My Genealogy Hound

William H. Renfro (deceased) was one of the thirteen children born to the union of Talton and Elizabeth (Harrison) Renfro, his birth occurring in Maury County, Tenn., March 8, 1833. Of that large family of children only three are now living: John H. (residing in Sacramento, Cal.), D. B. (a resident of Holly Grove, Ark.) and Matilda (the widow of William Baulch). When William H. Renfro was nineteen years of age, he came to Phillips County, having accepted a position to superintend a large plantation, owned by a Mr. A. W. Smizer, which he continued to do until the breaking out of the war. He then enlisted in the Confederate army, serving two years. During the war he purchased the farm where Mrs. Renfro now resides, the place then consisting of 480 acres, with only fifty improved. Mrs. Renfro owns 200 acres of improved land, with only forty unimproved, on which are good buildings and many modern evidences of progression and prosperity. That Mr. Renfro was a popular and influential man is demonstrated beyond a doubt by the manner in which he is mentioned, and the reverence in which his memory is held. He was a quiet, law-abiding citizen, keeping pace with the world, in the even tenor of his way, and many improvements of his county stand as monuments of his liberality and support. No one ever realized, not even his own family, how largely Mr. Renfro gave in charities. On this point he was secretive, nothing abashing him more in his own eyes than when a deed of mercy was traced to its source by some grateful recipient of his generosity. He was married December 8, 1856, in this county, to Miss Amanda E. Graves, who was born in Shelby County, Tenn., December 26, 1836, and a daughter of Alexander and Annie (Graves) Graves. Mr. and Mrs. Renfro reared a family of three children: Ella R. (wife of B. Y. Turner) and Lizzie (Mrs. W. C. Brooks). One daughter is deceased. Mr. Graves (father of Mrs. Renfro), was born in Greenville, N. C, in 1800, and was married in Giles County, Tenn., having moved to that county when twenty-one years old. To his marriage eight children were born, three now living: N. L., Maggie (wife of her cousin, Joseph Graves, of this county) and Amanda (Mrs. Renfro). Mr. Graves died in Phillips County, Ark., in 1863. His wife, who was born in Louisa County, Va., in 1804, died in 1864. Mrs. Renfro manages her farm in a good business-like way. She is a supporter of all charitable movements, an earnest worker in and a highly-respected member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.