[p. 983] one of North Beaver Township's representative citizens, the owner of 110 acres of valuable farming land, was born on this farm, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1848, and is a son of Benjamin and Mary (Reed) Douglas.
Mr. Douglas comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry and his grandfathers on both sides were very early settlers in Lawrence County. The paternal grandfather, George Douglas, and the maternal, John Reed, were born, relatively, in Scotland and Ireland. Benjamin Douglas, father of W. Lawrence, was born in North Beaver Township and was left an orphan when small. He was bound out to Wilson Mitchell, of New Castle with whom he learned the cabinetmaking trade. He remained with this employer for five years and when he had completed his apprenticeship received the sum of $30, a suit of clothes and a set of tools for work at his trade. Benjamin Douglas was one of three sons who inherited 300 acres of land which the grandfather left in trust for them. Until his marriage Benjamin Douglas worked as a cabinetmaker and also as a millwright, being a thoroughly skilled mechanic, and then settled on the farm which his son, W. Lawrence, owns and which our subject's son, Robert R. Douglas, occupies and cultivates. He was born in 1818 and his wife in about the same year and they both died in 1898, separated by but a few months.
W. Lawrence Douglas grew to manhood in the little log cabin in which he was born, obtained his education in the district schools, and his life has been devoted to agricultural pursuits. Until 1904 he continued to reside on the old home place, which is situated on the Mt. Jackson and Enon Road, about one mile north of Mt. Air, and then moved to a neighboring farm of forty-eight acres, which belongs to his wife. Here he continues to engage in farming, together with dairying.
Mr. Douglas was married (first) to Elizabeth Leslie, who was a daughter of Adam Leslie, and they had three children: Mary, deceased, who was the wife of Alonzo Riddle, had one child, Guy Leslie; Robert R., who married Maud McAnlis, has two children, Mary Elizabeth and Lawrence McAnlis, and Charles, who married Edna Miller, has one child, William James. Mr. Douglas was married (second) to Martha Walker, who is a daughter of James Walker. They are members of the Westfield United Presbyterian Church. He has passed all the chairs in Marietta Lodge, Knights of Pythias, at Mt. Jackson.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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Updated: 12 Feb 2002