William L. Ghormley
William L. Ghormley, farmer, is a son of Thomas and Judith (Bonner) Ghormley, natives of Pennsylvania, where they were reared, married, and had born to them ten children, five sons and five daughters, our subject being the youngest, and only surviving one.
William was born December 16, 1808, and came with his parents to this state in 1813, locating in Chillicothe, Ross County, with the father's brother, Hugh, the father of Hal Thomas Ghormley, of Chillicothe, and remained until the following fall, when the father came to Fayette, and located on the farm of five hundred acres, bought for two dollars and fifty cents per acre, of which our subject owns one hundred and eleven acres, now nicely improved, situated about three miles south of Good Hope, on which he lives. The parents died on this farm; the father. May 17, 1840, aged seventy-three years and five months, and the mother, June 3, 1839, aged sixty-eight years and seven mouths.
Our subject was married, February 9, 1837, to Miss Hannah Batey, who bore him five children: Thomas N., John, Eliza, Hugh, and Mary J. Thomas died, November 9, 1864, of a disease contracted while in the war. He was a member of Company I, 81st O. V. I., and was a noble, worthy soldier, a dutiful son, and a good citizen. John and Eliza also are deceased. Hugh is married, and Mary J. is at home with her parents. This family, and our subject's father's family, were exemplary members of the Presbyterian Church.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County