Edwin S. Herman (Sr.) (New Cumberland, PA)
Edwin S. Herman (Sr.) (May 9, 1864 – June 5, 1948)
Biography
- Name: Edwin S. Herman (Sr.)
- Birth: May 9, 1864, Lewisberry, York Co., PA
- Death: June 5, 1948, Harrisburg, PA
On his 80th birthday anniversary, May 9, 1944, Edwin S. Herman was a guest of honor at a dinner party at which guests, in addition to his immediate family, included officers, directors, and other representatives of the several business institutions with which he had been identified with for many years. Herman's interests reached into a number of fields: banking, transportation, hotel, hosiery manufacturing and he was one of the original members of Harrisburg's Planning Commission. But his chief concern through almost two generations was in the John C. Herman and Company which manufactured cigars and which until January 1, 1940, had maintained a retail and wholesale tobacco and confectionery business in North Market Square in the store room of the Herman-owned Calder Building, later occupied by a State liquor store.
Born in Lewisberry, York County, May 9, 1864, he was one of three children of John C. and Frances McGrew Herman. His father who fought in the historic Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville battles of the Civil War, engaged in the tobacco business in York County immediately after the war and in 1866 helped establish the Herman & Hay wholesale and retail tobacco business in Harrisburg. John C. Herman was elected mayor of Harrisburg in 1881, but failed to receive the Republican's nomination for a second term in 1883. The son, Edwin, graduated from the old Harrisburg High School and he immediately joined his father in the tobacco business. The father's untimely death left the son in charge of the business which he conducted eight years as the Herman Estate and then subsequently, as John C. Herman Company, retiring January 1, 1940, when he sold the business to his two sons, John C. and Edwin S. Herman, Jr. Edwin S. Herman, became interested in municipal affairs, identified himself with the old Board of Trade and was one of the original directors of the Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce formed in January 1914. When commission form of government replaced the bi-cameral system in 1914 under the Clark Act which also gave Third Class Cities the right to establish city planning commissions, Harrisburg set up such a planning body and "Ed" Herman was one of the first appointees. He served successively until he retired voluntarily on April 27, 1943, having completed 29 years, most of it as Chairman of the Commission.
He was made a director of the Harrisburg Trust Company in 1895, and was a member of its executive committee from 1910 until his death. In 1904 he became a director and president of the New Cumberland National Bank which was absorbed in a merger by the New Cumberland Bank on December 21, 1938. He was chairman of the board of the merged bank, the New Cumberland Bank which changed its name to the Cumberland County National Bank and Trust Company in 1946. His affiliation with the Harrisburg Railways Company and its former underlying companies dated back many years and he was railways director up to the time of his death. Likewise, he was a director of the Harrisburg Hotel Company, owner of the Penn-Harris property. The old Moorhead Knitting Company was another of his interests.
On the morning of June 5, 1948, Edwin Stanton Herman, 84, retired tobacconist and city planner, whose philanthropies were extended through a number of agencies, died in the Harrisburg Hospital at 6:45. His death resulted from complications which developed after he fell at home last May 16th, exactly one week after his 84th birthday anniversary. Herman suffered a broken hip and had been a patient in the hospital three weeks. His home was at 2933 North Second Street. In the Winter of 1945 he fell on ice and suffered a fracture of a hip. He recovered completely from that injury and attended to his own business matters, which brought him into the central part of the city at regular intervals prior to the second fall.
He was a former trustee and steward of Grace Methodist Church, in which he held membership since 1917; he was made a Mason by Robert Burns Lodge No. 464 on May 20, 1886, and he was identified with Harrisburg Consistory and Zembo Temple of the Shrine. Herman was a liberal supporter of the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association and the Community Chest and Council, as well as the original Harrisburg Welfare Federation. More than a generation ago before many dwellings were erected north of Maclay Street, Herman and A.G. Knisely erected the large twin stone mansions at Front and Maclay streets which remained the residences of those families until January 6, 1942, when the State took them over with all the ground bounded by Front, Second, Maclay and Geiger Streets. Until just before the war, the Herman family also had occupied a summer home at Adequect through many seasons.
Herman's wife, who was C. Almeda Kunkel Wallower Herman, died November 1, 1942. In addition to his two sons, Herman was survived by two daughters, Mrs. Harry T. Neale, the former Frances Herman, and Mrs. E. J. Fager, the former Almeda Herman, both of Harrisburg; 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Bank Officer Summary
During his banking career, Ed. S. Herman was involved with the following bank(s):
- New Cumberland NB, New Cumberland, PA (Charter 7349): President 1904-1935
- Harrisburg Trust Company, Harrisburg, PA: Director 1910...1948
- New Cumberland Bank/Cumberland County National Bank and Trust Company: Chairman of the Board 1938...1948
Sources
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- The Evening News Harrisburg, PA, Sat., June 5, 1948.