Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of CHARLES ROESSING This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 437 Upshur CHARLES ROESSING, superintendent of the William Flac- cus Oak Leather Company, one of the important industrial concerns of Buckhannon, Upshur County, is a recognized expert and authority in all departments of the tanning business, his initial knowledge of which was gained in his native town of Rothenburg on the Fulda River in Hessen- Nassau, Germany, where he was born on the 12th of August, 1868. He was afforded the advantages of the schools of his native place and was still a boy when he began work- ing in a local tannery, where he thoroughly learned his trade. As a youth he served one year and two months in the Prussian Army, and he was an ambitious young man of twenty-four years when in 1892 he came to the United States, where he felt assured of better opportunities for advancement. For two years he worked at his trade in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he then, in 1894, came to Buckhannon, West Virginia. Here he held the position of department foreman of the William Flac- cus Leather Company until 1900, and for two years there- after he was similarly employed in the State of New Jersey. He next returned to Pittsburgh, but six months later he again came to Buckhannon, where he held the position of superintendent of a tannery until 1908, when he returned to his native land and there made a visit of three months. Upon coming back to the United States Mr. Roessing built a tannery at Buckhannon, and this he. operated in an independent way until 1910, since which year he has held the position of superintendent of the William Flaccus Oak Leather Company. He is one of the substantial and loyal citizens of Upshur County, and here resides upon bis well improved little farm of forty-four acres, adjoining the City of Buckhannon. He is a repub- lican in politics and takes deep interest in all that concerns the welfare of his home community. In the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Roessing and Miss Catherine Kerst, who likewise is a native of Germany, and they have three children: Carl, born May 13, 1893, whose early educational advantages included those of the West Virginia Wesleyan College, married Claudia L. Hiner, and they have one son, Charles H. George, who was born October 12, 1898, and who completed a two years' college course, remains at the parental home. Lena, who was born February 18, 1895, graduated from the Buckhannon High School, later completed a normal course in the West Virginia Wesleyan College, after which she was engaged in teaching in the public schools until her marriage to Lloyd Travis. They have one child, Ralph.