John L. Becker    

John L. Becker, one of the well known and well established merchants of Washington, proprietor of a well stocked and admirably appointed shoe store on North Main street, was born in the neighboring county of Allegheny, February 11, 1883, and is a son of John and Mary (Schmidt) Becker, who later became residents of Washington and, the latter of whom is still living here. She was born in Washington, May 9, 1857, a daughter of Charles and Amelia (Dettis) Schmidt, whose last days were spent in South Strabane township, this county. Charles Schmidt was born in Wittenberg in Saxony (Prussia) and was there trained as a shoemaker. As a young man he came to this country and after his marriage was for a time a resident of Baltimore, later coming over into this part of Pennsylvania and locating in Washington, where he was in business as a custom shoemaker, with particular reference to the making of women’s fine shoes, until his retirement and removal to a small farm he had bought in South Strabane township, where his last days were spent, his death occurring there on February 14, 1892, he then being seventy-two years of age. His widow survived him for more than four years, passing away on April 4, 1896, when she was sixty-six years of age. They were members of the Lutheran church.

John Becker, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the city of Pittsburgh, June 19, 1856, a son of John and Margaret Becker, natives of Germany, the former of whom was a soldier of the Union, and was killed in the Civil war. The junior John Becker engaged in the barber business and upon his removal from Allegheny to Washington established himself in a shop under the Warrick grocery on South Main street. He is a republican and a member of the Second Presbyterian church.

Reared in Washington, John L. Becker was graduated from the high school when sixteen years of age, in 1899, and then became a clerk in the Warrick grocery. A year later he transferred his services to the E. C. Horn shoe store and was there as a salesman for seven years, at the end of which time he and Frank H. Berthel bought that store and carried on the business under the firm name of Berthel & Becker until Mr. Becker sold his interest in the store to his partner and moved to Pittsburgh. where he spent a year connected with the operations of the Hannan shoe store. He then returned to Washington and on March 23, 1914. opened his present shoe store at No. 25 North Main street, where he ever since has been in business and where he has done very well. Mr. Becker is a republican, a member of the Second Presbyterian church and of the locally influential Kiwanis Club of Washington. He is an enthusiastic Mason and has attained to all the degrees in that ancient body available to the inquirer and is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, affiliated with Syria Temple at Pittsburgh. His thirty-second degree Scottish Rite affiliation is with the consistory at Pittsburgh, his Knight Templar connection is with the Jacques de Molay Commandery No. 3, at Washington, and he also is connected with the local chapter (No. 150), Royal Arch Masons, and with the local council (No. 1), Royal and Select Masters, at Washington. His initial connection with Freemasonry was acquired through Sunset Lodge No. 623, F. & A. M., at Washington, and he is the present (1925) senior warden of that lodge.

On November 4, 1909, in Canonsburg, this county, John L. Becker was united in marriage to Miss Florence B. Denny, who died on March 10, 1921, leaving two children: A son, John Lawrence Becker, born July 28, 1911; and a daughter, Helen Florence, born August 24, 1919. The late Mrs. Florence Becker was born in Canonsburg, November 28, 1880, and was graduated from the high school in that city. She was a daughter of John A. and Frances (Aiken) Denny, the latter of whom, a native of Ohio, is still living, now a resident of Washington. The late John A. Denny was a native of Washington county and his life was spent here, his death occurring in Canonsburg on February 9, 1913. He was for years in business in that city, a dealer in agricultural implements and in grain and feed. He was an office-bearer in the local church of the United Presbyterian communion and in his political views held to the tenets of the democratic party.

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1926; Forrest, Earle Robert, Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., pages 225-226.  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.