My Genealogy Hound

William McIlroy (deceased), whose early life was one of hardship and privation, and whose subsequent career shows what can be accomplished by industry, economy and perseverance, was born in Rockingham County, N. C., July 24, l812, the son of James and Mary (Small) McIlroy, and grandson of William McIlroy, a farmer, whose father was a native of Scotland, and whose mother was born In Ireland. The parents of the subject of this sketch were natives of Rockingham County, N. C., and the father was a shoemaker by trade. The mother died in that county when William McIlroy was but five or six years old, and of the four children left at her death, none are living. William received a limited education, and worked on the farm from early boyhood. In 1835 he abandoned farm life and began clerking in the store of Col. John P. Long, at Chattanooga, Tenn., where he remained two years. Previous to this, in 1832, he married Miss Missouri Vandyke, a native of South Carolina, and the daughter of John Vandyke, a farmer and a slave-holder. Two children blessed this union: Andrew Jackson, who was born in Habersham County, Ga., in 1834, and died in Little Rock, Ark., in 1863, while serving in the Southern army; and Melinda H. Vanhoose, who was born in Washington County, Ark., and who died in 1864. Mr. McIlroy was next married to Mrs. Eliza Jane Russell, in Kentucky, in 1838. She was a native of Virginia, and died in Washington County, Ark., in 1864, at the age of sixty years. In June, 1838 Mr. McIlroy settled with his family on a small farm at head-waters of the White River, Madison County, Ark., and here, in connection with farming, carried on merchandising on a small scale for about eleven years. He commenced selling goods in Fayetteville in 1855, on a capital of $7,500, and in 1872 he commenced banking on a capital of $25,000, and followed this business up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1886. By a partnership with which he started the bank, he lost $40,000 in the year 1875, and after that Mr. McIlroy ran the business without a partner. The bank has now a cash capital of many thousand dollars, and besides this Mr. McIlroy left real estate valued at about $20,000. The amount of bank deposits equals $120,000, and a general banking business is done, with correspondents in St. Louis, New York and Little Rock. Mr. McIlroy was never engaged in any public enterprises, had no military record, and never held an office, except that of road overseer in the Boston Mountains; he never inherited a cent in his life, and when first starting out for himself worked for $7.50 a month. His habits were always good; he never gambled, was not dissipated, but amused himself by going to the country dances, being very fond of that pastime. He never belonged to any secret organization; was a Whig up to the late war, when he cast his vote with the Democrats, and after that time affiliated with that party. Mr. McIlroy’s third wife, whom he married in 1865, and whose maiden name was Martha Brooks, was born in Tennessee, and was left an orphan when quite young, after which she was partly reared by the family of Mr. McIlroy. By his third marriage Mr. McIlroy became the father of five children, all born in Fayetteville: William R., James H., Charles W., Anna May and Kate. Mr McIlroy died in full communion with the faith of the Episcopal Church, having joined that church in 1846, and of which he had been vestryman for thirty years. A fellow townsman in speaking of him says: “No one surpassed him for industry, sobriety and precision in all business transactions. He was discreet in all things, and dealt accurately even to a cent. He was a quiet, peaceable man, and his reputation is without a stain. He leaned too much on certainties not to be a success.”