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Pennsylvania Trails History and Genealogy

Holz, William

WILLIAM HOLZ, hotel and realty operator, is a native of Cologne, Germany, having been born in that country, May 4, 1869. He received a liberal education in the schools of Germany and came to North America in 1889. For two years he lived in Quebec, Montreal, and other Canadian cities and then came to Allentown and pursued his trade of shoemaker. For a period of nineteen years he worked in local shoe factories, and in 1910 had saved sufficient funds from his earnings to lease the Hotel Bellevue at the corner of Ridge Avenue and Gordon Street. This hostelry is modern in every detail, and is one of the largest in the city. Mr. Holz has enjoyed abundant success in the conduct of the hotel. In 1915 Mr. Holz became active as a realty operator by building the modern Holz apartments at the corner of the Twelfth and Chew Streets. He is very prominent in German-American circles, being national vice president of the D. O. H. He is a member of Gellerd Lodge, NO. 202, of that order; Lehigh Saengerbund; St. Aloysius Young Men's Society; St. Francis Beneficial Society; Knights of St. George; German Beneficial Union; Allentown Turner Liederkranz; Allen Fire Company, and F.O.E. On September 2, 1893, he married Thekla Weissgauber, a native of Bavaria.