My Genealogy Hound

W. WILLIS WONDERLY, one of the leading men of Silver Spring township, Cumberland county, Pa., was born in Middlesex township, this county, March 30, 1854.

The earliest ancestor of whom we have any definite record is John Wonderly, grandfather of W. Willis, a native of Middlesex township, where he followed the trade of a blacksmith, and at one time conducted a hotel. He married Susan Hetrick, of the same township, and four children were born to them, two of whom died in childhood. Those who reached mature years were: William D., father of our subject, and Caroline, who married William Barnitz, a brick manufacturer, of Carlisle, and had four children: John (who died at the age of thirty years in Texas, where he had gone to regain his health); J. Edwin (an attorney, who married Margaret Oyster, of Camp Hill), Susan (unmarried at home), and Grant (who married Hermie Elizabeth Wertz, of Cumberland county, Pa., and has two children).

William D. Wonderly, father of W. Willis, was born in Middlesex township Jan. 4, 1822, and received a common-school education there. At the age of twenty-nine years he married Sarah A. Kessinger, daughter of Peter Kessinger, a resident of New Kingston. William D. Wonderly was originally a blacksmith, but later became a farmer and was very successful in his agricultural ventures. Six children were born to himself and wife, two of whom died in infancy: John P. is with a farmer of Middleton township; he married Florence Flemming, of Boiling Springs, and had four children, William D. (a soldier in the Philippines), Helen (at home), and two who died in infancy. W. Willis is mentioned below. Samuel E. married Catherine Wagner, of Iowa, and they had eight children, Tolbert (a butcher by trade), John (operating a crane at Steelton), Urie (a machinist in Harrisburg), Roy, Frank, Celia, Sarah and Opal (all at home). Tolbert K., residing at Denver, Colo., where he is a printer, married a Miss Blood, of Missouri, and had one son.

W. Willis Wonderly attended the common schools of Silver Spring township, until he was eighteen years of age, when he left school and commenced to learn the carpenter’s trade, following it for about five years. At this time he began farming the old homestead, and for five years more was thus engaged. When twenty-two years of age he married Elizabeth J. Herman, daughter of P. Y. and Sarah (Williams) Herman, of New Kingston, and three children have been born to them: Grace A. died in infancy; Herman L. died in infancy; George Arthur, now twenty years of age, is attending Dickinson college, Carlisle, from which institution he will soon be graduated; he is a very promising young man and the pride of his parents’ hearts.

After he retired from farming, Mr. Wonderly resumed his carpenter work and is now quite a prominent contractor of the township. For the past nine years, he has also operated the creamery above New Kingston, which he owns, and which is in a very flourishing condition. In religious matters Mr. Wonderly is a consistent member of the Lutheran Church, in which he holds the office of trustee. Although a lifelong Democrat, he has never desired or accepted political preferment, but he takes an interest in local affairs. Industrious, hardworking, thrifty, Mr. Wonderly has steadily forged his way to the front, and now stands among the representative farmers and business men of Cumberland county.