WILLIAM LUCAS, a farmer of Lee township, was born in Mount Sterling, June 17, 1837. His father, Daniel, was born in Butler county, Ohio, March 21, 1810, and his father was a native of Virginia, of English ancestry. He was a lad of sixteen when the Revolutionary war was declared, and served six years in it. Soon after he emigrated to Kentucky, and was one of the first settlers of that State, and from there went on to Butler county, Ohio, and settled there as a pioneer in 1796 and resided in that county until his death in 1836. His son, Daniel Robins, was the youngest of a large family was reared to agricultural pursuits, but obtained a good education for those days and by teaching earned enough to educate himself in medicine. He removed from Ohio to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and from there to Brown county, Illinois, in 1836, and was one of the pioneers. He practiced medicine through Brown and Adams counties until his death, January 26, 1884. In 1843 he settled in Lee Township, where he bought land and in addition to his practice superintended his farm. He married Sarah Ann Keith, of Kentucky, who died March 22, 1890, aged seventy-two years. They had twelve children: William, Newton, Martha Ann, Mary Elizabeth, Dr. George Washington, John Harding, Ethan Allen, Helen, Daniel Webster, Benjamin Franklin and James Edward. Nine are living and three died young.

William remained on the farm until he was thirty-one years of age. He and his brother went to Texas for a herd of cattle in 1866. They bought 600 head at $20 a head. They drove them through to Illinois, crossed the Red river, April 22, and reached Quincy, September 20. The adventure proved a financial disaster. From 1872 to 1876 he and his brother, Newton, were at Memphis, Missouri, in the grain and hay business. In this he was successful, and now owns 632 acres of land, and is a stock farmer, growing the ordinary crops of this section. He keeps from fifty to a hundred head of cattle, and owns some of the pure blood registered stock. He often raises as many as 250 hogs.

He was first married January 2, 1866, to Margaret Miller, who died July 7, 1866, of quick consumption in consequence of an exposure while swimming a stream on horseback. He was again married in 1884, to A. E. Lierly, daughter of William R. Lierly, minister of the Dunkard Church. They have one daughter: Sarah Ann, born February 17, 1890.