W. W. FORBES, proprietor of Dennison House, Cassville; was born in Philadelphia, Penn., May 20, 1825; emigrated to Wisconsin with his parents in 1837; settled in Cassville; his father died in 1860; his mother died in 1839; both buried in the cemetery at this place. The family consisted of seven children - Benjamin F., who came to Cassville in 1831; was in the Black Hawk war; died at Garnavillo, Clayton Co., Iowa; was buried with the largest Masonic funeral known in this part of the county; he was also pioneer of California, the village of Forbestown, Butte Co., being named by him; E. C. was a prominent business man of this place, who died Sept. 4, 1880; Ann E. is the wife of C. L. De Grave, now of Faribault, Minn.; James D., who was a smelter at Sugar River Diggings, Green Co., emigrated to Forbestown, Cal., in 1852; Mary Jane, who died at the age of 16; Henriette R., now Mrs. James H. Brown, of Industry, Kan.; Jared, Jr., in Butte Co., Cal.; W. W., who was engaged in mining in Green Co., until 1852, when he went to Wiota, La Fayette Co.; then in the hotel business at Center, La Fayette Co., while the M. P. R. R. was being built; was Justice of the Peace while there; then to Beetown, and to Cassville in 1872. His wife, Martha A., the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Stephenson, was born in the fort at Mineral Point, June 19, 1832, and claims to be the first white female child born at "the Point;" they were married at Monroe, Green Co., April 27, 1847, and have had nine children - A. F., was born at Sugar River Diggings in 1848; Irene, born at Sugar River Diggings in 1850, died in 1855, at Darlington; Ella, born in 1853; Jared W., born in 1856; B. F., born in 1859; Watt S., born in 1864; Fred F., born in 1870, Guy Odell, born in 1874. In politics, Republican; in religion, liberal; his wife is a Baptist. Mrs. Forbes' brother, Col. Watt Stephenson, of Wiota, was in the war of the rebellion; was also Sheriff of La Fayette Co. at one time.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.