once a hoosier

William Ransler Horton

William Ransler Horton
birth: 7 Aug 1892, in Lewis Township, Clay Co., IN to Francis Perry and Manerva (Tipton) Horton
death: 22 Jul 1966 at Elgin, Kane Co., IL
burial: Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Cemetery, Elgin, Kane Co., IL

marriage: 12 Mar 1912, Greene Co., IN
Nellie Elizabeth Holmes
birth: 18 May 1893 Trinity Springs, Martin Co., IN to Harry Grant and Margaret Elizabeth (Carmichael) Holmes
death: 19 Mar 1980, at Elgin, IL
burial: Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Cemetery, Elgin, Kane Co., IL

Children of William Ransler Horton and Nellie Elizabeth Holmes:

  • Francis Harold Horton: b. 1912, d. 2000, m. Mildred Marguerite French
  • Margaret Isabel Horton: b. 1916, d. 2005, m. John Sylvester Kelley
  • William Wayne Horton: b. 1918, d. 1988, m. Mary Charline Stockton
  • Alice Minerva Horton: b. 1920, d. 2012, m. Kenneth Lyman Thurnau
  • Eugene Perry Horton: b. 1922, d. 2013, m. Kathryn L Johnson
  • Phyllis Irene Horton: b. 1924, d. 2011, m. Lewis Egan Kelley
  • John Robert Horton: b. 1926, d. 2003, m. (1) Marjorie Alice Jay, (2) Jo Ann Miller
  • Walter Paul Horton: b. 1928, d. 1995, m. Barbara Jean Wishon
  • Ina Mae Horton: b. 1930, d. 2012, m. Edwin Ernest Ahrens

William Ransler Horton lived in:

  • 1892-1911: Lewis Township, Clay County, Indiana
  • 1912-1919: Midland, Greene County, Indiana
  • 1924-1928: Lewis Township, Clay County, Indiana
  • 1958: Jasonville, Greene County, Indiana

He also lived in:

  • 1919-1924: Bridgewater, Adair County, Iowa
  • 1928: Elgin, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1929: Huntley, McHenry County, Illinois
  • 1930: Plato Center, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1931-1932: Pingree Grove, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1933-1935: Elgin, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1935-1944: Plato Center, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1945-1946: Elgin, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1946-1947: St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1947-1950: Udina, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1950-1957: Elgin, Kane County, Illinois
  • 1957-1958: Cabool, Texas County, Missouri
  • 1959-1966: Elgin, Kane County, Illinois

Other Information:

William Ransler Horton, youngest child and only son of Francis Perry and Manerva (Tipton) Horton, was born August 7, 1892, on a farm in Lewis Township, Clay County, Indiana. He attended school at a Coalmont School, brick schoolhouse near the farm, and also at the Wilson School. His parents were members of the Wilson Baptist Church, across the road from the farm. William Ransler Horton and his sisters remained very close all their lives and after William moved his family moved to Illinois there was a lot of visiting back and forth between them and the aunts and cousins “down home.”

Nellie and “Ranse” were married in March, 1911, and started housekeeping on the home farm. William Horton worked the farm and also worked part time in nearby coal mines. Their son Harold was born on the family farm in 1912. In 1916 they were living in Midland, a small mining town in Greene County, where Margaret and Wayne were born.

At Midland, William worked for the Monon Railroad. Wayne was born in 1918 and in 1919, when he was a baby, the family moved to Iowa. William had a cousin, Tom Brothers, who was working on a big farm in Iowa and encouraged the Hortons to also take a job out there.

Alice and Gene were both born in Iowa and then, sometime in 1923 or 1924, the family came back to Indiana and lived on the “Home Place” in Lewis Township where Phyllis was born in 1924, followed by John in 1926 and Walter in 1928.

Frank Rowe and Wes Edmonson had a 99-year lease on the Gordon Mine near Jasonville, Indiana. It was a slope mine and a wet one. William drove a mule team and hauled out the cars of coal in clothes wet up to his waist. Then he had to weigh the wagons of coal and sell them. He made 40 cents an hour.

Having outgrown the farm house, the Hortons moved again, this time to Elgin, Illinois, where their friends, the Clarence Flint family, lived. The first winter there, William worked for an ice house, chopping ice on the Fox river. He also worked as a farm laborer and then took a job as tenant farmer at Huntley. In 1930, the family moved to the farm south of Plato Center where Ina was born. Another move to the Pingree Grove farm in 1931. William Horton remained a farmer the rest of his working life.

Submitted by:
Maureen Kelley
Email: mkkgene77@yahoo.com

 

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