____________________________________________________________________________ W.B. Thomasson, farmer, Murfreesboro, Ark. There are a number of men prominently identified with the agricultural affairs of this county, but among them none are more deserving of mention than W.B. Thomasson, who was born in York District, S.C., in 1823. He was the elder of two children born to James and Jane (Barron) Thomasson, natives of South Carolina, where the father followed agricultural pursuits. The mother died when our subject was an infant, and the father died in Georgia in 1832. The paternal grandfather, William Thomasson, was a native of North Carolina, and a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The maternal grandfather was a merchant of Ebenezerville, made a large fortune, and died in 1840. W.B. Thomasson was reared on the farm until fourteen years of age, and then entered school at Franklin, Ga., where he remained two years. After this he began the study of law, was admitted to the bar when but nineteen years of age, under a special act of the Legislature, and at once began the practice of his profession in the town of Franklin. In the spring of 1862 he raise a company at home, was elected captain, and soon went to the front, where he was attached to the Forty-first Regiment Georgia Infantry and was in the battles of Corinth, Perryville, Missionary Ridge and in the battles of Georgia, siege of Vicksburg, Jonesboro, on the Georgia campaign, and at Bentonville, where the last gun was fired. He then returned to Georgia and resumed the practice of law. In 1872 he came to Arkansas, settled in Clark County for three years and then came to Pike County, where he has since remained. He was appointed county clerk, wa soon after elected at a special election and served three terms in succession. He practiced his profession for a short time and at the expiration of his term of office returned to a farm five miles southeast of town, which consisted of 500 acres. He now has 700 acres, of which 110 acres are under cultivation, and he is rapidly opening more. He has erected good buildings, planted an excellent orchard, and is one of the most enterprising farmers of the county. He was married in 1847 to Miss Mary Stewart, a native of New Jersey and the fruits of this union have been ten children: James S. (married), Walter (died at the age of nineteen years), Charles (resides at Arkadelphia), Horace J. (married and resides on the farm with his father), W.B. (resides in California), Joe, Robert and Samuel J. Mrs. Thomasson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and socially, Mr. Thomasson is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Pike Lodge No. 91. ____________________________________________________________________________ Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County, pages 340-341. ____________________________________________________________________________ HTML file and design by David Kelley, 1997. All rights reserved.