Preston County, West Virginia Biography: James W. WOLFE ************************************************************************** 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. 381 JAMES W. WOLFE, cashier of the Bruceton Bank, has been one of the exceptionally busy and useful men of that community for a great many years. He has taught school, has experienced the practical side of farming, has been related to business in several spheres, and is also an elder and minister of the Church of the Brethren. His father was the late John E. Wolfe, who was born in Portland District, Preston County, in 1846, and grew up in the home of his uncle, Levi Wolfe. He reached man- hood with little schooling, but learned farming and de- voted his time and energies to that vocation throughout the years of his vigor. His final home was a mile east of Clifton Mills. He brought up a large family, and the provisions he made for them kept him a poor man. He lived well, owned a modest home, and could look back over his life with a high degree of satisfaction for what he had done for his children educationally. John E. Wolfe married Lydia A. Rosenberger, whose father, Adam Rosenberger, was a native of Germany and founded his family in Preston County. He was a man of education, a good scholar, and was thoroughly well versed in the Bible. He lived quietly but was always enthusiastic in his work as a member of the Church of the Brethren. He spent his last years in Grant District, and he was buried in the Thomas Cemetery there. Adam Rosenberger married Sallie Thomas, a sister of Andrew Thomas and a daughter of Rev. Jacob Thomas, whose earnest and use- ful career in Preston County has been reviewed elsewhere. The children of Adam Rosenberger and wife were: Mary, who became the wife of Jacob Riger and died in Penn- sylvania; Jacob, who married Susanna Spindler and died in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Lydia, who was Mrs. John E. Wolfe; Maggie, wife of Andrew Maust, of Grant District; Susanna, who became the wife of Isaiah Fike, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania; Sarah, wife of Allen Thomas, of Grant District; Philip, who married Sophrona Seese; Reuben, who married Emma Maust; and Barbara, who was the wife of Ezra Glover and died in Grant District. The oldest of the children of John E. Wolfe and wife was James Webster, the Bruceton banker. The next in age, Minnie, is the wife of Shriver Maust, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania; George E., of Grant District mar- ried Mary Thomas; Hosea M. married Mary Livengood and is a farmer in Grant District; Trussie B. is the wife of George A. Caton, of the same district; Calvin E. is pastor of the Church of the Brethren at Markleysburg, Pennsylvania, and married Cora Wilson; William C., who operates the Wolfe homestead, married Etta Dennis; Period Grace is the wife of Chester A. Thomas, a minister of the Brethren Church and a farmer near Salem Church in Preston County; and Mary Pearl is the wife of H. A. Knox, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. James W. Wolfe was born in Preston County, January 30, 1873, and up to the age of thirty his home was with his parents and he shared in the work of the home farm. He acquired a common school education, and before he was seventeen had qualified and had begun teaching in the common schools. Altogether he taught seventeen terms of country school, beginning in the Jonas Maust school and finishing at the Oak Grove school near Bruceton. While teaching he took a commercial course at Huntingdon, Penn- sylvania, also worked on the farm, and carried on some other individual enterprises. He removed to Bruceton Mills in 1906, for one year was a merchant, and then took the management of the Bruceton Mills, operating it under the ownership of a new company for seven years, and continuing as manager for two years under the owner- ship of the Hydro-Electro Company. When he left the mills he bought the L. H. Frankhouser farm a mile east of Brandonville, and was a producer of food supplies dur- ing the greater part of the World war. In October, 1918, he became cashier of the Bruceton Bank. He is also secre- tary and treasurer of the Farmers Union Association and Fire Insurance Company of Preston County. Mr. Wolfe has been president of the Board of Educa- tion of Grant District and is still one of the school com- missioners. He was probably the most effective advocate of and leader in the movement for the establishment of a high school at Bruceton, and had the satisfaction of seeing the project carried at the second election held for that purpose. Mr. Wolfe has always voted as a republican, and since boyhood has been a faithful worker in the Church of the Brethren. He was elected and commissioned by the congregation to preach in 1913, preaching his first sermon at the Mountain Grove Church. He was promoted to be an elder in 1915, and is one of the four pastors, with monthly appointments to the Sandy Creek congregation. He has been a class teacher in the Sunday School, a dele- gate of the church to ministerial meetings and other con- ventions in the state. In September, 1905, in Preston County, Mr. Wolfe mar- ried Mary Estella Wilson, who was born in the county in 1883, daughter of Irvin and Elizabeth (Thomas) Wilson. Her mother is a sister of Eev. Jeremiah Thomas, of Bruce- ton. The Wilson children were: Mrs. Delilah Hinebaugh, Mrs. Wolfe, Cora, wife of Calvin E. Wolfe, and Victor Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe had two children: Paul Wil- son, who died at the age of ten years, and John Irvin.