Biography - WILLIAM B. TRIBE
The present popular circuit clerk was born in Wanborough, two miles west of Albion, July 22, 1829. His parents were John Tribe and Jane Statey. John was born in Surrey, England, May 16, 1796, and came to America in 1818. Jane Statey who became Mrs. Tribe in 1821, came by the same vessel, an orphan girl, the ward of a family named Pritchard. They landed in New Orleans, thence came to Shawneetown, and here. John Tribe was a carpenter and joiner by occupation, and in the new colony found plenty to do. He was a hard-working and most excellent man. He had the reputation of possessing one of the most accurate memories of any man within the county. When an old man he would rivet the closest attention of listening crowds with his stories of backwoods life. When any dates were desired he was appealed to; when disputes arose with reference to facts or dates he was the arbiter. He received universal recognition as a walking cyclopedia of information. He died, much lamented, August 25, 1880. His widow, now eighty years old, survives him. To them were born James, Mary Bowman, Emma (dead), Owen (dead), William B., Alfred, Emily Pickering, Harry (dead), Thomas H., and George. The survivors, with the exception of John, Jr., all reside in Edwards county. John lives in the adjoining county of Wayne. William B. received a common school education. Much of his earlier youth was passed aiding in operating a carding machine which his father bought in 1831, and which was owned by the family until 1883. At the age of eighteen he learned the trade of wheel-wright, which business he pursued until twenty-eight years of age. On the 3d of February, 1856, he was united in marriage to Miss Jane A. Spangler, a native of York, Pennsylvania, whose earlier years were passed in Philadelphia, and who came in company with her mother and sisters to Edwards county in 1844. To Mr. and Mrs. Tribe was born one daughter, Annie E., now the wife of Horace J. Craig. For four or five years, William B., in connection with his brother John, carried on the livery business in Albion. In 1864 he entered the service of the United States in Company H., 87th Regiment Ill. Vol., in which he was commissioned as Lieutenant. In 1866 he was mustered out of service, and soon after entered the office of the county clerk, W. L. Mayo, as deputy. In 1868 he was chosen circuit clerk of the county, a position he has held continuously since. In this capacity he has few, if any superiors throughout the State. Politically he is an ardent, earnest Republican; religiously an active member of the Episcopal church. The temperance cause finds in him a fearless advocate. A true, patriot, an excellent citizen, a tried official, he has hosts of friends.
Extracted 12 Aug 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 A Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence, and Wabash Counties, Illinois, page 216.
