William Randall Marshall (1835 - 1857)

Born 19 Apr 1835 in Ohio [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Rebecca (Huntoon) Blodgett — married 12 Nov 1854 (to 1857) in Henry County, Illinois

Descendants

Died 4 Dec 1857 at age 22 in Colona, Henry County, Illinois

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Charles Barnes [send private message]

Biography

William was born on April 19, 1835,[1] either in New Hampshire just before the Marshall family moved to Henry County, Illinois, on possibly in Ohio on the way to Illinois.[2]

William grew up on the frontier. His father had purchased a total of 580 acres of land between 1836 and 1845, and so I'm sure William had lots of chores. William's father Stephen Marshall died in 1845, and his mother remarried in 1851. But by then William, along with two of his sisters and one of his brothers had all left home. The 1850 census of Henry County shows only his mother, his sister Isabelle and brother George left on the family farm. Fifteen-year-old William and his 17 year-old brother Edwin are shown working as laborers on neighboring farms in Knox County, Illinois.[3]

On November 12, 1854, William married Sarah Rebecca Huntoon in Henry County, Illinois.[4] William and Sarah had two daughters, Louisa Page, born in 1855, and Jennie Harriet, born in 1857. Five months after Jennie was born, William died, on December 4, 1857,[1,5,6,7] and was buried in the Glenwood Cemetery in Henry County, Illinois, where his two sisters who died young are also buried.

Sources and notes

1. From Family Bible of Stephen and Lucinda Marshall, William's parents. The Bible is now in the possession of Charles Marshall Barnes.

2. As far as I know, the only sources for William's place of birth are the 1850 census of Knox County Illinois (which shows Ohio) and what his two daughters reported to census takers as the place of their father's birth. As Louise was only 2 years old and Jennie only a few months old when he died, it's not surprising that they reported different places in different census years. One reported first New York, then New Hampshire and then Ohio. The other reported first New Hampshire, then Maine, then Illinois and finally Ohio. If William was born in Ohio it was likely when the family was moving from New Hampshire to Illinois. I think it more likely that Stephen and Lucinda waited until after William was born to move the family to Illinois. However, since he reported Ohio as his place of birth in the 1850 census, and both his daughters reported Ohio (once), Ohio seems to have the most support.

3. US Census, Township 12 North 1 East, Knox County, Illinois, November 1, 1851 [William Marshal]

4. Illinois Marriages, 1810-1934, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VXG9-CPJ

5. https://billiongraves.com/grave/William-R-Marshall/709222.

6. The Marshall Family Bible[1] records Williams day of death as December 5, his gravestone[5] shows December 4.

7. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=82485601