Will County IL Archives Biographies.....GREENWOOD, WILLIAM ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 18, 2007, 7:51 pm Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD WILLIAM W. GREENWOOD, who has devoted his entire active life to farm pursuits in New Lenox Township, was born in 1846 near the place where he now resides. He is a son of John and Mary Ann (Brown) Greenwood, and a grandson of John Greenwood, Sr., whose last days were spent in America in the home of his son. His father, a native of Herefordshire, England, came to the United States at the age of seventeen, and for a short time was employed in the salt works in New York. About 1846 he settled in what is now Will County, Ill., where at first he worked for Judge Davidson, and afterward purchased eighty acres in Joliet Township. The last few years of his life were spent in the city of Joliet, where he died in 1885, at the age of sixty-eight. Throughout all of his active life he followed agricultural pursuits and was an industrious, persevering man. His wife died in 1874, when fifty-five years of age. They were the parents of thirteen children, but only two are living, William W. and George, both of New Lenox Township. Alternating attendance at the common schools with work on the home farm our subject passed the years of youth. As there was an immense amount of work connected with the clearing and improving of the home farm he had little opportunity to engage in the usual sports of boyhood, and his attendance at school was limited to the three winter months. When he was twenty-one years of age he began in the world for himself and has since conducted farm pursuits, in which he has met with fair success. He is one of the oldest native-born citizens of his township, and is among the most industrious as well. He has served as a member of the school board and for three years was highway commissioner on New Lenox Township. The various movements for the benefit of the community find him to be a loyal friend and helper, and his influence may always be relied upon to advance worthy enterprises. In February, 1869, he was united in marriage with Mary, daughter of Cyrus A. Lewis. They are the parents of three children, Archie W., Lewis Leroy (better known as Roy), and Grace E. Additional comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/greenwoo1725nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 2.7 Kb