William and Elizabeth (Green) Box

William Box was born in 1816 near Hillsborough in Orange County, North Carolina. His family, including his parents and uncles, decided to leave North Carolina in search of a better life out west. They initially settled in Grainger, Tennessee, where William married Elizabeth Green, who was also from North Carolina, when they were both 21.

A few years later, the entire group of Box families relocated to Lawrence County, Indiana. William and Elizabeth started their family in Indiana, where his father James passed away. While other Box families either remained in Indiana or moved elsewhere, by 1850, William and Elizabeth had moved to Barry County, Missouri. William worked as a farmer, and their family grew. By 1860, they had seven children living at home.

When the war began, Missouri was sharply divided. The state assembly supported the Union, but many residents sympathized with the Confederacy. William Box was arrested by Union soldiers on suspicion of being a Confederate sympathizer. He was taken from his family and imprisoned by the Union in Springfield. The prison conditions were dire, and William Box died there on March 21, 1863, at the age of 47. The circumstances of his death are unclear, and his burial place remains unknown.

Elizabeth had to carry on without her husband. She stayed in the area and continued raising her younger children. She eventually remarried, and after her second husband's death, she married a third time. Elizabeth passed away on August 3, 1912, at the age of 96, and is buried in Nichols Chapel Cemetery in Altus, Arkansas.