William B. Akins was born on December 8, 1827, in Franklin, Pennsylvania, to Robert and Lucy Akins. His father earned a living as a carpenter. By the early 1860s, he was working as a farmer in Keene, Illinois.

 

In August 1862, he received a commission as a 2^nd lieutenant in Company K of the 78^th Illinois Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with auburn hair and grey eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chickamauga, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in July 1863 and then to captain in March 1864. He mustered out on June 7, 1865.

 

He settled in Mendon, Illinois, after the war, and he married Emeline B. Estes on July 15, 1865. They had at least four children: John, born around 1867; Ulysses S., born around 1868; Grace, born around 1877; and Mabel, born around 1879. He probably supported President Ulysses S. Grant in the election of 1868. He worked as a farmer, and by 1870, he owned $600 of real estate and $465 of personal property. 

 

He moved to Minnesota around 1871 and established a hardware store. According to a local writer, his "efforts...were always directed to the improvement of the county." He served as commander of the local Grand Army of the Republic post, and he was "one of the prime movers of the Grange" movement. He moved to the Washington Territory in the 1870s after "being financially ruined by the grasshopper plague." By 1880, he was living in the Idaho Territory. He applied for a federal pension in January 1880 and eventually received one. He died of pneumonia in Lewiston, Idaho, on February 25, 1884.

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