"Portrait and Biographical Record of Hunterdon and Warren counties, New Jersey"
Chapman Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, 1898
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GEORGE L. SHILLINGER is a very influential business man of Phillipsburg, and
is equally prominent in political circles of
this community. Few enterprises or industries
which have added materially to the wealth and
welfare of this place have not received his support during a long period of years, and he is
always safely counted upon to do all in his power
as a patriotic citizen in the promotion of worthy
concerns or improvements.
The perusal of the history of a man who has
risen by his own strength of character and true
merit to a high place in any locality is always
interesting, and is especially so in the case of Mr.
Shillinger of this sketch. He was born in Northampton County, Pa., Jul}' 10, 1857, an( l attended
the district school in the winters until he was
fourteen, when he commenced clerking in Stewartsville, Warren County, N. J. At the end of a
year he worked again on a farm for a time, then
was a clerk in Phillipsburg, and subsequently was
a canal boy on the Morris Canal one summer.
The following winter he went to school again,
and the next season returned to a former employer, James Gardner, working as a clerk, until, at the age of nineteen, he became a partner in
the firm, and so continued three years. Then,
buying the interest of the others, he carried
the store for eleven years, since which time he has
been a resident of Phillipsburg, and has owned a
well-equipped store here ever since. Before leaving Stewartsville he served for three years as
postmaster under a Democratic administration.
At present he is a director in the Phillipsburg
silk mill, is a member of the city board of trade,
is a trustee and treasurer of the glass works here,
a stockholder in the Phillipsburg Manufacturing
Company (farm machinery) and the Furniture
Manufacturing Company, of the latter concern
having been one of the most active organizers;
also stockholder in the horse shoe works and
stockholder in the water works of Phillipsburg.
In 1894 Mr. Shillinger was elected to the position of surrogate of Warren County, the first Republican ever honored with the office in this county, and his victory was the more marked because
his majority was sixteen hundred and forty votes.
He is a power in the ranks of his party, and has
proved a most efficient officer whenever he has
been called upon to fill public positions, as he has
frequently done. He was a school trustee in Stewartsville; was a freeholder here for four years, was
a director of the Warren County almshouse for
three years, and for four years was one of the committee (and chairman of the same) of the Morris
Plains asylum. In religious belief he is a Lutheran, and belongs to the church at Stewartsville.
He was elected as a delegate to the general synod
of the denomination, which convened in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1890, this being an honor which is
coveted by ministers as well as laymen in the
church. In the fraternities he is connected with
the Odd Fellows, being past grand master in the
same, and is a member of the Red Men. In
January, 187S, Mr. Shillinger married Mattie,
daughter of Tunis Gardner. They have four
children, Ada, Annie, Jennie and George L.
Jacob, father of George L. Shillinger, was born
in Northampton County, Pa., July 27, 1833.
His parents, George and Catherine (Eberlay)
Shillinger, were both natives of Germany. The
father settled on the Delaware River, in Northampton County, Pa., and there followed farming,
though for a time he was in the employ of the
government in the manufacture of gun-stocks.
He was a member of the Easton (Pa.) Lutheran
Church. He died in the year 1867, aged seventy-six years, and his good wife survived him but five
years. Of their five sons, only Jacob is now living. He was employed as a cooper for several
years in his early manhood, but since 1861 has
been interested in milling. In the fall of 1866 he,
in company with his brother-in-law, Isaac Kichline, bought the old mill property in Phillipsburg, it being supplanted in 1876 by a new one.
This burned down later, and another building
was put up by the firm. After the death of his
brother-in-law, in 1877, Mr. Shillinger bought
out the interest of the heirs, and continued to
run the mill until September, 1895, when he
rented it to his two sons, Stewart A. and Samuel
F. , who are now managing the same. Stewart
A. married Mabel Barber and Samuel F. married Sarah, daughter of John I. Bird. The
marriage of Jacob Shillinger occurred August 10,
1856, the lady of his choice having been Louisa,
daughter of Samuel Kichline. They are members of the Lutheran Church, and are most worthy citizens.
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