WILLIAM MORRELL, a prominent farmer of Elkhorn township, was born September 28, 1825, in Clermont county, Ohio. He was the son of Elmore and Nancy (Wright) Morrell, born in Maine, son of David Morrell, of Portland, that State. The subject's father was reared on a farm and came to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, in 1812, with his parents and was one of the pioneers who in 1832 came into Illinois. The journey into the wilderness was made by ox team and they suffered all the hardships of that early date. He was married in Campbell county, Kentucky, where his wife was born. He brought his wife and three children to Illinois and settled first in Morgan county, where he bought eighty acres and improved that, and three years later sold this out to buy the farm where our subject now lives and there he spent his life, dying in 1891, aged eighty-six years. He left his original purchase of 100 acres on which he first built a house, the lumber for which was first sawed with an old-fashioned whipsaw. That was the first lumber sawed in this part of Illinois. The father of our subject was one of the first and most active pioneers. He was a Democrat politically. His wife was a Universalist and her life ended on the old farm when she was about sixty-two. She was born in 1806. The father was born in 1803.
Our subject was one of seven children, three of whom are yet living. He remained at home until his marriage and was employed as are all the sons of farmers. After marriage he picked up the wagonmaking trade and rented the farm where he now lives. He lived there from 1853 to 1876, when he moved into his present home. He first bought forty acres and later bought more until he now has as fine a farm of 154 acres as there is in the country. He also has a fine farm in Buckhorn township, and is one of the most successful farmers in the State. He has carried on a mixed farming.
The marriage of Mr. Morrell took place February 6, 1846, to Miss Abigail Smith, who was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, July 18, 1826, and was a daughter of Benjamin and Abigail (Hackett) Smith. He was born in New Hampshire and she in Vermont, and after their marriage in Ohio they came as pioneers to Illinois, and in 1889 rented land in Morgan county for two years, and then went over into Brown county and remained there a year, and then finally settled in Cass county, where Mr. Smith, died at the age of forty-six. He has always followed farming. The mother died in Cass county, Illinois, aged about forty-four. George Hackett, an uncle of Mrs. Morrell, came to the county about 1824, and was one of the first settlers in central Illinois, and the owner of the first tanyard west of the Illinois river.
Our subject is a strong Democrat, having given his first vote for Franklin Pierce. He and his wife are both church-going people and are highly esteemed in their neighborhood. They have had seven children: four yet living. Rosalie is a widow and has one grandchild and five children. Delah is married, with four children; William J. is a married man; Henry has two children and rents all the old farm.
The whole family are good, quiet people, and these are the citizens whose names properly appear in a record of this kind.