Willis Aikman was born near Washington, Davies County, Indiana, on March 14, 1833. He was a son of Samuel Aikman and Henrietta Coleman and came with his parents to Edgar County, Illinois, in 1835, and to Marion in 1837 with a family of six boys and three girls.
His father, Samuel, invested his money in Marion real estate until he owned a strip one-half mile wide by a mile and a half long, consisting of 640 acres, which he bought off the Government at $1.25 an acre. This land began in the west at the present location of the VA hospital and ran east to the railroad tracks of what now is the Missouri Pacific that intersects Marion on West Main Street.
Samuel Aikman was the first road supervisor of West Marion Township, appointed in 1839 by the Williamson County commissioners’ court.
When one of Willis’s brothers, John A. Aikman died in 1845, he was buried on a knoll under a grove of trees. When his father, Samuel Aikman, died in 1849, it formed the nucleus of the Aikman Cemetery. This cemetery later became the first Marion Cemetery, now referred to as the Old Marion Cemetery and is located just west of N. Court Street next to the C.O. and E. railroad tracks.
In the 1850 census, after his father’s death the previous year, Willis was 18 and living with his brother James Aikman.
Mr. Aikman’s natural tendency to “thrift,” as the New Englander expresses it, may be illustrated by his success as a laborer on the Illinois Central Railway, just below Carbondale.
In 1853 he got employment on the new I.C. RR line then being built, paid his board by keeping the books for the contractor evenings, loaned small sums of money to the workmen occasionally and in various extra Jobs added to his earnings, and from the first of April till about Christmas saved up $700, with which he paid his way to California. This rail line that ran from Chicago to Cairo was completed around 1855.
The discovery of gold in California was the foundation of Willis’s fortune, as of thousands of others. Everyone recalls the story of Sutter’s mill and the origins of the California gold rush in 1849 creating the ‘49’s. Not less than 200 gold-hunters went from this county alone, but Aikman did not go until 1854.
He and James M. McCoy, brother of Chesley McCoy, went together by way of New Orleans and the Isthmus of Panama and began operations about six miles from the Oregon line.
He was very successful from the start and returned with his “pile” in 1858, and settled down on his share of the old homestead.
He was married February 24, 1859, to Miss Elizabeth R. Woodward. Elizabeth was a Tennessee native and was born on April 2, 1837.
In the following census year of 1860 on June 12th they were living in the Marion School District (city limits). During the time of this census, Willis was aged 26, Elizabeth was 22 and the couple had a 5 month old baby boy named Dudley Aikman. Willis was listed as a farmer and claimed a real estate value of $2,000 and a personal estate value of $2,500. Also living with the Aikman’s during this census was Daniel Woodward, the 18 year old brother of Elizabeth.
Ten years later, during the 1870 census, the Aikman family had grown considerably, not only in size, but wealth, and were living in West Marion Township farming. Children living in the home were, Dudley Aikman 10, Jefferson Aikman 8, Josephine Aikman 5, Martha Aikman 3, and Elizabeth Aikman aged 5 months. The family had two people living with them, Rebecca Groger aged 15, a domestic servant and James Kuler aged 21, a farm laborer. The couple claimed a real estate value of $10,000 and a personal estate of $8,000.
In 1872, thirteen years after their marriage, he built the brick house where he was still residing at his death. The bricks to build it were made on his own land and were molded by Shannon Holland, now president of the First National bank of Marion. They made and burned 200,000, used 100,000 and sold the rest for $8.00 a thousand. Mr. Ingersol, the father of Robert Ingersol, an important figure in American history, bought a home here north and west of Marion about three-quarters of a mile, on the Willis Aikman place. The location of the Aikman place was thought to be roughly the intersection of N. Russell Street and what is now Deyoung Street.
This was among the first of his building operations, but since then he had been interested in the erection of a good many buildings. He seems to have had a natural penchant for building, and helped carry brick and mortar to build the first brick building put up in Marion around 1842. It was the Western Exchange Hotel, and stood where the Denison block once stood.
The workmen got 75 cents a day for this work and gave Willis 25 cents a day occasionally to help. He was then but a boy, and 25 cents was a fortune. Possibly those good old days of hard work and low wages were happier than later, when the same sort of work commanded three or four dollars a day, but it would be a job to persuade the union brick-layers of the fact or get them to return to the paradise they have forsaken.
The 1880 federal census, listed the couple as living in Marion Township which in that time was a recombination of West and East Marion Township but the couple had not moved and were still farming just past the outskirts of west Marion. The family listed next to the Aikman family on this census record was Isham Blankenship who is known to have occupied large tracts at the VA hospital’s current location. Willis and Elizabeth had now reached their mid 40’s in age. Children present were Dudley who was then aged 20 and helping farm and Jefferson who was 19 and helping farm as well. The remaining children were Eliza 10, Anna 8 and Samuel 5.
In the 1905 Souvenir History it states, “Mr. Aikman is the father of eight children, four of whom are living. They are two sons, Dudley and Samuel, who reside at Marion, Lizzie, an unmarried daughter living with her parents, and Annie, who is a companion of the daughter of John D. Rockefeller, and resides at Beverly Farm, Massachusetts.” Yes, that J.D. Rockefeller.
On September 5, 1905, Willis Aikman passed away. Ironically, his family’s cemetery, the Aikman Cemetery, was filled and he was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Willis was the brother of William Aikman and the uncle of William J. Aikman.
Elizabeth R. (Woodward) Aikman passed away on January 3, 1918 and shares a grave marker with Willis in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Sam’s Notes: One child is unknown and likely was an infant who died quickly, information on the remaining seven is as follows.
Dudley Aikman was born in February 1860. Married to a Kate (1864-1910) in 1882. Two children named Roy Aikman (1862-1940) and Herman S. Aikman (1890-1932). Dudley died on November 26, 1931 in Virginia.
Jefferson Aikman was born in 1862 and died at 27 in 1889, location unknown.
Josephine Aikman was born around 1865 and was dead by the turn of the century, location and age unknown.
Martha Aikman was born in 1867 and died at age 7 on June 8, 1873.
Elizabeth Aikman was born in 1870 and was still alive in 1905, death and marriage if any unknown.
Anna Aikman was born in 1872. Noted to be a companion to J.D. Rockefeller’s daughter and was living in Beverly Farm, Massachusetts in 1904.
Samuel T. Aikman was born July 4, 1875. Married to Ada Nee Perry (1882-1951) around 1904. They had two children, Richard Bland Aikman (1905-1965) and James Jefferson Aikman (1908-1957). Samuel died in 1956. Burial at Rose Hill Cemetery.
(Data extracted from the 1905 Souvenir History of Williamson County; Federal Census Records; Death Records; Marion City Cemetery Records; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 11/22/2013)