William Matthew Mabe was the sixth child of James M. and Anna Noblet Mabe. He left the family farm in Brown County, Indiana, about 1869 to seek his fortune. In 1870, he is 18 and is found on the census in Mt. Zion, Macon Co., IL, as a farm laborer on the farm of the Willson family. Next door was the James L. Kimberlin family with a daughter named Mary, age 15. He married Mary in 1874. In 1881 they moved to Jasper Co., MO, and then in 1884 they headed for Texas. They settled in the Derden, Hill County area, about 1889, after a brief sojourn of several years in Kansas. He bought and operated the first cotton gin in Hill County (from White family Bible). After his wife died in 1899, he moved to Cleburne where he resided until his death.

His grandson, Ben Mabe, remembered him as a very entertaining person who often quoted a poem:
"I'm Wild Bill from Cedar Hill,
Never been whipped and never will,
I've got an iron backbone and my head screws on,
I can ride anything that hair grows on!"

He fell on Oct. 21, 1936, breaking his leg, and died four days later of pneumonia. He was 84 years old. He was buried in Derden Cemetery next to the grave of his wife Mary.

Obituary, Cleburne Times-Review Oct. 26, 1936:

Services Today for W. M. Mabe

Funeral services for William M. Mabe, 84, resident of Cleburne for 26 years, who died Sunday morning at 5 o'clock at the home of his daughter, Mrs. E. L. Brown, 898 Chase Avenue, were to have been held at the Central Church of Christ by the minister, P. D. Wilmeth, at 2 o'clock.

Survivors other than Mrs. Brown include a daughter, Mrs. E. Crouch of Breckenridge, and two sons, Clarence Mabe of Cleburne and Clyde Mabe of Burleson.

Burial was to have been in the Darden Cemetery with the grandsons of Mr. Mabe serving as pallbearers. R. H. Deering and Son are in charge of arrangements.

Name: William M. Mabe
Gender: Male
Burial Date: 26 Oct 1936; Burial Place: Derden, Hill Co., Tex.
Death Date: 25 Oct 1936; Death Place: Cleburne, Johnson, Texas
Age: 84
Birth Date: 26 Dec 1851; Birthplace: Indiana
Occupation: Farmer; Race: White
Marital Status: Widowed
Father's Name: Nat Mabe
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: B59007-6
System Origin: Texas-EASy
GS Film number: 1432978; Reference ID: p 602
Citing this Record: "Texas, Deaths and Burials, 1903-1973," Nat Mabe in entry for William m. Mabe, 26 Dec 1851.