Newton Co., IN Biography

Newton County, Washington Township.  From A History of Warren, Benton, 
Jasper & Newton Counties, 1883.

   WILLIAM RUSSELL, son of Prior and Anna (Hays) Russell, was born in 
Madison County, Indiana, November 30, 1829, to which country the parents
moved from Wayne County, where they were married, and of which they 
were very early settlers.  When our subject was about one year
old, his father moved to Tippecanoe County, Indiana; his mother died 
when he was quite young.  He was sent to school in an old pioneer log 
schoolhouse, but worked on the farm during the winter months.
   He remained with his father until his marriage, January 1, 1854,
to Sarah A. Shafer, daughter of M. and Rebecca (Westlake) Shafer, of 
Carroll County, Indiana.  He settled on a leased farm in Wabash
Township, farmed there about two years, and then entered 160 acres of 
Government land, and purchased an eighty-acre tract in Jasper (now 
Newton) County, moved there and improved the same.
   He now owns about 800 acres, all under good cultivation, with a fine
dwelling house and outbuildings.  He is a general farmer and stock 
dealer, dealing largely in stock.  He was one of the first to circulate
a petition for the division of his county, and the formation of the new
county of Newton; was one of the first County Commissioners elected in 
this county; was a Democrat up to 1872, since then a Greenbacker; is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity; he and his wife are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, he being a Class Leader; in 1874, he was
ordained a Deacon of his church, and has been instrumental in building
churches and schoolhouses, and is one of the highly esteemed and public-
spirited citizens of Washington Township, his home.


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Submitted By Gerald Born
Email - Wizzofozl0@aol.com