Forreston Herald - October 1881

NOTE: Due to poor quality of original obituary (below) I have retyped it as best I could.

On Saturday, October 22, 1881, at his residence in Brookville. Mr. William McIlnay aged 67 years and four months.

W. M. McIlnay was born June 22, 1812, at Yellow Creek, Bedford Co., Pa. He was married to Sarah Bowser, March 19th, 1833 by whom he had eight children, six sons and two daughters. Three of his children preceded him to their long home. They moved to Illinois in 1857 and settled near Brookville. In 1862 he purchased a farm near Brookville and after years of hard labor paid for and improved it so as to make one of the best farms in the neighborhood. He buried his first wife Dec. 2, 1878. He was married again Aug. 5th 1879 to Mrs. Jane Harris, the marriage ceremony being performed at the Sherman house in this city by Rev. W. H. Schoch.

Mr. McIlnay was a man of energy and push. By hard toil he suceeded in buying up considerable of this world's goods. Soon after his second marriage he bought a home in Brookville and expected to live for many years to come, beautify his home and make it one of the prettiest and most comfortable places in the town.

Last Spring after he cried Frank Hoover's sale he remarked that he was good for twenty years, labor and he wanted to cry one sale in 1900 then he would return. How uncertain is life!

All will remember the terrible accident which befel him last spring. He was driving through Polo with the horse which he had purchased of Mr. Hoover on the day of the sale just mentioned, when his horse became frightened and ran away throwing Mr. and Mrs. McIllnay from the buggy. Mr. McIllnay suffered severe injuries from which he never recovered. No pen can describe the intense agony this man suffered during the last five months. A post mortem examination showed that the real cause of his death was cancer in the stomach. He was buried Sunday in Brookville, Rev. Schoch officiating. The deceased being widely and favorably known, the funeral was one of the largest ever held in Brookville.

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