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Benjamin Meinder was born in December 1815 in Oley Township, Berks County, PA, the son of Burkhard and Elizabeth (Konrath) Meinder. 

He married Christiana Albright (1820-1911). They resided in Hamburg, Windsor Township, Berks County, where Benjamin labored for decades as a blacksmith. Hamburg was known as a stop on the Reading to Pottsville turnpike and Pennsylvania canal, and was a center for boat building. 

The Meinders had nine known children -- Alfred Franklin Meinder, Augustus Meinder, Jeremias "Jeremiah" Meinder, Charles Meinder, Walter Meinder, Sophia Shuman, Alice Meinder, Franklin Meinder and Sarah Meinder. They also raised a grandson, Daniel Oxenford (a.k.a. Meinder).

When the federal census was taken in 1850, of Hamburg, blacksmiths William Wagner (age 18) and Jacob Fridrick (17) lived under their roof, and likely were apprentices. The family remained in Hamburg during the 1850s and the 1860s. 

The census of 1860 shows that Benjamin's primary occupation had changed to boat building. In 1863, he completed a steam ship weighing 159.77 tons, with 104 horsepower. Using a play on words, it was christened the "Bay Meinder." It was sent to its new home port in Philadelphia, PA where it was in service for several decades. By 1870, it has been re-christened the Benjamin Meinder (also spelled "Benjamin Minder"). In 1878, it was based in Baltimore, weighing a reduced 135 tons. That year, it made 32 trips on the North Landing River in Virginia, bound for the Roanoke River. At some point, by 1882, the Meinder was transferred to a new home port in Norfolk, VA, reduced to 127.70 gross tonnage. In an 1880 census report of marine engines and steam vessels, the Meinder was noted for "plying from Plymouth, North Carolina, as far north as Philadelphia [and] has one 18" by 18" non-condensing engine; boiler-pressure allowed, 50 pounds." Noted as a "barge" in the 1893 publication, Twenty-Fifth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States in a section on unrigged vessels, its official government number was 2400. Its final outcome is unknown.

Benjamin had an entrepreneurial bent, and in August 1868 announced that he was preparing to construct a new brewery on Main Street in Hamburg. Said the Reading Eagle, it was to be built "in a section called 'Prospect Park.' because of the fine view it afforded of the town." Earlier in the year, his employee Benedict Mirkhberger died a traffic, horrific death. On a Saturday night in early February 1868, Mirkhberger entered Popp's Brewery, a competitor located in Hamburg. "Whilst there [he] accidentally fell into a brewing tub containing hot water, scalding him in a shocking manner," reported the Reading Eagle. "He lingered until Sunday evening, when death ended his sufferings."

The specific fates of the boat-building and brewing firms is not known, but they did not stand the test of time. Standard history books about Berks County do not mention them by name. The 1909 Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, by Morton L. Montgomery, states the following in a chapter about the borough of Hamburg: "Numerous industries, such as for the distillation of whiskey, the brewing of beer, the building of boats, the manufacture of leather, bricks, chains, nails, wool hats, etc., were carried on for many years in the early history of this place as a town and afterward as a borough, but these have been abandoned for many years."

The 1870 census lists Benjamin's occupation as blacksmithing. At that time, apprentice blacksmiths Henry Reitz (age 21) and David Heckman (18) boarded in the Meinder home. 

Benjamin died in February 1880. He was laid to rest in the Saint Johns Cemetery in Hamburg.

When the census again was taken in 1880, widow Christiana (named as "Dinah") headed a household including sons Walter and Franklin and daughter Alice. Walter's occupation was "laborer" and Franklin's as a "cigar maker" while Alice was simply shown as "at home." 

The 1900 census shows Christiana living alone in Hamburg at the age of 77. She told the census taker that she had birthed 10 children but that only two of them were living at that time. In 1910, residing with her married daughter Sophia Shuman in Hamburg, she reported that she had birthed four children, with only one alive.

Christiana passed away in about 1911. She rests with her husband in Saint Johns Cemetery, with a prominent stone marking their grave.

~ Son Alfred Franklin Meinder ~ 

Son Alfred Franklin Meinder (1842-1845) was born in 1842 and died at the age of three in 1845. He is buried in the Saint Johns Cemetery in Hamburg, Berks County. (link) 

~ Son Augustus Meinder ~ 

Son Augustus Meinder (-1845-) died in infancy and was laid to rest in St. Johns Cemetery. (link)

~ Son Jeremiah Meinder ~ 

Son Jeremias "Jeremiah" Meinder (1846-1878) was born in 1846 in Hamburg, Berks County. 

He served in the Army during the Civil War, as a member of the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, considered part of the "Militia of 1863." He was given the post of musician of Company D. This regiment was mustered into military service in early July 1863 and discharged on Aug. 20, 1863, after a month-and-a-half of duty. He may well have re-enlisted in 1864. 

Jeremiah married Augusta Blake (?) (1841- ? ), a native of New York, and presumably the daughter of Elizabeth Blake, also of New York. In 1870, Jeremiah, Augusta and Elizabeth made their home together in the 4th Ward of Reading, Berks County. That year, Jeremiah worked as a boat builder, likely for his father.

He died in August 1878, and is buried in the Meinder family plot in Saint Johns Cemetery, Hamburg, Berks County. (link)

~ Son Charles Meinder ~ 

Son Charles Meinder (1848-1885) was born on March 7, 1848 in Hamburg. He married Mary J. Schadler (1851-1915). They are thought to have had two sons -- Frederick Meinder (born 1872) and Charles Benjamin Meinder (born 1880).  

Railroad station in Hamburg, early 1900s

Charles passed away on Feb. 20, 1885, at the age of 37. No obituary has been found in the Reading Eagle. 

