William Converse, the second son of Erastus Converse and Elizabeth Can Wermer, was born in Rockdale, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 1832. He was likely named for his uncle William. As a boy, he moved with his family of five brothers to Iowa around 1842. After his father died and his older brother, John, left for California, William apparently inherited the family homestead and the care of his mother, Elizabeth. William married Jane C. Henry, a native of Pickaway County, Ohio, on May 3, 1851, and raised a family of six children: * John Converse 1852-1896 * Mary Jane, Mrs Melvin McKray 1853-1930 * Charles Henry Converse 1856-1912 * Laura Elle, Mrs Archibold Talbott 1858->1920 * Emma, Mrs Charles Dewey 1863-<1916 * Clara B, Mrs Mowery, Mrs Leslie Olsen b 1868 As a boy, he moved with his family of five brothers to Greene Township, Iowa County, Iowa, around 1842. About 1847, his father, Erastus Sr. died of exhaustion. At the age of 17, he drove teams in the winter and cooked in the summer while Fort Gaines (later renamed Fort Ripley and now Camp Ripley) was being built up the Mississippi River along the western shore in Mahkato/Mankahto County (now Morrison County) in central Minnesota Territory. William took receipt of a deed from his uncle William on August 6, 1850, when he was 17 years old. The property was located in the southeast corner of Greene Township, north of the English River (Township 78 North, Range 9 West, Section 35, West half of Southeast ¼ of Southeast ¼).[Deed 1850] William's elder brother, John, left for California in search of gold about 1851, leaving the care of the family homestead and their mother to William. On either May 3, 1851, William married Jane C. Henry of Pickaway County, Ohio. Her father, William Henry had served during the Black Hawk War in 1832 as a sergeant in Captain Obadiah West's company under the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade, which mustered in Franklin County, Illinois. An 1852 tax record for "Wm. Convers Jr." [sic] identifies two plots, and a third is noted deed to William from Jacob Ricord on May 5, 1852. All three lie along the north of the English River. During the Civil War, William's three younger brothers went off to serve the Union Army. Henry and George died of illness during the campaigns in Mississippi, and Erastus came home after quelling the Sioux in the Dakota Territory. It was also during this time that William and many other men in Greene Township and neighboring Fillmore Township formed the Farmers Lodge #168, a Freemason lodge, in the town of Foote, in 1863. William was named as the first Junior Deacon, one of the eight officers, of the lodge. By 1866 he had attained the third rank of Junior Warden only to return to Junior Deacon by 1868. In 1871, William sold the old Greene Township estate and moved to Pottawattamie County in western Iowa. He settled in what would become Valley Township in 1879, west of modern-day Hancock, in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Township 76 North, Range 39 West, Section 10. He is also believed to have owned another plot 3 miles west of this in Township 76 North, Range 38 West, Section 7. William became a founding member of Valley Lodge 439, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, on December 1, 1881, and served as its first treasurer. By 1885 his mother joined William's family in Valley Township until her death at the age of 87 in 1899. William's wife Jane C. Henry Converse died on November 28, 1904, at the age of 68. She is buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery east of Hancock, Pottawattomie County, Iowa. After Jane's death, William remarried to a woman only referred to as "C. M. Converse", about 1909. She had been married twice before and had three of six children surviving as of the census of 1910. William Converse died on May 13, 1916, at the age of 83 and is buried with his wife, mother, and son John at the Oak Hill Cemetery. Source: Converse Family History