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- History of Livingston County (1886)
Wheeling Township
William Scruby
William Scruby was born in the village of Melbourne, Cambridgeshire (in which is situated in the world-famed University of Cambridge), England, March 11, 1827, being the eldest of a family of 13 children born to William and Hannah Scruby, nee Standford. When 12 years old he commenced clerking in a grocery and drapery house of an uncle, James Scruby, with whom he remained 5 years, and embarked in business for himself in 1840. The year following, upon emigrating to America, he settled upon a farm in Fond du Lac county, Wis., on which he resided 10 years, also engaging in merchandising for two years. In 1860 he went to Steele county, Minn., farmed there four years, and in the meantime was appointed acting county auditor to fill the place of the auditor, whose illness prevented him from discharging his official duties. He took the first census of the town of Owatonna, was subsequently made deputy auditor, and while serving as such was elected sheriff. During hi term in this position he continued to act as deputy auditor until about two years before leaving the county, when he built a warehouse and carried on a very successful agricultural implement business. In the fall of 1867, Mr. Scruby removed to Springfield, Mo., on account of the extreme winters in Minnesota, and in August, 1868, he went to Carrollton, Ill., remaining there until his location at Wheeling in the spring of 1872, soon settling upon his farm. In 1874 he began buying grain and selling agricultural implements, and also ran a lumber yard, his sons conducting the farm until 1879 when it was rented out as is has since been. In the spring of 1884, in connection with the firm of Edgerton & Scruby, in which his sons are partners, he built the first grain warehouse and elevator here, putting in corn-shelling machinery. Mr. Scruby has done much for the interest of Wheeling in a quiet, unassuming way, and is highly esteemed for his many noble qualities of mind and heart. He is will informed on all current topics of the day and is a ready public speaker. In 1849 he was married in London to Miss Elizabeth Pryor, of an old Isle of Jersey family. They have 4 boys and 3 girls. Emma, married Alonzo Frank, of Greene county, Ill., and they have three children, Fannie married A.D. Gage and has 4 children; Frank married Miss Belle Fenstermacher and has 3 children; Edwin married Josie Reynolds; Alice is now Mrs. Frank Bassett, and they have 1 child dead and 2 living; William and Horace are unmarried. During the terrible Indiana troubles in Minnesota, Mr. S. held a captain's commission in the State militia, and has a most vivid memory of those horrors.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1827 - 1908 (81 years)