History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 126

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Mr. Bowers on reaching manhood cast his allegiance with the republican party and early achieved prominence both in state and national affairs. In 1884 he was chosen chair- man of the Berkeley delegates to the state convention at Parkersburg, that being a month before he reached his majority. In the fall of that year he cast his first presi- dential vote, for James G. Blaine. In 1887, at the age of twenty-three, he was elected a member of the House of Delegates to represent Berkeley County, and at the age of twenty-five was republican nominee for state auditor, being defeated by only 300 votes. In 1890 President Harrison appointed him supervisor of the United States census for the Northern District of West Virginia. He was a delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis in 1892, when Benjamin Harrison was renominated. He was a leader in his party in West Virginia in advocating the nomination of William McKinley in 1896. In 1898 President Mckinley appointed him United States commissioner of fish and fish- eries, a post of duty which by reappointment from Roose- velt and Taft he filled until 1913, a period of fifteen years. In 1893 he was member and treasurer of the Board of World's Fair Commissioners for West Virginia, and in 1902-03 was president of the American Fisheries Society.

While these and other official responsibilities kept Mr. Bowers away from home, Martinsburg has always been his legal residence. In 1914 he was the nominee of his party for Congress, being defeated on account of the split in the republican ranks that year. On May 9, 1916, he was elected to the Sixty-fourth Congress for the unexpired term of Wil- liam G. Brown, deceased, being chosen by a majority of 461. In the fall of 1916 he was elected to the Sixty-fifth Congress by a majority of 860, and in 1918 his re-election was accomplished by a majority of 2,360, while in the great republican landslide of 1920 his majority in the Second District totaled 10,342. Mr. Bowers each successive term has increasing responsibility as a member of Congress, and is now on the most important committee, that of ways and means.

On November 18, 1884, Mr. Bowers married Miss Bessie C. Gray, at Hagerstown, Maryland. However, she was born in the Gerrardstown District of Berkeley County, West Vir- ginia, daughter of James W. and Martha (Gilbert) Gray, of a prominent family elsewhere represented in this publica- tion. Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have four children: Eleanor L., George M., Jr., Stephen E. and Jean Gray. Eleanor is the wife of Philip Grove, and her two children are George B. and Philip R., Jr. George M. Bowers, Jr., married and has a daughter Elizabeth. Jean Gray is the wife of Capt. Draper M. Daugherty, son of the United States attorney general, Harry M. Daugherty. Mr. Daugherty was in service during the World war as a lieutenant overseas and was pro- moted to captain. Both of Mr. Bowers' sons were volunteers in the war, Stephen E., in the aviation service, while George, Jr., went overseas as a lieutenant in the army.

JOHN WILLIAM KASTLE, JR., postmaster at Martinsburg, having been appointed and confirmed by the Senate March 27, 1922, is one of that city's successful young business men and is a member of a family that has been identified with this section of West Virginia for a great many years.

Mr. Kastle is a native of Martinsburg. His father, John William Kastle, Sr., was also born in that city, October 23,

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1858. Grandfather George J. Kastle was born in Wuertem- berg, Germany, and was the only member of his father's family to come to Ameriea. As a youth he attended school in Germany, later in Paris, and served an apprenticeship at the stone entter's trade. On coming to America he located at Laneaster, Pennsylvania, where he married Christiana Stoeker. She was also a native of Wuertemberg, and with a sister eame to America a short time before her marriage. This sister married a man named Kestler and remained at Laneaster. Her four brothers, named John, Jacob, Andrew and Mathias Stoeker, all settled in Mont- gomery County, Ohio, where some of their deseendants still live. George J. Kastle after his marriage moved to Martins- burg, where be followed his trade and then entered the mer- cantile business and eondueted a general store for many years. He died at Martinsburg, August 14, 1885, at the age of fifty-seven, his widow surviving him until September 7, 1912, when she died at the age of eighty-two. Their six children were named Anna, John William, George, Gailey, Elizabeth and Henry.

