Mumford, William N. (Captain) MAGA © 2000-2014
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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF CASS, SCHUYLER and BROWN COUNTIES, Illinois - 1892

Chicago: Biographical Review Publishing Co.

Page 404

CAPTAIN WILLIAM N. MUMFORD of Mound Station, Illinois, was born in Nova Scotia, January 24, 1824. His father, William, was a farmer of that country who lived and died there, having reared nine children. The mother of these was Jane McHattie, of Scotch parentage. The grandfather of the subject was George Mumford of Rhode Island, who died at an advanced age in Nova Scotia.

The Captain grew up a farmer boy with only the common schooling of the period. In his twenty-third year he left home and came to New York city, and from there went on to Alpine depot on the Baltimore & Ohio in Morgan county, West Virginia, where he taught in the public schools. He had experience in his own neighborhood and after that as assistant in a grammar school at Halifax. After closing his three months' term in Morgan county he engaged in a general store as salesman. He brought little money with him, hoping to improve his financial condition. He remained two years in the store, then went to St. Louis and on to Mount Pleasant, Illinois, where he engaged as clerk for S. C. Raymond. While here he was married to Mary Jane Davis, daughter of John and Charlotte (Sears) Davis, both natives of Illinois. In 1861 they moved to Mound Station, then just started, the railroad being just completed. He clerked here until August, 1862, when he enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, being unanimously chosen Captain. In September his regiment was organized, Colonel Kinney commanding. The Captain remained on duty for two years, when he was discharged for physical disability at Memphis, Tennessee, and came home to his wife and two little boys at this place. He and his family went on a visit to his Nova Scotia home, but before he reached there his father had died, aged eighty-two years. A striking coincidence in this family is that six of his father's brothers and sisters, including himself, died at the age of eighty-two years. The mother died at the age of eighty-four years. They have three children, Augustus, now practicing physician at Kendall, Minnesota; William, a lawyer at Pittsfield, Illinois, and Charlotte, a wife of J. W. Moore, now residing in Chicago, conducting a stock and commission business. The Captain was Postmaster here under Presidents Arthur and Harrison, but as he is in failing health his step-daughter, Mrs. Deering, acts for him. He buried his first wife June 16, 1868, and was married April 4, 1869, to Mrs. Rebecca Poe, the widow of T. J. Poe and the daughter of the Rev. Granville Bond, a Methodist preacher, well and favorably known in this county. Mrs. Mumford was the widow of T. J. Poe. The Captain is an Episcopalian, but both his wives attended the Methodist Episcopal Church of which the present wife has been an active member for fifty years. Mrs. Mumford has three children of her own and all the family relations are most harmonious and affectionate. A better citizen, neighbor, father or husband could not be found.


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