He came to Sioux City from Wakefield, a frontier settlement his father helped pioneer. William was immersed in business and the grain trade from birth at his father’s store, Marriott Mercantile, which initially specialized in quality "Seeds that grow!" thirty-five years before the Grain Standards Act of 1916. He attended Brown’s Business College at 17 years of age while working for the Great Northern Railway. Suffering from poor health following a botched appendicitis surgery in 1915, William wore an abdominal binder for the rest of his life and unexpectedly died in 1951. William’s father, Judge John Thomas Marriott I, was among the first settlers of Wakefield, Nebraska in July 1881. The son of English immigrants William and Sarah (née Pacey) Marriott, John became motherless and an only child at one year old when Sarah suffered maternal death. Described as a “hustler” who can “raise anything from peanuts to presidents”, he was determined to make Wakefield rival Sioux City, whose population was around 7,500 at the time. He built and operated the first store, Marriott Mercantile, for 42 years. Initially specializing in “Seeds that grow!”, he expanded to groceries, lands loans and insurance, conveyance, collections, brokerage and notary services. The store also operated a millinery led by his wife Mary Louise (née Rice) Marriott, the sister of James Montgomery Rice, aunt of Montgomery Case, and great-granddaughter of William Montgomery. At peak, John controlled approximately 20% of Wakefield's commercial real estate and a cattle farm on the outskirt. He adopted the new slogan "Marriott Means Business". In 1906, John helped bring Wakefield into the electric age. On the Board of Education, he helped introduce formal academics to Wakefield and as a Justice of the peace, helped create laws for the horseless carriage. As of 2018, the Presbyterian Church he built on 3rd Street continues to assemble its congregation every Sunday. Their daughter, Caroline Montgomery Marriott, was killed by the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. Distraught, John suffered a severe stroke in February 1921 and remained in a coma for fourteen weeks. When he regained consciousness, he could no longer speak and his health continued to fail until his death in September 1923. Marriott Mercantile now operates as an online corporate store for Marriott Corporation operated by his great-great-grandson Thomas Montgomery Marriott.