| Notes |
- William Morris was born on the family farm in Utica Township, Winona County, Minnesota, about 2-3/4 miles straight south of the town of Lewiston, and the fourth of eleven children born to Catherine Mary (née FERCIOT) and Peter Frederick ERB.
Peter was from a thicket of Erbs in Warwick Township, Lancaster County, and the southern portion of neighboring Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, while Catherine was born in New York to newly immigrated parents from Doubs in east-central France. George and Elizabeth (née STOKEY) FERCIOT made their way to Wood County, Ohio, and resided there for the rest of their lives. Catherine was living with her parents in Center Township, Wood County, in 1850, and was soon married to Peter (c.1851/52).
Peter and Catherine, and two sons (who were born in Ohio), George Washington (b.1853-1931?) and John Adams (b.1855-1926; +Elizabeth YORKE), homesteaded somewhere in the state of Indiana in circa 1856.
The family then homesteaded in Utica Township, Winona County, Minnesota, purchasing 160 acres (NW 1/4 s35-106n-09w) from a Timothy Kirk on 04 APR 1857, just 2-1/2 miles straight south from the town of Lewiston. They later added another adjoining 160 acres by filing a U.S. Federal Land Patent (NE 1/4 s35-106n-09w) on 10 AUG 1859.
William's eight other siblings where born on this farm:
3) Martin VanBuren (1857-1938; +Sophia Elizabeth SAYER)
5) Elizabeth (1861-1925; +Carlos Howard "Carl" CRUMB )
6) Edna (1863-1954; +Aden Stevens PRATT)
7) Enoch J. (1866-1929; +Georgia LABEE/SMITH; +Nettie R. COLUMBIA)
8) Peter Frederick (1867-1943; +Annie E. Sterner ROBERTSON)
9) Jacob Edward (1872-1927; +Isadora Jane "Dora" FURLONG)
10) Elias C. (1870-????)
11) Emma L. (1875-1900)
After selling small parcels of their property in Winona County between 1867 and 1874, they sold the remainder of their farm in 1878 (the bulk of which was to Timothy Ronan in September of that year).
From 1878 until sometime prior to 1885 the family lived in New Richland Township, Waseca County, Minnesota.
William married Katherine Monica "Katie" Egan in Waseca, Waseca County, Minnesota on 02 April 1883.
Katie, the daughter of Catherine (née SHEA) and Owen EGAN, was a young schoolteacher in the small community of Byron in Waseca County. William ask her to help him with his reading and writing.
Peter & Catherine (and most of the children) then settled in Dows Township, Cass County, North Dakota, purchasing 160 acres (NE 1/4 s8-143n-53w). Peter died 29 JUL 1887 -- Galesburg, Traill County, North Dakota.
William and Katie moved with the family to northern Cass County, North Dakota, where they homesteaded 160-acres of Section 17, Township 143-North, Range 53-West, in 1885.
The family would then move to southwestern Traill County (ND), 160-acres Section 30, T 144-N, R 53-W, in 1891.
William and family were early settlers of Deer Park Township in Red Lake County, Minnesota.
Katie died in Red Lake in 1899.
He later also filled a homestead in 1901, 160-acres Section 31, T 152-N, R 40-W.
In 1906 William Erb tried to get the county court house moved from Red Lake Falls to Thief River Falls. When the county commissioners dismissed him without discussing the matter William filed a writ of mandamus in order to compel them rule on the matter. The court ordered that the board must meet and consider the matter. Two of the board members appealed to the MN Supreme Court, but that appeal was dismissed because the board must act "as one" and two other members of the board had refused to appeal.
In 1909 he homesteaded in Alberta, Canada, 160-acres, NE 1/4 quarter of Section 18, Township 8, Range 10, Meridian 4, near the hamlet of Maleb, almost straight south of Bow Island. With him were sons William Egan "Gene" and John Harold "Jack".
His daughter Mary Ermenilda had joined the Diocese of Duluth as a nun in 1907, while his son Leo had become a commercial building painter and migrated, first to Bemidji, Beltrami, Minnesota, and then to Cleveland and Conneaut, in northeastern Ohio.
William Morris returned to Red Lake County and married Susanna Lonergan, daughter of Susan and Willaum, of Berlin Township, Steele County, Minnesota, on 11 September 1916.
In 1925 William Morris retired after 44 years of farming and moved to Minneapolis.
He died at the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, 215 Broadway Street N.E., Minneapolis.
William was the father of:
Mary Ermenilda ERB (1884-1962; became a nun)
William Egan ERB (1885-1966; Nina Belle CORL)
Leo Eugene ERB (1886-1944; Alice J. HAWKE)
Catherine ???? ERB (1889-1889)
John Harold ERB (1891-1966)
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1859 - 1933 (74 years)
