My Genealogy Hound

Rev. William Y. M. Wilkerson, a minister of the Christian denomination, and deputy clerk of Craighead County, was born in Lawrence (now Sharp) County, Ark., in 1844, and is a son of Purvey Wilkerson, a native of North Carolina. The father was reared in Illinois, but came to Arkansas in 1836, and married while here, returning the same year to Illinois, where he remained for six years. He then returned to Arkansas, locating in what is now Sharp County, where he improved a large farm, on which he resided until 1863, when he again returned to Illinois. Three years later he started to return to his home in Arkansas, but, before reaching here, died in Perry County, Mo., November 24, 1866. He was devoted to the cause of his Master, and was a deacon in the Baptist Church. The mother is an estimable lady, and still resides in Sharp County, of which she is a native, born in 1821. Our subject and Benjamin W. are the only survivors of the family of seven children. William Y. M. has spent all but five years of his life in this State, and in his youth attended school and assisted on the farm. In the War of the Rebellion he served in the Union army, enlisting first in the Third Missouri Militia, and later in the Fourteenth Missouri Volunteers. He saw much active service, and was slightly wounded at Licking, Mo. After the surrender he went to Franklin County, Ill., and attended high school one year, when he returned to Arkansas, and followed farming and school teaching until 1884, when he was elected deputy clerk, to which office he has since been three times elected. He is a Republican in politics, but stands so high in popular favor that he has been four times elected in a county where there are twenty Democrats to one Republican. Mr. Wilkerson was married in 1876 to Miss Morrilla T. Herren, a native of Alabama, and to this union have been born five children: Rebecca E., Henry M., William A. W., James B. P. and Clarkie G. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson are members of the Christian Church, and he has been an ordained minister of that denomination since November 20, 1870. He professed religion in 1860, and since that time has given twenty years to the ministry of the Gospel. He located in this county in 1880, and, through his kindness to the poor, thoughtful consideration of his fellow-men, fervent piety and devotion to his Master’s cause, he has won an enviable and lasting popularity.