Alexander Schantz Shimer, who became a member of the Lehigh County Historical Society May 22, 1906, was a scion of one of the oldest families in the Lehigh Valley. His father was Charles B. Shimer and his mother was Hannah Schantz. He was born August 15, 1840, at Shimersville, Lehigh county, a village to which an ancestor had given the family name. He was one of nine children, all of whom attained to maturity, one of his brothers having served as mayor of Allentown. Mr. Shimer early entered upon mercantile life, serving as a salesman at Macungie and then establishing his store at Shimersville. He moved to Allentown in 1866, when he and a brother founded the firm of Shimer Brothers. He retired from the business in 1876 to become superintendent of Fisher's pipe foundry, in which he later became a partner. In 1890 he became a stockholder in the Donaldson Iron Co. at Emaus, and when the Lehigh Portland Cement Co. was incorporated he was one of its founders, serving also as a director of both. Mr. Shimer's business life was attended with much success and in his later years he was enabled to enjoy that gentlemanly leisure that was the fruit of his labor. He was active in St. John's Lutheran Church. He died October 5, 1906, leaving a widow.