You may want to check the battery. If it's internally shorted out no amount of charging will help.

I'm in the process fo doing that. I have a voltmeter and am not really sure what I should set my voltmeter to. I think it's a 12 volt battery. I have a "DC V" scale and a "AC V" scale. I'm really ignorant when using a voltmeter. DC V ranges from 2.5 - 1000. AC V goes from 10 , 50, 100. Thanks for any ideas - and pardon my voltmeter ignorance. I have check the battery with some of the options - the voltmeter registers a lot at certain settings.

The battery is perfect. Must be something else.

I traced the voltage through the battery - out the connector from the battery - everthing showed 12.7 volts. I took the linkage/connector that goes from the end of the above mentioned connector to the starter switch off. I took the ground(black wire) off the engine block and I took the red wire off the starter switch and it also checked out OK when connected to the first connector and not connected to the starter switch. When I re-connected the black wire to the engine block and the red wire to the starter switch - I got nothing. Long story but I tried to put the details in.

From your description it sounds like you can start the mower if you bypass the switch. If that's the case then the switch may be bad.