Carroll Co., AR - Biographies - Willis C. Russell

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Willis C. Russell is a native of Carroll County, Ark., and was born 
near where he now resides on April 16, 1845. He is a son of Lewis 
Russell, who was born and reared in North Carolina, and when a young 
man went to Illinois, which was about 1822. He was twice married. The 
last time he was married in what is now Carroll County, Ark., in 1843, 
to Sarah Shropshire, who was born and reared in Memphis, Tenn. After 
the marriage he located in Carroll County, and resided there until his 
death on September 18, 1869, aged about ninety years. Willis C. 
Russell grew to manhood in the neighborhood of his present home, and 
attended school but little. In 1862 he enlisted in the Union army, 
joining Company B, Sixth Missouri Cavalry, with which he served about 
eight months, when, at the engagement at Hazlewood, he was wounded 
through the forearm and permanently disabled. He, however, enlisted in 
the spring of 1863, in Company L, Sixth Provisional Missouri, and 
served until September, when his term of enlistment expired. He then 
enlisted in the Arkansas home troops, under Captain George E. Gaddy, 
and soldiered in that organization until October, 1864, when his 
company was reorganized as Company N, Seventythird Enrolled Missouri 
Militia. He served with this company until March, 1865, when he was 
discharged. Having enlisted as a private, he was promoted to orderly-
sergeant and bugler and participated in the engagements at Pilot Knob, 
Jefferson City, Lexington, Boonville, Big Blue, Little Blue and 
Newtonia. He also assisted in the capture of Gen. Marmaduke. After the 
war he went to Stone County, Mo., and remained two years engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. He was married in Christian County, Mo., on 
February 17, 1865, to Mary Ann Goforth, a native of Carroll County, 
Ark., and a daughter of William [p.1073] Goforth, deceased. After his 
marriage Mr. Russell began studying under the direction of his wife, 
and made rapid progress in the common branches and mathematics. With 
that and much desultory reading since he has acquired a fair 
education, and may justly be called a self-made man. In 1868 he began 
studying medicine, and continued several years, but in 1876 he took up 
the study of law, and has continued in that profession. In 1886 he was 
admitted to the bar, and has since practiced in the courts of Missouri 
and Arkansas. In 1867 he removed back to Carroll County from Missouri, 
and settled where he now resides. He has a neat farm, with sixty acres 
under cultivation. Mr. and Mrs. Russell have four children, viz.: 
Andrew J. and Joseph L., both teachers in the county; Margaret and 
Martin B. Mr. Russell is a Master Mason, and is the present secretary 
of his lodge at Green Forest. In 1880 he was appointed notary public, 
and was re-appointed in 1888.