John Jacob Kreidler was born in Nazareth Township, Northampton County. November 1, 1833, and died in February 1895. Like his American forbears, he spent the greater part of his life in farming, and to this devoted himself exclusively, as far as his private interests were concerned, but he was elected to many important positions in his community and in the county. For twenty years, in his early life, he was a schoolteacher. He filled the offices of tax collector, justice of the peace, school director, county auditor, and in his incumbency of public office created a record for faithful and capable administration. He was a popular official; his popularity based no more on his genial friendliness than on his strict integrity and incorruptible uprightness. He was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, enlisting in 1863 and being honorably discharged from the service nine months afterward. For several years prior to his death he lived in quiet retirement on his farm. He married Malinda Gold, daughter of Christian and Elizabeth (Knecht) Gold, and they were the parents of: Elmer John, of whom further; Edna Elizabeth, married William Henry Johnson, a farmer of Newburg, and they are the parents of one son, George, born in April, 1S98, employed by the Bethlehem Steel Company.