William Francis Wright, who went by the name Francis, was born in Williamson County, Illinois, July 28, 1852, and was the son of John Wright and Mary Arnold who came to Illinois from Tennessee. The home of his youth was about five miles from Stone Fort, near Creal Springs, on a farm where he followed the occupation of farming until about 1890 when he entered the mercantile business in Creal. Continue reading
Category Archives: People
Donald Houston Bethel was born November 12, 1919, in Ozark, Illinois, in Johnson County, the son of Jewell Guy Bethel Sr. (1896-1970) and Elma Mae Houston (1900-1991).
Although his obituary states that he was born in Ozark, Illinois only one month after his birth he and his parents were listed in the 1920 census as living at Harrisburg in Saline County. Continue reading
James A. Felts was born March 18, 1862, in Lake Creek Township, about four miles north of Marion to David Jocham Felts and Jane Binkley, both of Tennessee.
James grew up on his father’s farm near Johnston City. In the 1880 census, James was 18 and listed as a farmer. His mother had died and his father remarried to Susan D. Herrington. Continue reading
Albert Raymond Cagle was born near Mount Pleasant in Union County on May 29, 1902 to the late James G. Cagle (1869-1959) and Flora Bishop (1873-1959). Continue reading
Lorenzo Dow Hartwell Jr. was born May 6, 1843, in Williamson County, Illinois, and reared on the paternal farm five miles northeast of Marion, Illinois. He was the eighth in order of birth and the seventh boy in a family of twelve children born to Lorenzo Dow Hartwell Sr. and Sicily Hodge. Lorenzo Sr. emigrated from Virginia with his family in 1839. Continue reading