U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Strickler, Jacob P. (1822-1895) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Ritchie County by Minnie Kendall Lowther Wheeling News Litho. Co., Wheeling W.Va., 1911 Pages 536-539 Jacob P. Strickler — Few names have been more prominently associated with the affairs of the county, since the early sixties than that of "Strickler." Jacob P. Strickler, the head of the Ritchie county family, was born near Luray, Virginia, on January 22, 1822, and there spent the first years of his youth as a farmer-lad. He entered public life as a pedagogue, and later peddled tinware in a vehicle, and finally, near the year 1848, entered the mercantile business, as a member of a firm at Monterey, in Highland county, and there continued in this occupation until the breaking out of the Civil war. He cast his vote for Bell and Everett in the campaign of 1860, and at the opening of hostilities when a call was made for the militia of Highland county to join the Confederate ranks, he, being captain of the junior company, reported to the command with his men; but his company was disbanded to get men to fill up the senior ranks, and he did not enter the service, but returned home and set about the closing out of his business; and after the Union forces had been compelled to withdraw from Highland county, he left there and came to Barbour county, and from there, went West, where he visited Illinois and other states; and upon his return in 1862, he came to Ellenboro. Here, he and Granville E. Jarvis, of Taylor county, purchased the mercantile stock of General A. S. Core, and went into business under the firm name of "Strickler & Jarvis." And near the year 1868, he became the sole owner and proprietor of the establishment, and thus continued until 1893, when the name was changed to that of "Strickler & Sons." Mr. Strickler was a man of marked ability, and was ever prominent in Democratic circles. In 1872, he was chosen as a member of our State Constitutional convention — was one of the distinguished body that gave us the present Code of West Virginia. On July 16, 1850, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Gilmor, daughter of Alexander Gilmor, of Virginia, and granddaughter of Samuel Gilmor, a Revolutionary soldier of Scotch descent, who carried to his grave the scars of twenty-four sabre wounds inflicted by the enemy in battle, and seven children were the result of this union; viz., Will A., Belle (who died in youth), Thomas G., Alice, who became Mrs. J. W. Boehm, and died on December 8, 1898, at Ellenboro; Perry A., Nellie (Mrs. Hugh Scott, of Pennsboro), and Ella Blanche, who married E. F. Drey and passed on, on September 24, 1897. Mr. Strickler died very suddenly from heart failure, on October 20, 1895, and in the Ellenboro cemetery, he reposes. But his wife still survives. At his death his mantle fell upon his sons who are as prominently identified with the Ellenboro of to-day as he was with the town of the past. Will A. Strickler, the eldest son, was born at Monterey, Virginia, on March 5, 1852, and came to this county with his parents in his boyhood. On January 1, 1875, he led Miss Tea McCoy, of Ellenboro to the altar as his bride, he being at this time employed as clerk in his father's store; and three years later (1878), he was elected to the office of Clerk of the Circuit court, on the Democratic ticket, he being able to overcome the candidate of the dominant party by a majority of nineteen votes; and at the expiration of his first term in this office, he was re-elected by a majority of three hundred thirty-two votes, and the third time, he went down in defeat. He served as assistant Clerk in the State Senate and in the House of Delegates for several terms; was deputy-clerk in Tyler and Wetzel counties, assisting the present Circuit clerks in learning the duties of their offices. He was a prominent figure in the Good Templar's order, having held different offices from that of Grand Chief down; and he represented the Grand Lodge of West Virginia in the International Session of the order at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1891. He is an influential Democrat, and is widely known throughout the state in political circles, and as a Sunday-school worker. He is the father of three children. Alex G., the eldest married Miss Lena Peirpoint, of Harrisville, and is identified in the mercantile business at Ellenboro; Will A., junior, died at the age of eighteen months, and Kathleen is at home. Thomas G. Strickler married Miss Dolly Lowther, daughter of James R. Lowther, of Pullman, and is the father of three children, Blanche and Hattiemae, and Tom G., junior. He is the manager of the Pennsboro Grocery Company, the president of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, at Pennsboro, a member of the Chancellor Hardware Firm at Parkersburg, and has interests in several other business concerns. He served one term as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons of West Virginia, and is a degree member of that fraternity, as is his brother Will A., and Alex Strickler. Perry A. Strickler, who is also identified in business circles here, married Miss Mary D. Mallory, and is the father of four children: Rachel, Johnson, Elizabeth, and Scott. Mrs. Strickler is the grand-daughter of Ritchie county's first newspaper editor, Enoch G. Day. The Stricklers hail from the land of "Gessler and of Tell!" Four brothers came from Switzerland, near the year 1700, and settled in the Pennsylvania colony. Abraham Strickler, one of these brothers, subsequently removed to Virginia, and found a home in the Shenandoah valley, where his son, Joseph Strickler, was born on September 1, 1731. Joseph Strickler grew to manhood, and married Miss Barbara _____, and was the father of six children; viz., Barbara, Margaret, Daniel, Joseph, junior, and Cathrine. Joseph Strickler, junior, was born on September 29, 1786, and married Miss Mary Miley, who was born in 1794, and eight children were the result of this union; viz., Cathrine B., Abraham, Isaac H., Rebecca, Jacob P. (father of the Ritchie county family), William, Mary Eleanor, and Joseph T. Strickler. The older generations of the family are said to have been a highly respected and intelligent race of people. Some of them filled important offices in both military and civil life with honor to themselves and with credit to their country; and none of them were ever known to have been punished for a capital offence; and what has been said of them can as truthfully be said of their descendants of to-day. An old German Bible, which bears the inscription, "Zurich, Switzerland, 1536," and which was brought to America by the family more than two hundred years ago, is now a treasured heirloom of Mrs. Martin Kaufman, of Mill creek, Virginia — a lineal descendant. ------------------------------------------------------------------- There are tombstones in the Ellenboro Cemetery, Ritchie County, WV J. P. Strickler (1822-1895) Bettie M. Strickler (1832-1912) ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ritchie County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ritchie/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------