| Notes |
- Supt. Buehrle had his boyhood home in Bucks county, and at the age of seven started on the tow-path of the Lehigh canal, which he followed every season until the fall of 1858, when he literally slept from the canal boat to the teacher’s platform, although he averaged but two months a year at school up to that time. He now zealously devoted himself to study at the Bucks County Normal and Classical School, at Quakertown, where he was a classmate of Dr. J. S. Stahr, president of Franklin and Marshall College, and of Dr. George U. Wenner, a prominent Lutheran divine of New York. He was soon appointed assistant, but after two years he again took charge of a country school, this time near Allentown, Pa. There he married Anna M. Lazarus, a daughter of Jacob Lazarus, a prosperous farmer. In the spring of 1863, he assumed charge of Weaversville Academy, in Northampton county, then soon resigning to enter the motive power department of the Pennsylvania Railroad as clerk, at Bishop’s, then under the superintendency of Andrew Carnegie.
At the expiration of two years Dr. Buehrle returned to the profession of teaching, as principal of the Allentown boys’ high school, and three years later he was unanimously appointed first city superintendent of Allentown, and also ex-officio principal of the high school, to which position he was successively re-elected until 1878, when he declined to accept the office. Under his supervision the schools became widely known for their complete and effective organization and the excellence of the buildings erected. His advice was sought by boards of directors in distant parts of the state, and even after his departure from this field officers of the board were eager to consult him; so successful had been his administration there that the chief direction given his successor by the board was to follow in his footsteps and to attempt no reforms.
In 1878, when Reading was casting about for a suitable person to serve that city as superintendent of schools, State Superintendent Wickersham wrote to them recommending Supt. Buehrle, of Allentown, and he was accordingly elected, and accepted the position, but remained only two years, when he resigned to become the first city superintendent of Lancaster. While at Reading, Franklin and Marshall College conferred on him the honorary degree of M. A. Though remaining there but a short time, he exerted so marked an influence that when he departed, to enter upon his work at Lancaster, his journey thither resembled an ovation, accompanied as he was by the mayor and other public officials of the city, besides a large number of school controllers, especially the officers and chairmen of the chief committees. He was probably the first school officer in the country to whom a complimentary dinner was given by the school authorities in token of their high esteem.
As superintendent at Lancaster Dr. Buehrle has labored diligently in the cause of public education; his thorough organization of the schools, and his judicious, well-directed and progressive administration of them, are universally recognized. A zealous champion of what he believes to be their best interests, he nevertheless inclines to the conservative rather than to the destructive. Striving for the establishment of what is fundamental, he has devoted himself most earnestly to the education—the instruction—of teachers—of those who are the chief factors in the work under his supervision. In doing this he has been continuously engaged in instructing classes of teachers, and it was largely to promote this end that he had become the author of “Grammatical Praxis” and “Arithmetical Exercises.” In recognition of his devotion to the study of literature—especially the languages—he became acquainted with Latin, Greek, German and French, besides being a contributor to Egle’s History of Pennsylvania, to Webster’s and to Murray’s English dictionaries—Franklin and Marshall College, in 1886, conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Buehrle is also a close student of the literature of his profession, a contributor to educational journals, and is noted for wide and thorough scholarship, as well as for his advocacy of the classics and collegiate training.
In the Pennsylvania State Teachers’ Association he has taken an active and influential part, and he is also an active member of the National Educational Association. He has been especially prominent in the formation of the City and Borough Superintendents’ Association of Pennsylvania, which originated in a preliminary meeting, of which he was president, held at Lancaster in 1888. In 1893 he was elected its president a second time. He is a charter member of the Penn-German Society, in the organization of which he was very active; a Royal Arch Mason, being a past master of Barger Lodge, No. 333, at Allentown; and a member of Chapter No. 13, R. A. M., of Lancaster. He has widely identified himself with whatever makes for the improvement of his adopted city; is a member of the Mechanics Library Society, of the Lancaster County Historical Society, an associate member of the Linnean Society, a director of the Lancaster General Hospital, and of the West End Building Association. In religion he is a Lutheran, a prominent member of Christ Church, and has been identified with Sunday-school work since 1859, the greater part of the time as superintendent. It was on his motion, at the meeting of the General Council held at Chicago in 1888, that a committee on a Sunday-school Course of Instruction was appointed, of which he is still a member, and which has created the council’s excellent graded course.
Politically a Republican, he believes in civil service reform, in the initiative, the referendum, the municipalization of monopolistic public utilities, postal savings banks and the parcels post. The home of Supt. Buehrle and his estimable wife is at No. 408 Manor street, in a double-front house owned and built by himself, besides which he has built ten others in the city.
(Beers, J.H. & Co., Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers, 1903, pp.440/441)
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1840 - 1920 (79 years)
