WILLIAM J. YOUNG, an enterprising and progressive citizen of
Knox Township, residing on section 21, was born in Warren County, Ohio, August
6, 1847, a son of Peter and Eliza (Whitaker) Young, the father a native of New
Jersey, and the mother born in Clermont County, Ohio. They were the parents of
seven children – Margaret, Elizabeth, John, Naomi, Alfred, William J. and
Samuel. Our subject lived in his native county till eight years of age, when he
went with his parents to Knox County, Illinois, and there he was reared to
manhood. He attended the common schools during his youth, completing his
education at Abingdon College, of Knox County.
During the late war he went to the defense of his country’s flag,
enlisting February 14, 1864, in Company A, Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry. He
participated in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, and in General Sherman’s
campaign. He was in all of Generals Stoneman and Cook’s engagements in which
the Fourteenth took part. Mr. Young was captured by the rebels at Atlanta, and
was first taken to Athens, then to Andersonville, where he was confined for
five months. After enduring all the hardships and privation known only to those
who were confined there, he was removed to Charleston, and three weeks later to
Florence, and after being confined at the latter place eight weeks he was
paroled. In December, 1864, he was taken to Charleston, then to Annapolis,
Maryland, where he lay in a hospital for many days at the point of death, but
through the kind and attentive nursing of the Sisters of Charity he recovered,
and in January, 1865, returned to his home, when he was taken with a relapse,
and for many days his life was again despaired of. He received an honorable
discharge at Camp Chase, Ohio, in April, 1865, when he returned to his home in
Knox County, Illinois. In 1866 he went
to southwestern Missouri, returning to Knox County in 1869, remaining there
till 1870. November 24, 1870, he was married to Louisa Hendricks , who was born
and reared in Knox County, Illinois, a daughter of William and Amanda Hendricks.
They have six children – Charlie, Loyd, Bessie, Albert, Rolla and Oscar. Mr.
Young removed to Vermillion County, Illinois, in 1870, and after residing there
four years came to Clarke County, Iowa, when he settled on his present farm in
Knox Township, which contains eighty-five acres of well-improved land under a
high state of cultivation. He has a commodious and comfortably furnished
residence, and good farm buildings for the accommodation of his stock, and in
his general farming and stock-raising he is meeting with success. Mr. Young is
a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is commander of Knox Center Post,
No. 189. He has served efficiently as clerk of his township. He is a consistent
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has by his fair and honest
dealings won the confidence and esteem of all who know him.
SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Record of Clarke
County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1886 p. 409