John W. Kastle, Sr., aequired a publie sehool education and served an apprenticeship at the blacksmithing trade. Soon after its completion he entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company as a tool dresser, and has been with that railroad for forty years and is now a foreman in the maintenance of way department. He mar- ried Margaret Elizabeth Price, a native of Roekingham County, Virginia. Her grandfather Price was born in Scotland and on coming to America settled in Pennsyl- vania. Her father, William C. Priee, was born at Smith- burg, Pennsylvania, and from there removed to Roekingham County, Virginia, where he was in business as a contractor and builder before the Civil war and after the war served forty years as a magistrate and for a similar length of time was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Judge Price married Martha Westbrook ,a native of Huntingdon, Penn- sylvania, and of English ancestry. The nine children of John W. Kastle, Sr., and wife were: Eva, Pearl, Viola, John William, Jr., Harry, Mamie, Edna, Elsie and Clarenee.

John W. Kastle, Jr., acquired a publie school education and served a five years' apprenticeship to the tailor's trade. This was followed by more specialized training in New York City, where he attended a entting and designing school, from which he received a diploma in 1911. He then re- turned to Martinsburg and gave his personal attention to a growing business as a merchant tailor until he was ap- pointed postmaster.

Mr. Kastle married Miss Mida Brannon Rigsby, a native of Martinsburg and daughter of Oliver and Margaret E. Rigsby. They have two children, John William III, and Oliver Rigsby. Mr. and Mrs. Kastle are members of the Presbyterian Church. He is affiliated with Equality Lodge of Masons, Lebanon Chapter, R. A. M., Palestine Com- mandery, K. T., Martinsburg Lodge of Perfeetion in the Seottish Rite, aud Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling.

JACOB W. FEATHER, of Bruceton Mills, has spent the greater part of his active life as a farmer. He was a youth when he joined and served for a brief period in the Union Army in the elosing months of the Civil war. He has also been a merehant, and as a citizen is one of the well and favorably known men of Preston County.

Jacob Feather was a native of Germany and reached the American colonies in time to take part as a soldier in the Revolution. It is believed that he was an orderly on General Washington's staff. At the close of the war he settled in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and from there moved to Western Virginia, locating in that portion of Monongalia County now Preston County. He lived out his life there and is buried in the Lutheran Cemetery at Crab Orchard. Jacob Feather and his wife Mary, had the fol- lowing sons: John, who was buried at Crab Orchard ; Adam, who spent his life in that locality and died there and was the father of Rev. Joseph Feather; Jacob, who lived out his life in the neighborhood of Masontown and Reeds- ville; James, who died at Crab Orchard; Ezekiel, wbo lived at Lenox and is buried at Crab Orchard; Christian,

who was a farmer in the Crab Orchard community; Joseph, who died at Bruceton in the house owned by Doctor Wil- kinson; and there were also several daughters, one of them being the mother of Gus J. Shaffer of Kingwood.

Joseph Feather, representing the second generation of this family, was born at Crab Orchard in 1816, and died June 30, 1896. He was buried at Bruceton. He was a farmer at Crab Orehard and Valley Point, and his last years were spent in Bruceton. He had only nominal edu- cational advantages during his youth, but his industry en- abled him to provide a good living. He was quiet and reserved, voted as a whig and a republican, and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Lydia Hartman, who was born in the same locality as he was, and was several years his junior. She died in Feb- rnary, 1898. Her father, Michael Hartman, was a farmer and of German ancestry. The children of Joseph Feather and wife were: Mary Jane, who became the wife of Eth- bell Falkenstine and spent her life in Preston County; Sarah E., who was the wife of IIenry Cale and lived in Preston County; John H., who was a member of the Seven- teenth West Virginia Infantry in the Civil war and other wise a farmer in Preston County; Margaret, who became the wife of Joseph Michael and spent her life at Bruceton ; Jacob Wesley; and Michael, a farmer who died near Cranesville.

Jacob Wesley Feather was born at Crab Orehard in Pleasant Distriet of Preston County, August 9, 1845. HE had a common school education, and was about twenty years of age when he enlisted in 1865 at Grafton in Com- pany K of the Seventeenth West Virginia Infantry, under Lieutenant Farnham and Capt. Scott A. Harter. He was sent to Wheeling as a reeruit, was drilled there for almost two months, and was then with his company in camp at Weston until the end of the war. He received his discharge at Wheeling the last of June, 1865. Following this brief military service Mr. Feather took up the calling of his an cestry, farming, in the Crab Orehard community, and after his marriage farmed near Cranesville and a few years aty Mountain Lake Park. He then returned to Preston County and established bis home at Bruceton. For a few years a1 Cranesville he was a merchant and was also postmaster there He began voting as a republican for General Grant in 1868

