Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 517
WILLIAM MCWILLIAMS

William MCWILLIAMS, one of the early pioneers of Harrison County and a resident of section 35 of Jackson Township, came to the county in the spring of 1856, and bought the farm he now occupies, which at the time consisted of one hundred and twenty acres of wild land, for which he paid $4 per acre. Eighty acres of this land was prairie and forty acres timber. Here he built a hewed log house 18x26 feet, one story and one-half high, with a shingled roof, in which the family lived fifteen years. He then built a frame house 16x32 feet, with a wing 20x32 feet. He also built a barn 30x34 feet, a good-sized granary, a poultry house, cattle sheding, and also provided the place with good wells and has erected two windmills. He has from time to time added to his land, until he now has six hundred and fifty acres, one hundred and twenty of which are under the plow, and the balance in pasture and meadow land, with eighty acres of timber. During his residence in the county, he has seen many of the hardships co-incident to pioneer life, including the grasshopper plague, when he lost his entire wheat crop for two years. He was also here during the deep snow winter of 1856-57, during which season his sons killed several deer without a gun, as deer could not make their way over the crusted snow, which mantled the earth to the depth of three feet. He came to the county with very little money, and skulking Indians were frequently his unwelcome visitors. They stole one of his horses, and were a source of great annoyance to him.

Mr. MCWILLIAMS was born in Belmont County, Ohio, July 5, 1811, the son of John and Nancy MCWILLIAMS, natives of Scotland, who had seven children, of whom he was the fourth, names as follows: Jane, (decease); Alexander, (deceased); Nancy, William, John, (deceased), Joseph, (deceased); Eliza. Our subject lived with his parents until he arrived at his majority, having the advantage of a fair common-school education. After he was of age he taught school winters and leased land the remainder of the year, continuing for five years, after which he went into mercantile business and followed it for twelve years, from 1837 to 1849, when he sold out and took a trip to California, where he followed mining for one year and then bought provisions and freighted to the mountains for two years and one-half. We next find him in Ohio, where he remained one year and then came to Harrison County, Iowa. March 4, 1884, marked a new era in his life, for it was upon that day he was united in marriage to Polly A. MARSH, daughter of Thomas and Mary MARSH, natives of Maryland, and who were the parents of seven children, as follows: Nancy, William, Matilda, Isaac, patience, Martha and Polly A. All of these children are deceased but one, our subject's wife. Mr. and Mrs. MCWILLIAMS have had born to them the following children: John W., Nancy E., Thomas, Leonidas H., William (deceased), Mary, Belle (deceased, and Kate (deceased).

Politically, Mr. MCWILLIAMS is identified with the Republican party. He served as a member of Board of Supervisors, for four years and has been Treasurer of his township for twenty-eight years, a local office record, perhaps without a parallel in Iowa.

His has been an exemplary life, and those who speak in terms of praise of the MCWILLIAMS family, are found in every part of Harrison County.

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