WILLIAM M. TRAILOR
William M. Trailor, one of the early settlers of Cass county, came here in 1864. In the fall of that year he built a log cabin on the banks of Indian creek, on the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 29, Brighton township.
He removed here from Menard county, Illinois, with wagons. On his arrival in Lewis, he met Thomas Meredith, of whom he bought a quarter section of land, a portion of which was on the northwest quarter of section 29, and one hundred and twenty acres on the southwest quarter of the same section. He occupied his cabin eighteen months, then built a house, having the frame sawed at a mill in Brighton township, about a mile south of his place. He lived in this house about two years, when it burned down. It was one and a half stories in height, and its dimensions were sixteen by twenty-six feet. The lumber of which it was built, doors, windows, shingles, nails, etc., were drawn from Boonesboro, one hundred miles distant, by Mr. Trailor. In the burning of his dwelling, he also lost his house hold furniture. His present residence is a much larger building, two stories in height. Mr. Trailor now owns more than eighteen hundred acres of land, including all of section 19, and the west half of section 20, also land elsewhere in the township, and some in Pottawattamie county. He has accumulated this property here, except five thousand dollars, which he brought with him when he came. Mr. Trailor was born in Menard county, Illinois, February 19, 1832. He is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Robinson) Trailor, who moved to Illinois from Kentucky in 1830. The former was a native of Kentucky, the latter of Virginia. Both died in Illinois. William M. Trailor lived in Illinois until he came to this county, residing on the farm with his father until his marriage. March 22, 1853, to Miss Sarah A. Bell, a native of Menard county. She died in Cass county, and Mr. Trailor was again married in 1869, to Sarah E. Johnson, a native of Campbell county, Virginia. By the first union, there were five children...Harriet, wife of Lewis Allen, of Pottawattamie county; Marion S., living in Brighton township; Minerva M., wife of Earl Squires, also of Brighton township; Artie L., and Henry. Mr. Trailor has by his second marriage four sons, whose names are, Thomas, Edward, Francis and Murray. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Methodist Protestant church. Mr. Trailor is one of Cass county's most enterprising and prosperous farmers.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 590-591.