In Preston County, June 2, 1867, Mr. Feather married Sarah A. Michael, daughter of Philip and Sophia (Fulk" Michael. Her father was born in Preston County, son 01 William Michael, of German ancestry. Philip Michael wa: born in 1804 and Sophia Fulk, in 1806. He died in 1892 survived by his wife three years. The Michael children were: Eugenus, a farmer who died in Preston County William, who lived all his life in Preston County; Malinda who became the wife of George Walls and lived in Presto County ; Philip, who was a blacksmith at Frostburg, Mary land, where he died; Edgar, a farmer who lived at Athens Ohio, where be is buried; Jobn, who was a teacher and farmer in Preston County; James, who finally removed to Ohio and is buried at Gizeville, that state; Sophia, wife o Andrew MeNair, living near Hopewell in Preston County Naomi, who became the wife of Alpheus Posten and dieu in Iowa; Rachel, wife of Ephraim Fazenbaker and died at Westonport, Maryland; Mary, who was the wife 0 Jefferson Fazenbaker and died in Preston County, bein; buried at Brandonville; George, who lived for a number 0 years in Ohio, North and South Dakota, and finally set tled in Minnesota, where he is buried; Joseph and Ber jamin, twins, the former spending his life in Preston County while Benjamin was killed at Westonport by a train whil walking on a trestle over a stream at night; and Sara Ann, Mrs. Feather, who was born April 20, 1850. He brother Joseph Michael was in the same company an regiment as Jacob W. Feather during the war.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Feather are: Calphc Lloyd, who died in infancy; Delphos C., of Pitcairn, Pen sylvania; Ora, who was killed when about thirty years 0. age; Troy O., a carpenter at Seattle, Washington; Cord E., living at Bruceton with her parents, widow of Earnes E. Whitesell and mother of Sarah Lillian Dorene and Juli Elizabeth.

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Mr. and Mrs. Feather are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has been superintendent of the Sunday School and has represented the church at quarterly conference. Mrs. Feather has been a Sabbath School teacher in the several communities of her residence, Cranes- ville, Mountain Lake Park and Bruceton, and was president of the Epworth League and a member of the Quarterly Conference held at Bruceton. She was a Red Cross mem- ber, but paralysis in her right arm prevented her from serving more actively than as a counselor and adviser. Both Mr. and Mrs. Feather have been active in the tem- perance work as members of the Anti Saloon League and have readily supported all causes for the religious and moral advancement of their community.

JAMES W. WOLFE, cashier of the Bruceton Bank, has been one of the exceptionally busy and useful men of that community for a great many years. He has taught school, has experienced the practical side of farming, has been related to business in several spheres, and is also an elder and minister of the Church of the Brethren.

His father was the late John E. Wolfe, who was born in Portland District, Preston County, in 1846, and grew up in the home of his uncle, Levi Wolfe. He reached man- hood with little schooling, but learued farming and de- voted his time and energies to that vocation throughout the years of his vigor. His final home was a mile east of Clifton Mills. He brought up a large family, and the provisions he made for them kept him a poor man. He lived well, owned a modest home, and could look back over his life with a high degree of satisfaction for what he had done for his children educationally.

John E. Wolfe married Lydia A. Rosenberger, whose father, Adam Rosenberger, was a native of Germany and founded his family in Preston County. He was a man of education, a good scholar, and was thoroughly well versed in the Bible. He lived quietly but was always enthusiastic in his work as a member of the Church of the Brethren. He spent his last years in Grant District, and he was buried in the Thomas Cemetery there. Adamı Rosenberger married Sallie Thomas, a sister of Andrew Thomas and a daughter of Rev. Jacob Thomas, whose earnest and use- ful career in Preston County has been reviewed elsewhere. The children of Adam Rosenberger and wife were: Mary, who became the wife of Jacob Riger and died in Penn- sylvania; Jacob, who married Susanna Spindler and died in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Lydia, who was Mrs. John' E. Wolfe; Maggie, wife of Andrew Maust, of Grant District; Susanna, who became the wife of Isaiah Fike, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania; Sarah, wife of Allen Thomas, of Grant District; Philip, who married Sophrona Seese; Reuben, who married Emma Maust; and Barbara, who was the wife of Ezra Glover and died in Grant District.

