My great-grandpap. He was the son of Franklin Joseph Wetmore and Matilda (Tillie) Ellis Wetmore. His four siblings were Myrtle, Evelyn, Harry, and Clyde. The family lived in Loyalhanna, PA. Like many of the men in the area, William also worked as a coal miner and lumberer. He was already working by eleven years old, loading coal onto wagons at a local brick yard. In 1921 he met Alice Wellek, whose family were his family's new next door neighbors. Though Alice was four years his senior, they fell in love and were married on 16 November 1922, in Holy Family Church. In 1923, their first child, William, Jr. (Bill), was born, followed by Henry, Bertha, and Mildred. While they were raising their family in Latrobe, PA, during the hard years of the Great Depression, my great-grandpap was working at a steel mill (Vanadium Alloy Steel Company), a job he held for 46 years until his retirement. He and Alice raised their children in the Mechesneytown area of Latrobe, and later moved into Latrobe proper. He instilled in his four children a respect for authority (never letting them forget that he was the sole authority in their house) and their elders and was a rather strict disciplinarian, as were many parents in that era, particularly when it came to ensuring his two daughters didn't associate with boys before the age of eighteen. However, he had a softer side, and loved to make things out of wood and to fix things. My grandmother remembers that just about the only thing he couldn't fix was a car. He and his wife were married for almost 60 years.
My great-grandpap. He was the son of Franklin Joseph Wetmore and Matilda (Tillie) Ellis Wetmore. His four siblings were Myrtle, Evelyn, Harry, and Clyde. The family lived in Loyalhanna, PA. Like many of the men in the area, William also worked as a coal miner and lumberer. He was already working by eleven years old, loading coal onto wagons at a local brick yard. In 1921 he met Alice Wellek, whose family were his family's new next door neighbors. Though Alice was four years his senior, they fell in love and were married on 16 November 1922, in Holy Family Church. In 1923, their first child, William, Jr. (Bill), was born, followed by Henry, Bertha, and Mildred. While they were raising their family in Latrobe, PA, during the hard years of the Great Depression, my great-grandpap was working at a steel mill (Vanadium Alloy Steel Company), a job he held for 46 years until his retirement. He and Alice raised their children in the Mechesneytown area of Latrobe, and later moved into Latrobe proper. He instilled in his four children a respect for authority (never letting them forget that he was the sole authority in their house) and their elders and was a rather strict disciplinarian, as were many parents in that era, particularly when it came to ensuring his two daughters didn't associate with boys before the age of eighteen. However, he had a softer side, and loved to make things out of wood and to fix things. My grandmother remembers that just about the only thing he couldn't fix was a car. He and his wife were married for almost 60 years.
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