William McKisson was born in either Virginia or Maryland (Census records differ) and was married to Emily Gates, another 1838 settler. Their son Charles Perry McKisson ran a Omnibus and Carriage service in Bloomington in the 1870s. One mention of the carriages in the Pantagraph referred to an accident to an oval glass window in one of the carriages, indicating that the carriages must have been quite elegant.

 

                 In 1872 McKisson, in partnership with Payne, built a brick barn, possibly on East Street between Grove and Olive, where they had their offices at that time. He left Bloomington in 1880 to make his home in Chicago. William and Emily had eleven children, but just two grandchildren. One of those grandchildren, Harry McKisson, made his home in Boston and Maine and was a theatrical manager. The other grandchild was Lulu McKisson Clark, whose son Walter Clark Brubaker was a divisional manager at State Farm and died in 1983. None of his family remained in McLean County.