My Genealogy Hound

William R. McLure, hardware merchant and furniture dealer, Buckner, Ark. Prominent among the commercial resources of the town of Buckner must be included the trade carried on in hardware, house furnishings, etc., and among those most prominently identified with it is the firm of Tidwell & McLure. Mr. McLure was born in Alabama in 1845, is the son of Thomas McLure, a native of South Carolina, and the grandson of Richard Rankin McLure, also a native of South Carolina. The great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The father of our subject was reared in his native State, and remained there until twenty-two years of age, when he moved to Alabama. There he was married to Miss Sarah Basden, a native of Alabama, and they afterward moved to Rosston, Nevada County, Ark., where the father still resides, but the mother died in August, 1886. Their family numbered six children—four sons and two daughters—three sons and two daughters now living. William R. McLure, the eldest of this family, remained in Alabama until twenty-one years of age, and then went to the Lone Star State, where he remained six months. He then came to what is now Nevada County, Ark., and in 1887 came to Buckner. In 1870 he began merchandising by opening a country store in what is now Nevada County, and continued at this one year. From there he went to Rosston, remained there two years, and then was out of business for some time, and was engaged in tilling the soil for about twelve years. Subsequently he came to Buckner. He was married in 1872 to Miss Rejina Lester, a native of Georgia, and this union was blessed by the birth of eight children— three sons and five daughters: Gertrude, Ula, Lester, Emma, William, Cleveland, Pearl and Ruby. Mr. McLure has 630 acres of land in Nevada County, but is at present engaged in merchandising under the firm title of Tidwell & McLure. They carry a stock of goods valued at about $3,000, at Buckner, and also have another store at New Lewisville, with a stock of goods valued at about the same. Mr. McLure is a Master Mason, also Chapter and Council Mason, a member of Buckner Lodge, and is also a member of the K. of H. He held the office of justice of the peace in Nevada County for four years, and discharged the duties of that office ably and well. Democratic in his political views, Mr. McLure’s first presidential vote was for H. Seymour. He enlisted in the Confederate army in June, 1863, in Company G, Ninth Alabama Battalion, and was afterward in the Sixty-first Alabama Regiment. He was in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Bethesda Church and several others. He held the rank of orderly sergeant. Mrs. McLure is a member of the Baptist Church.