William Huges Sams was born on 12. Dec. 1839 at Logan County, Illinois. He married
Elmira Jemima Buckles, daughter of
Robert B. Buckles and
Mary "Polly" Birks. William H. Sams, the father of Willis F. Sams, was born in 1841, in Logan County, Illinois, and was there reared, educated and married. In 1862 he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred Sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which organization he fought bravely throughout the remainder of the war, participating in many hard-fought engagements, including that at Lookout Mountain. When he received his honorable discharge he returned to the duties of peace and for a number of years was a farmer and stock shipper in Logan County, Illinois, but in 1881 removed to Sedan, Chautauqua County, Kansas, where he invested in real estate and also bought and sold stock. He was a good business man and accumulated a competence, so that in his declining years he was able to retire from business, at which time he went to live at the home of his daughter at Independence, Kansas, Mrs. Mary S. McLaughlin, where he died in February, 1907. Mr. Sams was a man universally respected for his many sterling traits of character, and as a citizen took part in the movements making for the betterment of his community. He was a stanch democrat in his political affiliations, and his religious faith was that of the Christian Church. Mr. Sams married Miss Almira Buckles, who was born in 1844, in Logan County, Illinois, a member of a family which emigrated from England to New England at a very early day in this country's history. Her father was Robert T. Buckles, who was born in 1801, in Tennessee, was a pioneer into Logan County, Illinois, where he engaged in farming, and was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln during the Black Hawk war. He died in Logan County in 1869. Mrs. Sams passed away at Independence, Kansas, in 1895, having been the mother of two children: Willis F. and Mary Selina. Mary Selina Sams married A. H. McLaughlin, of Independence, Kansas, who for sixteen years was manager of the Rock Island Lumber Company is now engaged in the dairy business.