From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 363-364.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


CHARLES LUKENS

Charles Lukens, one of the oldest in the grocery trade at Wheeling, 
is a native of Reading, Berks county, Penn.  His father, Joshua 
Lukens, who was born at Philadelphia in 1805, the son of Nathan 
Lukens, who was married to Mary, daughter of John Bickle.  She was 
born at Reading, Penn., in 1808.  To this union nine children were 
born, three of whom served in the armies of the Union.  John B. 
Lukens served as captain of Company K, Fifteenth West Virginia 
infantry; Abram B. Lukens served three years in Battery D, First West 
Virginia light artillery, and Joshua B., a member of Compamy A, First 
Virginia infantry, was killed at the battle of Snicer's Ford, in 
July, 1864.  Charles Lukens, the subject of this sketch, the third of 
the children mentioned, was born December 2, 1834.  Three years later 
the family removed to Weeeling, and in 1851 the parents made their 
residence on the Island, where the father died May 2, 1881, and the 
mother May 10, 1871.  Mr. Lukens engaged in the grocery business in 
Wheeling as long ago as 1860, and with the exception of five years 
spent in Washington county, Ohio, from 1863 to 1868, has continued in 
that branch of trade in the city, meeting with good success, and 
gaining an honorable rank in the community.  While in Washington 
county he held for three years the office of postmaster at Wade post-
office.  He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the I. O. O. F., 
the Senior Order of American Mechanics, Garden Spot council, No. 339, 
National Union, and is prominent in the Grocers' Protective 
association of the city.  He was married in September, 1861, to 
Margaret V. Bedilion, third daughter of Abram Bedilion, formerly of 
Wheeling.  She died in March, 1868, leaving three children, William 
J., Mary M., and Charles B.  January 31, 1871, he was united to Anna 
E., daughter of Calvin Kasson, of Belmont county, Ohio, and they have 
one child, Anna H. 


(Linda Fluharty)