WILLIAM T. EMMERSON of Beardstown was born in Morgan county, November 27, 1840. His father was Richard Emmerson of Yorkshire, England, who was the son of Thomas Emmerson. The latter came to the United States and settled on a large tract of Government land in Morgan county, Illinois, amounting to over a thousand acres, near St. Clair station, and went back to England, and returned four years later with his wife and children, and finally they became the most prominent people in Morgan county. Of their four children, Richard was the eldest, and was married, as was also one of his sisters, before leaving England. A nephew of his now lives on the old homestead in Morgan county. Richard Emmerson, after he came to the United States, became a farmer of Morgan county. He came to Beardstown in 1850, and died here the following December, at the age of forty. His wife survived him many years and died at the home of her son, in 1869. She and her husband were Methodists, and she was born, reared and married at Scarborough, England. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Musham. She was a mother of a family, of whom five are still living.
William Emmerson was reared in this county and has never married. He was only nine years old when his parents came to Cass county, and has always lived here, except from 1862 to 1864, when he served as a soldier in the quartermaster's department, at Rolla, Missouri, and at Helena, Arkansas. After two years' service he was honorably discharged, and returned to Cass county, where he has since lived, and made most of his fortune by his own efforts. He lives near the city precinct. He owns a well improved farm adjoining the city limits. Here he has lived since 1867. He also owns and has a controlling interest in 600 acres in other parts of the county, all well improved. He is a Democrat in politics and a public spirited citizen. His brothers and sisters are as follows: Mary Thornley, lives in Morgan county; Ann Harris is the wife of the president of the First National Bank of Beardstown; Edward lives with his brother, and Emma Harris lives in this county.