Preston County, West Virginia Biography: David C. STEMPLE ************************************************************************** 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 Linda Katalenich, , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II, Pg. 408-409 DAVID C. STEMPLE. The country home of David C. Stemple at Aurora in Preston County is an example of progressive management and efficient handling of the resources of the soil and all the details of good farming. Moreover it is a farm that has been in one family for four generations, and succeeding generations will find it more productive than ever when Mr. Stemple completely retires. He has passed the age of three score and ten, but is still a man of action both on his farm and in community affairs. He is a descendant of Godfrey Stemple, who came from Hagerstown, Maryland, and established his home at what is now the village of Aurora as early as 1780. In that year the governor of Virginia, Henry Lee, signed a grant of 1,000 acres near Aurora in Preston County to Godfree Stemple, as he spelled his name. This grant was No. 421. He brought his family to occupy the land in 1784. It was a wilderness with wild animals and game abounding. His three sons, David, Martin and John, all aided in effecting a clearing for the first crops and in building the pioneer home into which the family removed after spending part of the first winter in a canvas tent. His son John Stemple, whose life for half a century was spent on part of this farm, died about 1830 and is buried in the Carmel graveyard, the oldest burying ground in the locality. He married Sarah Boyles, and their children were Margaret, Isaac, David, Susan, Christina, Sarah and Elizabeth. Of these David Stemple, father of David C. Stemple, was born December 17, 1808, and died June 15, 1898, when in his 90th year. The schools of his day were crude and he had little book learning, but he became a thoroughly practical man as a farmer and kept in touch with the life around him and also the news from the outside world. He was an interesting visitor and conversationalist, was very active in the Lutheran Church, having a part in the erection of the church at Carmel, and serving as deacon and elder. He was a democratic voter, but not a politician. After his marriage he settled on the farm now occupied by his son David C. His wife was Susan Lantz, and they were married November 17, 1835. They lived together more than sixty years, and Mrs. Stemple died in 1902, when almost ninety-one. She was born May 16, 1811, daughter of Henry and Eva (Bishoff) Lantz. David Stemple and wife had the following children: Harriet, who died unmarried; John H., who was a Preston County farmer and miller and died in 1904, leaving a family by his marriage to Rebecca Ann Shaffer; Miss Christina, living at Aurora; Lewis S., a farmer at Aurora; Eva, wife of David Schrock, near Eglon; Jacob S., who lived many years in Mahoning County, Ohio, where he married Lydia Simon, daughter of Stilling Simon, and after her death in 1890 he returned to West Virginia and is now living on a farm new Aurora; and David C. David C. Stemple was born July 9, 1851, on the farm where all his years have been spent. He attended the public schools of Aurora, and for half a century his efforts have been put forth as a grain grower and stock raiser at the old homestead. He has cleared many acres, raised the first crops from the virgin soil, and has had his full share of the heavy labor involved in this class of pioneering. While his sons had the advantages of agricultural colleges, Mr. Stemple has practiced the fundamental principles of scientific agriculture for a long period of years. He was one of the first in this section to advocate the liberal use of lime and commercial fertilizer, has always diversified his farming by keeping stock, and has made it a point to replace all the elements of fertility taken away by crops and stock, so that his land is getting better every year. As a wheat grower he has kept some interesting records. In the preparation of his ground for wheat he mows the stubble and second growth before plowing then makes liberal application of manure, plows about six inches in depth, and has harvested about as high as forty-four bushels to the acre. While his farm and its management has been his chief business Mr. Stemple has interested himself in local affairs, has served as trustee of the Mountain Top school and has steadily voted as a democrat since casting his first ballot for Horace Greeley for president in 1872. He is a member of the Lutheran Church. September 26, 1880, at Aurora, he married Miss Ida Trotter, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Stock) Trotter and a sister of President Frank B. Trotter of the University of West Virginia. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Stemple were Forrest, Rodney Milton, Grover Dayton, who died at the age of six years, and Mary Elizabeth, who finished her education in the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon and the Carnegie Institute of Technology at Pittsburgh. The son Forrest graduated from West Virginia University in 1910, took his Master of Science degree in agriculture at the University of Wisconsin, and was a professor in Ohio State University and West Virginia University, which latter position he resigned on account of his father's health and is now principal of the Union District High School in his home locality. He married Grace Townsend, and they have three children, Alice Elizabeth, Margaret Ida and David Townsend. Rodney Milton Stemple died August 26, 1914, when in the midst of a most promising and useful career. He was a graduate of West Virginia University, for some years was employed in an expert capacity by the H. J. Heinz Company, later was with an independent pickle and kraut factory, and was serving as county agent of Berkeley County, West Virginia, when he died. He married Florence Warden, of Connecticut. Lewis S. Stemple, an older brother of David C. and one of the well known farmer citizens of Preston County, was born March 6, 1844, and in February, 1865, enlisted in Company I of the 17th West Virginia Infantry, under Captain Samuel Holt and Colonel Day, and was in training at several points in West Virginia until the close of the war. He received his discharge July 7, 1865. After this he worked as a stave maker in a cooper shop at Amboy, later in a shop just south of Eglong, then became a carpenter and for many years has been active as a farmer. December 25, 1878, at Oakland, Maryland, he married Mollie McCrum, daughter of James and Lydie (Wagner) McCrum, another well known family of Preston County. Mrs. Stemple was born near Aurora January 20, 1852, and died September 22, 1881. She was the mother of two children: Daisy, wife of Wilbert Gorby, of Oklahoma City, and Chester David, who died in childhood.