In the spring of 1858, he came to Meeker County and located upon section 30, Ellsworth Township. He also took up a homestead on section 25, in what became Greenleaf Township. On September 27, 1859, he married Cordelia J. DeLong (1837-1928), the daughter of Hiram and Maria DeLong. Maria was a niece of the revolutionary general, Ethan Allen. William and Maria had four children: Charles Albert, born on October 27, 1861, married Hattie D. Campbell, and died in 1937; Jessie A., who married H. S. Branham, then a man named Meyer, she died in 1925; and twin boys, Frankie and Fred, who died in childbirth in June 1860.