Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 409
WILLIAM H. ROY, prominent among the substantial citizens on Wilton Township is our subject, who resides on section 27. He was born in Sussex County, N. J., June 16, 1825, and is a son of William Roy, who was born March 2, 1791. He is of Scotch descent, his paternal grandfather, Insley, who was born in 1751, having emigrated to this country from Scotland, and settled in New Jersey, where his death occurred in 1814. William Roy, the father of our subject, was the fifth in order of birth in a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters, all of whom have now passed away. He was united in marriage with Miss Ann Hankison, who was born Jan. 14, 1798,, and their union was blessed with nine children, six sons and three daughters, eight of whom reached mature age. Thomas, the youngest, died April 9, 1842, when seven years of age, about a week previous to the death of his father; Alice became the wife of W.S. Pittenger, and died Dec. 18, 1851,in the thirty-third year of her age; the next child, Mrs. Elizabeth Armstrong, is living in Warren County, N. J.; Charles and Aaron are residents of Sussex County ; William H. is next in order of birth; Stephen makes his home in Blairstown, Warren Co., N. J..; Mrs. Sarah I. Wintermute is living in Newton, Sussex County, and Joseph DeWitt is in Dodge City Kansas. With the exception of our subject and Joseph, all are yet residents of the ancestral State. The death of the father occurred on the 16th of April, 1842, and the mother departed this life about twenty years after, dying March 26, 1862.

Our subject was reared to farm life and received his education in the public schools. On the 1st of December, 1859, his union with Mrs. Mary A. Keen, widow of Abraham Keen, and a native of New Jersey, was celebrated. She was born in Sussex County, N. J., in 1829, and was a daughter of Elijah and Lydia ( Doderer ) Drake. Her father died when she was yet an infant, and in 1854, with her mother she came to Muscatine County, where the death of her mother occurred Aug. 6, 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Drake were the parents of four children : Andrew, who served in the War of the Rebellion as a member of the 35th Iowa Infantry, and died while in service, was the first of the family to come to Iowa; George is still living in New Jersey; Mrs. Margaret Addis, who for many years resided in Muscatine County, is now living in Illinois; and Mrs. Roy completes the number. Her first husband came to this county at an early day, accompanied by a brother and sister, and entered a large amount of land in Wilton and Sweetland Townships. They were the parents of one child, Salina.

By the union of Mr. and Mrs. Roy five children have been born : Lillian, wife of D. M. Benner, of Holt County, Neb.; Edna E., who married her cousin, Simeon E. Roy, and resides in Lincoln, Neb.; Sarah, Minnie Belle and George D., who are at home. Our subject and wife have a beautiful home, made so by their own efforts of industry, for but little improvement had been made on the land at the time of the purchase. Their elegant residence was erected 1872, and all the surroundings indicate enterprise and refinement. Mrs. Roy is a skilled florist, and has a fine conservatory of plants and beautiful flowers, to which she devotes much attention. He and his wife are worthy members of the Presbyterian Church, and are numbered among the highly esteemed citizens of Muscatine County, with whose history they have been identified for many years.

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