My Genealogy Hound

HON. WILLIAM J. EDRINGTON, near Arlington, was born in what is now Ballard County, Ky., January 4, 1831, and is the only living child of Benjamin F. and Ann E. (Milburn) Edrington, the former a native of Woodford, and the latter of Jefferson County, Ky. They were of Welsh and English descent respectively. Benjamin F. Edrington, about the age of fifteen, in 1820, came with his parents to what is now Ballard County but then was a part of Hickman County. Here his father, Joseph Edrington, bought several hundred acres of military lands at Puntney’s Bend, on the Mississippi River, where he commenced to improve a farm. After a few years he sold this place and bought military land near Columbus, in Hickman County, upon which he erected a rude log cabin and improved a farm. Soon after, he removed to Columbus, where he resided until his death. After attaining his majority, Benjamin F. Edrington bought wild land near the present site of Milburn, where he improved a farm. Some five or six years later he sold out and removed to Wolf Island, Hickman Co., Ky., where he again purchased wild land and improved a farm. In the spring of 1849, he removed to Mississippi County, Mo., where his death occurred in November of the same year, in his forty-fourth year. William J. Edrington was employed on his father’s farm until the latter’s death. He then farmed with his uncle in Mississippi County, Mo., and attended school for some three years. He then engaged in the saw and grist-mill business, in company with Mr. C. R. Pile, in Ballard County, Ky., continuing until the winter of 1857, when he sold the mill and bought a farm of 350 acres some three miles east of Arlington. Here Mr. Edrington has since been engaged extensively in agricultural pursuits, and in breeding fine stock—Shorthorn cattle, Cotswold sheep, and Chester-White hogs—and now owns one of the best herds of Shorthorns in the county. He represented Ballard County in the lower house of the State legislature for three terms, from 1875 to 1879 and from 1881 to 1883. He was married, July 7, 1854, to Miss Mary E. Grundy, a native of Ballard County, Ky. Twelve children have blessed their union, of whom four sons and seven daughters are yet living. Mrs. Edrington is a devoted and consistent member of the Christian Church. Mr. Edrington belongs to no church, but is a member of both the Blue Lodge and Chapter in the Masonic fraternity, and also of the K. of H. In politics he is a Democrat.