JOHN B. MEIXELL

JOHN B. MEIXELL is Cashier of the South Bethlehem National Bank, and is a business man of marked and unusual ability. A self-made man, he has been the architect of his own fortune, having risen step by step to a position of prosperity and influence in the community. The family to which he belongs is one of marked financial ability, and his brother, H.J., is Cashier of the National Iron Bank of Pottstown, Secretary and Treasurer of the Security Company, and President of the Farmers’ National Bank of Ephrata, Pa.

            On the paternal side our subject’s grandfather, who died in the prime of life, was of German descent. The father, Henry Meixell, was born in New Holland, and was a merchant tailor in Manheim, in which business he continued until his death in 1887. His wife, Martha Beard, was born near Mt. Hope, and is of Scotch ancestry. Her father, John Beard, was a collier in that locality. Mrs. Meixell is still living in Manheim. J.B. is one of a family comprising four sons and four daughters, five of whom survive. William B., a brother, is bookkeeper for the firm of Teagley & Son.

            Until eighteen years of age J.B. Meixell remained at school at Manheim, when he was appointed assistant agent on the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad at that point, and later was agent at New Providence, Pa. Tracing his history further, we next find him a manager of a store at Dayton, Ohio, next a clerk in the Ephrata National Bank, then collector for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad at Dayton, afterward foreign voucher clerk for the same road at Cincinnati, and solicitor and collector for the Durist Milling Company at Dayton. During this time he was also for a year engaged in mining in Denver, Colo. When the South Bethlehem National Bank was organized, he was selected as its Teller, this being in 1889. In 1890 the Lehigh Valley Cold Storage Company was started here, and he is the Secretary and Treasurer of this great concern, which has a capital of $135,000, can manufacture from thirty to thirty-five tons of ice every twenty-four hours, and has a capacity of sixty thousand crates of eggs, besides much room for other stores. This concern is one of the very best in the United States, and is built on the most improved modern plans.

            The South Bethlehem National Bank, which was founded in 1889, with a capital stock of $50,000, has been very successful in the financial world. They are erecting a new bank building of pressed brick, three stories in height, with a frontage of forty feet on Third Street, it being on the corner of Birch. The upper portion is to be used for offices, and the building when completed will be one of the substantial business blocks of the place.

            In 1884 John B. Meixell was married in Dayton to Miss Nettie Meyers, a lady of superior education and culture. Our subject is a Mason of the Thirty-second Degree, belonging to the consistory at Bloomsbury. In politics he is active in the ranks of the Republican party. In his connection with the banking institution he personally looks after every detail of its operation, and as he is practical as well as accommodating in his relations with the public, the bank stands on a firm and secure basis, every possible courtesy being extended to patrons.