Col. Means had a large family. Several of the daughters were married to gentlemen who subsequently attained great distinction in the learned professions. Of the sons, Robert became a lawyer, and David McGregor, who bore the name of his mother (a daughter of Rev. David McGregor of Londonderry), succeeded his father as a merchant. He married Catherine, daughter of Hon. Joshua Atherton, who is described as a woman of vigorous understanding and positive convictions, ready in conversation, and of sprightly and pleasing manners. By this marriage, David McG. Means had three sons and six daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third son and the fourth child, receiving the name of his uncle, Hon. William Gordon, at that time a lawyer of great promise in Amherst. Among his schoolmates, William G. Means is remembered as a quick-witted boy, fond of adventure, and overflowing with fun. The schools in Amherst at that date did not furnish advantages of a high order. Aside from the training of the household, the youth had no superior privileges, except a few terms at Pinkerton Academy, Derry, then under the care of Abel F. Hildreth, an eminent teacher. For parts of three years he attended this school, in company with his brother James, Edward and Alfred Spalding, E. D. Boylston, and other students from Amherst. In the autumn of 1830, Mr. Means went to Boston, and entered the store of Daniel McGregor, then a dealer in dry goods,--finding employment, after an apprenticeship of four or five years, in the house of Robert Appleton & Co. By the commercial crisis of 1837, like hundreds of young men similarly situated, he was thrown out of employment, and returned to his home in Amherst. These years of service in Boston were not without their valuable uses, though a new direction was soon to be given to his capacity for business. He saw the perils that beset the career of the tradesman, and learned the wisdom of that conservatism which underlies the avenues of success in mercantile pursuits. While living in Boston, he became interested in the lady who was subsequently to share his fortunes and build his house. In March, 1838, Mr. Means became clerk of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company at Manchester, taking charge of the books and pay-rolls of the land and water-power department, then under the direction of Robert Read, Esq. The city had no existence except in the plans of the projectors. There was not a mill on the east side of the river, not a building except the scattered farm-houses; the canal had been laid out, a site for a cotton mill set off, but nothing was finished. It was during this constructive period of the city's history that he was occupied with the oversight of workmen, the execution of land sales, and the varied duties of the Amoskeag counting-room, thus gathering the knowledge and experience which qualified him for the important agencies that have since engrossed his time.