John Shields Strike was born October 3, 1856 in Corinth Township to Matthew S. Strike and Sarah H. Milligan. Matthew was an early pioneer of the county, served as Williamson County Circuit Clerk for four years and was a Civil War veteran.
22 year old John married 19 year old Jane C. Stewart on July 2, 1878. She was the daughter of James H. Stewart and Margaret Consley Louden. Both of them were listed as being from Northern Precinct which today is Corinth Township.
Continue readingNo specific year can be established for the birth of James D. Gill, but by all records it appears to have been in 1869. James was born in Township 9 Range 3 of Williamson County which today would be East Marion Township. His parents were Leonard Wilson Gill and Elizabeth Jane Sherertz, both born in Tennessee and appear to have been fairly recent arrivals when James was born due to the fact that the 1870 census revealed his farmer father had no real estate and only $100 in personal estate value. When that census was taken there were only two children in the home, William 13, an older brother to 1 year old James. Interestingly, there were a couple of Sherertz family farms surrounding them, no doubt relatives, in addition to the William J. Spiller family.
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Sandy Miller was born on a farm in Southern Township on February 5, 1870 to James Campbell Miller and Nancy Arnold. Sandy was one of twelve children with one sister and 10 brothers. He was accounted for on the 1880 federal census living on the family farm with brothers; James 23, William 21, Carroll 16, John 14, Monroe 12 and Leonard 8, Sandy was then 10.
Sandy moved into Marion in 1889 and married Rose Chitty on October 20, 1893. Rose was the daughter of George W. Chitty and Julia McIntosh.
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John M. Dodd, son of Alfred F. Dodd and May Bales, was born August 6, 1859 near Galatia. He was reared on a farm and attended common school. His parents gave him the advantage of a good training in a select school at Galatia and two terms at Long Branch. He graduated at Galatia in 1879 and took up telegraphy under the railroad station agent at that place soon after. After one years practice he took charge of the station at Thompsonville on the Cairo Short Line, which he kept for four years. While working at the Thompsonville station John met and married Susan Isaacs, a local girl, on October 7, 1883 in Franklin County.
Continue readingWell I have never run into an instance where I couldn’t actually nail someone’s first name down so this is a first. Lots of men in the early days went by their initials only as in this instance, W.C.S. Rhea. Two census records that I found show his name as William and the others with his initials, W.C.S. However his official death record calls him out as Walter C.S. Rhea and his son was named Walter Scott Rhea. Then again, I found two references that call him Winfield C. Scott Rhea. So for simplicity, I will refer to him in his bio as W.C.S. and keep his name as Winfield in the heading since that was how he was listed as alderman for the city of Marion in 1904. I suspect it’s more likely that his name was Winfield C. Scott since a lot of young men born in this era were named after historical figures like General Winfield Scott of the War of 1812 and the Mexican American war fame.
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