Douglas County IL Archives Biographies.....Brian, William May 6, 1806 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Norma Hass http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00013.html#0003021 February 13, 2017, 4:31 pm

Source: Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois
Author: John Gresham

William Brian, Sr., was born May 6, 1806, in Ross county, Ohio, and in 1837 he 
came to Coles, now Douglas, county; he entered about one thousand acres of 
land when coming here, and has owned as high as three thousand acres. He had 
learned the blacksmith's trade in Ohio, and followed it about twenty years 
here. On one occasion, when shoeing a Methodist preacher's horse, he nailed 
the shoes on with toe-corks behind. The preacher remonstrated with him for 
doing so; his reply was, "The devil takes after these Methodist preachers, and 
I thought I would make him taken the back track." He was married October 1, 
1829, to Anna Lewis, who was born in Pike county, Ohio, May 4, 1805. They had 
nine children, six of whom are here named: Thomas, James, Mary (wife of R. E. 
H. Westfall), William T., Taylor W., and Samuel. His death occurred a few 
years since.

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