Illinois in early manhood. He was one of the early settlers of this county, making permanent location in Martinsburg township about 1830. He there opened up a new farm, performing all the arduous labor incident to the cultivation of new land, his time and energies being given to the improvement of the fields until 1850, when he went to California, where his death occurred. His wife long survived him and reared their family of eight children as follows: Nancy, who is the widow of W. S. Morrison, and resides in St. Louis, Missouri; W. R., who died about 1897; Rachel, the wife of James O. Lewis, of Martinsburg; Maria, the deceased wife of D. P. Lynch; Mrs. Bethena Lewis, a widow, residing in Nebo, Pike county, Illinois; Fannie, the wife of W. H. Gooden, of Pike county, Missouri; Lucinda, the wife of Francis Fowler, of White Hall, Illinois; and George W.          In taking up the personal history of George W. Capps we present to our readers the life record of one who has a very wide and favorable acquaintance in this part of the state. He was reared in his native township and acquired a common-school education. When fourteen years of age he started out in life on his own account, working by the month as a farm hand and in this way he was employed for ten years, gradually making progress in the business world as his labor proved of greater value to his employers. In May, 1874, he was married in this county to Miss Julia A. Brittain, a native daughter of this section of the state. He then rented a farm and continued to operate leased land for several years, when, with the capital he had saved from his earnings, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres on section 9, Martinsburg township. There he carried on general farming for twelve years, when he sold that property and in 1892 bought two hundred acres on section 12, Martinsburg township. He has a good farm, on which he has erected a basement barn and he has also built to and remodeled the house. His labors have made this a well improved property and in addition to tilling the soil he is raising good grades of stock.     Politically Mr. Capps is a staunch democrat but has never sought or desired office. His wife is a member of the Christian church and he belongs to New Hartford lodge of Masons, in which he has filled all of the chairs save that of master. His entire life having been passed in this county, he has become widely known and has witnessed the greater part of the development that has brought the county up to its present state of progress and improvement.                                             _____________________                                 HON. WILLIAM ELZA WILLIAMS     Hon. William Elza Williams, at one time congressman from the sixteenth district, which included Pike county, and a prominent member of the Illinois bar, was born in Detroit township, this county, on the 5th day of May, 1857. His father, David A. Williams, is a native of North Carolina, born July 22, 1832. The paternal grandfather, John A. Williams, was also a native of North Carolina and was of English descent, the original family having come from England to Virginia prior to the Revolution. Emigrating westward, he became one of the pioneer settlers of Pike county, settling in Detroit township in 1834. His father, Dory Williams, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and his grandfather, William Williams (the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch), was a soldier in the war of the Revolution.     David A. Williams was only two years old when brought by his parents to Pike county, and they were among the early settlers of Detroit township, sharing in the hardships and privations incident to the establishment of a home upon the frontier. Educational privileges were limited, farm machinery was crude and much arduous labor was required in order to bring the soil to its present high state of cultivation. Assisting in the task of developing a new farm, David A. Williams thus grew to manhood, and having arrived at years of maturity he was married to Miss Emily A. Hayden, a daughter of Louis E. Hayden, a native of Virginia and one of the early settlers of Newburg township, coming to Pike county from Kentucky in 1835. The young couple began their married life upon a farm in Detroit town-