Kneedler Family Papers

The Kneedler brothers Robert Glen and Jay Ivan Kneedler were the 2nd and 3rd members of their family to attend Franklin & Marshall, following in the footsteps of their older brother Alvin, who had enrolled at the College in 1914. All three of the brothers left F & M before graduation, Alvin, after his freshman year to enroll in the University of Pittsburgh School of Dentistry, and Robert and Jay, after their freshman and sophomore years at F & M, to transfer to Cornell University so that Jay could pursue a degree in engineering. Robert was approximately 10 months older than Jay and they were in the same class throughout school[as far as is known]. Robert was very interested in the humanities and foreign languages, both classical and modem, while Jay was the incipient engineer, generally doing much better in math and science. There are many references in the letters to individuals at Franklin & Marshall who crossed the brothers' paths and who are well known in the College's history. Among them are Professors Beck, Mull, Truxal and Weisgerber. Also mentioned several times is President Henry Harbaugh Apple. Students whom they knew who later taught at Franklin & Marshall included Mike Lewis and Kenneth D. Longsdorff. [In addition] there are references to other students whose names are not familiar [but surmised to be] Greensburg or Western Pennsylvania F & M students the Kneedler Family would have had reason to know. There are also many references to the names of various theaters, hotels and other places in Lancaster.. including the Fulton Opera House. The Kneedler brothers often went to the movies, the theater, vaudeville, lectures, even an organ recital by Marcel Dupre in the City of Lancaster. It was an active place and they took major advantage of it, much as Henry Kyd Douglas had done 75 or so years earlier. As he had, they traveled about Lancaster on foot. However, they also took the trolley in the City and hitchhiked to travel in the region, as they most notably did when they went to Carlisle via Harrisburg to attend an F & M/Dickinson football game and took the opportunity to sightsee in the state capital and even saw Gov. Gifford Pinchot out taking a constitutional.----note by Richard Kneedler.