Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Castner, George Washington December 20, 1840 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net November 24, 2025, 10:52 am

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  GEORGE WASHINGTON CASTNER, one of the ablest and most 
enterprising farmers of
Gwynedd is the son of Jesse and 
Parthena (Sheive) Castner, both deceased many
years ago. He 
is descended from an old family of German origin the name 
having
been at one time spelled Kastner. 

  He was born December 20, 1840, on the farm
in Lower 
Gwynedd, near Gwynedd station, owned by his grandfather and 
occupied
by his father. He attended the public school at 
Gwynedd until his eighteenth
year, giving some attention 
also to assisting in the work of the farm. One of
his 
teachers was Squire Andrew Jackson Lewis, who lived on an 
adjoining farm,
and was an instructor of the old school, 
specimens of whom are now
comparatively rare in the 
profession in Montgomery county. On leaving school
at 
Gwynedd, Mr. Castner entered Washington Hall Collegiate 
Institute at
Trappe, conducted for many years by Professor 
Abel Rambo, who was for a long
period county superintendent 
of schools in Montgomery. After a time spent in
that 
institution Mr. Castner returned to the homestead farm to 
enter upon the
more active duties of life, remaining there 
until his marriage which occurred
October 27, 1868. 

  He married Sarah, daughter of Jacob B. and Ann (Jenkins) 

Rhoads, both long since deceased. Jacob B. Rhoads was a 
widely known farmer of
Gwynedd township, near North Wales, 
who attended the Philadelphia market for
many years, 
handling meat as well as farm produce. Mrs. Castner was born 
and
reared at the Rhoads homestead, on which she now 
resides. She attended the
Friends' School at Gwynedd as well 
as the public school at that place, and also
the Academy at 
North Wales. Still later she was a resident student at 

Lewisburg Institute, now combined with Bucknell University, 
then a flourishing
school for girls and young women, and 
graduated with the class of 1866.
 

 After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Castner located on a 
farm in Lower Gwynedd
(then Gwynedd) township, adjacent to 
the farm of her father, where they
remained for more than 
twenty years. In 1888 Mr. Castner purchased the Rhoads 

homestead, containing 137 acres, in Upper Gwynedd township, 
which they operated
as a dairy farm, maintaining a herd of 
twenty-five cows thereon, the milk being
shipped from 
Gwynedd station to Philadelphia by way of the North 
Pennsylvania
Railroad. During 1863 Mr. Castner served in the 
Wishahickon Cavalry in the
state service, and was stationed 
at Harrisburg for a short time, but owing to
their services 
not being required the regiment returned home.

  The children
of Mr. and Mrs. Castner: J. Arthur, born 
October 27, 1870, attended Friends'
School at Gwynedd, and 
also the Brunner Academy and School of Business at
North 
Wales, after which he entered as a student at the Pierce 
College of
Business in Philadelphia, resides with his 
parents on the home farm, and
assists in its management: 
Mary Parthenia, born July 27, 1872, educated at the
Friends' 
School at Gwynedd, and also Sunnyside Academy, at Ambler, 
married
Linford, son of James and Mary (Johnson) Christian, 
and has one child, Arthur
Castner, and resides at North 
Wales; Ann Jenkins, born September 12, 1877,
attended the 
Gwynedd public schools and also the Brunner Academy at North 

Wales, graduating from the Gwynedd schools, from the North 
Wales institution in
the class of 1891, and from the 
Friends' Central School, Philadelphia, in the
class of 1894, 
married, September 24, 1901, Andrew Heckler, son of William 
and
Sarah (Heckler) Tyson, of Lansdale, residing there with 
her parents; Elizabeth
Grace, born 1884, died 1889.

  Jesse Castner (father) was the son of Jesse and
Elizabeth 
Castner, of Gwynedd. He was born on the Castner homestead, 
where he
spent his life, May 5, 1812. He attended such 
schools as were available in his
childhood and youth, and 
married Parthena Sheive. Their children Parthena
Louisa, 
born September 29, 1836, married, April 30, 1868, Abram 
Wentz, son of
Abram and Charlotte (Tyson) Wentz, of an old 
Whitpain family, long resident in
the vicinity of Centre 
Square where they kept a hotel in Revolutionary times
and 
subsequently, until 1867, a member of the family, Col. John 
Wentz, having
been a justice of the peace in Whitpain 
township for many years; and now
resides on Swede street, 
Norristown; Elizabeth, born December 7, 1837,
unmarried; 
Conard, born August 12, 1839; George W., subject of this 
sketch.


 Jesse Castner (grandfather) was the son of Samuel and Mary 
(Linderman)
Castner. He was born July 16, 1770, and married 
Margaret Rhoads, their children
being: Malinda, born May 8, 
1796, married William Coulston, of Gwynedd Charles,
born 
October 25, 1798, died May 12, 1862, married Martha Christy; 
Mary, born
December 5, 1800, died in 1852, and was married; 
Rachel, born November 7, 1803,
married; Margaret, born 
November 19, 1805; Anna, born October 19, 1806. Jesse 

Castner, who died September 15, 1883, was a son by a second 
wife, Elizabeth Smick.

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