The oldest of the children of John E. Wolfe and wife was James Webster, the Bruceton banker. The next in age, Minnie, is the wife of Shriver Maust, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania; George E., of Grant District mar- ried Mary Thomas; Hosea M. married Mary Livengood and is a farmer in Grant District; Trussie B. is the wife of George A. Caton, of the same district; Calvin R. is pastor of the Church of the Brethren at Markleysburg, Pennsylvania, and married Cora Wilson; William C., who operates the Wolfe homestead, married Etta Dennis; Period Grace is the wife of Chester A. Thomas, a minister of the Brethren Church and a farmer near Salem Church in Preston County; and Mary Pearl is the wife of H. A. Knox, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

James W. Wolfe was born in Preston County, January 30, 1873, and up to the age of thirty his home was with his parents and he shared in the work of the home farm. He acquired a common school education, and before he was seventeen had qualified and had begun teaching in the common schools. Altogether he taught seventeen terms of country school, beginning in the Jonas Maust school and finishing at the Oak Grove school near Bruceton. While teaching he took a commercial course at Huntingdon, Penn-

sylvania, also worked on the farm, and carried on some other individual enterprises. He removed to Bruceton Mills in 1906, for one year was a merchant, and then took the management of the Bruceton Mills, operating it under the ownership of a new company for seven years, and continuing as manager for two years under the owner- ship of the Hydro-Electro Company. When he left the mills he bought the L. H. Frankhouser farm a mile east of Brandonville, and was a producer of food supplies dur- ing the greater part of the World war. In October, 1918, he became cashier of the Bruceton Bank. He is also secre- tary and treasurer of the Farmers Union Association and Fire Insurance Company of Preston County.

Mr. Wolfe has been president of the Board of Educa- tion of Grant District and is still one of the school com- missioners. He was probably the most effective advocate of and leader in the movement for the establishment of a high school at Bruceton, and had the satisfaction of seeing the project carried at the second election held for that purpose. Mr. Wolfe has always voted as a republican, and since boyhood has been a faithful worker in the Church of the Brethren. He was elected and commissioned by the congregation to preach in 1913, preaching his first sermon at the Mountain Grove Church. He was promoted to be an elder in 1915, and is one of the four pastors, with monthly appointments to the Sandy Creek congregation. He has been a class teacher in the Sunday School, a dele- gate of the church to ministerial meetings and other con- ventions in the state.

In September, 1905, in Preston County, Mr. Wolfe mar- ried Mary Estella Wilson, who was born in the county in 1883, daughter of Irvin and Elizabeth (Thomas) Wilson. Her mother is a sister of Rev. Jeremiah Thomas, of Bruce- ton. The Wilson children were: Mrs. Delilah Hinebaugh, Mrs. Wolfe, Cora, wife of Calvin R. Wolfe, and Victor Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe had two children: Paul Wil- son, who died at the age of ten years, and John Irvin.

HON. DENNIS M. WILLIS. It is not the fortune of every individnal to be successful alike in business, finance and pub- lic affairs. Every line of endeavor demands the possession of certain specific qualities and characteristics, and few there are who have so many differentiating ones, or are able to ap- ply those which they possess so as to make them adaptable for the securing of prestige. Modern life is exacting; much is demanded of men before they are crowned with success. Public matters are of such a character that a man who rises to high place must have a close and practical knowledge of local as well as state affairs and those of the nation. Modern business and financial conditions are also such that to gain prestige necessitates the possession of abilities beyond the ordinary. However unusual it is for men to gain a full measure of success in more than one line, there are some who have accomplished this feat, and in this connection mention is made of Hon. Dennis M. Willis, of Morgantown, member of the West Virginia State Legis- lature, president of the Union Bank and Trust Company, and a prominent figure in business circles and educational fields of Monongalia County.

Mr. Willis was born near Bridgeport, Harrison County, West Virginia, January 15, 1871, and is of the fourth generation of his family in this state. His paternal great- grandfather, William Willis, was the pioneer school teacher of Harrison County, and in 1790 taught the first institution of learning in that county. Henry H. Willis, the father of Dennis M. Willis, was a native of Harrison County, where he married Prudence Jane Martin, also a native of Harrison County, whose paternal grandfather came over from England in 1756, and in that year settled in that county.

