William Monroe was the son of Jonathan Jasper and Rosanna Clementine Marr.  He was born on Jan 2, 1880 in the coal mining town of Anniston,  Alabama as verified by his death certificate.  His parents had just moved there from Polk Co. Tenn.  It is assumed that his father worked in one of local coal mines although no definite record was found.

     William  seldom spoke of his ancestors although he was remembered as saying that several Marr brothers came to the U.S. from Scotland when the English General Oglethrope founded a debtors colony in Georgia in 1732 and brought debtors from England and Scotland to work as indentured servants.  No records have been found thus far to substantiate this statement either.

      In 1885  Jasper and Rosanna had a daughter which they named  Jessie Pauline Marr.  It is not know where they were living at that time.  The first census record found on William Monroe's  family was the 1900 census which showed them living in Jefferson County, Ala which includes Birmingham Ala., an area is known for its coal mines and steel mills.  Both Jonathan and William Monroe were listed as being coal miners and living in a rented house.  A family story repeated later was that William Monroe quit school at about the age of 14 and went to work in the coal mines which is verified that by the age 20 he was a coal miner.  About 1902  his father and mother  moved to another coal mining area in southern  Illinois, near the town of Herrin.  Apparently William Monroe's sister Jessie had now married Sam Parrot and they also had moved to Illinois and Jessie had a daughter born about 1900.

A tintype picture of William was found that had an  inscription saying he was 18 years old and thus must have been made in 1888.  A fine handsome fellow.  Click on the picture to see an enlargement.

In Herrin Illinois William met his future wife, Lena Carey.  Her father and brothers were also coal miners and they had just moved there from Kentucky.  They married and settled in the small town of Lauder, Illinois,  which is near Herrin. There they had 2 children, Ruth Ellen born in 1904, and William Otis  in 1906.
This picture was taken about the time of their wedding in 1903.  Click on it to see  it in the original size.

    About 1908, when labor strikes closed many of the local coal mines, William and Lena moved on to Denver, Colorado where they had a second daughter Pauline Jessie in 1909.  Always looking for better work,  they moved on to Gallup, New Mexico.  It is believed that William Monroe was now working for one of the many railroads of the day..  About the same time his wife's  parents and brothers and sisters moved from Illinois to Washington State. By 1919 Lena  convinced William Monroe to join them and moved to the small village of Mendota, near Centralia Wash.

This picture taken about 1915, believed to be in New Mexico,  shows Will and Lena in their Sunday Best and with a fine horse and buggy.  Click on the picture to gain an appreciation of their finery.

 In Mendota there were coal mining jobs and most of  wife Lena's family lived there also. They stayed there  for a short time, moved to Centralia for a spell and then settled in Aberdeen, Washington.  In Aberdeen, Will had a job driving a horse drawn wood wagon delivering wood for a local lumber company.  He may have had other jobs in one of the many saw mills in Aberdeen because he spoke frequently of the danger of working around the big 6 foot circular saws.  Safety rules were nearly nonexistence in early saw mills and many men were injured.

In Aberdeen they finally found a home where work was always available and Lena also worked as a clerk in a local department store. In the prosperous 20's  they were able to keep all three of their children in school and they all graduated from Aberdeen High School;  Ruth in 1924, William O. in 1926 and Pauline in 1929.

During the Great Depression (1930-1936), which hit Aberdeen hard,  Will and Lena moved to a small family owned coal mine located near Centralia where Will had to work again as a coal miner blasting and loading coal in small coal cars pulled by mules. William's son and family (Bill, Retta and their two children) joined them and for several years they all lived in a company owned tar-paper covered house. They had no electricity (kerosene lamps only), no running water nor inside toilets; there was an outhouse up the hill near the barn and a well 50 feet the other side of the house a through back to the living conditions of  the 1800's. Later in the 30’s Will & Lena moved to the nearby Smith Mines in Mendota where they lived in equally primitive housing provided by that mining company.  They were frequently paid in script that could only be spent in the company store.

This is a picture of William and two of his grandsons in about 1936 in Centralia Washington.  Click on the picture to see more detail.

 As the depression eased they were able to move and find work in  Centralia, Washington in about 1936.  William now worked for a  logging company,  laying rail for company's railroad tracks. During the 1940's and W.W.II,  they moved to Seattle, Wn where they lived in a small apartment and  he worked in the shipyards.  After the war, he was now 65 and he retired on the minimum social security wage and they rented a small farm house in Puyallup Wn.  Later they moved to a small house, built for them by their son across the street  from the son's farm in Midland outside of Tacoma Washington.

In 1953 Will and Lena celebrated their 50 wedding anniversary and this picture was taken at that time.  Click on it to see more detail.

Will  lived to see a great grand son born with his name.  This picture shows four generations of William Marr's.  Click on it to see more detail.
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    William M. was a hard working, hard drinking man in his early years while mellowing as he grew older.  He seldom smoked cigarettes but because of  his years as miner, he chewed tobacco  constantly.  In his later years he carried a small coffee can full of ashes around for his tobacco juice.  Lena was always on him claiming it to be a dirty, filthy habit but that didn't stop him. Will had a very colorful vocabulary  punctuated with many four letter words.  As a Democrat, who lived through the depression and who loved Roosevelt, he seldom had a favorable word for the Republicans and he showed his Scottish background  by disliking the British whom he always called “round heads”. He loved to provoke family arguments on any subject he appeared to take the opposite view point to keep the discussion going.   He loved to play cards and the family cribbage games can be traced back to him.  His full range of off-color words was especially useful during these games since he hated to lose.

    He appeared to enjoy the family gatherings.  These occurred almost on a weekly basis when they lived in Centralia before the war.  It was a family tradition in the 30's to gather at Grandma and Grandpa’s for Christmas Eve and open the Christmas presents.  Everyone would stay overnight in their big old farm house and have a big Christmas dinner the following day.  A great family tradition.

    Will was remarkable healthy all his life but he finally succumbed in 1960 at the age of 80 to an aortic aneurysm in his lower stomach. He is buried in Everygreen Cemetery in North Seattle Wn.