Arkansas County, Arkansas - Capt. William H. Halliburton - Bio *********************************************************** Submitted by: Date: 17 Jul 1998 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ar/arkansas/arkansas.htm *********************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago:Goodspeed Publishers, 1890. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Col. William H. HalliBurton is a good example of what can be accomplished in life, when thorough determination to succeed is coupled with energy, perseverance and close application in the direction chosen. His early educational advantages were of a very meager description, and during a period of eight years he received but seven months schooling, but becoming desirous of improving himself, he began devoting all his spare moments to studying and reading, and soon became a thoroughly posted young man, and quite familiar with the "world of books." He was married while a resident of Benton County, Tenn., to Elizabeth C. Altom, a native of Greenville, S. C., and to them a family of seven children were born, two of whom are now living: Gulnare (wife of Dr. James B. Garrison, of Texas) and John. The mother of these children died August 20, 1848, at the Arkansas Post, Ark., where they had settled April 14, 1845, and for some months Mr. HalliBurton was engaged in teaching school, becoming thereby well and favorably known. In the spring of 1847 he was appointed to the office of deputy sheriff, and held the position until November of the same year, when he was appointed deputy clerk, and held the two offices from November, 1847, to December, 1850. During these years he frequently issued process in the name of the clerk, and went out and executed the same in the name of the sheriff. In the year 1850 he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and served one term of two years. He was sworn in as deputy sheriff at the April term, 1847, of the Arkansas County circuit court, and has been present, participating in the proceedings of each term of the circuit court of said county since, excepting the March terms of 1885, 1887 and 1889, when he was [p.657] in attendance on the legislature of the State. He was elected to represent Arkansas County in the State legislature in 1885, and was re-elected in 1887 and 1889. In 1887 he was appointed deputy treasurer and special agent for the State to go to Washington, D. C., to settle a disputed debt between the State of Arkansas and the United States. He was elected colonel of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment of Tennessee Militia, in 1838. During the Rebellion he was appointed chief collector of Confederate States war tax for the State of Arkansas by the president of the Confederacy, but did not take an active part in the war. His second wife was Hannah Jacobs, who was born in Wellsburg, Brooke County, Va., and to them were born five children, three of whom are now living: Jennie (wife of David Rasure), Kate (wife of Harry Greer) and Lucinda (at home). Mr. HalliBurton is now living with his third wife, who was a Mrs. Mary S. (Belknap) Patrick, a native of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and he is a Baptist. He began the study of law when he was a young man, and in 1847 was licensed to practice, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. He has been a practicing lawyer of De Witt since 1857, and has always been considered a leading member of the legal fraternity. From 1860 to 1862, he resided in Little Rock, but has since made his home in De Witt. He was born in Stewart County, Tenn., November 4, 1816, and is a son of Thomas and Lucinda (Herndon) Halli-Burton, natives, respectively, of North and South Carolina. The father inherited Scotch blood from his parents, and when about nine years of age, was taken by them to Tennessee, and from that time until 1834 he resided in Humphreys County. He was the seventh son and eleventh child of his father's family, and his marriage took place in Tennessee. He moved to Arkansas in 1845, and located in Arkansas County, where he followed merchandising until his death in 1859, at the age of sixty-three years. He was a member of the Baptist Church, and was very active in political affairs of the communities in which he resided, and while in Tennessee, was county court clerk of Benton County, and after coming to Arkansas, held the offices of justice of the peace, county surveyor and county and probate judge. He was a Master Mason. His wife died in Humphreys County, Tenn., in the spring of 1834, having borne a family of eight children, of whom W. H. was the eldest, and is the only one now living. Mr. Halli-Burton was married a second time, and of seven children born to this marriage, two are living: Mrs. Lucinda Mock, of Louisiana, and David N., of Dardanelle, Ark. The paternal grandparents were born in Virginia, but were early residents of Tennessee, and in 1834 removed to Henderson County, and made their home with a son. Here the grandmother died in her eightieth year, and the grandfather and his son soon after moved to Mississippi, in which State his demise occurred in 1841, he being ninety-one years of age. This old couple soon after their marriage had an orphan boy bound to them, and reared a family of thirteen children, and besides this they reared seven of their grandchildren to maturity, making in all twenty-one children, whom they brought up. Out of the twenty-one, twenty had families before the death of the grandparents, and the youngest of the twenty-one had attained his majority before the grandmother's death.