FAULKNER CO, AR - WILLIAM SMITH - Bio

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE:  Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern 
Arkansas. Chicago:Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                         USGENWEB NOTICE: 

     In keeping with our policy of providing free Information 
     on the Internet,  data  may be used by  non-commercial 
     entities, as long as this message remains on all copied 
     material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in
     any format for profit or for presentation by other persons 
     or organizations. 
     Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for 
     purposes other than stated above must obtain the written 
     consent of the file contributor.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

William Smith. Faulkner County is rapidly coming into a position as one
of the foremost stock counties in the State, and it is but uttering a
plain fact to say that to a few men in this community is due the credit
for advancing stock interests here and establishing a reputation in this
department which is bound to stand for years. Mr. Smith has had not a
little to do toward developing the stock matters of this region and if
for no other account he is accorded a worthy place in this volume. His
parents, Ebenezer and Permelia (Murphy) Smith, were married in
Tennessee, in 1823, but the former was born in the State of Mississippi.
He was left fatherless when a small boy, his paternal parent dying in
Georgia, after which his widowed mother moved with her family to
Tennessee, where she died, having borne a family of five sons and two
daughters. Ebenezer Smith and his wife became the parents of eleven
children, who grew to manhood and womanhood, seven of whom were born in
Mississippi and four in Tennessee. After the mother's death in 1855, Mr.
Smith married again, his second wife being Miss Elizabeth Chambers of
Mississippi, their marriage being solemnized in 1856; six children were
born to this union. William Smith, our subject, was reared to a farm
life and received a limited education in the subscription schools of
Tishomingo County, Miss. He grew to manhood, and on April 26, 1856, was
married there to Miss Melvina Dotson, the wedding taking place at the
home of the bride's parents, William and Nancy (Bales) Dotson. Victoria
A., their eldest child, was born March 26, 1859, and June 14, 1874,
became the wife of D. A. Thornton, a farmer who resides in Faulkner
County, by whom she has four children. Sidney, the youngest child, was
born August 15, 1860, and died August 24, 1864. September 15, 1886,
witnessed the celebration of Mr. Smith's second marriage to Mrs. Mattie
E. (Tucker) Beasley, daughter of LaFayette and Jane (Knight) Tucker, who
were born in Mississippi, the father being of Irish origin. At the age
of twenty-one years, Mr. Smith's father made him overseer of his
plantation, and for his services gave him a one-fourth interest in the
profits of the farm, and at the end of one year he had accumulated
sufficient property to enable him to purchase eighty acres of land, all
of which was heavily covered with timber. During the six following
years, he cleared thirty acres of this tract, and erected thereon a
dwelling-house, and the necessary outbuildings. Owing to the turbulent
state of affairs during the war be, with his wife and children and a few
articles of household furniture, removed by wagon to near Union City,
Ky., making their home there for about ten months, and raising one crop.
They next settled in Tennessee, near Island No. 10, and here Mr. Smith
left his family and went to Paducah, Ky., where he enlisted in the First
Kentucky Calvary, Confederate States Army, and served six months or
until the close of the war. He then returned to his family and soon
after purchased 100 acres of wild land in Gibson County, and this he
resided on and continued to improve until 1870, since which time he has
been a resident of the State of Arkansas. The farm upon which he is now
residing consists of 243 acres, the original purchase consisting of 160
acres. Only a small portion of this land had been cleared, but at the
present writing seventy acres are in high state of cultivation, the soil
being well adapted to the raising of cotton, corn, oats and all
varieties of vegetables. Both Mr. Smith and his wife are professors of
religion, the [p.244] former a member of the Missionary Baptist Church,
and the latter of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Smith is a
supporter and member of the Agricultural Wheel, belonging to El Paso
Lodge No. 158, is a man of enterprise and progress, and being hospitable
and generous is a valuable addition to the county of his adoption.