A Brief Bio of Jake Sommer

The following was taken from an Altoona [PA] Mirror article called “Down Memory Lane” written by Os Figard. It gives a lot of info we would not otherwise know regarding Jacob Sommer, grandfather of Arlene Sommer Glass.


This picture is the Jacob Sommer house at 1922 First Ave., Altoona, PA. This was taken in 2007. When Jacob and Anna Sommer lived here, the porch was enclosed. It did not have siding and it was not pink. This is the house where Os Figard interviewed Jake Sommer for this article.

“Down Memory Lane”
French Foundry for 9-Year-Old
By Os Figard

It was on the evening of June 1, 1930, that we received a telephone call from that grand old man with a legion of friends known as Jacob [Jake] Sommer of 1922 1st Ave. He was not feeling too well and asked me to come see him.

When we arrived at his home he was apparently worrying about some illness in the home and thinking, too, of his sons who at that time were with the Navy at Norfolk, VA., but he snapped out of his slump and began telling of his life’s activities. We received enough information to compose it into a brief biography.

Mr. Sommer was born April 29, 1867, and while we were having this chat he was then living his 63rd year, and even at that age was known as one of the most capable tenpin keglers in the city.

Mr. Sommer was born in France, and he told us of his 15 years in France which at that time was under the control of the German government, and the years were anything but pleasant ones. He informed us that the young men had no time for sports during those years and he was only 9 when he was placed with a company in which he drudged around in a foundry and machine shop and never earned more than $1 per day for 10 or 12 hours’ work. His first two years were served as a beginner-helper and he was given just 10 cents at the end of the day. At the end of two years he was manufacturing fine art enamelware and earning 40 cents per day.

Said Jacob, “Os, I can think of very little worthwhile subjects to talk about from my 40-cents-per-day job until I learned that I was to sail on the vessel Pennsylvania for the United States and I ran up and down along the handrail of the ship singing an old French song. I have forgotten the name of the song. The first one I learned to sing after settling here was ‘America.’ Never for a day have I ever thought of France and never for a day have I forgotten to give thanks that we are in America.

Mr. Sommer spoke briefly of his trip across from France, saying they arrived in America Aug 8, 1892.

“The first thing I did was board a train for Altoona, went to the lower shops and met a man named Gamble,” he said, “Through the kindness of this man I was able to land right in the main office and they hired me as a clerk and the date of entering the PRR shops here was April 3, 1893.

Jacob Sommer died January 12, 1949.