My Genealogy Hound

W. K. Cowling is an old settler and a prominent merchant of Nashville, Ark., who was born in Mississippi in 1842, being the second of four children born to John D. and Frances (Camp) Cowling, the former of whom was a planter of Mississippi, and moved to Arkansas in 1843, settling within five miles of the present town of Nashville, where he purchased 160 acres of land. After an occupancy of about five years he sold his place, and moved to the black lands of Hempstead County. He made his home on what is now known as the Wiley McElroy farm until his death, which occurred in 1848. The children remained with their mother, who married again, until they became grown. W. K. Cowling began working at farm labor at the age of sixteen years, and followed this calling, in addition to attending school, until the breaking of the war-cloud which had so long hovered over the country, when he enlisted in Company G, Twelfth Regiment Arkansas Infantry, and was in the engagements at Island No. 10, Jenkins' Ferry, Poison Springs and Port Hudson. In the last-named engagement he was captured and paroled, but was soon afterward exchanged. He surrendered at Marshall, Tex., and returned to Hempstead County, where he followed teaming for one year. The next year he sold drugs at Mineral Springs, and spent the following four years as tiller of the soil on rented land. He then purchased a farm of 560 acres, near Mineral Springs, and on this place has made many improvements, 250 acres being now under cultivation, and the balance well-timbered. In 1876 he opened a mercantile establishment in Mineral Springs, in company with his brother, but in 1886 removed to Nashville, purchased his brother's interest in 1888, and is now associated in business with a Mr. Wallace, the firm name being Cowling & Wallace. Subsequently they erected a store-house, 25x132 feet, and they carry a stock valued at from $15,000 to $20,000, their annual sales amounting to $100,000. Their establishment gives employment to eleven men, and being admirably conducted, nets them a handsome annual income. Mr. Cowling also owns five dwellings in the town, one of which he occupies, his residence being one of the neatest and pleasantest in the place, and he has three farms in the southern part of the county, aggregating 450 acres. He has always been an earnest Democrat in his political views, is a stanch supporter of public schools, and socially is a member of the I. O. O. F. He was married in 1868 to Miss Josie T. Williams, a native of Arkansas, and by her is the father of the following children: Leonidas E. (who is married, and works in his father's store), William K., Camp, Lettie F., John D., Josie, and Tally (who died at the age of ten months). He and family are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in which he has held the office of elder and deacon for years, and he is unquestionably one of the public-spirited men of this section, and is in the enjoyment of one of the largest and most lucrative trades in the town and county. In 1878, during the uprising of the negroes of Hempstead County, he was made captain of a company, and succeeded in arresting seventy-five of the seditionists.