According to the 1905 Souvenir History, “His schooling was only at the “Deestrict Skewl House.”
In the 1850 census, William was 16 years old and already listed as a farmer helping his father on the farm at Spillertown. William was one of nine children in the home.
His marriage to Susan E. Goodall took place March 31, 1853. Susan was the daughter of the early pioneer Joab Goodall who lived southeast of Marion in the Old Creal Springs Road area. She was born on January 8, 1836.
To this union were born 14 children, three of whom died in infancy, two, Mrs. J.D. Goddard and Mrs. Harrison White died before 1923, while nine, which include Mrs. Lou Boles, Mrs. Delia Eskew, Mrs. John H. Duncan, Mrs. Nellie Walker, Mrs. Dollie Baker, Mrs. W.O. Potter, Mrs. E.T. Harris, John W. Spiller and James R. Spiller survived their father’s death.
When the 1860 federal census was taken, the Spillers were living in close proximity to his father’s farm in Spillertown. William was 26 years old and Susan was 24. They had three children in the home, Nancy L. aged 5, Cordellia E. aged 3 and Elijah T. Spiller age 1.
Also, living in the home during the census, was Susan’s brother, Hardin Goodall 26, who would become one of Marion’s well known merchants on the square for decades and also serve as County Sheriff in 1868 and 1870. William and Hardin had a joint business called Spiller and Goodall at one time and were both listed as tobacco growers in this census. William’s reported a real estate value of $1,500 and a personal estate of $900. This was an indicator that things were going well for the family and Spiller was known to have invested not only in tobacco, which at the time was a prosperous commodity, with the South put out of the business during the Civil War, but in real estate as well.
For many years and until the first of the Civil War, he was extensively engaged in the manufacture of tobacco, which his father had done before him and which he learned in his youth when at work in his father’s factory.
In the 1870 census, the couple is in their 30’s and has six children. They are Lewiza 16, Cordelia 14, Emma 8, Nellie 6, Amanda 4 and an un-named infant female aged 4 months. William claims a real estate value of $4,000 and a personal estate value of $1,000.
By the 1880 census and reaching their middle ages, William 46 and Susan 44, now had nine children at home and one was a newborn one month old. Children present were Cordelia 23, Mary 18, Amanda 13, Victoria 10 ( the un-named female infant from the 1870 census), John 8, Murta (Myrtle) 5, James R. 3 and an un-named, female infant one month old.
About six years he spent at Carterville, in the general merchandise business with his son-in-law and partner, J.V. Walker.
In the 1900 census, William was 66 and Susan was 64. The only child left in the home was the un-named female, infant in the 1880 census, now named Byrd G. Spiller, age 20. The couple is still on the farm in Spillertown which is now considered a village, and have two 17 year old youths living with them. One is named Ezra Cash, a farm laborer and Eva Mifflin, a female domestic servant.
Around 1901 he moved to Marion and it was noted that in 1904, he still owned and worked part of the old homestead and one of the old coal mines and of his eleven living children, nine of whom were girls, all except the youngest were happily married and had families of their own.
A 1907 Marion directory indicated that Spiller had a residence located at 206 E. Main Street. A photo of it was found in the 1905 Souvenir History. The photo caption indicated that the home had also been occupied by Robert Ingersoll. The home would have been located across the street from the post office on the corner of Main and North Mechanic, where a gas station and various auto sales have been located in the past, but is currently vacant.
In the 1910 census, their address is once again confirmed as 206 E. Main Street, which they own free of mortgage. William is now 76 and Susan 74. Occupation is noted “own income,” Spiller’s life of earning income and investment is earning its reward.
When his wife and companion, Susan, who had shared his joys and sorrows for more than 66 years died on May 28, 1919, Spiller gave up his home and began living with his children, spending most of the time with his widowed daughter, Mrs. Dollie Baker. Susan Goodall Spiller died at the age of 83 years.
In 1920 when the census was taken, 86 year old, recently widowed Spiller was living with his son James R. Spiller and his wife, Gertie, at 520 Thorn Street. James’s children present were Clyde 21, Violett 18 and Raymond 13.
William J. Spiller passed away on Sunday night, May 20, 1923, he was almost 90 years old. At the time of his death, he was living at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Dollie Baker. On this very night, the Christian Church in Marion was visited by the Ku Klux Klan.
According to his obituary, “The outstanding characteristic of the life of W.J. Spiller was his faith in Christ and his unfaltering allegiance to the Christian Church. In early youth he united with the church and for more than 70 years was a faithful and devout member. He was a great reader of the New Testament, and while he made no pretense at public speaking, he could marshal facts gleaned from the scriptures in such a logical and convincing way that he was always a strong and powerful defender of his faith. He believed the Bible with all his heart and never permitted any trivial excuse to hinder his regular attendance upon all the services of the church. His faithfulness continued until the very last. During the first week of the Scoville meetings he attended every service although very feeble, and rejoiced that he could sit in his accustomed pew and listen to the great evangelist plead for a consecrated church and a converted world.
