In the 1850 federal census, William was living with his parents and 5 brothers and sisters in Crittenden County, Kentucky. Their children were: William P., James N., William W., Minerva, Gerry Ann and Julia. Jonathan’s real estate value was $7000, a hefty sum at that time for a farmer.
In 1860, the Clemens family was living near Carrsville in Crittenden County, Kentucky. Five children were still at home. There is a young man named Usher Clemens, 14, who was not there in 1850, possibly a nephew. Jonathan’s real estate value was $5,000 and his personal property was listed at $6,390. William’s brother, Pinckney, was a merchant and had a personal property value of $3000. William was a student and his three younger brothers and sisters had a real estate value of $600 and personal property of $800, probably a horse.
He moved to Marion in the fall of 1862 and attended law school at the University of Ann Arbor, Michigan. On May 11, 1868, William married Annice Fellows. She was born on Jan 19, 1846 in New York and was the daughter of Moses S. Fellows (1811-1875) from Bristol, New York and Fannie Frost Fellows (1817-1901).
In 1869, William was elected a trustee of the town of Marion under Mayor George W. Goddard.
Annice was listed as Amos in the 1870 census, a transcription error. The couple was living in Crab Orchard, Williamson County, Illinois and had no children.
The 1870’s found William involved as attorney for some of the defendants in the Bloody Vendetta in Williamson County. In 1876, he was appointed to defend Marshall T. Crain accused of killing William Spense and ex-sheriff George Sisney. Crain admitted his guilt, against the advice of his attorney. He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. His last statement was “I am the murderer of William Spence and George Sisney. That is all I have to say.” Crain is most noted for making his peace with God, being baptized in Mann and Edwards mill pond in the northeast corner of the intersection of Court and Main Streets, and being hung in his baptismal robe. His hanging took place at the original county jail located in the 100 block of S. Madison Street.
Attorney Clemens also defended numerous other defendants during this period along with attorney and historian, Milo Erwin.
In June of 1875, when the courthouse on the square in Marion burned, William who had an office on the second floor of the building located to the east, lost his desks, papers, office fixtures and library estimated at about $300.
In 1880, William and Annice had two children, Andrew M. and Lou. William was listed as a lawyer and they had moved to Marion where he had his law practice. He was elected state’s attorney in 1880 for a four year term, the only Democrat on the slate to be elected. In 1885 Governor Oglesby appointed him Trustee of University of Illinois.
In 1898, William was on the first Board of Education that was organized in Marion. Others on the board were Judge W. W. Duncan, Dr. A. M. Edwards, and J. M. Cline, W. J. Aikman, and J. H. Burnett.
The census of 1900 found he and Annice living on 406 South Market Street, between William H. Warder, another lawyer, and James C. Mitchell , a bank cashier. Their children had left home.
The exact starting dates are unknown, but it is known that in 1902, William served as Vice President of the Jackson State Bank in Carbondale with his son-in-law, Frank T. Joyner as Ass’t. Cashier.
By 1905, his son-in-law became the President of the Carbondale National Bank in which William served as a director.
A news clipping from the Carbondale Free Press indicated that William was a member of the Jackson County Bar Association as well as the Williamson County Bar Association .
In 1910 William and Annice were still living at 406 South Market Street. He was still practicing law and was elected judge of the municipal court of Marion, a term that ended in 1914. William won the special election while competing against attorneys Col. George W. Young and R.R. Fowler.
On October 9, 1915, William had been in ill health for some time and fearing that the worst was yet to come and despondent that medicine seemed to give no relief, he started the day by visiting the barber shop. After conferring with his partner, Attorney Slater, about a case they had pending, he told him that he was planning on leaving town. He left his office and walked to his house on South Market Street. After making sure that a nurse in residence at the home was there to find him instead of his wife, he then with intent, shot himself in the head and died a very short time later. He was 76 years old. The breaking story rocked the entire area and created front page news.
When attorney and author, Milo Erwin, wrote his history of Williamson County he dedicated it to his friend by stating, “To William Wallace Clemens, my friend, because the friend of my country this volume is affectionately dedicated, as a slight memento of the ever-increasing regard I have for his public spirit, private virtues, and solid legal attainments, the author.”
Erwin described Clemens in his book, “William W. Clemens, a leading Democrat, is a man of excellent talent, and, though a man of delicate constitution, has great tenacity of life, and physical endurance. He walked into this county in 1862; a poor boy, without money, and commenced the study of law, and has since worked his way up to the highest room in the public estimation. He possesses a buoyant and happy temperament, lives a pure life, fond of home and the society of his friends. He cares but little for the bitter invectives of crafty demagogues. What he is and what he has, are the legitimate results of persistent labor backed by economy and good sense. His solid legal attainments have won for him the respect, and placed him in the foremost rank, of the bar in Southern Illinois.”
After his death, Annice moved to Chicago to live with her daughter Lou and her husband, Frank T. Joyner, where she died on Dec 21, 1930.
Notes on the children:
Andrew Clemens was born in 1871 in Marion. As an adult, he also moved to Chicago where he was a traveling salesman. He had no children at the time of his father’s death.
Louise C. Clemens married Frank T. Joyner who was born in 1847 in Stonefort, Illinois. Frank became a cashier under his father-in-law at the Jackson State Bank in Carbondale and was in 1905 the President of the Carbondale National Bank. According to W.W.’s obituary in 1915, he was a financier from Chicago but according to the 1920 census he was listed as an insurance agent. He and Lou moved first to St. Louis and then to Chicago by 1920. They had 3 children: Clarence C., Grace E., and Ruth M. Joyner. Clarence and Grace are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery next to their grandfather William W. Clemens.
(Extracted from federal census records; Events in Egypt; Carbondale Free Press; Ancestry.com; compiled by Colleen Norman)