My Genealogy Hound

FREDERICK W. WILLISS, proprietor of Williss’s College of Short-Hand, has long been recognized as an expert stenographer and sends his representatives to different parts of the State and country to take down the proceedings of important cases in court in the employ of the leading Attorneys. The college was established in the summer of 1880 as an individual enterprise and since its inception has steadily grown in favor with the people and is now in the enjoyment of a liberal patronage. It is believed by many that the day will come when the tedious method of long-hand writing will be done away with and this important invention be substituted in its stead. As in other trades and professions some will become expert while others never rise above mediocrity. Mr. Williss is unquestionably numbered among the first mentioned. He takes a live interest in the profession and has done much to increase its popularity among business men and others.

The subject of this notice was born in Madison Township, Clark County, this State, June 18, 1859, and is the only son of Perrin and Anna Williss. The father was born and reared in Indiana and died in 1864, when his son Frederick was only five years old. The mother is still living and a resident of Springfield. She was born in Clark County, and within its limits has spent nearly her entire life.

Mr. Williss of whom we write, pursued his early studies in the country schools and when sufficiently advanced, attended the Normal School at South Charleston from which he was duly graduated. Afterward he entered the law office of Keifer & White of Springfield and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He was employed for a time on a salary with this firm. He had prior to this for several years been a short-hand writer and for the past twelve years has been a law and general reporter in different cities in the State.

Finally, being convinced that he could become a successful instructor of the art, Mr. Williss in 1880, embarked in his present enterprise to which he now gives his entire attention and admits to the school pupils of both sexes. The college is located on the third floor of the Masonic Building, No. 29, West Main Street. Besides a good local patronage, it accommodates pupils from nearly every State in the Union, all the way from one to two hundred. It is the largest institution of the kind in the State of Ohio.

Mr. Williss was married in October, 1881, to Miss Mattie H. Sands, who was born in Clark County, and at the time of their wedding was a resident of South Charleston. Mrs. Williss is a daughter of Israel and Hope Sands who were natives of Illinois. Her mother is deceased, and her father lives in Kansas. Four sons and a daughter have been born of this union — Carl, Frank, Warren K., Grace and Frederick W., Jr. The family residence is at No. 65, West Pleasant Street, and its inmates number among their friends the intelligent and cultured people of the city. Politically he is a Republican.