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WILLIAM S. ENOS - William S. Enos, whose landed possessions aggregate four hundred acres on section 27, Buffalo Hart township, was born on this farm December 4, 1832. His father, Abner Enos, was born in Cattaraugus county, New York, June 20, 1791, and was of Scotch ancestry. He was a soldier in the United States Navy in the war of 1812 and served in the battle of Lake Erie under Commodore Perry. Later he went to Kentucky, where he was married and after the death of his first wife he was again married in that state, his second union being with Anna Suddith, the mother of W. S. Enos. In 1831 they removed to Sangamon county, Illinois, and Mr. Enos purchased the land upon which our subject now resides. He at first had eight acres, but later he added to this and devoted his remaining days to general agricultural pursuits, his death occurring here March 4, 1850. His wife survived him for a few years and died January 15, 1873. There were four children by the father's first marriage, but only one by the last.

William S. Enos was reared on the old homestead farm which has now been in the family for about seventy-two years. He attended the district school of the neighborhood and after his father's death he succeeded to the ownership of the property and assumed its management. At the time of the Civil war, prompted by a spirit of patriotism he enlisted in 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois Infantry, and went south with the Army of the Mississippi. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg, in which he was wounded by a gun shot through the right foot and because of his injury he was sent to the brigade hospital and later to Webster Hospital in Memphis, where he remained for about two months, when he came home on a furlough. He rejoined his regiment at New Orleans and was later in the Red River campaign under General Banks. With his regiment he was captured near Mansfield, Louisiana, and taken to Camp Tyler, Texas, where he was held as a prisoner for thirteen months and nineteen days, or until the close of the war, when he was sent to New Orleans, thence up the river to St. Louis and on to Springfield, where he was honorably discharged in June, 1865.

Mr. Enos at once resumed farming, and he soon sought and won a companion and helpmate for life's journey. He was married October 12, 1865, to Jane Dunn, who was born in Yorkshire, England, a daughter of John Dunn, of Yorkshire, who, crossing the Atlantic in 1851, came to Sangamon county, where his daughter was reared. When a maiden of ten summers she went to live in the Enos family and the friendship of the boy and girl ripened into the love of the man and woman as the years passed by. They continued to reside upon the old homestead, and to the farm Mr. Enos has added, by purchase, a tract of eighty acres. He has erected a good residence, substantial barn and sheds for the shelter of grain and stock, planted an orchard and built a house for his son, William J.; John A., who is married and resides on the home farm; and Georgia A., who is with her parents.

Politically Mr. Enos has been a stanch Republican since the organization of the party. He has served for seven consecutive years as justice of the peace and nine years as commissioner of the highways and for a long period has been a member of the school board, during which time he has put forth earnest and zealous effort in behalf of the schools, realizing their value as a preparation for life and for good citizenship. He is a Royal Arch Mason, belonging to the blue lodge and chapter at Dawson, and he and his wife are connected with the Easter Star Chapter. He is also a member of Stephenson Post, G.A.R., Springfield. His name is honored because his life has ever been upright, and those who have known him from his boyhood days are numbered among his staunchest friends.