W.B. Thomasson

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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.                                                                      
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County,
pages 340-341.                                                               
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