William Wilson Prather
William Wilson Prather was born December 16, 1844, near Buena Vista, in Scioto County, Ohio, the son of Henry Prather and Mary Rape, his wife. His mother was a sister of the late William R. Rape, of West Union.
Our subject was the second child of their marriage. His father removed to West Union, when he was about two years old, and resided there until the year 1865. In that vear his father, Henry Prather, removed to Manchester. Ohio, and started the daily omnibus line from Manchester to West Union, the first that was ever run, going to West Union every morning and returning in the afternoon to connect with the evening boats. William attended the schools in Manchester until the twenty-fourth of October, 1863, when he enlisted in Company E, 91st Regiment, O. V. I., at the age of eighteen years, for a period of three years. He was promoted on June 1. 1865, to the office of Quartermaster Sergeant of the regiment which he held until he was mustered out on the twenty-fourth of June following. At the time he enlisted he left the school room to become a soldier. He was a conductor on the streetcar line in Louisville, Ky.. from 1865 to 1867. In that year, he married Miss Rebecca Shriver, daughter of Joseph M. Shriver, of Manchester. He located there and engaged in the stove and tinware business. He continued in that business at Manchester until 1894, when he removed to Portsmouth and engaged in the wholesale tinware and crockery business under the name of the "Portsmouth Tinware Company," with John K. Peyton, Charles H. Zeigler and James W. Queary, his partners. He continued in that business in Portsmouth until 1898, when he returned to Manchester. Since 1898, he has been a traveling saleman for The James McDonald & Son's Company tinware and metal house of Cincinnati. He has a family of seven children, all living, as follows: Robert M., a dentist at Fort Worth, Texas; William Byron, city salesman, in Cincinnati; Mary, the wife of Frank Gilfillen, a contractor, living in Northside, Ohio; Kate, the wife of A. F. McColm, a telegraph operator for the C. H. & D. Railroad at Carthage, Ohio; Mabel, the wife of Frank Cady, of Maysville, Ky.; Grace, the wife of Charles C. Burt, a traveling salesman for the Drew-Selby Shoe Company, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Nellie, who is at home.
Mr. Prather is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a Royal Arch Mason. He has always been a Republican. He is a good citizen, respected and highly esteemed by all who know him.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900