My Genealogy Hound

Hon. William C. Leslie. Within the limits of Hempstead County, Ark., there is not a man of greater personal popularity than Mr. Leslie, for he is intelligent and progressive in his views, and thoroughly honest in every particular. His birth occurred in Madison County, Ala., in 1824, and he is a son of George and Rachel C. (Campbell) Leslie, who were born in York District, S. C., about 1797, were married there, and in 1819 removed to Madison County, Ala., and in 1828 to Henderson County, Tenn. Here Mr. Leslie followed the occupation of farming and blacksmithing and died in 1834. His father, Samuel Leslie, was born in South Carolina, and in 1819 went to Alabama, thence to Tennessee, and about 1832 removed to Phillips County, Ark., where he spent the rest of his life, following the calling of a carpenter. His father, George Leslie, came from Ireland to America a few years before the Revolutionary War, and died prior to the breaking out of that war, in South Carolina. Robert Campbell, the mother’s father, was of Scotch origin, a planter and trader in stock and slaves in York District, S. C., and there passed from life. In 1850 the subject of this sketch removed with his mother and her family to Hempstead County, Ark., and here Mrs. Leslie passed to her long home in 1882, at the age of eighty-six years, having lived a widow nearly fifty years. Her mother, Mrs. Isabella (Henry) Campbell, had five brothers in the Revolutionary War, all of whom took part in the battle of King’s Mountain. William C. Leslie is the third of four sons born to his parents, and is the only one now living. Franklin, the eldest, died in Arkansas, while serving in the Confederate army. The early days of William C. were spent on a farm, his education being acquired in the common schools, and in 1853 he was married to Sarah, a daughter of Daniel A. and Mary Ann Reader, natives of South Carolina, who moved to Lauderdale County, Ala., in 1825, and to Hempstead County, Ark., in 1849, where they are both still living, having been members of the Methodist Church for many years. The father is now seventy-one years of age, has been a farmer throughout life, and has reared a large family, four sons having served in the Confederate army during the Rebellion, one of whom died after the Oak Hill fight. Mrs. Leslie was born in Lauderdale County, Ala., and has become the mother of the following children: Mary (wife of L. F. Huddleston), Rosena (wife of William H. Norwood), George D., Quintilia (wife of E. J. White, of Gibson County, Tenn.), Ida, Lula, Robert and Walter. Three children died in infancy. After his marriage Mr. Leslie lived for three years in Nashville, Ark., but since 1858 has been on his present farm four miles east of Bingen, it comprising 415 acres, 287 being under the plow. He has followed the occupation of farming nearly all his life, but while a resident of Tennessee he devoted some time to the profession of teaching. In 1862 he joined Company I, Nineteenth Arkansas Infantry, Confederate States Army, and served in Arkansas and Louisiana, taking part in the engagements at Pleasant Hill, La., and Jenkins’ Ferry, Ark. In 1859 and 1860 he filled the office of justice of the peace, and in 1882 was chosen as a suitable man to represent Hempstead County in the General Assembly of the State, and served as chairman of a committee on memorials, also on railroads and elections. He has been a Democrat all his life, of the Jacksonian type, and his first presidential vote was cast for Cass in 1848. He is a demitted Mason from Pleasant Valley Lodge No. 30, and in his religious views is a Missionary Baptist.