People

William Farrell

William Farrell (born April 12, 1840, Dundee Township, Kane County, Illinois) was a farmer, stock-raiser, and local officeholder in Dundee Township. The son of pioneer settler John Farrell, he was born into one of the earliest families to take up land in the township and spent his working life on that same ground. He is noted in the historical record primarily for his long tenure as Road Commissioner and for maintaining the agricultural enterprise his father established.

Known Activities

William Farrell worked as a farmer and stock-raiser on a farm in Dundee Township, where he located in 1868, the same year he married (Source: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904)). He is recorded as having served as Road Commissioner for approximately twenty years, and held other township offices as well, though the specific offices are not enumerated in the available source (Source: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904)). His long service as Road Commissioner suggests a sustained civic presence in the township during the latter decades of the nineteenth century.

His father, John Farrell, had arrived in Dundee Township in 1837 among its first settlers, having emigrated from Ireland as a boy. By his death in 1879, the elder Farrell had accumulated approximately 900 acres of land in the township — a holding that shaped the family's standing and likely the circumstances of William Farrell's own farming operation (Source: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904)).

Timeline

YearEvent
1840Born April 12 in Dundee Township, Kane County, Illinois, to John and Catherine Donovan Farrell
1865Death of his mother, Catherine Donovan Farrell
1868Married Catherine McCartney; located on his farm in Dundee Township
1879Death of his father, John Farrell, who left an estate of approximately 900 acres
1880Death of his wife, Catherine McCartney Farrell; the couple had four children
c. 1868–c. 1888Served as Road Commissioner for Dundee Township for approximately twenty years
## Family

William Farrell was the son of John Farrell (1803–1879) and Catherine Donovan Farrell (d. 1865), both of whom predeceased him. He married Catherine McCartney in 1868; she died in 1880. The couple had four children, whose names are not recorded in the available source (Source: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904)). No date of death for William Farrell himself is given in the 1904 source, indicating he was likely still living at the time of publication.

Sources

  • Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904). Retrieved from archive.org.