BIO:  William B. MEALS, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Page 366

WILLIAM B. MEALS, marble cutter and proprietor of the Gettysburg Marble Works, 
was born in Adams County, Penn., September 27, 1822 or 1823, a descendant of the 
fourth generation of those his ancestors, who first settled in this country, 
some time prior to 1732, of German and Scotch descent.  He is a son of Gabriel 
Meals and Nancy A. (Baughman) Meals, of whose ten children (seven boys and three 
girls), he is the third.  He received part of his schooling in the common 
schools of Adams County and his higher branches, under private tutors.  He is a 
man of culture, and is considered a ready speaker.  With his attention to 
reading, he is generally posted in the current news of the day.  He has 
prosecuted his business since a young man, and succeeded.  In 1860 he was 
married to Miss Maria Schaeffer, daughter of D. S. Schaeffer (veterinary 
surgeon), of German descent, and a native of Pennsylvania, and to them children 
were born, viz.:  Louis Henry, the eldest, also a marble cutter, of superior 
skill, a partner with his father in the Gettysburg Marble Works; Nannie E.; 
William Washington Grant (a telegrapher), and Gabriel Franklin (the latter being 
young has not yet chosen a profession); Mr. and Mrs. Meals and family are 
members of the Lutheran Church, and Mr. Meals has been an office bearer in the 
same for thirty odd years.  In politics he is a Republican; he has served as 
assessor, school director, as a member of the town council, burgess and justice 
of the peace in the borough of Gettysburg, where he lives, and was at home 
during the battle in 1863.  September 4, 1864, he enlisted in the army of the 
Union, was attached to Company G, Two Hundred and Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, and was discharged at the close of the war as commissary sergeant, 
May 9, 1865, he having participated in two battles:  Fort Steadman and in front 
of Petersburg, Va., when Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant.