William married Laura Ann Sharp 1 November 1868 in Andover Pennsylvania. They had the following children. Mark R., George Vernon, Minnie A., Edith A., Daisy Harriett, Bessie Victoria, Ira Raymond, Jesse Evert, Glenn Lee, Evangeline, and Lillian.

They came to Michigan after George was born.

In 1872, William and Laura Dougan, came to Ashland township, Grant Michigan from Rock Creek, Ohio, in a covered wagon drawn by a team of horses. It took nearly three weeks to make the trip. The roads were little more than trails, except for some pole roads where they had to pay toll, they brought their ten month old son George, with them. There were highway robbers around then because it was thought that people who were traveling must have money. So William slept under the wagon at night with his shotgun near.
They arrived at Grant where they were met by Laura's parents and brothers who had come there a year earlier. So they stayed with them until they found a place of their own.
The lumbering industry was at its peak then. Records show that two and a quarter billion feet of white pine lumber was manufactured in Michigan that year, and fifteen thousand people were employed in the business.
William worked in a shingle mill, but it was not an easy life for them, clearing the land, raising food for their family, cutting wood for the long cold winters, and with everything having to be done by hand.
Indians who lived near them would bring hand made baskets to their house and ask Laura to trade a piece of salt pork for one. She never refused.
In 1910 they built a new home on eighty acres of land they had cleared three miles west of Grant, in Ashland township.
William raised and trained horses to sell because then all farming was done with horses. Also all of their travel was done by surrey of carriage.
Source: Rhymes and Reminisces by Carmen Carter
(grand-daughter of William and Laura Dougan)