Manfred Willard
Manfred Willard was born in the village of Washington, Fayette County, Ohio, September 18, 1839, and is a son of Lockhart D. and Mary Jane Willard. L. D. Willard, a native of Massachusetts, removed to this county in 1832, and was one of a family of three children. His wife, whose maiden name was Doron, was a native of Pennsylvania. Her parents removed with her to this county at an early date. She was one of a family of seven children. The marriage of L. D. Willard and Mary J. Doron was solemnized on the 5th day of December, 1838. They raised a family of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest.
Our subject was educated in the common schools of Massachusetts, to which place his father removed about the year 1852, His youth was principally spent on the farm in this county. At the age of sixteen he commenced land surveying, and continued in that business until 1860, when he removed to Mercer County, Illinois, and remained there in the business of farming until August 1, 1861, when he enlisted in the "Rangers," an independent company, raised and commanded by Captain Graham. This company successfully ran the blockade established by the governor of Illinois, and succeeded in joining the army of the West, at Fort Leavenworth, about the 5th of August. From this point Captain Graham's command was at once sent to Lexington, Missouri, where they remained in active duty until that place was surrendered, in September of the same year, by Colonel Mulligan, to the rebel General Price. In the seige that preceded the surrender, Willard was slightly wounded by a rifle ball removing the skin from the top of his head as it passed over.
As soon as exchanged, and in the winter of 1861-2, he raised a company (H) in the 60th O. V. I., commanded by Colonel William H. Trimble (than whom no braver man ever lived), which regiment participated throughout the campaign of Major-General John C. Fremont, resulting in driving Jackson out of the Shenandoah Valley.
In September, 1862, through the treachery or imbecility of Colonel Miles, in command of the Union forces at Harper's Ferry, to which point Colonel Trimble and his regiment had been ordered, with other troops, Willard was again a prisoner to the rebel foe. Previous to the surrender, however, he was severely wounded in the left arm. Soon after this, he was honorably discharged at Camp Douglas, Illinois.
Returning home a mere skeleton, weighing less than one hundred pounds, he was elected probate judge of Fayette County at the same election that gave Governor Brough one hundred thousand majority over Clement L. Vallandigham. After the expiration of his term of office, he became cashier of the Fayette County National Bank, which position he held until that institution closed up its business in October, 1875.
In May, 1869, he passed an examination, and was admitted to the bar in his native town, and since the closing of the bank he has given his whole time and attention to the practice of hie profession.
On the 7th day of April, 1863, he married Verselle S. Worley (formerly Knight) a daughter of Salathiel and Jane Knight, and grand-daughter of Colonel Joseph Bell. Mrs. Willard has one hrother, Joseph Knight, now a resident of Fayette County, and one sister, Elizabeth V., who is now the wife of M. Herbert, Esq., teller in the Peoples and Drovers Bank of Washington. There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Willard three children: Jane B., born on the 8th day of September, 1864; Laura A., born on the 17th day of February, 1867; and Herbert A., born on the 31st day of October, 1872.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County
The Fayette County Bar has a number of able representatives at Washington C. H., prominent among whom is the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, and who, for a quarter of a century or more, has been actively identified with the legal fraternity of the city. His office is located in the Yeoman Block, where he occupies a pleasant suite of rooms. Eminent for his close and careful study of every technicality of the law, his knowledge alike of State and general laws and his ability as a pleader, he is worthy of special mention in a volume dedicated to the leading citizens of the county.
With the exception of the period during which he was in the service of the Union, Mr. Willard has passed his life principally in Washington C. H., where he was born September 18, 1839. His parents, Lochart D. and Mary J. (Doren) Willard, were natives, respectively, of Franklin County, Mass., and Pennsylvania. The father came to the Buckeye State In 1830, and afterward commenced the study of law with Wade Loofborrow, one of the first practitioners of the county. He was admitted to practice at the Bar of the State of Ohio, and carried on an extensive practice until 1853, when he was elected Probate Judge, being the second to fill that position in the county. When he resigned from that office in February, 1864, he removed with his family to Illinois, and later to Alexander, Thayer County, Neb., where he still resides. Prior to 1856, he was a Democrat, but since that year has been a firm upholder of Republican principles.
After completing his schooling in the common schools of Washington C. H., our subject was engaged in farming, being for a time on his father's farm in Fayette County, and also engaging in the same way in Illinois. August 1, 1861, he enlisted in Illinois, and the first quota being complete, the Governor refused to allow others to leave the State. The company met August 1, at Moline, and, forming a cavalry company, proceeded to Ft. Leavenworth, where they were attached to the regiment. They were ordered to Lexington, Mo., where they remained until the Union forces surrendered to Gen. Price. On the day of the surrender, they were paroled, and sent to Hannibal, Mo., where they re-organized as another regiment.
Mr. Willard returned to Illinois to recruit another company, and afterward went to his old home in Ohio, where he raised a company. Not desiring to go back to Missouri, and being a paroled prisoner, he recruited Company H, Sixtieth Ohio Infantry, of which he was commissioned Captain. In 1862, he participated in Fremont's campaign against Jackson, and engaged in skirmishes all the way from Franklin, Va., through Strawsburg, to Port Royal and Cross Keys, thence to Winchester, where he remained until the latter part of August, 1862. He then proceeded to Harper's Ferry, where, for the second time, he was captured. Being wounded, he remained in a private residence for thirty days, when his father succeeded in getting him home. His sufferings and exposures had undermined his robust constitution, until he was reduced from his average weight of one hundred and eighty pounds to ninety-eight.
Soon after his return home, Mr. Willard was elected Probate Judge, and served in that capacity for one term. Meanwhile, he studied law in the office of Briggs & Palmer, and was admitted to the Bar in 1867. He at once commenced a general practice, which he has since continued. In connection with his legal work, he was Cashier of the Fayette County National Bank from 1872 until 1875. He is interested in all public measures that tend to promote the interest of the people, and politically, is a Republican. His marriage, April 14, 1865, united him to Mrs. Worley, who, by a former marriage, was the mother of one child, Charles B., now a jeweler in St. Joseph, Mo. Mr. and Mrs. Willard are the parents of three children: Jane B., Laura A. and Herbert M.
From PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF FAYETTE, PICKAWAY AND MADISON COUNTIES, OHIO - Chapman Bros. [Chicago, 1892]