My Genealogy Hound

Willis C. Russell is a native of Carroll County, Ark., and was born near where he now resides on April 16, 1845. He is a son of Lewis Russell, who was born and reared in North Carolina, and when a young man went to Illinois, which was about 1822. He was twice married. The last time he was married in what is now Carroll County, Ark., in 1843, to Sarah Shropshire, who was born and reared in Memphis, Tenn. After the marriage he located in Carroll County, and resided there until his death on September 18, 1869, aged about ninety years. Willis C. Russell grew to manhood in the neighborhood of his present home, and attended school but little. In 1862 he enlisted in the Union army, joining Company B, Sixth Missouri Cavalry, with which he served about eight months, when, at the engagement at Hazelwood, he was wounded through the forearm and permanently disabled. He, however, enlisted in the spring of 1863, in Company L, Sixth Provisional Missouri, and served until September, when his term of enlistment expired. He then enlisted in the Arkansas home troops, under Captain George E. Gaddy, and soldiered in that organization until October, 1864, when his company was reorganized as Company N, Seventy-third Enrolled Missouri Militia. He served with this company until March, 1865, when he was discharged. Having enlisted as a private, he was promoted to orderly-sergeant and bugler and participated in the engagements at Pilot Knob, Jefferson City, Lexington, Boonville, Big Blue, Little Blue and Newtonia. He also assisted in the capture of Gen. Marmaduke. After the war he went to Stone County, Mo., and remained two years engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was married in Christian County, Mo., on February 17, 1865, to Mary Ann Goforth, a native of Carroll County, Ark., and a daughter of William Goforth, deceased. After his marriage Mr. Russell began studying under the direction of his wife, and made rapid progress in the common branches and mathematics. With that and desultory reading since he has acquired a fair education, and may justly be called a self-made man. In 1868 he began studying medicine, and continued several years, but in 1876 he took up the study of law, and has continued in that profession. In 1886 he was admitted to the bar, and has since practiced in the courts of Missouri and Arkansas. In 1867 he removed back to Carroll County from Missouri, and settled where he now resides. He has a neat farm, with sixty acres under cultivation. Mr. and Mrs. Russell have children, viz.: Andrew J. and Joseph L., both teachers in the county; Margaret and Martin B. Mr. Russell is a Master Mason, and is the present secretary of his lodge at Green Forest. In 1880 he was appointed notary public, and was re-appointed in 1888.