Hon. James F. Kline was born in Weisenberg Township, August 3, 1828. He was educated in the local schools and at schools at Gwynedd, Line Lexington, and Easton. His first employment was as clerk with Pretz, Kern, & Co., of Allentown. The fire of June 1, '848, destroyed his father's two store buildings and he supervised the erection of the new structures. He then purchased the store of Frank Kern and in 1849 became a partner with Franklin Hersh, but sold out a year later to Daniel Clader. In 1850, with William Kern, he opened a general store at 729 Hamilton Street, Allentown. In 1855, he built the Kline homestead at Orefield, where he resided from 1855 to 1899, during a great part of which time he was an iron-ore operator, employing as many as 150 people. He was a member of the Allentown Borough Council in 1854; mercantile appraiser; justice of the peace of South Whitehall, commissioned April 10. 1860; school director for six years; twice jury commissioner; and elected a Democratic member of the state legislature for three terms. He was a member of the Jordan Lutheran church, where he was deacon and treasurer and was a member of Lehigh Lodge, No. 326, F. & A. M. He died Feb. 10, 1899. Mr. Kline married, in 1850, Lydia, daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Guth) Kern, who died Aug. 9, 1884