Rev. William E. Means, proprietor of the Atwood Herald, was born at Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, June 28, 1850. He attended the district school during the winter, working on prepared to enter Paris high school. In 1874 he matriculated at the Northwestern University, and was graduated from the theological department of this well-known institution in the farm (luring the summer months, until the class of 1879.
After graduation he was admitted to the Minnesota conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was appointed pastor of the Rushmore charge, where a hand-some four-thousand-dollar church was built, free from debt. In the middle of the second year he was appointed to Lu Verne, where the church was greatly blessed during his labors with a sweeping revival, the church completed, and the way prepared for the paying- off of a crushing debt. Finding the Minnesota winters colder than he liked, he found an opportunity, in the spring of 1884, to transfer to South Kansas conference, where during the year he was instrumental in building two places of worship, a temporary building in Fort Scott, Kansas, which afterward became Grace church, and a beautiful village church at Hiattville, Kansas. The two years following were spent at Moran, Kansas, and were very fruitful. More than a hundred were gathered into the church, and the church thoroughly organized. A pastorate of three and a half years on the Caney charge was likewise fruitful in revivals, debt paying and church building. In October, 1891, Mr. Means was invited to become pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Sidney, Illinois, and the following year passed a prosperous year on the Atwood charge. Failing health compelled him to retire from the pastorate in the fall of 1893, and he has since held a supernumerary relation to the Illinois conference, often rendering efficient service in the ministry, without assuming the responsibilities of a pastoral charge. In 1895 he leased the Atwood Herald, and purchased it the following year. The paper was established in i888, and is independent in politics. It has a good circulation and is an excellent advertising medium.
Mr. Means was married in 1884 to Miss Ella M. Chesnut, of Delavan, Minnesota. To them have been born one child, a son, Cyril, aged fifteen years. Mr. Means is a son of Thomas N. and Jane (Ouiett)111eans, natives of Ohio and Tennessee, respectively. His grandfather, William Means, was of Scotch-Irish descent. In manner Mr. Means is approachable and unassuming, and is highly respected by all who know him.