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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: YOUNG, Peter
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
SSpradling@aol.com
September 21, 1999
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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and Representative
Citizens
W.S. Laidley
Richmond Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, ILL.
1911
p. 376-377
PETER YOUNG, grocery merchant at Charleston, W. Va., and one of the
representative business men of the city, was born in what is now Union
District, Kanawha County, W. Va., April 2, 1843, and is a son of Rev. Robert
Young and a grandson of Mathias Young.
Rev. Robert Young was born in Greenbrier County, Va., April 11, 1816, and
died at Charleston, November 19, 1892. He was a son of Mathias Young, who was
of German parentage, but was reared in Green-brier county, what is now
Fayette County, Va. He there married a Miss Hickman, and later moved into
what is now Roane County, W. Va., where his wife died at the birth of their
youngest child, who is Rev. Henry Young, the only survivor of a family of
seven sons and six daughters. All of the thirteen children married and all
but one daughter had children, the family being a prolific and vigorous one,
although the mother died when about forty-three years of age. At a later date
Mathias Young moved to Kanawha County, settling in Union District and was
there married to Maria Tate, who survived him and married again, dying at the
age of sixty-five years. Mathias Young was fifty-seven years old at the time
of his death and had four children born to his second marriage. He was a
Whig in politics and his business life was entirely agricultural.
Robert Young was the fifth in order of birth in the family of thirteen
children. He became the owner of 700 acres of excellent farm land and for
twenty-five years was interested with his son in the grocery trade at
Charleston, being a silent partner. At the age of thirty-five years he
became a Baptist minister and continued in unity with that religious body
during the remainder of a long and eminently useful life. He married Anna
Wallace, a daughter of Alex-ander Wallace, Esq., the latter of whom was a
justice of the peace for sixteen years in what is now Poca District, Kanawba
County, and was very prominent in other ways. He laid out one of the first
roads in Kanawha County, and for years was foreman for the Ruffner's, early
gardeners in the Kanawba Valley. Mrs. Young was born April 23, 1823, and she
still survives, re-taining all her faculties. Her memory is quite
remarkable. She is a devoted member of the Baptist church and has always
been beloved and esteemed for her womanly virtues. To Rev. Robert Young
and wife ten children were born, three sons and seven daughters, all of whom
married and nine of whom survive. Mrs. Young resides with her widowed
daughter Mrs. Mary Duley, No. 242 Kanawba Street, Charleston.
Peter Young was the eldest born of his parents' family and he remained on the
home farm until 1867, when he came to Charleston and in association with his
father opened a grocery store at No.247 Kenawba Street, he being the active
member of the firm. The business was continued at the above stand until 1905,
when removal was made to the present commodious brick building at No. 233
Virginia Street, where a large stock of staple and fancy groceries is carried.
Mr. Young was married in Union District, Kanawba County, W. Va., to Miss
Lorena Casdorph, who was born there March 14, 1846, a daughter of Ezariah and
Mary Casdorph, natives of Kanawha and Monroe County respectively. Both of
them died in Union District, the father at the age of eighty-four years and
the mother aged sixty-seven years. They had thirteen children, all married
but one and all are deceased but two. One brother of Mrs. Young, William
Harrison Casdorph, who was a private in the Federal Army, serving as a
faithful soldier in the 7th W. Va. Cav., was captured by the Confederates in
the Lynchburg, Va., raid, and died in Libby Prison.
Mr. and Mrs. Young have had eight children: Anna Laura, who married Henry
Cohers, and dies at the age of thirty-two years; David, who resides at home;
Walter, who is associated with his father, married Anna Smith and they have a
son, Lawrence; Alvin, who is associated with his brothers in operating a
laundry; Minnie, who is the wife of Mordica Wallace, a druggist at Ft. Worth,
Tex., and has two children; Clarence, who is in the laundry busi-ness at
Charleston, and is also money-order clerk in the post-office; and Cora and
Charles. Mr. Young is a Republican in politics and is serving as councilman
of the Third Ward. He belongs to Kanawha Lodge No.25, Odd Fellows.
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