BIO:  William S. Douglass, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Hopewell Township, Pg 111

WILLIAM S. DOUGLASS, son of David and Ann (Brannon) Douglass, natives of 
Chanceford and Fawn Townships, respectively, was born in Hopewell Township in 
1832, and was reared and educated at the public schools in the same township.  At 
the age of eighteen years he learned the plasterer’s trade, and at the age of 
twenty-one he returned to the homestead and assisted his father in farming.  In 
1882 he engaged in the hotel business at the old stand at Mt. Pleasant, formerly 
kept by his father for fifteen years.  In addition to keeping hotel he does some 
farming, having, in 1878, purchased a farm of forty acres in Hopewell Township.  
In 1863 he was married to Lavinia Minnich, daughter of Joseph Minnich, of 
Hopewell Township, and has six children:  Samuel S., Emma J., Mathew W., William 
S., John McN. and Clarence.  In 1864 he received the commission of second 
lieutenant in Company B, Two Hundred and Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
from Gov. Curtin, and was discharged in 1865.  He participated in the battles of 
Bermuda Hundred, Hatcher’s Run and Fort Steadman.  In 1865 he was appointed 
storekeeper and United States gander for the Fifteenth District of Pennsylvania, 
and held that office until 1868.  Mr. Douglass is an active business man.  His 
hotel, which is conveniently located, offers all the comforts a traveling man 
wants, and shows plainly that Mr. Douglass knows how to keep a hotel.