William H. Rees, a prominent physician and surgeon of Pleasanton, Kan., is a native of Monmouth, Ill., where he was born April 25, 1843. His parents were Thomas D. and Malinda (Black) Rees, the former native of Warren county, Pennsylvania, where he was reared a farmer. He came west in 1832, and was one of the pioneers of Monmouth, Ill. The mother was born near Louisville, Ky. They removed to Kansas in 1867, locating near Pleasanton, where they resided on a farm until their respective deaths, the mother dying in 1878, aged sixty-three, and the father, Dec. 18, 1880, aged sixty-nine. They became the parents of six children—five of whom are living: Dr. John B. Rees, of Mapleton; Elmer Rees, of Pleasanton; Fanny, the wife of Samuel H. Braden, of Elsmore; Rachel J., the wife of Arthur Ball, of Mapleton; and Dr. William H. Rees.

Dr. William H. Rees was reared on the home farm and attended district schools during the winter months. A few days prior to his eighteenth birthday Fort Sumter was fired on and President Lincoln called for volunteers, but through the persuasion of his parents and friends young Rees postponed enlisting until Aug. 7, 1862, when he enlisted at Galesburg, Ill., in Company B, One-Hundred-Second Illinois infantry. He was in General Harrison's brigade and took part in many a hard fought battle, beginning with the battle of Stone River, and was almost continuously in active service until Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He was with Sherman in his memorable march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, thence to the sea, and up through the Carolinas. He was wounded four times, twice while between Chattanooga and Atlanta, and twice at Savannah, Ga. His command was at Smithfield, N. C., upon Lee's surrender and was soon ordered to Chicago, Ill., where on June 14, 1865, he was mustered out and received his honorable discharge. He at once returned home and entered Monmouth College, where he spent two years. He then came to Kansas and followed teaching and farming until 1881, when he took up a course of medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa, and later in Rush Medical College, Chicago, Ill. After qualifying himself he began the practice of his profession at Trading Post, Kan., and remained there until 1890, when he located at Pleasanton. He keeps in touch with the most advanced thought of the day in therapeutics, and has taken postgraduate work in Chicago twice since he began his practice. For the past twenty years he has been a member of the Board of Pension Examiners. He is a member of the county, state and national medical associations, being president of the Linn County Medical Society. He is a post commander in the Grand Army of the Republic and is a Thirty-second degree Mason. He is a stanch Republican in politics and his religious belief is expressed by membership in the Christian church, in which he is an elder. On Dec. 31, 1872, he was married to Miss Tena L. Hinds, of Pleasanton.