CONWAY CO, AR - WM. M. CLIFTON - Bio SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishers, 1891. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free Information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wm. M. Clifton, one of the prominent and esteemed citizens of Morrilton, is a native of Troupe County, Georgia; born 1829, being the sixth of a family of three sons and five daughters born to Wm. M. and Susan (Nixon) Clifton [p.58] who were both born in 1796, the father in Clark County, Georgia, and the mother near Charlottesville, Va. They were married in Georgia and lived some years in Clark County, and from there they removed to Troupe County, and in 1829, when our subject was but a few months old, they removed to what is now Marshall County, Alabama, and from there to the Cherokee country of the same State, where they made their future home, Mrs Clifton dying November 19, 1862, and Mr. Clifton May 12, 1864. The former was a consistent member of the Methodist Church from thirteen years of age. Mr. Clifton was a farmer by occupation. He was tax collector at one time, and for many years was Justice of the Peace. He was a soldier with General Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was also with General Andrew Jackson in the war of 1812. He was a man of more than ordinary education for his day, being a graduate of Athens College in Georgia, and a classmate of the late distinguished Howell Cobb. His parents were George and Elizabeth (Floyd) Clifton, who were probably natives of Delaware, but removed to Georgia in an early day, where they spent the rest of their lives. Mr. Clifton and six brothers served through the war for independence, and but two of them ever returned. They were sons of Nehemiah Clifton, who probably died in Delaware. Our subject's maternal grandparents were John and E. (Philips) Nixon, who removed from Virginia to Georgia when Mrs. Clifton was about thirteen years of age. Here they spent their future lives. Mr. Nixon was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His father was Edward Nixon. The subject of our sketch was reared in the wilds of Alabama, with no advantages whatever for an education, and reaching his majority could not write his name. For some years he was the main support of his parents, but in 1857 he came to Arkansas spending the first two years in Prairie County working at the carpenter trade. He then, in 1859, came to Conway County and engaged in farming till the war broke out, when he at once espoused the cause of the Confederacy, and in August, 1861, enlisted in Company I of the First Arkansas Mounted Infantry, and during the first year operated in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas, participating in the battles of Oak Hill and Pea Ridge. He was then transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, and fought at Corinth, Farmington, Richmond, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and in the Georgia campaign to Dug Gap near Dalton, Georgia, where he was severely wounded in the right hand, which rendered him ineffective for further field service, and he was placed in the ordnance department, where he did service till the close of the war. His command disbanded at Marshall, Texas, in the summer of 1865 after over four years of hardship and suffering for the Confederate cause. He was wounded seven times, and was twice captured in one day during the engagement at Oak Hill, but was recaptured by his own men a few moments after. After the war he returned to Conway County and resumed farming. In 1869 he united in marriage with Mrs. Mary T. McClung, a daughter of John L. and Sarah Moose, whose sketch is in another place. Mrs. Clifton was born in Fayette County, Tennessee, 1828, and is the mother of three children by her first husband, one of whom survives, a son. James H. In 1880 Mr. Clifton erected a fine brick business block in Morrilton, and from about 1884 till 1887 was engaged in merchandising, the firm being Clifton & McClung. In 1874 and 1875 he was Deputy Sheriff, and in 1876 was elected Sheriff of Conway County, in which official position he served two years. He ranks among the most, enterprising real estate owners of the county, being the owner of about 1100 acres of land besides considerable real estate in Morrilton. He began life with nothing of this world's goods, and he owes his success to his economy, good management and close attention to his business. He has led a peaceable, quiet and uneventful life, always a total abstainer from intoxicants, and an earnest worker for the cause of sobriety and temperance; has affiliated with the Democratic party all his life, voting for every presidential candidate of that party from Pierce to Cleveland, except McClellan-1864. He holds membership in the F. and A. M., Lewisburg Lodge, No. 105; was once Worshipful Master and other minor positions; was once King of the Royal Arch Chapter; is also member of the K. of P., Hermion Lodge, and an active worker in the Methodist Church, South, for thirty-eight years. Mrs. Clifton has been a devout member of the same church for about thirty four years.