The "Martin Shreiner: Jack of all Trades" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just came back from the pawn shop with a few of my dad's old watches that had been left on top of his refrigerator when he died.  He was a watchmaker and people would give him watches to fix and he would place them in a tray on the fridge until he had time to look at them.  Well, none of the watches were worth anything.  About the only thing I got out of it was a few memories about dad and a story about the watchmaking and clock-making trade in Lancaster, PA.  Dad went to Bowman's School on the corner of North Duke and East Chestnut to learn the art of watchmaking.  The school was founded by Jacob Bowman in 1867.  Many fine watchmakers learned their trade by going to this school.  But, one of Lancaster's most famous clock-makers was born a century before the school was started.  Martin Shreiner was born in Lancaster, January 23, 1767 and learned the trade of clock-making from John Eberman.  Mr. Eberman, with the help of Martin, built the first town clock that Lancaster ever had.  Martin Shreiner eventually set up business in Lancaster and continued in clock-making until 1829.  He made over 300 clocks in his lifetime before turning to manufacturing fire engines. Not sure how the two are related, but Mr. Shreiner must have.  One of the first fire engines manufactured by him was that made for a hose company in Lebanon, PA.  In 1819 Martin was elected by Lancaster City Council to be one of the first street regulators of Lancaster.  Not quite sure what a street regulator did, but I'm sure he did it well.  He also was a director of the poor in Lancaster and in 1832 was on the committee that was instrumental in having the Columbia and Philadelphia railway brought through the city of Lancaster.   But it was in 1834 that he built the celebrated "American fire engine" with two chambers, eight and a half inches in diameter, which at its first trial forced water to the top of the local Lutheran Church steeple, two hundred feet high.  This fire engine was one of the antique vehicles that I wrote about in my "Pumper #1 story on Friday, September 21, 2012.  But, with all his achievements in life, he is best known for laying out and building the first cemetery in Lancaster City in 1836.  On the corner of North Mulberry and West Chestnut street, near his family home, on two adjacent city building lots, he established the cemetery that now bears the name of Shreiner-Concord Cemetery.  It was best known because it had no restrictions as to the interment of persons of color.  That is the main reason that Thaddeus Stevens chose it as his last resting place.  More than 40 known veterans of military service are buried at Shreiner-Concord Cemetery, most from the Civil War.  Records indicate four African Americans are interred there, but the remains of many more may also be present. It is a really neat, very-well maintained, little cemetery that has the characteristics of a public park.  I recently visited the cemetery and found Martin Shriener's monument with the inscription on it that read: Farewell Tis Ours Thy Virtues To Deplore. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

Fire engine built by Martin Shreiner

Plaque that is at the entrance to the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery.

On a monument at the entrance to the cemetery.

Martin Shreiner's  tombstone.