Mary survived him by three decades. The federal census of 1900 shows her living on Fourth Street in Hamburg with sons Frederick (age 28, a moulder) and Charles (19, laborer). 

She died on Nov. 25, 1915. They rest for eternity in the Saint Johns Cemetery in Hamburg. (link)

Son Frederick Meinder (1872-1956) was born in 1872. Frederick made news in the Reading Eagle during Christmas Week in 1912, when he "sustained two fractures of the right leg, between the knee and ankle, in a fall near the corner of Pine and fourth Streets." He was employed circa 1927 by Speidel's Foundry in Hamburg. He died in 1956 and is buried at St. Johns Cemetery.

Son Charles Benjamin Meinder (1880- ? ) was born on Nov. 4, 1880 in Hamburg. He was of medium height and build, with brown eyes and black hair. At the age of 29, Charles was employed as a shoemaker in Reading. He married Lillian I. Foreman (1880- ? ) on Feb. 9, 1910, when he and she both were age 29, with the ceremony performed by justice of the peace James P. Boyle of Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, PA. In September 1918, when he registered for the military draft during World War I, he listed Lillian as his nearest relative and their residence as 37 Mulberry in Reading. At the time, his occupation was shoemaker for the Curtis & Jones company located at 8th and Oley Streets in Reading. The federal census of 1920 lists the family on Mulberry Street in Reading, with Lillie's sister Kathryn A. Foreman living under their roof. In 1920, Charles labored as a "first laster" in the shoe factory, a role involving the removal of tacks from the soles, sides and back of a forming shoe, and then sent on to a stitching specialist for sewing together. Their fates after that are unknown.

~ Son Walter Meinder ~ 

Son Walter Meinder (1851- ? ) lived at home with his widowed mother in 1880, when he was age 27. That year, the census-taker recorded his occupation as "laborer." Nothing more of his life is known.

~ Daughter Sophia (Meinder) Shuman ~ 

Daughter Sophia Meinder (1855-1916) was born on July 6, 1854 in Hamburg. At the age of 19, in about 1873, she married Charles Shuman (1851-1920). They had at least three children -- William Shuman, Frederick Shuman and Sarah "Sallie" Walrath. 

When the census was enumerated in 1880, the Shumans lived in Hamburg, where Charles plied his craft as a cabinet maker. In 1900, the family resided on Third Street in Hamburg, a short distance away from Sophia's widowed mother. In their household were daughters Sallie and Kate, grandson Bryan J. Shuman (born October 1895) and granddaughter Sallie Bishoff (born February 1900). Sadly, the census-taker recorded that of the Shumans' 10 children, only three were alive at the time. 

By 1910, still living in Hamburg, Charles worked as a night watchman in a silk mill, and Sophia's 88-year-old widowed mother resided under their roof. 

Sophia died of a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) on March 10, 1916, with burial in the old Meinder family plot at the St. Johns Cemetery. No obituary has been found in the Reading Eagle. 

Charles outlived his wife by four years. He died on Dec. 4, 1920. (link)

Son William Shuman (1872- ? ) 

Son Frederick Shuman (1877-1929) was born on Nov. 10, 1877 in Hamburg. He is believed to have served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War. He died on June 23, 1929, at the age of 52. He rests in St. John Cemetery. (link)

Daughter Sarah S. Shuman (1883-1966) was born in November 1879 in Hamburg. She wed Harry E. Walrath ( ? -1959). Harry passed away in 1959. Sarah resided in Leesport and died in January 1966, at the age of 83, in the home of a nephew William B. Shuman of 341 Main Street in Reading.

Daughter Catherine L. "Kate" Shuman (1881- ? ) was born in January 1881. At the age of 28, she lived at home with her parents in Hamburg, and was employed as an operator at an underwear mill.

Grandson Bryan J. (or "K.) Shuman (1897- ? ) lived with his grandparents in Hamburg in 1910, at the age of 13. By 1920, he had struck out on his own, and secured a job in Bethlehem, Northampton County, as a machinist in a steel works. That year, he boarded in the home of Edwin and Elizabeth Weaver.

~ Daughter Alice Meinder ~ 

Daughter Alice Meinder (1857- ? ) resided in Hamburg. 

At the age of 25, in 1881, rumors began to circulate that she had given birth to a baby out of wedlock "and in some manner caused its death, after it was born, to conceal her same," reported a front-page story in the Reading Daily Eagle. On May 28, 1881, Detective Denhard went to the Meinder house in Hamburg to arrest Alice. Said the Eagle: "He found her at home and when he made known the object of his visit she was overcome with grief. She admitted the birth of the child, but stoutly declared that she in no way was responsible for its death." 

According to testimony from a friend, the baby was born at the home of the mother of Alice's friend Miss Moyer. Said the Eagle, "it was wrapped up in an old cape and deposited in a trunk, where it was kept from Tuesday until the following Saturday morning, when it was taken out of the trunk by Miss Meinder and conveyed to her own home, where it was further kept for about a week, when Undertaker Burkey was notified to call and bury it, which he did." Somehow Alice raised the necessary bail of $500 but faced a court hearing in August 1881. 

Nothing more of the outcome of the legal proceeding is known. She may have died unmarried but this needs to be confirmed. An "Alice Meinder" is buried in her parents' cemetery plot at St. Johns, and a faded stone marks her final resting place, but no dates of birth or death are inscribed thereon. (link)

~ Son Franklin Meinder ~ 

Son Franklin Meinder (1859- ? ) was a cigar maker as of 1880, when at age 24 he resided under his mother's roof with a few of his adult siblings.

~ Daughter Sarah Meinder ~ 

Daughter Sarah Meinder (1862- ? ) is lost to history.