From Alsace, France to White Mills
— The Dorflinger Families Left an Important Legacy —
Eugene A. Dorflinger Sr., Christian Dorflinger's cousin who had also emigrated from Alsace, established a general store in White Mills in 1869. The family home was behind the store on Charles Street across from the St. Charles Hotel. Eugene's property also included a carriage barn and a small gazebo. When the Erie Railway came to White Mills, Eugene Sr. served as the station agent until 1901 when he was killed in a rail accident.
Eugene Jr. became an amateur photographer and built a small photography studio near the house. Many of his original glass negatives still survive and document much of life in White Mills at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In 1915 Eugene became head of the Dorflinger factory's etching department. The Eugene A. Dorflinger property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
(Inscription under the photo in the lower left) The porch is no longer on the Eugene A. Dorflinger Sr. home on Charles Street. White Mills, where Eugene and his wife, Clotilde King, raised ten children. Two of their sons, John Christian Dorflinger and Eugene Jr. assumed responsible positions at the factory. Eugene Sr. worked at Dorflinger's Greenpoint factory in Brooklyn New York, before moving to White Mills, where he operated a general store, commanded the Dorflinger Guard, and served as the Erie Railway's White Mills agent.
(Inscription beside the photo in the upper center) The Eugene A. Dorflinger General Store in White Mills, about 1895. The storefront was rebuilt in 1894 after being torn off by a cyclone. Eugene is seated in the first wagon with an unidentified child. Clotilde King Dorflinger, Eugene's wife, stands on the porch at the far right, with an unidentified woman. The young man in the second wagon is probably John C. Dorflinger
(Inscription beside the photo in the middle center) Built in 1869, the general store was originally known as Hankins and Dorflinger. Although this was the company store, workers had their choice of several general stores in White Mills and were not obliged to shop at the general store owned by Eugene Dorflinger, which sold dry goods, some groceries, and cut glass.
(Inscription beside the photo in the lower center) Interior view of John C. Dorflinger's museum shop in the former general store operated by his father, Eugene, at the foot of Charles Street, White Mills, about 1953. John at the age of seventy-three, is on the far left. John worked in the factory for twenty-seven years. Without his efforts, the entire Dorflinger story, as well as many of its priceless products, would have been permanently lost.
(Inscription beside the photo in the upper right) Christian Dorflinger established the St. Charles Hotel in 1869 as a working hotel, hosting guests and visitors. Dorflinger added an addition to the right in 1872 and moved his family from the farmhouse near Butcher's Pond (now Trout Lake). The hotel was an imposing, three story structure, built of native stone capped with a mansard roof. The first floor included a dining room, kitchen, sitting room, and storerooms. Bedrooms made up the third floor, and the second floor contained a spacious ballroom. The building was used as the family home until the 1930's when Katherine L. Dorflinger closed the building. The property was purchased in 1959 and its owner burned the building on March 1, 1961.
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