BIO: W. WILLIS WONDERLY, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
   
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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  _____________________________________________________________

  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 306-307
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  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
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    W. WILLIS WONDERLY, one of the leading men of Silver Spring township,
  Cumberland county, Pa., was born in Middlesex township, this county, March
  30, 1854.
 
    The earliest ancestor of whom we have any definite record is John Wonderly,
  grandfather of W. Willis, a native of Middlesex township, where he followed
  the trade of a blacksmith, and at one time conducted a hotel. He married
  Susan Hetrick, of the same township, and four children were born to them, two
  of whom died in childhood. Those who reached mature years were: William D.,
  father of our subject, and Caroline, who married William Barnitz, a brick
  manufacturer, of Carlisle, and had four children: John (who died at the age
  of thirty years in Texas, where he had gone to regain his health); J. Edwin
  (an attorney, who married Margaret Oyster, of Camp Hill), Susan (unmarried at
  home), and Grant (who married Hermie Elizabeth Wertz, of Cumberland county,
  Pa., and has two children).
 
    William D. Wonderly, father of W. Willis, was born in Middlesex township
  Jan. 4, 1822, and received a common-school education there. At the age of
  twenty-nine years he married Sarah A. Kessinger, daughter of Peter Kessinger,
  a resident of New Kingston. William D. Wonderly was originally a blacksmith,
  but later became a farmer and was very successful in his agricultural
  ventures. Six children were born to himself and wife, two of whom died in
  infancy: John P. is with a farmer of Middleton township; he married Florence
  Flemming, of Boiling Springs, and had four children, William D. (a soldier in
  the Philippines), Helen (at home), and two who died in infancy. W. Willis is
  mentioned below. Samuel E. married Catherine Wagner, of Iowa, and they had
  eight children, Tolbert (a butcher by trade), John (operating a crane at
  Steelton), Urie (a machinist in Harrisburg), Roy, Frank, Celia, Sarah and
  Opal (all at home). Tolbert K., residing at Denver, Colo., where he is a
  printer, married a Miss Blood, of Missouri, and had one son.
 
    W. Willis Wonderly attended the common schools of Silver Spring township,
  until he was eighteen years of age, when he left school and commenced to
  learn the carpenter's trade, following it for about five years. At this time
  he began farming the old homestead, and for five years more was thus engaged.
  When twenty-two years of age he married Elizabeth J. Herman,, daughter of P.
  Y. and Sarah (Williams) Herman, of New Kingston, and three, children have
  been born to them: Grace A. died in infancy; Herman L. died in infancy;
  George Arthur, now twenty years of age, is attending Dickinson college,
  Carlisle, from which institu-
 
    CUMBERLAND COUNTY.  307
 
  tion he will soon be graduated; he is a very promising young man and the
  pride of his parents' hearts.
 
    After he retired from farming, Mr. Wonderly resumed his carpenter work and
  is now quite a prominent contractor of the township. For the past nine years,
  he has also operated the creamery above New Kingston, which he owns, and which
  is in a very flourishing condition. In religious matters Mr. Wonderly is a
  consistent member of the Lutheran Church, in which he holds the office of
  trustee. Although a lifelong Democrat, he has never desired or accepted
  political preferment, but he takes an interest in local affairs. Industrious,
  hard-working, thrifty, Mr. Wonderly has steadily forged his way to the front,
  and now stands among the representative farmers and business men of
  Cumberland county.