commanded a company of troops in the Revolutionary war, serving with honor and distinction. His wife, Rhoda Smith Farrand, was the heroine of a ballad written by her great-granddaughter, Eleanor A. Hunter, celebrating her arduous and heroic work in behalf of the soldiers in response to a letter from her husband, who told of the hard conditions which the army were undergoing at Morristown, that many of the men were barefooted and walking with bleeding feet in the snow. He sent his letter with a request for stockings and immediately setting her daughters to work at the task of knitting them she instructed her son Dan to hitch the horses to the wagon and drive to the neighbors to solicit their aid and on the way Mrs. Farrand, seated in a chair, also continued the work of knitting. She took her famous ride on Saturday and on Monday, owing to the untiring industry of the women and girls of the neighborhood, she was able to carry one hundred and thirty-three pairs to the soldiers at Morristown. The marriage of Bethuel Farrand and Rhoda Smith occurred in 1762 and they became the parents of eleven children. Samuel Farrand, the seventh child of this family, was born September 7, 1781, and was married in 1806 to Mary Kitchel, who was born June 14, 1789. They removed to Leoni, Michigan, in 1835 and there shared in the hardships of frontier life. Samuel Farrand died in 1848, while his wife's death occurred in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1856. Their son, Elbridge Gerry Farrand, was the father of James A. Farrand and was born in Addison county, Vermont, November 13, 1814. He was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth McWilliams, a daughter of James McWilliams, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio, March 12, 1802, and was a son of Alexander McWilliams, who was born on shipboard while his parents were en route to America in 1776. He was of Scotch descent and the family home was established at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where Alexander McWilliams acquired his education. At the age of twenty-two years he married Miss Jane Paxton, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and unto them were born three children, of whom James was the youngest. The mother died in 1803 and the father afterward married again, having eleven children by the second union. He died at his home in Ohio at the age of sixty-five years. James McWilliams, the maternal grandfather of James A. Farrand, acquired the greater part of his education in the schools of Ohio and in his youth was largely employed on his father's farm. In 1824 he married Margaret Latimer, a daughter of Alexander Latimer, formerly of Scotland. They had a family of eight children and in 1834 Mr. McWilliams removed to Illinois, spending the succeeding winter at Naples. In the spring of 1835 he took up his abode on a farm near Griggsville, Pike county, and on the 28th of December, 1838, his wife died there. In June, 1839, he married Lucretia Prescott, a native of Groton, Massachusetts. In 1838 Mr. McWilliams was elected to the Illinois legislature from Pike county on the democratic ticket, serving during the last session held at Vandalia and the first session held in Springfield. In 1848 he engaged in the lumber trade, which business he carried on for many years. During the period of the Civil war he was a stanch supporter of Lincoln's administration and his son, Captain John McWilliams, served for ninety days in the Eighth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Richard Oglesby. Immediately after returning home he re-enlisted and was with Sherman on the celebrated march to the sea. Elbridge G. Farrand left his native state at the age of eighteen years and went to Michigan, where he remained until 1845, in which year he removed to Morgan county, Illinois. In 1849 he went to California, where he remained until 1852, when he returned to Morgan county, Illinois, but soon afterward came to Griggsville. Here he was a member of the mercantile firm of R. B. Hatch & Company, who erected a business block and for a number of years conducted a leading mercantile enterprise of this city. In 1861 he embarked in the lumber business at Griggsville Landing in connection with his father-in-law, Hon. James McWilliams, and they dealt in doors, sash, blinds, etc., carrying a stock valued at from twelve to fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. Ferrand was associated with his father-in-law till the latter's death, after which he continued the business alone until March, 1885, when he sold out with the intention