BIOGRAPHY: William H. FELIX, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 458-459.

  WILLIAM H. FELIX, Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., was born at Lewistown, 
August 30, 1844, son of Anthony and Sarah B. (Herring) Felix.  Stephen Felix, 
his great-grandfather, was a native of Germany, who settled in a part of 
Lancaster county, now included in Dauphin county, before the Revolutionary war.  
There he passed the rest of his life in farming.  His family consisted of three 
daughters and two sons, one of whom was Henry, grandfather of William H. Felix.  
He learned carpentry, and besides farming, worked at that trade.  In his later 
life, he for some years kept a hotel on the Harrisburg and Lancaster county 
turnpike, near the Lancaster county line.  Henry Felix married Rosanna Lawrence, 
whose parents were of German ancestry, and resided in York county, Pa.  The 
children of Mr. and Mrs. Felix were:  Stephen, married Rebecca House;  John, 
married Miss Wolf, of Columbia, Pa., had three children, and his wife dying, 
married Emma Grove, by whom he had one daughter;  Jacob, married Miss Gross, has 
two daughters and one son;  and Anthony.  Henry Felix lived to the age of 
seventy-seven;  his remains are interred near Elizabethtown, Lancaster county.  
Anthony Felix was born on the homestead in Derry township, Dauphin county, in 
March, 1818.  He lived there until he was sixteen, receiving his education at 
one of those subscription schools maintained by the farmers in their own 
neighborhoods, which preceded the establishment of the common school system.  
After leaving school, young Felix served an apprenticeship of two years at 
cabinet-making.  This over, he maintained himself by doing journeyman work in 
various places until 1837, when he settled in Lewistown, and went into business 
on his own account.  His excellent workmanship and honorable dealing won for him 
more than ordinary success, and he continued in this line of business until 
1864, when he exchanged it for mercantile pursuits.  In this line, also, he 
found himself fairly successful, and was in business until 1885, when he 
retired, to enjoy for the remainder of life the fruits of his laudable industry.
  Anthony Felix, on March 16, 1839, married Sarah B., daughter of Dr. Asa and 
Jane (Bush) Herring, of Mechanicsburg, Cumberland county, Pa.  Their children 
are:  Henry Addison, born April 18, 1840, married Susan Matters;  Selinda Jane 
(Mrs. Abraham Stouffer), born June 6, 1842;  William H.;  Anna Milliken (Mrs. 
George Lindemuth), born May 28, 1846;  James D., born October 27, 1849, died in 
childhood;  John Lawrence, born April 14, 1853, died when eighteen months old;  
Ellen Davis (Mrs. C. B. McDowell),  born December 24, 1855;  Emma Louisa (Mrs. 
Hans Kruse), born March 27, 1857, resides at Newell, Ia;  Walker D., born May 2, 
1859, married Annie Wian, who died, and he married again, and resides in 
Maryland;  and Howard, born January 10, 1862, died aged thirty-one.  Dr. Asa 
Herring, father of Mrs. Felix, was born and educated in the State of New York, 
and afterwards settled at Stroudsburg, Monroe county, Pa., where he began the 
practise of his profession.  He had an extensive circle of patients and friends.  
He had four daughters and but one son, James B., who chose the same profession.  
He was a graduate of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., read medicine with Dr. 
Joseph B. Ard, of Lewistown, and received his diploma from the University of 
Pennsylvania.  He also has been a successful practitioner.
  William H. Felix spent his earliest school days in the common schools of 
Lewistown;  at the age of fourteen, he entered the academy in that borough, 
which he attended for two years.  He was still a schoolboy, attending the 
Lewistown high school, when war broke out, and while all patriotic American lads 
were shouting the "Star Spangled Banner," and "Rally Round the Flag, Boys!" many 
of them took the call literally, and must needs follow the "banner" to the 
perilous "front."  William H. Felix was one of these;  when only seventeen, he 
enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
Capt. Joseph S. Waream, for the nine months' service.  Being mustered out, May 
23, 1863, at Harrisburg, Pa., he re-enlisted a little more than a month later, 
on June 27, in Company A. Thirty-sixth Pennsylvania volunteers, Capt. H. A. 
Eisenbise;  both enlistments were at Lewistown.  By order of Governor Curtin, he 
was mustered out August 11, 1863.  On January 30, 1865, he enlisted once more, 
in Company C, Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, Capt. A. B. Selheimer, and 
this time served until the end of the war, and was honorably discharged at 
Nashville, Tenn., September 11, 1865.  Mr. Felix now returned to his home, and 
assisted his father in his business until July, 1866, when, the elder Felix 
having relinquished the furniture business, the son became his successor, and 
has built well on the foundation laid by the father.  He has now an extensive 
and profitable trade;  he has moreover earned the reputation of an able and 
conscientious man of business.  He erected his present commodious warehouse and 
store in 1871.  His business has three branches, furniture, undertaking, and 
livery.  The last two departments are in Dorcas street, and are under the 
careful management of his son, Charles H. Felix.  Mr. Felix has always been 
actively interested in local enterprises of a beneficial character.  He is a 
member of Colonel Hulings Post, No. 176, G. A. R., at Lewistown.  In 1885, he 
was elected commander of the Post, and served one term.  He was re-elected in 
1892, and has held that rank since that date.  In 1886, Mr. Felix was appointed 
an aide-de-camp on the staff of the commander-in-chief, and made the pilgrimage 
to the Pacific coast during the encampment at San Francisco.  He is also a 
member of Lodge No. 97, I. O. O. F., at Lewistown;  of Lodge No. 255, K. of P.;  
of Onpetonga Tribe, No. 67, I. O. of R. M.;  and of Council No. 1,394, Royal 
Arcanum, all of the same borough.  Mr. Felix is of the Republican party.
  William H. Felix was married, January 9, 1866, to Sarah D., daughter of Abner 
and Catherine (Fosnought) Robins.  Their children are:  Charles H., a graduate 
of State College, Centre county, Pa., married December 16, 1896, to Clara E., 
daughter of John H. and Alinda (Haley) Swartz, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.;  and 
Cartie M., married November 12, 1896, to Jonas H. Fretz, of Philadelphia.  The 
family attend the Presbyterian church.  The wife and mother, Sarah D. Felix, 
died January 13, 1897, leaving not only a sad vacancy in the mourning family, to 
whom she had been a devoted and exemplary wife and mother, but a deep sense of 
loss in the wider circle of her friends and fellow-members of the church.  She 
was a consistent member of the Presbyterian denomination, was pious and 
charitable, and was the object of universal esteem and respect.