Major, William T.

Born: 1790-03-01 Frankfort, Kentucky

Died: 1867-07-11 Bloomington, Illinois

Flourished: 1835-1867 McLean County, Illinois

Major attended school in Kentucky, and instead of studying law as his father wished, poor health sent him south instead to live with relatives in the country. After his health was restored, he married Margaret Shipp on February 18, 1812. The family lived in Bourbon and Christian counties in Kentucky, where he was a farmer and active in first the Baptist and then the Christian Church. In 1835, they moved to McLean County, Illinois, settling in an area that became known as Major's Grove and was eventually an addition to the town of Bloomington. In 1856 he established Major's Female College in Bloomington, which was at first a school for orphan girls but later became a female college.

Gravestone, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington, IL; "Biographies," Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society, vol. 1: War Record of McLean County with Other Papers (1899), 522; E. Duis, The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois (Bloomington, IL: Leader, 1874), 288-90.