1892, September 13, Lot 2, Block 6 of Gallagher & Aikman’s Addition to the plat of Vicksburg purchased for $100 by Benjamin H. & Mary Ann Jeter. Vicksburg was an outlying unincorporated village of Marion at the time.
1892, November 29, the Jeter’s borrowed $1,200 to build the unique, two story home on their lot. The couple had 15 children in the marriage. Ben died in 1921 and Mary Ann passed away in 1922.
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Periodically I run into printed biographies that don’t appear to match historical records and this is one case. A biography based on this subject was printed in the “1905 Historical Souvenir of Williamson County” and the interviews were composed about 1904 when the subject was 52 years old. I will publish the unedited version of the biography and then follow it with actual records found, most of the disparity is in the early life information.
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John W. Spiller was born in Spillertown on February 21, 1872 the son of William J. Spiller and Susan E. Goodall. William J. and his wife produced 14 children, but 3 of them died in infancy. In the 1880 census, the couple had 9 children including John.
On March 29, 1899 John married Eliza Burnett, 29 year old daughter of John H. Burnett & Mary Ann Davis. By the 1900 federal census, the newlywed couple were living in Marion in a home owned free of mortgage. John was 28 and Eliza, listed as Lizzie, was 30 years old. John recorded himself as an implement dealer. The couple had a live-in servant named Martha Phillips aged 35.
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George L. Brack was born on March 21, 1867, the son of George Brack and Malinda Youngkin in Wolf Creek, Grassy Township. When he was 3 years old, his father died and his mother remarried to Willis Hoover, a farmer, who also resided in Grassy Township. Raised on a farm by his step-father, his education was limited by the possibilities of common rural schooling until he reached 6th grade at the age of 13. At that age, George began earning his first money plowing fields using an ox in which he received 25 cents per day.
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William James Walker comes of Tennessee parentage, but was born near Arilla, Missouri in Jasper County to Louis D. and Sarah Walker on January 26, 1855. He came to Illinois with his parents in 1865 at the end of the Civil War and they settled in Franklin County. His father was a farmer and he received only the advantages of a common school education.
The 1870 census located 18 year old William living with his parents in Township 6, Range 2 of Franklin County using the Crittendon Post office. The family farm was estimated to have a value of $600 and the family is thought to have a personal estate of $200. Along with William and his parents were 4 siblings.
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