My Genealogy Hound

William W. Wonderley, a substantial farmer of Knox County, is a native of Augusta County, Va., and was born April 3, 1828. He is the youngest of seven children of David and Nancy (Layman) Wonderly, who were natives of Augusta County, Va., where they were reared and married. When our subject was two years old they moved to Allegany County, Md., where they resided until he was sixteen years old, and then returned to Virginia, residing at Bowlesburg, Preston County, until their deaths. The father was a farmer, in which occupation he was engaged all his life. Our subject attended the common schools of his native State, and began life for himself at the age of twenty-two. He then worked on the B. & O. Railroad, which was then in the course of construction, and helped measure from Cumberland to Wheeling. At the expiration of four years, at the time of the completion of the road, he embarked in the mercantile business at Rowlesburg, in company with his brother, and in the fall of 1857 settled in Knox County, Mo., when he soon married Nancy, daughter of James and Rachel (Lemons) Rollings, a native of Harrison County, Ky., where she was born April 5, 1830, her marriage with our subject occurring August 9, 1859. He then settled upon the farm now owned by Charles Morey, situated in the northern part of Shelton Township, where he lived nine years, and in the spring of 1867 moved upon the farm where he now resides. To Mr. and Mrs. Wonderley eight children were born, the following seven still living: George and Emma (twins), Mary, John, Henry, Julia and Ada. Mrs. Wonderley was the widow of Benjamin F. Ashby. when she married our subject, and her first union was blessed with two children, one of whom is living, Martha, the wife of John Wesley Howk. Our subject now owns a fine farm of 240 acres, besides twenty acres of woodland. When he settled upon this land it was a vast wilderness, but by persistent efforts and hard labor he has converted it into a good farm, well improved, and under a fine state of cultivation. He is one of Shelton Township’s most respected citizens, and a member of the Labor party, whose principles he has sustained ever since the organization of the Greenback party. He cast his first presidential vote for James. Buchanan in 1856, and previous to the war was a Democrat. He is a member of the church of the United Brethren, while his daughters Emma, Mary and Julia are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.