William M. Winans was one of the twelve children of Jacob Winans (1787-1837) and Elcy Sutherland (1787-1873) of Trumbull County, Ohio. In October 1862, Winans enlisted in Co. C of the 119th Regiment of Illinois infantry that was recruited in Schyler County, Ill. With his regiment, he fought in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In the Spring of 1864, he ended up at a hospital and afterwards remained there as a nurse. In August 1864, he was dispatched to an army carpenter shop at Fort Pickering. After the war, William M. Winans settled in Rochester, Ind. where he owned a saw mill, and in 1879 moved to Kansas.
William M. Winans's older brothers Isaac (1811-1877) and John Sutherland Winans (1812-1881) were physicians in New Brighton, Beaver County, Pa. Winans's sister Elcy Assenath (1820-1891) married Mathew Jackson Taylor, a druggist of Rushville, Ill. in 1844. In 1850, Taylor went to San Francisco where he attempted to run a drugstore. In 1857, the couple was separated. Winans's other sister Sarah Miranda (1822-1889) married James W. Thornely of New Brighton, Beaver County, Pa. in 1849. The Thornleys who did not have any children of their own took care of the widowed William M. Winans's two sons until his second marriage to Matilda Kreig in 1874.
From the description of Winans family correspondence, 1848-1894. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 418912964
