In the subject of this review we have a representative of one of the most
honored pioneer families in Marion county and one who is recognized as one
of the most progressive farmers of his locality, owning and operating in a
most successful manner at this time three farms of great value. He is
regarded by all who know him as being a most capable and energetic man,
broad minded and sound in his business principles.
William Thomas
Wilkinson was born in Meacham township, this county, January 21, 1859, the
son f H. C. Wilkinson, who was born in Kentucky in 1825, and who passed to
his rest at the early age of forty-six years, but not until he had stamped
his individuality upon the community where he lived. He was the father of
seven children, three sons and four daughters, three of whom are now living,
the subject being the third in order of birth. Our subject's mother's name
in her maidenhood was Harriet A. Nichols. She married H. C. Wilkinson in
Marion county, Illinois.
Our subject spent his early life on the
home farm and attended the district schools where he applied himself in an
able manner and gained a fairly good education.
Mr. Wilkinson has
devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and he has been eminently
successful in his chosen work, having by sheer force of individuality,
business acumen and persistency won his way from an humble beginning to a
place of prominence and comparative affluence in his county, owning three
farms, consisting collectively of three hundred and sixty-eight acres. One
hundred and forty acres is in Meacham township, one hundred and forty acres
in Alma township and sixty-eight acres in Kinmundy township. All these farms
are under a high grade of cultivation and yield the owner a comfortable
competency from year to year. They all show that the owner is a man of the
best modern methods of agriculture. On each of these is located a good house
and out buildings. Mr. Wilkinson has various kinds of good stock on the
farms.
Mr. Wilkinson married Prudence Kenedy on August 17, 1882, in
Marion county, Illinois. She is a native of Washington county and the
daughter of James P. and Elizabeth (McBride) Kenedy, the former a native of
Tennessee and the latter of Randolph county, Illinois. The wife of the
subject was one of a family of eleven children, she being the eighth in
order of birth. Her parents were United Presbyterians but she worships with
her husband, as do all the family, in the Methodist church, of which Mr.
Wilkinson is a steward.
The following children have been born to the
subject and wife: Bert E. is a telegraph operator in Wyoming in the employ
of the Union Pacific Railroad; Claude E., Jennie P., Charles H., Irene, Bert
E. married Alice Hiddleson, living in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and they have one
child. Claude E. married Stella Danison. Jennie P. married John R. Telford,
who lives in Kinmundy township. Claude is a teacher in the county schools,
and he farms one of his father's places. He has a good wife and a nice home.
He was educated in the Kinmundy high school.
Our subject is a loyal
Democrat, and he has faithfully and conscientiously served his community as
Township Collector and as Road Commissioner for three terms. He has always
taken a deep interest in public affairs and his support can always be
counted on in all movements looking to the general good of the locality
where he lives. Considering the hardships and obstacles of his early life he
deserves a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished, for his father
died when he was fourteen years old and he and John H., his brother, had to
help their mother raise the rest of the children. This developed a strong
independent and sturdy manhood and a frugal and thrifty mentality which is
very largely responsible for his subsequent success in life. Prosperity
seems to have attended every worthy effort he has made, with the result that
before the evening of life advances upon him he finds himself and family
very comfortably situated, and the future, whatever it may have in store for
him and his, inspires no shadow of fear in his breast.
Extracted 27 May 2019 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 434-435.