following page 254
transcribed by Alise
Streutker
William Edwards
WILLIAM EDWARDS, SR.
William EDWARDS, the oldest son, was born in New Jersey May 10, 1802. He was brought with the family to the west, and received some education in the subscription schools of that time, but says he pretty regularly forgot, at the end of every term, all he had learned during its session, and began anew with the next school. His childhood and youth were spent at the paternal homes in Clermont county and in Anderson township, until his marriage, December 11, 1823, to Miss Nancy DAY, daughter of Timothy and Sarah (CRANE) DAY, who had come to this region about the year 1800. One of her brothers, Timothy DAY, jr., married her husband's sister Mary, and upon her death married Elizabeth, another sister, as above noted. After his marriage, Mr. EDWARDS removed from the paternal roof to a double log cabin standing near the homestead, but upon another farm, for which his father had traded. This he occupied until it became much out of repair, when he put up a frame dwelling upon its site, which was in its turn superseded by the present spacious and comfortable brick mansion erected in the year of the HARRISON campaign, of which Mr. EDWARDS has an interesting relic in the shape of a Whig banner, with the portrait of the hero of Tippecanoe and appropriate inscriptions. The farm upon which the residence stands had long before become the property of Mr. EDWARDS, to which he has since made large additions by purchase. Here he has since continually resided, engaging himself almost exclusively in the labors of the farm. Sometimes he has purchased for sale, in addition to his own crops, the products of his neighbors, in some instances to large amounts. He has wasted none of his energies in public office, except as he has served the township in some of its minor posts. He has often been solicited to become a candidate for the legislature, but has invariably declined. He is faithful in his voting, however, having voted successively for fifteen candidates for the Presidency, and always upon the Democratic ticket, to which he has given a life-long allegiance. He has never allied himself with any religious or secret societies, and is independent in all his thinking and his actions. Although close upon the border of four-score years, he has remarkable vigor of mind and body, and preserves his faculties almost unimpaired. His venerable wife also still survives in apparently good health, but their long union has proved childless. They have raised, however, several nephews and nieces and other children. A number of their relatives reside near them, their dwellings and other houses making a handsome cluster of buildings at the station, on the Cincinnati & Eastern Narrow Guage (sic) railway, which is called from him "Edwards."
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