He loved to dwell on the tragic soul stirring days of the civil war period. He was present when John A. Logan made his eventful and epoch making speech from the court house steps in which he declared for the union and defended the stars and stripes. He could recall and vividly recite many of the salient points of that address. He and Mrs. Logan were schoolmates in their early youth, but he never lost interest in her brilliant career.”
He had been for about fifty years a member of Fellowship Lodge No. 89, of the Royal Arch Masons, and was a Republican in politics, though not a politician. He was a charter member of the First Christian Church, and had been an elder in it and one of its staunchest supporters from its organization.
He had one brother, James Spiller, who died at Carbondale, and seven sisters, which include, Mrs. Ellen Burkhart and Mrs. Martha Young, now living in Marion, and Mrs. Isham Blankenship, Mrs. William Goodall, Mrs. Susan Gent, Mrs. W. F______ and Mrs. J.F. Willeford, all deceased.
Service were held at the First Christian Church, conducted by Rev. A.M. Laird and Evangelist Scoville.
Sam’s Notes:
I am certain that this synopsis of Spiller’s life does not contain the many business ventures and real estate investments that he transacted in his lifetime. I consider the larger contribution of William and his wife Susan to be the children who went out into life and made their separate contributions, some ending well and some not well at all.
Mary M. Spiller Duncan was born about 1862. She was married to John H. Duncan on August 26, 1883. They had three children, Nettie and Willie, both of whom died early, and Rose, Mrs. F.G. Campbell, who lived in an elegant new home near her parents in 1904. John H. Duncan operated a hardware store on the square among a number of other things. She died in 1934, one year after John.
Susan Myrtle Spiller Potter was born July 14, 1874 and was married to W.O. Potter on June 30, 1897. They had two boys and one girl. Potter was a prominent Marion attorney and Judge. The couple lived at 807 N. Market Street. One of their sons, Everett Spiller Potter, was run over and killed at age 2 in front of their home by a Coal Belt Electric trolley car. The rest of the family, save one, was involved in a murder/suicide incident that occurred in October 1926, in which Potter is presumed to have murdered everyone in the home and then committed suicide. Dead were his wife Susan, age 52, and his daughter Eloise, aged 16. Only his son, Maurice, survived by virtue of the fact that he wasn’t home at the time. I found a record indicating that Maurice, two years before the murder, had applied for the Sons of the American Revolution under the ancestry of John Goodall dated June 14, 1924. John would have to have been an ancestor of Joab Goodall, Maurice’s great grandfather.
Nellie Spiller Walker was born about 1864. She married J.V. Walker on December 23, 1883, who operated the J.V. Walker and Sons Clothing stores among other ventures. She died in 1956.
Emma Sevena Spiller Goddard was born January 30, 1861. She married John Douglas Goddard on January 3, 1879. They had seven children; Annice G. Goddard (1880-1941), John Goddard (1881-xxxx), Grace Goddard (1887-xxxx), Glenn Spiller Goddard (1890-xxxx), Harry Goddard (1893-xxxx), James Douglas Goddard (1895-xxxx) and Jack H. Goddard (1898-xxxx). Emma died on January 27, 1907.
Amanda “Dollie” Spiller Baker was born about 1866. She married Martin L. Baker on September 22nd, 1887. Martin Baker had a store on the square with John H. Duncan (another brother-in-law) called Duncan-Baker Hardware. They had two children and lived at 204 N. Buchanan Street. Their children were Maude Elizabeth Baker (1881-1973) who married Raymond Shaw and Miles Luther Baker who was born Sept. 6, 1898 and died in 1987 in Virginia.
Elijah T. Spiller was born about 1859 and died in infancy.
Nancy Louisa Spiller Boles was born November 23, 1854. She married W.H. Boles on March 29, 1877. She died August 3, 1941. Burial at Maplewood.
Cordelia Spiller Eskew (Askew) was born December 22, 185. She married W.L. Eskew on September 4, 1893. She died January 11, 1929 at Benton, Illinois.
James R. Spiller was born about 1877. He married a Gertrude. They lived at 520 E. Thorn. He served as a State Deputy Marshall. They had three children Clyde, Violet and Raymond. He died May 30, 1963.
John W. Spiller was born about 1875. He married a female named Fern. They owned a home at 1007 N.Market St. He was a coal mine operator and later, a real estate salesmen. John served as city alderman in 1904 and 1905. No children noted.
Byrd G. Spiller was born in early 1880. In the 1940 census she was 60, widowed, using her maiden name and living with her son Russell Spiller in Carthage, Missouri and had been there in 1935.
Victoria Spiller was born in 1870.
(Extracted from the 1905 Souvenir History of Williamson County; Marion Daily Republican Obituary, 1923; Federal Census Records; Illinois Regional Archive Depository; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 12/06/2103)