George W. Kochersperger is now a landmark of the City Councils of Philadelphia, and has achieved the remarkable record of thirty-three years official connection with the Common chamber. During this period many and varied have been the kaleidoscopic changes in the political management of the city witnessed by him. He entered upon his connection with the City Councils at the time that Mayor Stokley was approaching the zenith of his power, and he has served through the administrations of nine mayors. The name of Kochersperger is a familiar one in the modern political history of Philadelphia, a family of brothers having been active in the affairs of the Republican party. George W. was born at Thirteenth and Brown Streets, Philadelphia, November 11, 1847. On his paternal side he is of French Huguenot stock, and the family in this country can be traced to Martin Kochersperger, who emigrated from Switzerland after fleeing from persecutions in France, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, subsequently residing in a house on the Schuylkill River near Sweetbriar. On the maternal side is German blood, the Englemans, one, Jacob, was one of the first County Commissionersof Philadelphia. The subject of this sketch attended the Hancock Grammar School, and was being prepared for the Central High School when General Lee began his invasion of Pennsylvania, and although but sixteen years of age, he responded to the call to the standard and on June 19, 1863, enlisted in an emergency regiment, the Twentieth, that was raised by Col. William B. Mann. On the 7th of August he was mustered out, but five days later re-enlisted, joining the Nineteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. A. K. Cummings. Mr. Kochersperger served faithfully throughout the war, and was honorably discharged June 5, 1866. With an uncompleted education and without a trade, the young soldier was handicapped, but finally found employment with Alexander Bondron, a real estate agent on Columbia Avenue, who was an active Democrat. Mr. Kochersperger came out of the war a Republican. His party activity attracted the attention of State Senator Connell, who had him appointed a packer in the United States Appraiser's Stores. Residing in the Twentieth Ward he rallied to the standard of David H. Lane, who was becoming a political power, and who obtained for him the position of detective in the District Attorney's Office, which he held until 1875, when he was superseded by the famous John F. Sharkey, Democrat. He then assayed the role of a municipal contractor, but the factional enemies of Lane who were in control, refused to shake the plum tree for him, and he quit and embarked in the real estate business. While so engaged his political patron made him messenger of Common Council in January, 1877, when he began his remarkable record with that body. In 1878 he succeeded Hugh A. Mullin as Assistant Clerk, and in 1894, through the death of the veteran John Eckstein, he took his place as Chief Clerk. Mr. Kochersperger has accompanied the Liberty Bell in most of its patriotic pilgrimages to expositions. He is of a jovial and open-hearted nature, which makes him popular and indispensable to the statesmen with whom he is officially connected, and who cheerfully re-elect him year after year. He is a member of the G. A. R. and the Masonic fraternity.

Pennsylvania and its Public Men, by Sam Hudson, published by Hudson & Joseph, Philadelphia, 1909, page 184 [includes a portrait]