Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography: Thomas Jonathan Jackson WOTRING ************************************************************************** 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 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 18 THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON WOTRING has for over twenty years been a prominent figure in the citizenship of Morgantown, where he has enjoyed an extensive and busy practice as a civil and mining engineer. He was named for his father's great commander in the Civil war, Stonewall Jackson, and was born in Frederick County of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, November 7, 1868, son of John Henry and Martha Virginia (Hall) Wotring. His great-grandfather waa General Wotring, who commanded the German Army at Berlin, and for his activ- ities in promoting a federation of German states, an object achieved many years later by Bismarck, he had to leave that country and came to America about 1812, settling in North Carolina, where he invested his fortune in extensive land purchases. Some years later he moved to West Vir- ginia and settled on Horse Shoe Run in Preston County, where he bought upwards of 25,000 acres of land and where he lived the rest of his life. His son Abram Wotring was born in Preston County and devoted his active years to the cultivation of a large farm of about 500 acres. He married Elizabeth Felton, who was a great-granddaughter of Lord Felton of England. John Henry Wotring was born in Preston County in 1844, and as a young man began work for his brother, then general superintendent of the North- western Turnpike in the Shenandoah Valley. While thus engaged, in 1862, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in Company K of the Thirty-third Virginia Regiment, Stone- wall's Brigade, and served until wounded at the second battle of Manassas. Thereafter he served as provost mar- shal of Shenandoah County until the close of the war. The year following the return of peace he operated a saw mill in Frederick County, and then for six years devoted his attention to his farm. In 1876 he wag elected county treasurer of Frederick County, and filled that office twelve years, dying while still in office, in 1888. His wife, Martha Pall Wotring, was born in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1844, daughter of James B. and Vir- ginia (Rosenberger) Hall, and a granddaughter of Caleb Hall, a native of Philadelphia and an early settler of the Shenandoah Valley. Caleb Hall was a half brother to Lyman Hall, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. James B. Hall was born in Frederick County, Virginia. Martha Hall Wotring died in 1918. Thomas Jonathan Jackson Wotring grew up on his father's farm and found work to do there until 1892. In that year he joined an engineering crew in field work in Botetourt County, Virginia, at Roanoke, and by study and practice perfected his knowledge of the profession. In 1896 he returned to Frederick County, and in 1898 joined his mother, who the preceding year had located at Morgantown. Here Mr. Wotring engaged in the work of his profession, and for five years from 1899 was engineer in the employ of the Standard Oil Company at Morgantown. Following that he was a mining engineer with the Ross Engineering Com- pany, and for one year was with DeMoins Utt, general engineer. He then formed a partnership with Clarence M. Cox, under the name of Cox & Wotring, general engineers at Morgantown. Seven years later he bought out his partner, and since then Mr. Wotring has continued in the profession under his own name, doing a general engineer- ing work, largely in the service of mining corporations. He is a member of the American Society of Engineers and is a Lutheran.