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Below is a family biography included in The History of Greene County, Illinois published by Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd in 1879.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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WILLIAMS, DAVID J. farmer and stock raiser, Sec. 24, P.O. Kane. In entering into a description of men and early times in Illinois, it will be well to give a description of the ancestry of many of those whose names head our biographical sketches. The father of our subject, David William’s, was a native of Virginia, and removed to Ohio in an early day, where he married Miss Sarah McKinsey. Eventually he made his way to Missouri and thence to Illinois, settling in Greene County, that part now known as township 9, range 12, in 1821, where he erected a cabin and began to make other preparations incident to pioneer life. A blacksmith by trade, he never turned his attention to it in Illinois, but followed agriculture, and became moderately successful in this vocation. Of the first marriage three children were born: Matilda, Lewis and John. Lewis, the only survivor, resides at Rockbridge. The second wife of Mr. Williams was Miss Margaret Stout, a daughter of John Stout, of Virginia, who was of German origin. There were born of the second marriage, three children: Clarissa, who married Joshua Clark, and subsequently, on his decease, married Aaron Flatt; Sarah Ann, deceased, who married Ambrose Griswold and David J., who was destined to become one of the most successful agriculturists in Greene County, where he was born, in the year 1829, and where he grew to manhood, surrounded by such influences as have made many of our more opulent western men. In 1856 he was united in marriage to Miss Adeline Witt, a daughter of Franklin Witt, a prominent farmer of Greene County. At this date he was more comfortably situated in life than many, and now set about adding to his possessions; how he has succeeded is well known to the residents of this county, and it would perhaps be superfluous to follow his career in Greene County, step by step. He is the owner of nearly 1,000 acres of valuable land, but his habits of life, marked by extreme simplicity, leave no room for the extravagance or pomp of fashion that follows this nineteenth century. Of this marriage eight children were born, of whom five are living: Emma, George C., Lewis F., William H., and Walter S.

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This family biography is one of 744 biographies included in The History of Greene County, Illinois published in 1879.  View the complete description here: The History of Greene County, Illinois

View additional Greene County, Illinois family biographies here: Greene County, Illinois Biographies

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