Will County IL Archives Biographies.....McMasters, William F 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 11:31 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

WILLIAM F. McMASTERS, city clerk of Joliet, is a descendant of a Scotch family 
that was identified with the early history of North Carolina. His parents, 
William F. and Elizabeth (Allen) McMasters, were natives respectively of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio and died in the latter state, the father in 1864, the 
mother in 1872. The maternal grandfather, William Allen, was a farmer of 
Jefferson County, Ohio. The paternal grandfather, Rev. David McMasters, was a 
son of Rev. James Masters (as the name was then spelled), and a native of 
Chatham County, N. C., where his family had been slaveholders, but becoming 
convinced of the injustice of the institution they finally set their slaves 
free. David McMasters and two of his brothers became ministers in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. While living in Pennsylvania he married Miss Anna 
Starr. Later they removed from that state to Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County, 
Ohio. They were accompanied by a ten-year old girl, Lucy Norman, whom they 
reared and who was married by Rev. Mr. McMasters to Mr. Stanton; they became 
the parents of Edwin McMasters Stanton, the famous war secretary of the 
Rebellion. At an early age William F. McMasters, Sr., our subject's father, 
accompanied his parents to Jefferson County, Ohio. There he carried on a 
furniture business and later was proprietor of a boot and shoe store, also of 
an insurance agency. For some years he served as county auditor. A member of a 
family of two daughters and one son, our subject was born in Steubenville, 
Ohio, April 10, 1863. After his mother's death he came to Illinois and made 
his home with an aunt in Canton, where he attended the public schools. At the 
age of twelve years he secured work on a farm and from that time he earned his 
own livelihood. In 1876 he became an apprentice to the cigar-maker's trade, 
which he followed in Canton until 1881, and afterward traveled through the 
east and in Canada. In 1886 he was married in Galesburg, Ill., to Mrs. Nettie 
(Baldwin) Krollman, who was born in Monmouth, this state, being a daughter of 
George Baldwin, an early settler of Monmouth and proprietor of the Baldwin 
house in that city. April 10, 1890, Mr. McMasters arrived in Joliet, where he 
has since made his home. He was employed in a cigar factory until 1899, being 
foreman during four years of that time. In the spring of 1899 he was elected 
city clerk on the Democratic ticket, receiving a majority of two hundred and 
forty-five. On the 1st of May he took the oath of office, and has since, with 
the aid of two assistants, discharged the duties of the position to the 
satisfaction of all concerned. The Democratic party receives his steadfast 
support, and he is actively interested in political matters. Fraternally he is 
connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. During his active connection 
with the Cigar Maker's Union he frequently was elected its president, and he 
was also for some years president and financial secretary of the Central 
Trades and Labor Council of Will County. He and his wife have two daughters, 
Estel and Georgia, and by her first marriage Mrs. McMasters also has a 
daughter, Maude Krollman, who is now a student in the high school of Monmouth, 
Ill. 

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

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