Berkeley County, West Virginia Biography of John William KASTLE, JR. ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 379-380 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, 1858. Grandfather George J. Kastle was born in Wuertem- berg, Germany, and was the only member of his father's family to come to America. As a youth he attended school in Germany, later in Paris, and served an apprenticeship at the stone cutter's trade. On coming to America he located at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he married Christiana Stocker. She was also a native of Wuertemberg, and with a sister came to America a short time before her marriage. This sister married a man named Kestler and remained at Lancaster. Her four brothers, named John, Jacob, Andrew and Mathias Stocker, all settled in Mont- gomery County, Ohio, where some of their descendants still live. George J. Kastle after his marriage moved to Martins- burg, where he followed his trade and then entered the mer- cantile business and conducted 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., acquired a public school 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 Rockingham County, Virginia. Her grandfather Price was born in Scotland and on coming to America settled in Pennsyl- vania. Her father, William C. Price, was born at Smith- burg, Pennsylvania, and from there removed to Rockingham 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 Clarence. John W. Kastle, Jr., acquired a public 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 cutting 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 Perfection in the Scottish Rite, and Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling.