He could be an unlikable man-loud, arrogant, vulgar; but he was also civicminded and generous to his workers; and he deserves to be remembered. He was, from the last decade of the nineteenth to the third decade of the twentieth century, one of the most prominent businessmen in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In any era he would have been a colorful character, a volatile yet romantic man who made his fortune from shoes and flowers. The only readily accessible account of him appears to have been written by himself, so balance in the community's memory requires a fresh paragraph or so.
John Lindner was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1859, son of German Lutheran immigrants.1 His grandfather, Heinrich (anglicised to "Henry" in our source) had served in the post office in his native town of Reidenhausen, in the old state of Franken, and his son, Johannes (later "John"), the immigrant, served as a clerk in. the post office before marrying Sophia Darmhurst in 1848 and leaving for America. The Lindners settled in Newark and never left. The elder John Lindner was a tailor, and he and his wife had three children, Frederick, Elizabeth, and John.
After attending New Jersey Business College, our subject joined the Newark shoe manufacturing firm of Banister & Tichner. There, he would say, he had "thoroughly equipped himself for a successful business career."2 By 1882 he was working in Utica, New York, for the shoe manufacturing Reynolds Brothers, in time becoming its manager. In 1888, at the age of 29, he moved to Carlisle, having accepted the position of superintendent of G. W Neidich & Company, also shoe makers. He later said that there "he demonstrated his superior capability by, in three years' time, increasing the output of the factory sevenfold.3
His self-trumpeting may grate on some ears. Like many self-made men, however, he saw early that no one else had such a stake in promoting his career. He was a large man, older residents recalling that he equalled in size "Big Grizzly," United States Senator Boies Penrose, who topped six feet and weighed close to three hundred pounds. Lindner was noticeable, with his high cheek bones, prominent nose, handle bar mustache, thin dark hair neatly oiled and parted down the middle, his expensive suits, diamond tie tacks, and boutonnieres. Later photographs show him balding and wearing pince-nez, while maintaining his large mustache and dapper attire. As a retired haberdasher, the late James Wardecker, recalled, "He always wore a big cowboy hat." Perhaps related to this sartorial taste were the cattle horns mounted on his office wall.4
In 1891 he left Neidich and, with $35,000, incorporated The Lindner Shoe Company. 5 The factory building on West Louther Street still stands, and it is owned by Dickinson College. It is three stories, red brick with white trim, 430' long and 225' wide. Painted across the tin roof, if the old engravings can be trusted, used to be in large letters THE LINDNER SHOE COMPANY. By 1905, when Jeremiah Zeamer published his invaluable Biographical Annals, it was "a veritable hive of industry."6 It ran three shifts of some five hundred employees; at its peak it had nine hundred, men and women. It was "constructed and arranged to facilitate the output and at the same rime conserve the health and comfort of its employees."7 Furthermore, it was in the words of the company's advertising, "America's largest factory making women's fine shoes."8 Milton E. Flower places production at "500,000 pairs of shoes annually."9 Advertisements in newspapers and city directories show Lindner shoes were high-topped with pointed toes and numerous tiny buttons.
It does not take too close a reading to see that these words in Zeamer's Annals abound with the superlatives of a press release. "America's largest factory" of "ladies fine shoes marketed to all parts of the country" was: "equipped with the best machinery known;" "complete in every department and derail;" "by far the largest manufacturing enterprise in Carlisle." The image is clear: The captain of industry pacing in his office, dictating his own praises in eager response to Zeamer's letter requesting information for his Annals.
On April 6, 1784, in the county courthouse in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the Board of Trustees of the fledgling Dickinson College met and asked two of its members, John Dickinson and Benjamin Rush, to devise a seal for the college.
Henry George Ganss (22 February, 1855-25 December, 1912) was a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as well as a musician and historian. For twenty years he served as pastor of Saint Patrick’s parish in Carlisle, and then he became pastor of Saint Mary’s parish in Lancaster.