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DP Highberger Wilkinsburg PA | D.P. HIGHBERGER WILKINSBURG, PA - Tin face lamp marked on font up and down D.P. HIGHBERGER WILKINSBURG, PA, double spout with wick, 2 in. high to lid [David P. Highberger was born in January 1844 in Pennsylvania. He was trained as a tinsmith and in 1865 he and his wife Catharine were married. The 1870 US Census shows them living in Knoxville Township, Iowa and he was working as a tinner. The marriage produced 3 children, 2 sons and a daughter. By 1880, the family had moved to Irwin, PA and he was working as a tinsmith. Sometime around the mid-1880s, D. P. Highberger started a business to manufacture mine lamps. Both the 1890 and 1896 editions of The Railroad, Telegraph and Steamship Builder’s Directory list Highberger as a mine lamp manufacturer located in Irwin, PA. In 1891 D. P. and his youngest son Charles N. Highberger started a hardware business named D. P. Highberger and Son in Wilkinsburg, PA about 14 miles northwest of Irwin. An article in the November 1893 edition of The Iron Age notes that his son Charles died unexpectedly at age 25. Apparently, Highberger was making and selling mine lamps simultaneously through businesses located in both Irwin and Wilkinsburg. US Census records for 1900 show D. P. and Catharine living at 407 Hay St. in Wilkinsburg with his occupation as hardware merchant. Census records for 1920 still list them living in Wilkinsburg. Little is known of the disposition of his hardware business. The Irwin marking is likely earlier than the Wilkinsburg stamping.] | Original Image |
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