William H. Mossholder was a prominent farmer and stock-raiser in Lee County, Illinois, born on March 27, 1841, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Son of Jacob and Mary (Flamm) Mossholder, William moved to Lee County in 1854. He owned multiple farms, including an 80-acre homestead in South Dixon Township. He married Catherine Lievan in 1874, and the couple had three children: Nora J., Inez G., and Clinton E. Active in the Evangelical Association, the Mossholders were well-regarded in their community. William was known for his agricultural acumen and support of the Republican party.
William H. Mossholder is one of the foremost of the enlightened and wide-awake farmers and stock-raisers who are carrying on the great agricultural interests of Lee County. He is an extensive landed proprietor, having at least four valuable farms, and upon one of these on section 18, South Dixon Township, he makes his home.
Mr. Mossholder was born in Somerset County, Pa., March 27, 1841, a son of Jacob and Mary (Flamm) Mossholder, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Germany. The father was born in Somerset County of parents who were also natives of the Keystone State and were of German blood. They were prosperous farmers and came to this county in 1854 and here died. The mother of our subject came to this country from the German Fatherland when she was thirteen years old with her parents, who settled in Somerset County and there died when full of years. After their marriage and the birth of all their children but one, the parents of our subject came to Illinois in 1854, and were valued citizens of this county until their death several years later, he dying in 1873 when past sixty-one years old, and she in 1884, at the age of seventy-two. On coming here they had settled on a new farm of two hundred and forty acres of wild land, located on section 17, and they developed it into a finely improved piece of property. They were prominent in the moral and religious uplifting of their community as leading members of the Evangelical Association of South Dixon, helping to organize the church, and Mr. Mossholder gave the land on which the house of worship was built.
William Mossholder was a boy of thirteen years when the family came to this county from his early home on a Pennsylvania farm, and here he attained manhood. He and his brother, Nicholas, and sisters, Eve, now Mrs. Samuel Allen, and Catherine, now the wife of Levi Heckman, are the only survivors of a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters, of whom he is the third in order of birth. He early showed that he was well-endowed with the qualifications so necessary to a farmer in order to assure success in agricultural pursuits. He has a keen, discerning mind, is quick to grasp details, and forethought and business acumen are his in a large degree. He entered into his work with zest when he became an independent farmer, conducting it with characteristic vigor and unflagging zeal, being careful, prudent, and methodic withal, and these, with a happy faculty of carrying out his plans satisfactorily, have led him far on the high road to fortune. As before mentioned he has several farms. The one on which he resides on section 18, South Dixon, contains eighty acres of land, highly cultivated, and supplied with a good set of farm buildings, including a pleasant, roomy residence with attractive surroundings. He has another farm in the same township of one hundred and fifty-three acres, which is all under the plow, and Mr. Mossholder has erected a good barn, dwelling, and other necessary buildings upon it. In Nelson Township, he has a fine farm of eighty acres on section 24, upon which is a comfortable house and good outbuildings; and he owns a good farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Adair County, Iowa, which is well improved. Besides the income derived from his farms Mr. Mossholder makes money by raising fine blooded stock, owning some of the best graded cattle, horses, and swine in South Dixon Township.
In the accumulation of his property, Mr. Mossholder has not been without the assistance of a good wife, who has cooperated with him by her able management of the household affairs, and her devotion to her family. His marriage with Miss Catherine Lievan was celebrated in South Dixon Township at the Lutheran parsonage, June 21, 1874. Mrs. Mossholder is a daughter of Mathias Lievan, of whom a biography appears in this book. She was born January 11, 1847, in Somerset County, Pa., and was but a girl when she came westward with her parents, with whom she lived until her marriage. The happy home circle of herself and her husband is completed by the three children born unto them, namely: Nora J., aged fifteen; Inez G., twelve years old; and Clinton E., who is five years of age.
Mr. and Mrs. Mossholder are members of the Evangelical Association, and are identified with its every good work. They are people of fine social qualities, genial, open-hearted, and charitable, and many and warm are the friends that they have gathered around them in the community where most of their lives have been spent. Mr. Mossholder takes a keen interest in politics, although he is no office-seeker, and his preference is for the Republican party.