DAVID FAUST, Merchant and Banker, was born in Allen township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1814, his father being of German descent and a farmer. The town of Catasauqua now occupies a portion of his homestead farm. What education he received was at the country school of his neighborhood, in which, at that day, instruction was given wholly in the German language. In his fifteenth year he entered a country store, where he remained until 1833, when he removed to Philadelphia to seek his fortune in that city. Very limited in means, and speaking English but imperfectly, the outlook was not bright. He obtained, however, a position in the hardware store of Reeves, Buck & Co., where his strict attention to business and determined efforts to please secured his early advancement by his employers. In 1838, he was admitted as junior partner to the firm, which changed to the style of Reeves & Fraley, and later to Allen R. Reeves & Co. In 1842, he retired from this partnership, and associating with himself D. S. Winebrenner, established the hardware house of Faust & Winebrenner, which, in 1861, became David Faust & Co. Business, meanwhile, had prospered, and the reputation of the firm in mercantile circles increased, so that, in 1864, he was enabled, after over thirty years of commercial life, to retire from that branch of industry on a well-earned competency. A life of ease, however, was not his desire, and the next year, 1865, he was chosen President of the Union National Bank, an institution of which he had been one of the original corporators and on its Board of Directors since its organization. In such public enterprises he has always manifested an active interest, contributing as far as in his power to the success of the former steam lines to Charleston, South Carolina, Richmond, Norfolk, and other Southern ports, and also to that of the Pennsylvania and North Pennsylvania Railroads. Of the gentlemen with whom he was associated during his mercantile career, Frederic Fraley, the only surviving member of the old firm of Reeves, Buck & Co., is the President of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and D. S. Winebrenner is now a member of the firm of Armstrong & Winebrenner. His marriage occurred May 2, 1839, and he enjoys in the relations of social life the same esteem, which the commercial community is unanimous in according him. As a bank president his financial insight and ready appreciation of the monetary demands of the period, are acknowledged by all who are brought in contact with him.