Following his marriage to Ellenor, William worked on his father’s farm in London Township before moving in 1861 or 1862 to Grey County where he bought the 100 acre farm of his brother Thomas in Normanby Township (Lot 21, Concession 9). Between 1864 and 1866 William and his family returned to London Township where they lived on Lot 2, Concession 6 for a time before returning to the farm in Normanby Township by the spring of 1871. However, their stayt in Normanby was brief. On August 25, 1873 William purchased two farms adjoining the village of Forest in Lambton County: 83 acres of the west half of Lot 4, Concession 8 NER of Warwick Township and 11 acres in the southeast corner of Lot 36 in the south boundary concession of Bosanquet Township.

Soon after the move to Forest, Ellenor died of dysentry during an epidemic of some kind as the following account in the Sarnia Observer of 24 October 1873 indicated:

“I have seldom seen so many families clothed with the sombre garments in Forest, as in this year. What with the dreadful epidemic which has raged with such violence, carrying off strong men as well as delicate women and children, the martality is unusually great. Last week Mrs. Lyman Cooley and Mrs. Lockhead [sic], in the Northern part of the Village, died within an hour of each other, and the funerals were conducted about the same time in the Episcopal Church Cemetery.”

William and Ellenor had five children. William remarried in 1875.