FREDERICK EBERHARD was born in Stuttgard, Wurtemberg, Germany, March 5, 1809. He learnt the trade of a copper smith in his native land. At the age of twenty-one he arrived in Philadelphia, where he found employment with the construction gang that built the first railroad between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Later he came to Mauch Chunk from which place he went out to work in the coalmines at Summit Hill. Coal and other produce was floated down the Lehigh and Delaware rivers to Philadelphia on barges or "Arks" as some people called them, and seeing profit in the business, Mr. Eberhard and a companion secured two mules and started in to float barges. This was done before the canal was constructed. The barge was loaded, and then two mules placed on the front end of it, and the trip was begun. When the water was high the movement was rapid, but when the water was low and the current sluggish the trip was tedious. After Philadelphia was reached both cargo and barge were sold and the boatmen started to ride back astride the mules, anxious to begin another trip. Mr. Eberhard however, purchased jewelry of all descriptions in the city and employed his time on the return trip by peddling his wares.

In about 1831 he went to work in the copper mines at Flemington, N. J. Here he met and married Miss Catherine, daughter of Peter Tillman and (nee Miller), in 1832 whereupon he moved into a small house at Dry Run close to where the trolley now stands. For a while he made trips to Mauch Chunk where he labored as a blacksmith, twenty=sin days a month at $18. When the erection of the furnaces began, Mr. Eberhard was employed to open the quarry stone at the pit above the Hokendauqua Bridge. This is now the St. Lawrence Quarry. Practically all the the stone used to build the first live furnaces at Front Street was quarried here by Mr. Eberhard and the stone floated down the canal on barges. Mr. Eberhard contracted with the Crane Company for limestone to be used in Smelting iron; this he quarried out of the pit on Jonas Biery's farm, which now is the properrty of the Davies & Thomas Company. It was at this lime that Mr. Eberhard erected his home on the corner of Front and Mulberry Streets, into which he moved his family. He also opened a quarry and by so doing, prepared the site of the Lehigh Valley depot. This stone was hauled in small narrow-gauge cars drawn by mules over a bridge to the furnaces.

In 1864 Mr. Eberhard retired and moved to Second and Turner Streets, Allentown. In 1880 he bought the Peter Miller farm of 76 acres in Whitehall Township beyond the Round-house of the C. & F. R. R., and opened stone quarries. He also moved his family to this beautiful spot. Mr. Eberhard accumulated a great deal of property. He held stocks in the Lehigh Valley R. R., the Lehigh Coal Company, the Allentown National Bank, the Thomas Iron Company, the Wahnetah Silk Mill, and was a charter member of the Catasauqua Gas Company. He was a shrewd businessman, a staunch Republican, and a firm confessor of his faith as set forth in the Augsburg Confession. He died June 24, 1893, at the age of eighty-four years.

Obit.