The History of West Virginia, Old and New
The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Publ. 1923,
Volume III, pg. 285-286, Preston County

DANIEL C. FEATHER, whose death occurred January 13, 1922, was a retired farmer at Terra Alta, lived fourscore years, was an honored veteran of the Civil war, and for thirty years or more after coming out of the army his time and energies were devoted to the labors of his farm.

His ancestors came to Preston County when it was almost an unbroken part of the great trans-Alleghany wilderness. The family originated in Germany. The grandfather, Jacob Feather, was the original settler in the Lenox locality of Preston County, where he spent the rest of his years clearing away the timber and making a farm. Zaccheus Feather, father of Daniel Feather, was born at Lenox, July 14, 1805,and died March 1, 1891. He married Elizabeth Ervin, daughter of Isaac Ervin, and she was born August 6, 1814,and died January 26, 1898. They lived out their lives on the spot where their son Daniel was born, and were modest and unpretentious farmers. Zaccheus Feather voted as a democrat until the issues of the Civil war made him a republican. Two of his sons were soldiers, Daniel and Isaac, the latter in the Seventh West Virginia Infantry. A brief record of all their children is as follows: Clara Jane, who married Thomas J. Welch, reared a large family and died in Preston County; Isaac B., who was a farmer and is buried at the Crab Orchard Cemetery; Jacob, who also lived at Crab Orchard and is buried there: Mary Ann, who married B. A. Conner and died at Kingwood; Daniel C.; Nancy M., who was the wife of J. C. Stokes and died at Parsons, West Virginia; John S., a resident of Logan, Ohio; Miss Eva Catherine, of Lenox; Amanda Ellen, Mrs. John K. Peaslee, or Lenox; Martin Luther, who died in Preston County; Sarah E., who married Scott Kelley, of Terra Alta; and Minerva Belle, wife of Elmer B. Feather, a farmer near Lenox.

Daniel C. Feather was born at Lenox, Preston County, February 12, 1842, and he always observed his birthday in conjunction with Lincoln's anniversary, but his great admiration for the martyred president had other substantial grounds. Mr. Feather was reared on the home farm and lived there until past twenty years of age. He then joined Company B of the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, under Captain Clinton Jeffreys and Colonel Daniel Johnson. He first trained at Terra Alta, then spent three months drilling on Wheeling Island, mobilized at Clarksburg and soon went to the front and remained during the winter on scouting duty at Keyser. His command was then returned west to Parkersburg, thence to Charleston, and then crossed the mountains into Old Virginia, along the Virginia and Tennessee Railway. At Cloyd Mountain Mr. Feather was struck in the right hip by a musket ball, fracturing the thigh bone, and but for the help of comrades said he would have been "down to stay." While the Confederates were beaten off, two days later General Morgan came in and took the Federal wounded as prisoners, including Mr. Feather. These prisoners were put in the Emory and Henry College Hospital, where Mr. Feather remained five months. He was then sent to Richmond and a week later was exchanged and put in a parole camp at Annapolis, Maryland, and subsequently sent to Baltimore for hospital treatment. While there his discharge, previously applied for, arrived at Annapolis, to which, point he returned and was there the night President Lincoln was assassinated. Mr. Feather retained a vivid recollection of all the excitement attending that tragedy. He left Annapolis for home in April, and his discharge separated him from the army without a final muster out. The bullet that wounded him was never found and is believed to have remained somewhere in his body. The wound it made frequently broke out afresh, and caused him distress and misery until 1920, when it seemed to have permanently healed and his troubles ended.

For some time after the war he was unable to resume work, but when sufficiently recovered returned to the farming operations of his youth and established himself in his home community. He lived there until his removal to Terra Alta in 1894, except for a year and a half spent in Hocking County, Ohio, where he married. As a farmer Mr. Feather was a grain and stock raiser, and these departments, together with the improvements of his farm and the maintenance of its soil, constituted the daily and yearly routine of his life until he gained a competence through years of drudgery and retired to Terra Alta to spend his declining years in comfort. He established his home at the high point of the Alleghenies and lived there for more than a quarter of a century. He was a stockholder and one of the directors of the Terra Alta Bank. While in the army he cast his first vote for Mr. Lincoln for President, and every national election has called him out to vote the same party ticket. He filled the chairs in the Knights of Pythias Lodge of Terra Alta twice, was a representative to the Grand Lodge, and some thirty years ago was made an Odd Fellow at Bruceton Mills.

Deborah Ann Chidester was born in Preston County May 13, 1848, and as a young girl, she entertained a high admiration of the youthful soldier, Daniel Feather. When she was nineteen years of age, her parents moved to Hocking County, Ohio, and Daniel Feather followed her there, and on April 25, 1869, they were married. She was a daughter of Harrison and Sabina (Falkenstine) Chidester, her mother being a daughter of Samuel and Annie (Stuck) Falkenstine. Harrison Chidester was born near Bruceton Mills, in Preston County, May 6, 1826, spent all his career as a farmer, served with the West Virginia Militia during the Civil war, and in 1867 moved to Ohio and spent the rest of his days near Logan, where he died February 5,1897. His wife was born March 23, 1828, and died May 15, 1906. Mrs. Deborah Feather was the oldest of their children, and the others were: Nancy, who married John Feather and died in Hocking County; James, a resident of Wichita, Kansas; Elma, widow of Alfred Nimon, of Delaware, Ohio; Cyrus W., of Delaware; Isabel, wife of Jeremiah Ringer, of Terra Alta; and Emma, wife of Wither Coy, of Payne, Ohio. The only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Feather was Amy Louella, who died when almost eleven years of age.