He was born in Ohio and was a Mesa County, Colorado pioneer. He owned Bannister’s furniture store, which was also the funeral parlor in Grand Junction, Colorado. He later opened the first cemetery in Grand Junction, on Orchard Mesa. It was known at first as Bannister Cemetery, and then as Orchard Mesa Cemetery.
Bill married Anna Barrowman on January 30, 1935. They lived on a farm that Bill's parents homesteaded. They had one child. The Barrowmans ran the farm until 1969 and then they moved to a house in town in Lafayette, CO.