The History of Hendricks County (Chicago: Interstate Publishing, 1885)--Middle Township, pages 715-716
James M. Wills, of Pittsboro, was born Feb. 26, 1838, on the present site of the town of Clayton, in Hendricks County, when it was nothing but a wilderness, and lived there until he was twenty years of age. He attended the district schools of that day; never attended but two terms of three months each of free school. Although with limited opportunities he qualified himself to teach common schools and worked on the farm with his parents through the summer and taught school through the fall and winter until the war broke out, at $1.15 per day. Aug. 7, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company C, Seventieth Indiana Infantry, and was mustered into the service Aug. 12. He followed all the varied fortunes of the regiment, serving gallantly till his discharge, June 8, 1865. After his discharge from the army Mr. Wills went on the farm and worked through the summer and taught school in the fall and winter of 1865 and 1866, and on the 16th day of May, 1867, was married to Miss Mary A. Dillon, of Pittsboro. In March, 1869, he moved to Pittsboro and engaged in the drug business with Amos C. Weaver until January, 1880. In 1881 he engaged in the dry-goods business with A.C. Weaver, continuing a year. In 1880 he bought a half interest in the tile works at Pittsboro, which he has since conducted. He makes a fine quality of tile, and ships a great proportion of it to Illinois. In 1872 he was elected Justice of the Peace and served until April, 1877, when he was admitted to the Hendricks County bar to practice law. In October, 1877, he was commissioned Notary Public, and has served continually ever since to the entire satisfaction of all that had notarial work to do, both in fees and quality of work. On the 10th day of January, 1885, through the influence of Senator Benjamin Harrison, his old regimental commander, he was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Railway Mail Service from Pittsburg, Pa., to St. Louis, Mo., but on account of his wife's ill-health he declined to serve. June 6, 1885, the commissioners of Hendricks County appointed him as Justice of the Peace of Middle Township. In the spring of 1882, he was a candidate before the Republican Nominating Convention for Recorder of Hendricks County, but was defeated by A.A. Parsons, the present worthy encumbent and a wounded soldier. Mr. Wills has two children--Ethel, born June 29, 1870, and Jewell, born Dec. 7, 1882.