The present position of Mr. Wilbur in the widespread business and financial interests that have long been associated with the Wilbur name is one that he came to not solely through inheritance or favor of appointment, but by the route first of regular apprenticeship to a trade and then a clerkship in the E. P. Wilbur Trust Company, founded by his father, who continued its executive head until his death. At this time (1919) Mr. Wilbur is second vice-president of the E. P. Wilbur Trust Companv, officially and financially interested in numerous business and industrial institutions throughout the Lehigh Valley, and is numbered among the citizens of Bethlehem to whose initiative, progressiveness, generosity and clear-sighted public spirit the uplift and substantial development of the city is due.

Member of the line of Wilbur founded in Pennsylvania by Henry Wilbur, of Mystic, Connecticut, Mr. Wilbur is a son of Elisha Packer and Stella M. (Abbott) Wilbur, his father one of the strongest men-of-affairs in Pennsylvania in a generation that produced a number of men of great ability.

Eldredge P. Wilbur was born August 10, 1877, and as a youth attended the Haverford Grammar School, of Haverford, Pennsylvania, the Lawrenceville Preparatory School, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and the Berkley School, of New York City. Foregoing a college course in favor of practical technical training, he entered the machine shops of the Lehigh Valley railroad, of which his father was president, at Sayre, Pennsylvania, with the intention of learning railroading in its every department. For a year and a half he worked at the machinist's trade, then, in 1901, returned to Bethlehem and entered the E. P. Wilbur Trust Company in the capacity of clerk. Entrusted from time to time with heavier responsibilities, he became assistant treasurer of the company, and in 1912 was elected to the second vice-presidency, an office he now fills. In addition to his official duties in this company, which represents such a vast amount of earnest thought and devoted labor in the name of Wilbur to have given it the high position among the financial institutions of the State that it now occupies, Mr. Wilbur is engaged with many other business connections, among them the vice-presidency of the Mineral Spring Ice Company, and the second vice-presidency of the Sayre Land Company, the Sayre Water Company, and the J. M. Degnan Company, of all of which he is a director.

Mr. Wilbur is a participant in the activities of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and the South Bethlehem Business Men's Association for a greater business and industrial city. He took leading part in the campaigns that placed Bethlehem prominently among the leaders in the various war interests of the government and relief organizations, and in the needs of every day, as well as in emergencies, has proved himself a faithful, unselfish friend of the charitable and social service institutions of the city. His social connections are with the Northampton, Bethlehem, Lehigh Country and Northampton County Country clubs, his fraternal affiliations with Bethlehem Lodge No. 191, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Wilbur is fond of the out-of-doors and there he finds his recreation in gunning, fishing, motoring and golf.

Mr. Wilbur married, May 27, 1902, Lilian Linderman, daughter of Dr. Garrett B. and Frances (Evans) Linderman. Mrs. Wilbur, like her husband, is intimately concerned with the welfare of charitable and civic institutions. She is a loyal supporter of St. Luke's Hospital, serving on its Women's Auxiliary, and during the World War served as president of the Bethlehem Chapter of the American Red Cross, which accomplished splendid results under her capable leadership during the years of the conflict. Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur are the parents of two sons: Donald Eldredge and Arnold Jackson.