This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: WEBER, ROGERS, McGOWAN, ALLEN, FARRELL, LEE, Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Xl.2ADI/202 Message Board Post: ***NOTE: Courtesy posting only - I am not connected to this family and have no other information***** Article from Winfield Daily Courier, Winfield, Kansas October 2, 1938 W. H. WEBER NEARING HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY One hundred years ago next Wednesday, Oct 5, 1838 - W. H. WEBER of Winfield was born. And he will celebrate his centennial with a birthday dinner at Newton for which all his children will be guests. For several months, Mr. Weber has been making his home with a daughter in Newton and he sends word to friends and relatives here that he looks forward with pleasure and in good health to his 100th birthday anniversary. With Mr. Weber on his birthday anniversary will be his children: Mrs. David McGowan of Newton, Mrs. T. H. Allen and Mrs. W. H. Farrell of Winfield, and Mrs. Ella Lee and Elmer Weber of Kansas City, Kans., William Weber and Perry Weber of Tulsa, and Adam Weber of Ponca City. An open house at the David McGowan home, 327 West Broadway, is also being arranged for the occasion. During that time two granddaughters living here - Betty Sue Allen and Melba Rose Allen - will preside at the punch bowl. A life of hard work and open air is the prescription William Henry Weber would recommend to those who want to live long and happily. Born in a Dutch settlement at Schaffersburg , PA, 15 miles from Reading, on Oct 5, 1838, he went to Indiana early in his teens and at Newcastle on Nov 24, 1860, he married Matilda Rogers. Their union continued for 61 years, but was broken by the death of Mrs. Weber in 1921. They were parents of 12 children of whom four sons and four daughters survive. Soon after their wedding, the nation was enveloped in the great civil strife and Mr. Web went off to war, enlisting as a private in the Union army, Sept 25, 1861. Mr. Weber's war service was short. At the battle of Shiloh, at Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee, April 7, 1862, he was injured and was taken to a hospital. He spent some time caring for other injured men in the hospital and returned to the front but at the battle of Stone River, east of Nashville, Dec 31, 1862, he was shot in the leg and he didn't get into actual combat after that. CAME TO KANSAS IN 1870 Returning home in September, 1864, Mr. Weber and his family decided to move eastward (sic - presumably the reporter meant to say westward). Traveling in a covered wagon they reached Iowa in 1886 and came to Kansas in 1870, homesteading a claim north of Winfield. Mr. Weber often remarks that they didn't bring a team of oxen with them but he often used ox teams after reaching Kansas. After farming a time, Mr. Weber was a contractor and became interested in a sawmill. As a stone and brick contractor he built many of the early buildings in this city and once took a seven year subscription to the Winfield Courier, he relates as part payment for some construction work. Intensely patriotic, Mr. Weber comes from a line of ancestors who had military careers. His great grandfather, Captain John Henry Weber, fought in the Revolutionary War; his grandfather was in the War of 1812, and his father was a major in the Mexican War. Mr. Weber is one of the remaining members of the Siverd G. A. R. post here and is a member of the Winfield First Methodist church. The Newton Veterans of Foreign Wars post made him an honorary member a couple of years ago. LIFELONG REPUBLICAN Mr. Weber is unable to read newspaper print but enjoys his daily game of solitaire. Politically, he is a Republican and has always voted for the Rep7ublican presidential candidate except one. On that occasion he voted for Stephen A. Douglas, strong northern Democrat. Mr. Weber changed his vote that time upon the advice of his employers, he says. He uses neither tobacco or alcoholic drinks. "He's up at seven every morning and would get up at five if I'd let him", Mrs. McGowan says. He eats a hearth breakfast, a good lunch, and then a large portion of bread and milk and dried beef for his evening meal. Retiring usually about eight o'clock at night, he sleeps soundly, his only regret being he ahs to leave the radio that he enjoys almost constantly during the day. Mr. Weber's eyesight is just a little dimmer and his hearing a little faulty, but he enjoys sitting by the hour and listening to musical programs, sermons and reports of political and world events. DEPLORES STRIFE IN WORLD Sitting by the radio and hearing reports of armies marching in many countries, he deplores the fighting that is being carried on. "If they were good Christians", he says, "men would love one another". Mr. Weber looks forward daily to his automobile ride with Mr. and Mrs. McGowan, Mr. Weber, since having the home here, has visited here with his daughters, Mrs. T. H. Allen and Mrs. W. H. Farrell. He has made his home in Newton most of the time for the past three years following a severe sick spell. Mrs. McGowan took her father there from Winfield at the time of his illness. (SEE ATTACHED NEWSPAPER CLIPPING PHOTO OF WILLIAM HENRY WEBER)