Wayne County IN Archives Biographies.....Mendenhall, William September 7, 1798 - September 2, 1880
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Glapha Cox rcoxfam@earthlink.net January 22, 2006, 7:15 pm

Author: History of Wayne County, Indiana;Volume II, (1884)

Dalton Township
p. 453 & 454

William Mendenhall, son of Daniel and Deborah Mendenhall, was born in Guilford 
County, N.C., Sept. 7, 1798. He was married in 1819 to Rebecca, daughter of 
Joseph and Hannah Coffin. They were both reared on a farm and were principally 
educated in a school taught by Jeremiah Hubbard, a noted school-teacher and 
preacher in the Friends' society, of which they were both members. After their 
marriage they remained in their native State and county till 1825, when, with 
three children, they removed to Indiana and located in Wayne County. They made 
the journey of 600 miles with a little one-horse wagon, Mrs. Mendenhall 
driving and carrying an infant in her arms, and Mr. Mendenhall and a man named 
Joseph Nichols walking all the way. They had $40 when they left North Carolina 
but after a journey of six weeks it was about exhausted. They reached Wayne 
County in September, and after stopping a short time with his brother Elijah, 
who lived near Washington, Mr. Mendenhall bought a farm two or three miles 
from Washington in the “Beech Flats,” in the woods. They endured all the 
hardships of pioneer life, clearing up and improving their farm. At that time 
the settlers assisted each other in their work, and one spring Mr. Mendenhall 
attended fifteen log-rollings in succession. They had trouble in keeping their 
stock, as the grain that was raised was needed in the family, and the stock 
could not run in the woods on account of the danger of their getting poisoned. 
The land was poor and the crops uncertain, and in 1833 they moved to Perry 
Township, two miles west of Economy. This was a much better farm, and was 
partly cleared. They were very energetic, and although Mr. Mendenhall was 
never very strong, they were enabled to give their children a common-school 
education. Their clothes were homespun and their shoes home-made, each child 
having one pair a year, going barefoot in the summer. Mr. Mendenhall was a 
modest, unassuming man, but his honesty and integrity were known by all who 
knew him. He early taught his children lessons of prudence and economy which 
have been useful to them in their later years. Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall were 
active members of the Society of Friends, often riding twenty miles before 
eleven o'clock, horseback, in severe cold weather, to attend Quarterly 
meeting. He was politically a Whig, and a friend and sympathizer of the 
colored man. After the formation of the Republican party he was one of its 
strong adherents. He died Oct. 2, 1880, aged eighty-two years and twenty-five 
days, having since his sixtieth year enjoyed better health, and been able to 
attend to his farm duties. Mrs. Mendenhall is still living, in her eighty-
third year. They had a family of eleven children, three sons and eight 
daughters. One daughter died in infancy, the rest grew to maturity.

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