing to his high integrity, conservative judgment and
wide knowledge of men and affairs. Believing it to be his duty to
help build up a strong home institution, then greatly needed owing
to the growth of this prosperous borough, Mr. Gonser accepted, and
is still serving in this post of honor and trust with a record of
unbroken successes. Mr. Gonser’s work for this institution was one
of the chief factors in its unusual degree of success.

Mr. Gonser is also interested in the cause of
education and is a staunch and true friend of the Keystone State
Normal School, located at Kutztown, of which he became a trustee
way back in 1892. He is still serving in this capacity and is also
filling the position of secretary of the stockholders of the
corporation. He has given much time and thought to the advancement
of the interests of this splendid school–now one of the first of
its splendid achievements. He has been a strong advocate of the
many improvements made during the last decade, the erection of new
buildings, etc., which make it the model school it now is.

Mr. Gonser is a member of one of the best
Pennsylvania German families in the Commonwealth and is proud of
his honest, sturdy ancestry, who have contributed much toward
making Berks one of the first counties in the nation. Starting life
as an honest, hardworking youth, without a dollar of aid in the
world, he won his way to the front rank by his honesty, courage and
sticktoitiveness, and proved his ability as a business man of
unusual executive ability, and is one of the wealthiest self-made
men of Berks county. His career is often quoted as a model for
young men starting out in life and should be an inspiration for
those ambitious to win life’s prizes.

He is a modest and unassuming gentleman of
genial personality, courteous and obliging to all, and is a man of
the highest ideals of public and private life. He is a
public-spirited citizen, always ready and willing to support
generously every movement for the public good, is charitable, a
true friend, and faithful co-worker; indeed, the highest type of an
honorable business man and a true Christian gentleman in the best
meaning of the term. His family life has been very happy and he
enjoys the esteem of an unusually wide circle of friends and
acquaintances. No worthy cause has ever been presented to Mr.
Gonser’s attention without receiving the generous aid of his purse.
He is a staunch supporter of the institutions of the Christian
religion as well as of education, but owing to his innate modesty
prefers to do so in the most unostentatious manner possible.

In 1869 Mr. Gonser married Miss Louisa Walbert,
daughter of the late Nathan Walbert, of Maxatawny. He is the son of
the late William Gonser, who was an influential farmer of Exeter
for many years. His mother was Miss Mary Regar, a daughter of Jacob
Regar, a farmer of Adamstown, Lancaster county. Mr. Gonser is one
of a family of seven children, viz.: Hannah, who died in infancy;
Louisa, married to Amos Ritter; Eliza, married to Harrison
Eddinger; Mary, married to William M. Keim; Jackson, who died
unmarried at the age of twenty-four years; John R.; and Jane, who
married Benjamin Krick Huntzinger, whose sketch appears in this
publication. His grandfather, John Gonser, a farmer in Exeter,
married Miss Koppelberger, and had five children: John, who died
single; Isaac, who married Elizabeth Questro; Daniel, who married
Miss Narragang; William; and Susanna, who died single.