Robert S. Rathbun    

ROBERT S. RATHBUN, engineer and contractor, was born at Rathbun, Elk County, Pa., September 3, 1869. He was the son of George and Rebecca (Schwenk) Rathbun. He was educated in the public schools of Allentown, and in 1892 was graduated as a civil engineer from Lehigh University. He was engaged as engineer of construction on the Ohio extension of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, in the states of West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Later he was employed as a designer of bridges for the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad of the Erie system; and from April, 1894, to June, 1897, was city engineer of Allentown. From 1897 to 1898 he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession which, in 1908, he combined with the contracting business. This enterprise has developed into an extensive and profitable business, having involved since its inception, millions of dollars’ worth of work, either connected with the construction or design of industrial plants and kindred structures located in eastern Pennsylvania and vicinity, and has required at various times the employment of hundreds of men, as well as a score of engineers. Mr. Rathbun maintains offices in Allentown, Bethlehem and South Bethlehem, and has built many of the newer buildings of the Bethlehem Steel Company. He is popular socially, and a member of a number of social and fraternal organizations. On October 17, 1898, he married Lilly L., daughter of Walter H. and Sarah B. (Nolf) Biery.

Men of Allentown, Allentown, Pa. by Fred L. Shankweiler, 1917, page 62. View the image of this page on line, Free Trial  More Lehigh County History Books   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.