Hon. Albert G. Egbert, M.D.

biography

Hon. Albert G. Egbert, M.D., a prominent citizen of Franklin, and Representative of the Twenty-seventh District of Pennsylvania in the Forty-fourth Congress of the United States, was born in Sandy Lake Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, April 13, 1828. His father, Louis Egbert, a native of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, was a farmer in comfortable circumstances, who spent most of his life in Mercer County, where he died in 1872. Mr. Egbert's mother, whose maiden name was Aseneth Nixon, was the daughter of John Nixon, a prosperous Ohio farmer. She was born in Ohio in 1796, and died at Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, in 1880. The subject of this sketch spent his entire boyhood and youth in the place of his birth. He received a good education in the English branches in the district schools of Mercer County, which he attended with regularity during the winter months, spending the rest of the year at farm work. At the age of twenty-two, having prudently saved a small sum of money from his earnings, he resolved to improve his education with a view to adopting one of the learned professions; and with this object entered the Austinburg Academy, in Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he studied diligently during two terms. In the fall of 1854 he began to study medicine under the preceptor ship of Dr. Fulton, of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania. In the following year he attended the regular course of lectures at the medical college at Cleveland, Ohio. He then became a student under Prof. H. A. Ackley, of Cleveland, under whose able instruction he remained until March, 1856, when he successfully passed all the required examinations and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Cleveland Medical College. In the summer of 1856 he began the practice of medicine at Clintonville, Venango County, Pennsylvania, in partnership with Dr. W. L. Whann, with whom he remained associated one year. He then removed to Cherry Tree, Venango County, and during the ensuing four years was actively engaged there in the practice of his profession. When petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania, Dr. Egbert was quick to perceive that the source of a most valuable natural product had been found and he immediately began prospecting in his locality. In March, 1859, he commenced the second well in Venango County. His success led to other ventures, and by the spring of 1861 he had become so largely interested in this product that he was obliged to relinquish the practice of medicine in order to devote his whole time and attention to his extensive and rapidly increasing business in oil. In May, 1861, he removed from Cherry Tree to Mercer, Pennsylvania. In 1864 he took a leading part in the organization of the First National Bank of that place, and was elected its President. In 1870 he resigned the Presidency of this institution and removed to Franklin, where he has continued to reside since that time. Naturally public-spirited, he took a deep interest in the welfare of the place from the day he become a resident of it. Well educated, skilled in business affairs, and successful in his undertakings, he proved a most welcome addition to the citizenship of Franklin, and in a very brief period took rank among its principal men. In 1874 he was honored by receiving the nomination of the Democratic party for the office of Representative from the Twenty-seventh District to the Forty-fourth Congress of the United States. Known to possess a thorough knowledge of the needs of the district and to be eminently capable of representing it in the National Legislature, and to be, moreover, a man of strict probity and unswerving devotion to duty, he received the open support at the polls of men of all shades of political belief, and was elected, defeating his opponent, Col. C. B. Curtis, of Erie, Pennsylvania, the nominee of the Republicans. This was, in every sense of the word, a remarkable victory, since the district had been rated as solidly Republican by at least four thousand majority. No better attest could be given of the esteem in which Dr. Egbert is held than this magnificent endorsement for a high public office. During his term in Congress Dr. Egbert was active in promoting the interests of his constituents by all honorable means, and was instrumental in advancing several important measures having a bearing upon his State. He made an excellent impression upon his Congressional colleagues and developed many warm friendships among them. At the expiration of his term Dr. Egbert was re-nominated for a second term, but not having any taste for a political career, and having, moreover, accomplished the great objects for which he had consented to act as the standard bearer of his party, he declined to accept the re-nomination. Although he has served in no other public capacity save the one named, Dr. Egbert has not been neglectful of the duties devolving upon him, for in his own peculiarly quiet and unobtrusive way he has been assiduous and liberal in fostering the business and industries of Franklin, and in promoting the public welfare. His private business interests are large and important and are concerned with valuable oil property in Venango County and extensive coal lands in Mercer County, the management of which occupies his time and attention. The poor and struggling have always found in him a sympathetic and considerate friend and adviser. He is ever ready to give deserving persons employment and to encourage and aid them in the battle of life, but he instinctively shrinks from any appearance of bestowing charity, and by the kindliness and wisdom of his methods is often successful in rousing a latent or disappointed ambition and self-helpfulness which mere charity without interest could never stimulate. Many persons who have evinced an honest determination to exert themselves in their own behalf have been liberally aided by him, and in the larger number of cases with most gratifying results. Possessed of solid intellectual acquirements, modest and refined manners and a kindly and helpful disposition, he holds a place in the regard of his friends, neighbors and the public generally which no mere business achievements or wealth alone could enable him to reach, and may be said to represent one of the best types of the successful American business man--that in which natural refinement and a cultivated mind go hand in hand with energy and unvarying honesty, and a broad and patriotic sense of the duties of citizenship in a free country. Dr. Egbert married, in 1860, Miss Eliza Phipps, daughter of Ex-Sheriff Phipps of Venango County, Pennsylvania. They have seven children living--four boys and three girls.