Durian, William F.

Born at Chicago, IL; deaf at age 3 from brain fever. Attended public schools until the great Chicago fire of 1871 forced his family to relocate to New York; he then entered the New York Institution for the Deaf at Washington Heights in 1880. Married Fannie Gorth in 1888. Upon leaving school, became a printer for various New Jersey and Philadelphia newspapers before settling in Philadelphia.