MORRIS J. STILWELL, for many years, a prominent farmer of Washington Township, Miami County, Ohio, is now retired from active operations. His farm, located about three miles southwest of Piqua, was recently sold, and he and his estimable wife will in the spring of 1909 locate on West Boone Street, Piqua.

Mr. Stilwell was born on a farm in Staunton Township, Miami County, Ohio, October 27, 1840, and is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Sayers) Stilwell. Joseph Stilwell was born in New Jersey and was first married there to a Miss Claypole, by whom he had three children. As a young man he came west to Miami County, Ohio, and here he formed a second union with Elizabeth Sayers. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1804, and was four years of age when her father, Thomas Sayers, moved with his family to Miami County, Ohio, settling southeast of Casstown.

Morris J. Stilwell was reared on a farm in Staunton Township and attended the local schools. He was scarcely twenty-two years of age when, on August 12, 1862, he enlisted for service in the Union Army as a member of Company A, 110th Regiment, Ohio Vol. Inf.. He participated in many important engagements, eighteen in number, and September 19, 1864, was wounded at O'Puken Creek, Virginia. He was honorably discharged at Providence, Rhode Island, July 7, 1865. At the close of the war he returned home and resumed farming, which has been his occupation throughout his entire career. In 1882 he and his wife located upon the farm on which they have since lived.

Mr. Stilwell was married March 20, 1866, to Miss Angeline Darnold, who was born and reared in Piqua, and is a daughter of William and Mary (Jones) Darnold. William Darnold was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, and was about ten years of age when his father, William Darnold, Sr., moved to Kentucky, settling on a farm near Carrollton. There the father died, and when about twenty-one years old, William, Jr., came to Piqua, Ohio, where he worked as a mason. He was the contractor in the construction of the First Baptist Church in this city. At the age of twenty-eight he was married, for the third time. His first wife was a Miss McFarland and lived but four months after marriage. He was married a second time to Miss Mary Mitchell, whose death occurred four years after their union. His third marriage was with Miss Mary Jones, a daughter of Caleb and Susan (Anderson) Jones, who were early residents of Miami County. Mr. Jones located on a farm three miles east of Piqua on the Urbana Pike and lived there until his seventy- fifth year, when he sold out and moved to Piqua. His wife, Susan Anderson in maiden life, was born in Kentucky but was a mere baby when her parents came to Miami County. Her father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.

Morris J. Stilwell and his wife became parents of the following children: Mary Elizabeth, who died at the age of seven years of typhoid fever; William Morris, who died of typhoid fever within eight days of the death of his sister, being five years old at the time; Harold Clifford; Joseph Creighton; and Charles Carroll. Harold Clifford Stilwell, who is in the lumber business at Helena, Arkansas, married Miss Anna Angle, a daughter of Henry Angle of Piqua. Joseph Creighton Stilwell, who is in the real estate business in Denver, Colorado, married Miss Anna Thompson of Rochester, New York, and they have two children, Mary Elizabeth and Dorothy Margaret. Charles C. Stilwell married Miss Jean Thompson of Rochester, New York, and lives in Denver, where he has charge of the repair department of the National Cash Register Company. Clifford and Charles Stilwell were members of the Third Regiment of Ohio Infantry during the Spanish-American War, and were stationed at Tampa, Florida. Morris J. Stilwell and his wife are members of the First Baptist Church of Piqua, of which he is a deacon.