Willis Fawcett was born July 15, 1809 in Virginia, and died Abt. September 06, 1878. He married (1) Susan Stabler. He married (2) Jerusha Burnet Wight. Willis lived for a time in St. Charles, Missouri, and, along with
John Jay Johns, B. A. Alderson and John Stonebraker brought the first McCormack reaper west of the Mississippi. After Willis' first wife, Susan Stabler, died, Willis was evidently distraught. He farmed out their children to various relatives in Virginia, and migrated west. He was the first white settler in what is now Hayes County, Texas, where, for a time, he lived as a hermit. Later, Willis went into sheep farming, married Jerusha Wight and settled in Texas, where he died.
