Stoops, William bio

History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 929, Vermont Township
Wm. Stoops, agriculturist, sec. 10; P. O., Vermont. Michael Stoops, a native of Penn. and a farmer, early settled in Ohio, and in his 17th year married Ellen Van Sickle. They had 9 children, the eldest of whom was the subject of this sketch, born Jan., 1815, in Hamilton county, O. Mr. Michael Stoops, in 1836, came to Fulton county. In early day Mr. Stoops suffered the extreme privations of frontier life. The first two winters the bill of fare for the family was hominy and venison; the wife’s dress’ linsey-woolsey; the man’s, buckskin. They had to get their groceries in Lewistown on credit, and that was very difficult. Milling was almost impossible and the noted grater had to be used. Mr. Wm. Stoops’ first wife was Hannah Lyndsay, who died Jan. 33 [sic], 1852; they had 8 children. His second wife was a Miss Keziah Clark, who died Dec. 28, 1860; they had 5 children. His third wife, now living, was Mr. {Mrs.} Margaret Wentworth, of Kentucky, daughter of Wm. Hannah. They were married in 1862 and their children are 4.