Aaron Shenk Kreider, president of the A. S. Kreider Shoe Company, of Annville, and former representative in Congress from the district composed of Lebanon, Cumberland and Dauphin Counties, died Sunday morning at 2 o'clock at his home at Mt. Annville. Mr Kreider, who was 66 years old, was congined to bed for six weeks.
He had been in failing health for two years or more, suffering from diabetic troubles, which more recently was complicated by dropsy. During the past week he was in such a precarious condition that his death was momentarily expected. He suffered a sinking spell on Saturday a week ago which impelled doctors and nurses to summon out-of-town members of the family
Aaron Shenk Kreider, proprietor of the A. S. Kreider and Co. shoe factory, Annville, one of the large and important industries of that place, was born in South Annville township June 26, 1863, a son of David and Magdalena (Shenk) Kreider, the latter a daughter of Christian Shenk. Mrs. Kreider was born in 1818, in Dauphin county, and died in 1887, at the age of sixty-nine years.
Aaron S. Kreider was reared on the farm, and remained there until the death of his father, when he accompanied his mother to Campbelltown, Lebanon county. There he attended the public schools and later Lebanon Valley College, still later studying at the Allentown Business College, from which he graduated in 1880. Going west, he visited friends at Fulton Mo., and for some time engaged in farm work in that locality, later accepting a clerical position in the town, in the mercantile house Spicer, Smith and Co., remaining there about three years.
In the spring of 1883 he started out to make an overland trip through the western states, to see the country and for recreation, the journey covering Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and the two Dakotas, and ending in Minnesota. Toward the close of the year he returned to Pennsylvania and accepted a position as clerk in the hardware store of E. Dissinger, at Campbelltown, where he remained until the spring of 1885, and then took charge of Mr. Dissinger's store, at Roseland, Lebanon county.
In the spring of 1886 he began farming, and at the same time built a warehouse and coal landing on the Cornwall and Lebanon railroad, and brought to bear influence which resulted in the establishment of a post office at that point, which he named Lawn. Mr. Kreider is really the founder of the town, as there was nothing there when he secured the side-track in 1886. Engaged in his various lines of business, managing his farm and shipping grain and stock extensively, and also trading in horses and cattle Mr. Kreider was one of the most progressive and successful citizens of the village, where he remained until 1893, when he removed to Palmyra. Here he rented from the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co. coal yards, and from W. L. Kreider a warehouse, and began looking into the prospects for other indusrial enterprises.
He was thus engaged, when in the early nineties - about 1894 - a shoe factory at Palmyra, the only industry of that kind in the county at that time failed. Although he had only the "shoe-string" kind of money for investment himself, at that time, he had already made a reputation which inspired confidence, and Annville relatives and friends in the banking business, advanced him enough money to take over the defunct plant of the Palmyra Boot and Shoe Company. Although he was entirely strange to shoe manufacturing, he possessed the energy and enthusiasm to master its intricacies, and despite the handicap of a previous failure of the industry, he soon had it on a paying basis. He made the plant prosper, and in a few years he branched out and erected a plant in his home town of Annville. As his sons grew up he impressed them into the industry and continued to expand with the location of large factories in Elizabethtown, Middletown and two in Lebanon.
He became widely known in the shoe manufacturing industry of the country, and was associated with the National Association of Shoe Manufacturers.
As a member of its legislative committe he appeared before tariff commissions and similar bodies at Washington, and it was but a logical sequence that when Congressman Marlin E. Olmsted, representative of the Lebanon-Dauphin-Cumberland district passed away, that he was considered a logical successor. He was nominated and elected about 1912 and served on several important committees, and figured prominently in tariff legislation.
Meanwhile the shoe industry gained by leaps and bounds and sales agencies and jobbing houses were established in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco and other important large cities of the continent. In recent years however, erratic styles and changing features of the business turned the trend manufacture to arger industries and he closed down the of the Lebanon and Middletown plants. The Annville, Palmyra and Elizabethtown factories were still in operation at the time of his death.
Mr. Kreider was a conspicuous member of the United Brethren church, and represented that congregation for many years at national conventions in various parts of the country. He was active as an official in the Annville church of that denomination, and was a member of the Board of trustees of Lebanon Valley College.
His only fraternal connection, so far as known, was with Mt. Lebanon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons with which he was identified for many years.
Other enterprises with which Mr. Kreider was connected include the Lebanon Valley Savings and Loan Association, of which he is president, with headquarters at Lebanon, the Washington Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he has long been a director and for years vice president. He had been treasurer of the Pennsylvania Shoe Manufacturers' Association for some time following its organization September 19, 1899, and was a directory and member of the executive committee.
He was for many years a director of The Farmers Trust Company of Lebanon and for two or more past years was president of the board. He was also a director of the Annville National Bank, at the time of his death.
Besides his wife, nee Elizabeth Horst, a native of Heidelberg township, this county, he leaves a sister, Mrs. Lydia Kettering, of Annville, and the following children:
Robert Kreider, in charge of the Kreider shoe factory at Annville, and general supervisor of the Kreider manufacturing interests; Howard, Grantville, Aaron, Jr., in charge of the Elizabethtown factory; Clement, of Harrisburg; Henry, in charge of the Palmyra factory; George, a student at Yale University; Miss Nancy, a student at Columbia University, N. Y.; Miss Mary, at home, and Elizabeth, wife of William Boger, of Washington, D. C.
Ammon Kreider, a prominent Maryland airplane manufacturer, killed during an exhibition at Detroit, Mich. several weeks ago, was a son. His death was a severe blow to the father who was then confined to his home by illness, and the accident to the son is thought to have hastened the death of the father. The elder Mr. Kreider happened to answer the telephone when the Detroit call reached the house and the terrible news was imparted without any preparation to soften the shock.
The deceased was born June 26, 1868, and was therefore in the 66th year of his age.
The funeral will be held on Wednesday.
Lebanon Semi Weekly News - Monday, May 20, 1929