Bertram Levering Binns (1884 - 1959)

Bertram Levering Binns was born on 12 Dec 1884, in Germantown Township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA to the parents Emma Jane (Burnheater) and Horace Binns.  The middle name Levering was always a family question mark.  Mainly because of all the Levering things in and around Germantown.  Was he named after the famous Levering family?  Is there a deeper connection of the Binns being related to the Levering family?  Unfortunately, no.  My conclusion is that his father, Horace, must have had a deeper connection with his sister, Susan Binns (1860-1937) who married Edwin A Levering (1842-1918).  I don't have an exact answer, but it is the only place I have seen the name Levering in the family tree.

Bertram learned hard work at a young age.  In the 1900 Census, Bertram is shown as a 15 yr old "Office Boy".  An office boy was usually a young boy or junior clerk that was hired to do odd jobs, such as running errands or making copies.  He was not attending school at that time.  I can not say he never attended school, but he surely wasn't in 1900.  In the 1910 US Federal Census, Bertram is shown as a "house and decorating" painter, working for his father, Horace Binns.  In 1914, Bertram married Florence Marie Holt, daughter of Sanford Edwin Holt and Anna Louise Kerns.

Bertram took over his fathers painting company, and was very successful.  He was a member of the International Society of Master Painters and Decorators.  

While registering for the World War I draft in 1918, Bertram was 33 years old, and still had his own painting business.  He was never chosen to fight the war.  He also registered for World War II, and again, was not drafted.

Bertram and Florence had two children, Anita Louise and Nancy Bertine Binns.

Bertram was a founder of the Germantown Lions club, and a Mason.  A mason (freemason) is a member of a fraternity, or brotherhood so to speak.  They are to believe in a supreme being, and not to discuss politics of religion in the lodge.  Some people take this in a way that the "supreme being" is not God, but something entirely different.  The "Supreme Being" that masons believe in is up to the individual person.  The Mason logo is on his tombstone.  He died in September of 1959, and was buried on 23 Sep 1959 at Greenwood Cemetery.

Children of Bertram Levering Binns and Florence Marie Holt:

• Anita Louise Binns (1918 - 1958)
• Nancy Bertine Binns (1920 - 1997)