Franklin Dundore, Merchant, son of Gabriel and Lydia (Davies) Dundore, was born in Berne township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, April 6th, 1838. The family is one of the oldest in the State, having been settled in Berks county more than a hundred years at the time he was born. His immediate ancestors have all been engaged in agricultural pursuits, he being the first of his family who has devoted himself to mercantile life. His education, which he received partly at home and partly at Pittsburgh, being finished, he began his mercantile career as bookkeeper, in the hardware stores, first of Bard & Reber, and afterwards of J.L. Stichter, both of Reading, Pennsylvania. From thence he entered the office of Seyfert, McManus & Co., at their works in the same city, where he served for a period of two years, acquiring under their auspices a thorough and practical knowledge of the iron business in all its details. Having successfully passed through this probationary period, he became, in 1862, a partner in the house of McHose, Eckert & Co., iron manufacturers, also of Reading. Upon the dissolution of this firm, which occurred in 1854, he was appointed Treasurer of the West Reading Iron Company, a position he resigned in the following year. In the early part of 1866, he left Reading and settled himself in Philadelphia. Here he at once set to work on his own account, opening an office for the transaction of the iron commission business, dealing largely also in railway supplies, and at the same time acting as agent for Isaac Eckert (subsequently Eckert & Brother), the well-known iron manufacturer and banker, of Reading. This business he has actively pursued with success to the present time (1874). He is one of the rising men of the city and State, a clear-headed man of business and complete master of his calling, which is one of the most important and lucrative in the country, and which in its development and extension is undoubtedly destined to play a chief part in the national progress. He married, in 1861, Mary J., eldest daughter of Charles Rick, senior, of Reading.
Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1874, pp. 281-282.
Contributed by: Nancy.