Preston County, West Virginia Biography of Daniel L. 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, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 151-152 DANIEL L. WOTRING, in charge of the credit depart- ment of the Whittaker Wholesale Grocery Company at Terra Alta, has had a progressive career in commercial affairs since young manhood, and represents one of the very old and honored families of West Virginia. He is a descendant of Abraham Wotring, who left the German Palatinate in 1732 and joined a colony in Penn- sylvania. His descendants have since become widely scat- tered over Pennsylvania and West Virginia and other western states. One of them was Daniel Wotring, who spent all or nearly all his life in Union District of Pres- ton County. He was a tanner and also a manufacturer of harness and horse collars. In a day of limited indus- try he conducted a thriving business, chiefly for supply of local needs. He was a good business man and also an influential citizen in Union District. He married a member of another prominent family of Preston County, the Cores, and his wife became widely known as a minis- tering angel in the succor of the helpless and sick of her locality. She had a considerable knowledge of medicine as well as being a thorough practical nurse, and she spent much of her time responding to calls for aid. Her children were: John W.; Mary, who became the wife of John Pint; Jacob, whose home was in Preston County; Rebecca, still living in Preston County; Laura, who died in Preston County, wife of Andrew Pifer; and Luther, a resident of Los Angeles, California. John W. Wotring was born August 23, 1844, attended the old fashioned schools, and toward the close of the Civil war entered the Union army and was assigned chiefly to guard duty until the close of hostilities. After the war he busied himself with his farming interests in Union District, was a stanch Methodist, a republican, was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and enjoyed a reputation for wisdom in his community that made him sought out by many of his neighbors for advice and counsel. He married Jemimah Catherine Adams, daughter of Daniel Adams, a farmer of Tucker County, who also had a record as a Union soldier. Mrs. John W. Wotring, who died in October, 1916, at the age of sixty-four, was the mother of the following children: Mary Ann, born November 16, 1870, died in Preston County, leaving three children by her marriage with Joshua Stemple; Sarah Priscilla, born April 15, 1872, died as the wife of Andrew Miller, leav- ing three children; Carrie, born February 3, 1874, lives at Elkins and has five children by her first husband, M. A. Mason; Columbia, born May 6, 1874, is the wife of Oliver England, of Beverly, and has a son; Summers Hayes, born April 19, 1877, a lumberman and business man at Elkins; Bertha Susan, twin sister of Summers, is the wife of William Kismer, of Los Angeles, California, and the mother of five children; Rose Grace, born August 25, 1878, is the wife of Delbert Greynolds, of Clarksburg, and has one son; Daniel Luther is the next in age; Sa- villa Agnes, born January 26, 1881, has five children by her marriage to O. B. Miller, of Tucker County; Cyrus Tasker, born March 25, 1882, is an employe of the Whit- taker Grocery Company of Terra Alta; Dora Ruth, born September 13, 1883, was first married to William Dumire and is now the wife of Harry Grimes, of Elkins, and is the mother of two children; Melvina Lutitia, born February 8, 1885, left three children by her marriage to Harry Grimes; Effie Belle, born June 27, 1886, is the wife of Delbert Moore, of Oklahoma, and they have three chil- dren; Pearl Maud, born September 10, 1887, is the mother of four children by her marriage to T. C. Morrison, of Canton, Ohio; Margaret, born June 1, 1890, died at the age of eighteen; and Delia Myrtle, born January 18, 1892, is the wife of Cecil Hill, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Daniel Luther Wotring was born October 27, 1879, in Union District and on the same farm as his father. He lived there until past his majority, and in the meantime made the best possible use of the country schools. On leaving home he was employed as a saw mill hand by R. Chaffee at William, West Virginia, was with him three years and then became sawyer for the Keystone Manu- facturing Company at Carmel, West Virginia. After about a year he gave up that line of business on account of an explosion in the mill, and then entered the Moun- tain State Business College at Parkersbnrg to fit him- self for a commercial career. He graduated in book- keeping in 1904, and soon afterward became a bookkeeper with the Pugh & Beavers Grocery Company at Terra Alta. When J. W. Whittaker bought the Pugh & Beavers Com- pany he remained as credit man and in