James L. Bittner, was born in Heidelberg, township Nov 26,1860. He attended the public schools and assisted his father on the farm for some time after he had attained his majority. He then worked in the Lehigh Valley car shops at Packerton. In 1899, he became the faithful deacon of the Ebenezer church at New Tripoli, and in 1908, put the neglected old cemetery into its present excellent condition at the cost of a tremendous amount of most arduous and self-sacrificing toil. He straightened up the leaning tombstones, supplanted the weeks, thorns and briars with green grass, using eighty loads of earth to fill up the sunken graves and level the grounds. From 1909-11 he was janitor of the church. He is a devoted church member.