Samuel Drinkhouse was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, April 17, 1804, died January 24, 1904, a grandson of George Heist, who served as a private in the Sixth Pennsylvania Battalion in the Revolutionary War, commanded by Col. Joseph Heister, of Berks county, Pennsylvania. Samuel Drinkhouse left Reading, Pennsylvania, at the age of eighteen, with $800, intending to go to New York City. He stopped at Easton overnight and was so pleased with the city that he decided to remain. He invested his $800 in a hat factory, and as a manufacturer of hats acquired a fortune. When General Lafayette visited the United States in 1824, Mr. Drinkhouse went with the Easton Rifles, of which he was a member, to call upon the great Frenchman, making the trip from Easton to Philadelphia in one day in a Durham boat. Each member of the company was presented to General Lafayette and honored with a handgrasp. On their return, the Rifles visited another distinguished Frenchman, Jerome Bonaparte, then living at Bordentown, New Jersey. For many years Mr. Drinkhouse was a member of the Lutheran church, and was a man thoroughly respected and admired. He lived well into his hundredth year, but died January 24, 1904, his one-hundredth birthday, had he lived, coming on the following April 17th.