William W. McFeeley
William W. McFeeley, Assistant Cashier of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Marion, is a son of Alfred and Sarah (Worthington) McFeeley, residents of Marion, Indiana, and among the most popular and prominent people of this section of the state.
Alfred McFeeley, the head of the family in this State and in Grant County, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, on August 31, 1836, and he came from Union City to Marion in 1874, since which time he has been a continuous resident of this city. Early in life he became a miller, a business with which many of his name had been identified in previous years, operating flouring mills throughout the country, and when he first located in Marion he was connected officially with the old mill in Cemetery Boulevard that was long known as the McFeeley Mill. He and a brother, Thomas McFeeley, first owned the mill, and they later sold it to an uncle, one Joseph McFeeley, who thereafter operated it for many a year. During a heavy storm on one Fourth of July, the mill was moved from its foundations by the wind, and from that time on as long as a stone stood there, it was known as the McFeeley Cyclone Mill, for many years constituting a land mark along he way of the Marion I. O. O. F. Cemetery.
When R. L. Jones was killed by a horse thief soon after he was elected to the office of County Sheriff for Grant County in the year 1888, Mr. McFeeley received the appointment to the vacancy thus created, and since that time he has frequently been prominent in public life in the county. He was for several years the Trustee of Center Township before the Associated Charities had in charge the relief activities of the city of Marion, and he handled alone and unaided the local charities, in addition to school and other township business of important character. The Trustees of Center Township were entrusted with the care of the indigent of Marion, and it was a duty that other Township Trustees knew little or nothing about, most of the responsibility falling upon Mr. McFeeley.
For many years Mr. McFeeley, usually known as "Squire" McFeeley, has served as Justice of the Peace of Center Township, and he has in that time established a reputation as the "marrying squire," his record down to date accrediting him with three hundred and forty-four marriages. He ever has a pleasant word for the bride and pionts out with pride the fact that the nuptial knots he ties are not immediately severed in the divorce courts. He is of the opinion however, that when the Indiana Legislature sees fit to enact a law permitting a Justice of the Peace to untie the marriage knot, he will have quite as much business at the other end of the line, for he maintains that divorce is as much in demand as marriage in these later days.
Squire McFeeley is a veteran of the Civil War, having served as a member of Company K, Fortieth Ohio Regiment for three years, after which he was transferred to the Fifty-first Ohio, and his total services amounted to four full years. Owing to his advanced age and the length of his service, he is now on the pension lists as a one dollar a day pensioner, which, in connection with the revenue that comes to him in his capacity as the "marrying justice," permits him to pass his declining days in ample comfort. He visited Fort Recovery, Ohio, on July 1, 1913, where a $25,000 monument was unveiled in honor of General St. Clair, one hundred and twenty-two years after the battle he fought with the Indians at that point, and although a full century has passed by since the battle of Mississinewa, the Squire believes the Grant County battle field will in time be designated with a similar monument. He is familiar with the entire course of the Mississinewa, having been reared at the "spreads" in Mississinewa Township, in Darke County, Ohio, where the river has its headwaters, and where for miles it is little more than a swamp drain.
Mr. McFeeley is one who enjoys a story well told, and few there are in these arts who can tell more apropos tales than he, all of them suggested by something in the circumstances of the moment, and always right to the point and glimmering with sparkle and brightness. Thus is it that the bride and groom are always started cheerily upon their way -a fact that seems to insure him of ample future patronage.
William W. McFeeley is one of the three children of his parents -one of them, Otto H. McFeeley, being a resident of Oak Park, Chicago, and a sister, Mrs. Gertrude Landauer, a resident of Marion. Mr. McFeeley was united in marriage on December 11, 1905 to Miss Ethel Morehead, who died on September 12, 1908. She was a daughter of O. H. P. Morehead and a granddaughter of William Morehead, who was among the last veterans of the Mexican War. The Morehead family have in recent years moved to Tennessee, after long years of continued residence in Grant County. Mr. McFeeley, since the death of his young wife, ahs taken up his residence with his aged parents, and there has continued to make his home as in earlier years.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 749-50.