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William “Bill” Shotliff was born in England in 1850 and arrived in the U.S. with his family at age 17 in 1867. He came to Spring Grove from Wilmot in 1874 and married Martha “Mattie” Stevens in 1877. Martha was the daughter of Merrells Stevens, an early settler who farmed in the Chain O’ Lakes State Park area where she was born and raised. In the 1880 census, William’s occupation was listed as carriage maker, while Mattie “kept house”. They had a daughter, Laura, that year.
The blacksmith shop was located at 2025 Main Street. There was a small jail behind the blacksmith shop, set over the bank of the Nippersink Creek. In this way a jailbird wouldn’t have to leave to use the outhouse. Called the “calaboose” it usually held drunks for a day or two, but in May of 1879, Shotliff found himself “nursing a fellon (sic) for the last two weeks” according to the McHenry Plaindealer.
In February of 1881, a fire was discovered in the “blacksmith and wagon shop of Mr. Shotliff at Blivin’s Mills". The workers at Westlake’s Cheese factory next door saw a light shining through the shop windows one night and a hole was found that burned through the floor. Both buildings would “have been a goner” if the fire wasn’t discovered as they were only a few feet apart. The old Cheese factory still stands at 2103 Main Street.
In 1883 Mattie died suddenly after taking ill with a "congestive chill" at 6 in the morning. Doctors from Richmond and McHenry were summoned, but she died a painful death at 6 that evening. She was 26 years old. The funeral services were held at the Cole School House at Wilmot and Main Street to a very large congregation. Little Laura was just three years old.
In 1884 Bill purchased 18 milk cows, a wagon, a seeder, a mower, two plows and “one set of drags” for his farm at Blivin Street and Hatchery Road. He married Catherine Anne “Kate” Patterson in 1885 and had five more children. In 1896, due to health reasons, Bill sold the blacksmith shop to Nick Freund.
In April of 1900 he sold a strip of land 50 feet wide through his farm to the Cook, Lake and McHenry Counties Railway Company for $1,000 (about $33,000 today) and there was great anticipation in the village as to where the depot would be located.
On December 18, 1900, a Tuesday morning, William "dropped dead" on the Nippersink bridge. He was on his way to an errand near Solon Mills, walking with his team of horses just behind him, driven by his brother, George. His brother Rance, of Wilmot, was plastering Williams Watts' house a few yards away on a parcel Shotliff recently sold off to Watts. William had been "a great sufferer" for many years with a serious medical condition.
His obituary stated, “A bright light has been removed and a shadow has fallen upon our hearts. Wm. Shotliff was a strong, forceful man, towering up in prominence and commanding the attention and respect of all who met him. Not only prominent in his physical manhood, but prominent in intellect, in integrity, in moral influence and in defense of his honest convictions.” Bill was 50 years old and is buried in Cole Cemetery with his two wives.
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