George Warren Alexander

[1][2] Initially trained in factory operations at a cotton mill in Holyoke, Massachusetts during the early 1850s, he accepted a new manufacturing position in Berks County shortly thereafter.

[5] By September 1850, Alexander had relocated to Holyoke, Massachusetts, where he resided with his parents and six sisters: Elvina, Rosette, Sarah, Merriam, Lois, and Dorothy.

Shortly after Alexander's arrival in Berks County, he joined the Reading Artillerists, and was appointed captain of that local militia group in 1857.

In response to President Abraham Lincoln's April 1861 call for 75,000 volunteer troops to defend the national capital of Washington, D.C., following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces, Alexander enrolled for military service in Reading at the age of 31.

Following the honorable completion of their service, Alexander and his fellow 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers mustered out at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on July 23, 1861.

During the 47th's first major combat action there – the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (Mansfield) on April 8, 1864 – Alexander was severely wounded in both legs.

[20] A year later, he became the subject of an investigation by the federal Treasury Department, and was put on trial in December for abusing his position by allegedly aiding others with the removal and concealment of whiskey in order to avoid paying taxes.

The firm is engaged in manufacturing fur hats and its plant is equipped with all the latest improved machinery put in at great expense.

The venture made by the firm in entering the fur hat trade is already a success and they contemplate an increase of their factory so as to probably employ 100 men in all.The article went on to add that, "West Reading is illuminated now, through the joint efforts of Col. Alexander, J. G. Yarnell and Daniel Moser, who formed a company for this purpose, and lamp posts, on which coal oil lamps are placed, are located all over the place, and the service is very satisfactory to all."

Alexander died in Reading on May 5, 1903, and was interred at the Charles Evans Cemetery in that city with his wife and two of his daughters, Sallie and Nettie, who had predeceased him.