From: Montgomery, Morton L. Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania . . . Vol. 2. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1909, page 793.
John Endlich was a native of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany (born March 30, 1819), and received a thorough education, with a special training in music, for which he evinced both original talent and early predilection. For a time he held a position in the government department of forestry, and in 1839 emigrated to America, locating in the city of Reading, Pa., where for some years he taught music, served as organist and choir director, and composed music used in the Lutheran and Reformed churches.
He married, in 1845, Emma N. (born April 15, 1819), daughter of the Rev. Jacob Miller, D. D. (1788-1850), pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading. In his political faith Endlich was a Democrat of the old school, and in earlier life participated actively in various local and State campaigns of that party. In 1857 he was appointed by President Buchanan United States Consul to Basel, Switzerland, which post he held for four years. During the interval between 1866 and 1872, Mr. John Endlich resided with his family in Germany, in order to give his sons the benefit of education and training in the schools of Stuttgart, Tübingen, and Darmstadt. John Endlich died on Jan. 18, 1892, well advanced in the seventy-third year of his age. His estimable wife, a lady of superior intellectual endowments, survived him until Sept. 14, 1899, dying at the age of eighty.
The children of this marriage who survived to maturity were: Emma A., Frederick M. and Gustav A., all of whom shared the intellectuality of the parents. Miss Emma Endlich is possessed of marked literary talent, which she has employed principally in the interests of the publications of the Lutheran Church. The late Frederick M. Endlich, who died in 1899, held the degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences from the University at Tübingen; he was a specialist in mineralogy and geology, and for some years immediately previous to his death was engaged in that profession in New Mexico, California and Arizona. “Endlichite,” a compound of lead, vanadium, and chlorine, was named after him in recognition of his scientific work. Gustav A. Endlich, the youngest son, upon the return of his family from Germany in 1872, entered Princeton University, He graduated with distinction in 1875, and in the same year began the study of law in the office of George F. Baer, Esq., a leading practitioner of the Berks County Bar, and was admitted to practice Nov. 12, 1877. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and in 1887 to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.