WILLIAM M. TRAILOR was born in Menard County, Illinois, on February 19, 1832. He remained at the family farm until his marriage in 1853 to Sarah A. Bell of Menard County. In 1864 he moved to Cass County, Iowa and established his farmon 180 acres of Section 29 of Brighton Township. He was a frugal and thrifty man and by 1884 owned 1800 acres of land in this township and in Pottawattamie County. These holdings had been expanded to 2700 acres of prime farmland by the time of his death in a carriage accident on September 27, 1903. Sarah A. Bell, William Trailor's first wife, died in 1867 and left five children - Harriet, Marion Stewart, Minerva, Artie L. and Henry. Mr. Trailor married Sarah E. Johnson in 1869 and she bore him six children - Thomas, James Edward, Francis H. (Frank), Murray O., Grace and Jane who died at age two. Harriet married Lewis Allen and had eight children - Ada Allen, Sadie Burkey, Lorena Moon Breece, Eleanor Meredith, Effie Cromer, William, Avery and Ira. Marion stewart Trailor married Rosa Remsburg, adopted daughter of Rev. William Remsburg, the Methodist minister at Marne in 1881. Stewart and Rosa Trailor had eleven children - William A., Mary E., Albert L., Zella I., Raymond E., Rilla B., Geanie M., Dell and Dall (twins), and one deceased. Minerva M. Trailor married Earl Squires and had seven children - Charles, Roy, Clarence, Merton, Geraldine, and Archer. Artie L. Trailor married James Woods and had four children - Edna Brown, Elbert, Elbert, Lloyd, and Cedric T. Woods. Henry Trailor's wife's name was Allie; they had no children. Thomas Trailor married Allie M. Statler on October 26, 1898 and farmed near Marne for many years. The couple had five children - Audrey M. Curry, Clark M., Delbert E., Cletis F., and A. Gwendolyn (Mrs. Bruce Peters of Marne). Frank Trailor married Elma Graves and their children are Gladys (Mrs. Blythe Conn) and William Trailor. Murray O. Trailor married Clara Young and lived for many years on the southeast corner of Washington and Fourth Streets in Marne; their children were Bernice, Fred, Rosalind, Helen and Grace. Grace Trailor married John MacAvoy and they had one son, John. The children of William M. Trailor farmed near Marne for many years, but many of their descendants have left Brighton Township.

Transcribed from "The First Century, A History of Marne, Iowa 1875 - 1975", published in 1975, Marne, Iowa: The Marne Centennial Historical Committee, pp. 40-41. Transcribed (2015) by Cheryl Siebrass and contributed September, 2019.

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