William Crist (39790504)

Suggested edit: Source: Biographical and Genealogical History of Fayette Wayne Union Franklin Counties Ind, 1899, p. 690-691

William is son of George W. Crist, who was born in Cincinnati, and came to this neighborhood about 1807 or 1808, and passed the rest of his life here. He located on a tract of land, a portion of which is now included in the town of Liberty, and his son, Judge William B. Crist, settled upon a farm just south of the village. George W. Crist lived to be over four-score years old. He married a Miss Bell and they became the parents of four sons and four daughters. Three of the sons, James W., William B. and Christian W., continued to dwell in the vicinity of Liberty as long as they lived, but Reason B., the youngest, went to Louisiana.

Judge William B. Crist, who died in 1860 at the age of fifty-five years, was a man of more than local prominence. He was a successful builder and contractor, and a farmer as well. He erected numerous public and private buildings in Liberty and elsewhere and laid out part of his farm into town lots; and in addition to this property he owned other land, more or less improved. The old homestead still stands about the same as he left it, and at the present it is occupied by a dairy farmer. When the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad was projected he gave the right of way through his farm, and was superintendent of the stone-work construction along the line, between Hamilton and Rushville, but died before the same was finished.

In 1854 he built the first permanent store building in Liberty and this is still owned by the family. For several years he served as associate judge of Union county, and in his political attitude he was first a Whig and later a Republican. He married Margaret La Fuze, who is still living, now in her eighty-ninth year, and is cared for at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. W. Connoway. Eight of their twelve children are living, in 1898. Mrs. Crist is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church.
Contributor: Alison H (47405223)