David A. Kreider ranks among the foremost business men of Palmyra, Lebanon county, Pa., the place of his birth and of his life's work as a member of the shoe manufacturing concern of W. L. Kreider's Sons. A son of William Long and Catherine (Wilhelm) Kreider, he was born July 15, 1866, and obtained his early education in the public schools of Palmyra, augmenting this training by a course at the Reading Business college. In the spring of 1886, he joined his father in the' coal, grain, and lumber business but opened a general store for himself two years later in Palmyra. Eighteen months later, soon after the town of Cleona, Pa., had been laid out and before any buildings had been erected there, he re-entered the coal, grain, and lumber business at that place. His subsequent activities in building homes on the new town site were a decided incentive to the development of the community. Subsequently, he returned to the home farm at Palmyra, spending some time operating it and erecting eight or ten houses in Cleona, Pa., and 40 or 50 in Palmyra, Pa. He spent a year as clerk and salesman for the shoe factory and then joined his father in the purchase of the planing mill and lumber yard of W. H. Erb. The following year, he and his father bought the coal and grain business of J. Landis & Son, renting the planing mill of W. H. Erb. With a lapse of two years, father and son added the operation of a new flouring mill to their activities but rented the mill after a few years to Hoffer & Stauffer. A few months of rest found Mr. Kreider eager for new fields to conquer, and he became the fourth member of the shoe manufacturing concern of W. L. Kreider & Sons, which has operated as W. L. Kreider's Sons since the retirement of William L. Kreider, June 12, 1900. Mr. Kreider has since been associated with that enterprise and has played a conspicuous part in the development of one of Palmyra's leading industries. He was vice-president of the Londonderry Water company for many years. David Kreider married Minnie Erb, whose father, Isaac Erb, was formerly engaged in the coal and lumber business at Swatara Station, and to Mr. and Mrs. Kreider were born these children: William E.; David; Minnie; Irwin; Paul; Harry; Ruth, deceased; Raymond; Violet Edith, deceased; Ralph, deceased; and Helen Kathryn, a graduate of Juniata college in 1930, who lives at home and expects to take up teaching as a vocation.
A History of the Lebanon Valley In Pennsylvania, Volume II. By Dr. Hiram H. Shenk. 1930. Pages 76-77.