Biography - WALTER COLYER
The editor of the News, is a young man of unexceptionable habits, of good business qualifications, and determination that knows no failure. He is a native of this county, having been born in Village Prairie, July 19, 1856. He came of good old English stock. John Colyer and Ann Withall, of Surrey, England, were married in the year 1775. They raised a large family, and of the number, four sons found their way to America; first James and Edward, who came to Illinois in 1818, followed by their brothers, John and William, who came across the ocean, a few years after, John locating in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and William in Louisiana where he was murdered. Edward Colyer and Jane Thread traveled fourteen miles from their homes, on Village Prairie, to the nearest squire, two miles south of Grayville, and were married in September, 1818. Their union was blessed by a family of twelve children, namely: Eliza, John, William, James, Ann, Jane, Elizabeth, Edward, Mary, George, Henry, and Robert; all but James and Elizabeth reached man and womanhood's estate. John died in August, 1858, and Robert died in the service of his country in 1863. Edward served in the army, during the Rebellion, as lieutenant-colonel of the 87th Illinois Volunteers, and after the close of the war moved to Kansas, whither Henry, who had lived a few years in Minnesota, followed him. The others, with the exception of Mary, now in Marshall county, Illinois, are all in this county. William Colyer and Sarah Hunton Hardy, daughter of Jonas Hardy, and native of Pennsylvania, were married May 10, 1849. To them were born two sons, Morris and Walter. Morris is a thrifty farmer. On the 27th of December, 1876, he was married to Etta Peters. Jonas Hardy was a native of Yorkshire, England; came to America in 1819, and to Edwards county in 1838, locating in Frazier prairie, near the site of the present village of Browns. He died in Albion in August, 1871. The Colyer family were generally industrious, saving and prosperous farmers. Most of their number were, and are, members of the Christian or Disciples church.
Extracted 12 Aug 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 A Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence, and Wabash Counties, Illinois, pages 226-227.