charge of the office and detail work of the Whittaker Grocery Company. Mr. Wotring has been one of Terra Alta's busy and pub- lic-spirited men. He has served on the town council and also as town recorder, and during his official connection the town voted bonds for paving and other improvement. He has used his influence and efforts in behalf of good government and efficient men in public life. In national polities he is a republican, having cast his first vote for William McKinley in 1900. Mr. Wotring is a steward in the Methodist Church, is an Odd Fellow, and has been especially active in the Knights of Pythias and the D. O. K. K. At Terra Alta, June 11, 1907, Mr. Wotring married Miss Daisy Matheny. They have one son, Joseph Wil- liam, born July 21, 1911. Mrs. Wotring is a member of one of Preston County's oldest and most widely known families. Joseph M. Matheny, her father, now living retired at Terra Alta, was born near Valley Point, December 3, 1843. His grandfather, Elijah Matheny, represented either the first or second generation of the Matheny family in Preston County. He married Susan Crist, and one of their children was Elijah Matheny, father of Joseph M. Elijah Matheny was born in Preston County July 16, 1818, was a hard-working and quiet farmer and good citizen, an active member of the Methodist Church, and in politics was first a know nothing and later a republican, and one of the stanchest Union men in the county, three of his sons being Union soldiers. He married Christina DeWitt, a daughter of John DeWitt, and their children were: John, who was a Union soldier and three times wounded while a member of the Third West Virginia Cavalry and afterward followed farming in Doddridge County; George, who was for eight months in the Fourth West Virginia Cavalry and afterward a minister of the Methodist Church; Joseph Marcellus; Harmon Brooks, who was a farmer and was accidentally killed; Rebecca, living near Valley Point, widow of Elijah Bishop; Joanna K.. who married Ezra Hartsell and both died in Monon- galia, County; Rachel, living at Cowan, widow of Thomas Howard; Mary A., wife of Thomas Martin, of Union- town, Pennsylvania; and Susan, Mrs. John Feather, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Joseph M. Matheny had a few short terms of subscrip- tion school taught in an old log cabin schoolhouse, where he studied the text-books consisting chiefly of United States speller, McGuffey reader and an arithmetic. In 1861 he enlisted in Company B of the Fourth West Vir- ginia Cavalry, under Capt. Jeremiah Simpson and Col. Sam Snider. From Wheeling the regiment went to Parkers- burg, then to New Creek or Keyser, and for the greater part of the war the regiment was broken up into squads for guard duty. Mr. Matheny was with his comrades at Moorefield when the surrender at Appomattox occurred, and he was then sent back to Wheeling and honorably discharged in July, 1865. He was once wounded while in the army, a bullet striking his left shin. Mr. Matheny has for many years been identified with his old comrades in the Grand Army Post. After the war he resumed farming at Valley Point, and after his marriage lived at the place now occupied by David Bishop and for a year conducted a grist and saw mill near Kingwood. For a dozen years after that he was a farmer and stock raiser in the Sugar Valley community and then moved to a farm near Terra Alta where after thirteen years of labor and activity he turned over the farm and all hard work to a younger generation and retired to enjoy his well-deserved leisure in Terra Alta. Joseph M. Matheny has always voted as a republi- can and cast his first vote while in the army for Abra- ham Lincoln. He has done a great deal of jury service in the county. He and his wife have long been active in the Methodist Church, and he has been a trustee and one of the builders of the Sugar Valley Church. March 26, 1870, in Preston County, Joseph M. Matheny married Clementina Parsons, the ceremony being performed by Rev. Joseph B. Feather. She was born in Randolph County, June 30, 1846, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Neville) Parsons, of Hardy County, but who reared their family on a farm near St. George in Randolph County. Mrs. Matheny was one of ten children and had a country school education. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Matheny's chil dren were: Clarence M., who died while in the jewelry business at Thomas, West Virginia, and was survived by his wife, Catherine Skunk; Troy M., a carpenter at Terra Alta, who married Susan Trickett, and their children are Herbert, Regenia and Evelyn; Clyde, who married Mar- garet Miller and has two sons, Lloyd and George; Rus- sell, who married Jessie Taylor and has three children, Willis, Ruth and Elsworth; and Mrs. Daniel L. Wotring.