HENRY LANDEFELD, one of the most extensive travelers in Washington county, and proprietor of the largest clothing establishment in Monongahela, is of German birth, a son of Matthias Landefeld. Matthias Landefeld was born in 1794, in Hessen-Cassel, Germany, where he grew to manhood and received a thorough education. At the age of seventeen years he entered the German army as a volunteer under Blucher, and participated in all of the engagements led by that general, taking part in the world-renowned contest at Waterloo. He had three brothers in the service, all of whom died, and after the war he returned home and followed coal mining the rest of his life. In early manhood he was married in Hessen-Cassel to Mary Schoenewolf, who bore him twelve children, of whom are named the following: Louisa, Jacob, Louis, William, Reinhardt, Elizabeth, Eliza, Christina and Henry.
Henry Landefeld was born September 17, 1846 in Hessen-Cassel, Germany, and, as is characteristic of the Germans, enjoyed the advantages of a good education. He then spent four years in learning the tailor's trade, paying $60 tuition fee, and furnishing his own clothes in the meanwhile; a long, tedious, and, according to the ideas of many Americans, useless apprenticeship. But if the American people were more prone to emulate the painstaking, tedious preparation by which the Germans fit themselves for a chosen vocation, it would result in better workmen, higher pay, and better times. "Slow but sure" has ever been the excellent motto of the German Empire, and is the watchword of a nation of skilled workmen who can be excelled by none other in their special departments. After serving his time, Henry Landefeld started on a journeyman's tour, and from 1864 to 1865 remained at Hamburg, thence traveling through Holstein to Mecklenburg. He then spent four weeks in Hamburg, and from there went to Scotland, working in Leith and Edinburgh. He lay ill six months at the latter place, and upon recovering attempted in vain to secure work in Glasgow; so returned to Edinburgh. Some time afterward he again went to Glasgow and worked there several years; then spent three weeks in Liverpool, from which place he proceeded to Manchester, and in 1867 returned to Liverpool. He then enlisted in the Fifty-second British regiment, and remained with it five years, having been in the service during the Fenian trouble at Dublin, Ireland. From Dublin they marched to Limerick, and one year later went to Cork, thence to Malta, where they were stationed four years. He there deserted the army, and after remaining on the island three weeks, escaped as a stowaway on a vessel bound for Constantinople, Turkey. From Constantinople, he went to Egypt and Tripoli; thence to Gibraltar, where he lay sick several weeks. On recovering, he embarked at Gibraltar on an American-bound vessel, and, working his way across, first landed in New York. He then left the vessel, and in 1872, after a short stay in New York, went to Pittsburgh, Penn., where he was married on September 17, 1874, to Emily Steinecke, and there followed his trade until 1875. He then went to Salineville, Ohio, remaining there one year, and finally coming to Monongahela, engaged as a tailor and cutter with Silas Haley, for whom he worked twenty-three months. At the end of that time he began business for himself as a tailor and clothing merchant, and six years later purchased another establishment, which he remodeled in 1884. In 1890 he erected his present place of business, which is 135x33 feet in size, and four stories in height, being one of the finest buildings in the Monongahela Valley. This is the largest merchant tailor establishment near Pittsburgh, and also carries a full line of furnishing goods and ready-made clothing. Mr. Landefeld has won his remarkable success by his own efforts, and is deeply interested in all public improvements. His children have been born as follows: Minnie C., Charles H., Theodore S., Russell A., Reinhardt L., Frederick W., William M. and Charles W.
Text taken from page 1358 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed January 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ [Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]