Dennis M. Willis attended the district schools of his native county, and when still but a boy in years taught in the same schools in which he had received his primary in- struction. In 1891-92 he taught in the Methodist Seminary (now the West Virginia Wesleyan University) at Buck- hannon, and following that was an instructor in various commercial schools until 1895, in which year he became

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head of the commercial department of the University of West Virginia, at a time when that university was the only one maintaining a commercial department, although the eustom is now almost universal. He remained in that capacity until 1917, at which time he resigned, with the intention of retiring altogether from teaching, but a short time following his resignation was offered and accepted the position of financial secretary of the nniversity, a posi- tion he still retains.

Professor Willis served as secretary of the West Virginia Alumni Association from 1889 to 1912, inclusive, when he resigned. He holds three degrees from the university. He was graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1903, received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1899, and was made a Master of Laws in 1905.

One week following the entrance of the United States into the World war Professor Willis sent a letter to the War Department at Washington, D. C., offering his serv- iees, and in the following August was appointed a member of the Draft Board of Monongalia County, of which he was chosen chairman by the members upon the organization of the body, and served in that capacity without remunera- tion for two years, lacking one month, during which time 7,200 registrants eame under the jurisdiction of the board, only eighteen of whom were unaccounted for in the final report of the body. Upon application, he gave letters of recommendation to different officers' training eamps to twenty-five men in one of bis classes, and of that number twenty-three were given commissions.

In 1901 Professor Willis was elected a member from Harrison County of the West Virginia House of Delegates, and in that body was active in all legislation, especially along the line of educational interests, and became the author of a bill which largely increased the salaries of county superintendents of schools. While serving as above he was appointed a member of the the special joint eom- mittee chosen to call upon the Secretary of the Navy in regard to the proper donation which West Virginia should make to the U. S. Battleship "West Virginia" to show the appreciation of the state for the courtesy conferred upon it by the Government in so naming a great fighting vessel in its honor. This donation took the form of a coat-of-arms of the State of West Virginia, wrought in solid silver, which was placed at the masthead of the vessel. In 1920 Professor Willis was again elected a mem- her of the State Legislature, this time from Monongalia County.

Professor Willis was admitted to the bar of West Vir- ginia in 1901, and is a member of both the Monongalia County and West Virginia Bar Associations, but has never entered practice. He is very active along financial lines and has done much in the way of encouraging development of Morgantown and the vieinity. In 1912 he was one of the organizers of the Labor Building and Loan Association, of which he is now the president. In 1914 he was one of the organizers of the Crude Oil Company, a successful royalty corporation, and is the general manager of this eoneern at present. In 1920 he was one of the organizers of the Union Bank and Trust Company, of which he was chosen the first president, a capacity in which he is now acting.

Professor Willis is a member of the National Educational Association, before the meetings of which he has frequently read papers; of the Phi Sigma Kappa; the Mountain and the Caravan, a students' Masonic organization; Monongalia Lodge No. 4, F and A. M .; Morgantown Kiwanis Club; Morgantown Country Club; and the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On March 25, 1903, Professor Willis was united in mar- riage with Miss Gilla Camp, daughter of Ulysses Camp, who resided three miles southwest of Morgantown, on a farm which was conveyed by original patent to the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Willis by Governor Dinwiddie. That farm, together with 77 aeres additional, Professor Willis now operates, and on it they make their home, during the summer season.

C. E. WILKINSON, M. D. His professional labors as a physician and surgeon have been the chief element in the

esteem Doctor Wilkinson enjoys in the Bruceton Mills com- ffe munity of Preston County. He has practiced in that dis- triet for seventeen years, and in that time has also acquired considerable business interests and has been a useful faetor in furthering movements associated with the common wel- fare.

Doetor Wilkinson was born at Wayne, Wayne County, West Virginia, July 1, 1877, son of Samuel Wellman Wil- kinson and grandson of William E. Wilkinson, who eame from the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia, and spent his netive life as a farmer in Wayne County. William E. Wilkinson married Miss Mary Smith, and one of their seven children was Samuel Wellman Wilkinson, who was born at Wayne. His first wife was Elizabeth Ferguson, who became the mother of two children, Doctor Wilkin- son, of Brueeton Mills, and LeRoy, of Columbus, Ohio. The parents separated, and Doctor Wilkinson grew up with his mother, who in the meautime became Mrs. A. W. Pres- ton, of Diekson, West Virginia.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 3, Part 126

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