My Genealogy Hound

W. F. TRAVIS is one of the twin sons of John and Eliza Travis, and was born in Maple Grove, then Lodi, Kane county, Ill., April 9, 1856. His father, John Travis, was born in the State of New York in 1820. At the age of twenty-two he moved to Illinois and remained there forty years, coming in 1882 to Kearney county, Nebr., and settling on section 26, township 5, range 15. He is a prosperous farmer, and an active member of the Baptist church.

The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Eliza Haines. She is a native of New York and was born in 1818. These are the parents of eight children, as follows — Anna Eliza (deceased), James E., enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois infantry, in 1862, and died of lung fever at Franklin, Tennessee, in 1863; Charles M. (deceased); Ella B., now Mrs. Whitesel, is a graduate of the Decatur High school, also took a course in the Illinois State Normal, and taught for about twelve years and was very successful; Samuel H. is a farmer in Franklin county, Nebr.; Willis F. (deceased); George T. (deceased).

W. F. Travis, the subject of this brief biographical sketch, moved with his parents to Christian county, Ill., when only four years of age, and remained there seventeen years. When sixteen years of age he attended the Illinois State Normal, after which time he was engaged in teaching. In 1877 he moved to Iowa and taught there till 1880, when he returned to his native state. In 1882 he went to Kearney county, Nebr., taught there two years, when he returned to Iowa and read law with Fremont Benjamin two years and served as deputy county clerk of Pottawattamie county, at Avoca, and town recorder of the village of Avoca for some time. He opened a law office in Oakland, Iowa, in 1886 and there remained till the fall of the same year. He then attended the State University at Iowa City, graduating in June, 1887. That year he moved to Wilcox, Nebr., and began the practice of his profession. He has continued there since and has met with a fair degree of success.

In 1884 he married, taking for a life partner Miss Eva Pardee, a native of Iowa. She was born in 1861. Mrs. Travis is a lady of education and refinement, and she has given much of her time to educational and newspaper work. She was engaged in teaching for five years before her marriage and she is now the editor of the Wilcox Beacon, one of the potent factors in developing the town of Wilcox and vicinity. The Beacon was established in 1886 and has done a prosperous business since.

Mr. and Mrs. Travis are the parents of three children — E. Vera G., born April 27, 1885; J. Clyde P., born June 15, 1887, and an infant daughter, born August 15, 1889.

In politics Mr. Travis is a republican. He is a stanch supporter of the principles of his party, and, when occasion demands their able champion on the stump. He is thoroughly in sympathy with the great-hearted West and enters actively into all measures for the good of his locality.

On July 25, 1890, the final issue of the Beacon was made and the plant removed to Avoca, Iowa, and on August 29, the first issue of the Pottawattamie Chief was issued by its former proprietors. The change of location was made on account of Mrs. Travis’ health, and the family are now happy in the beautiful city of Avoca, in the famous Nishnelotene valley, where health and prosperity attend them.