Biography of William Albert Collins - Conway Co, AR

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Submitted by: Cathy Barnes <bbarnes@cswnet.com>
        Date: 21 Jun 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.

page 55

William Albert Collins, a thrifty farmer of Howard Township, was born in Wayne
County, Missouri, March 18, 1853, and is a son of Pinckney C. and Polly Ann
(Jones) Collins, who were natives of Alabama and Wayne County, Missouri,
respectively. When young. Mr. Collins went with several of his brothers and
sisters to Wayne County, Missouri, where he married and spent the remainder of
his life as a successful farmer and stock raiser. In June, 1862, he enlisted in
the enrolled Missouri Militia, and was killed in the battle of Hog Creek, in
Bollinger County, Missouri, in August of the same year. Mrs. Collins met her
untimely death in April, 1861, being killed in a storm by a falling tree, while
going from the spring to the house. They were the parents of four sons and two
daughters, of whom four are living. William A., our subject; Ellen, wife of A.
H. Hoves, of Madison County, Missouri; Joseph P. and Adeline, wife of John Shock
of Faulkner County. After the death of his father William A. lived with his
cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth Brantley, till his majority, when he spent a short time
in Illinois railroading. He then returned to Missouri and engaged in farming,
but in January, 1874, went to Faulkner County, Arkansas, and the year following,
(1875), came to Conway County, where he was married the same year to Miss Mary
E., daughter of Johnson and Harriet Guess, who were natives respectively of
South Carolina and Mississippi. Married in the latter State, and in 1857 removed
to St. Francis County, Arkansas, and the following came to Conway County, where
Mr. Guess died in 1879; wife died in 1882 at the age of 53 years. Mr. Guess was
a distiller and farmer. Mrs. Collins was born in St. Francis County, Arkansas,
and is the mother of seven children (one deceased.) Mr. Collins rented land two
years, but in 1877 homesteaded his present farm two miles north of Plummerville,
and now has about forty-five acres under a fine state of cultivation, '55 in
all. This is the reward he has received for his honest toil. Politically he is a
Democrat, and is Tyler of Howard Lodge, No. 253, A. F. and A. M., at
Plummerville. Mr. and Mrs. Collins are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.