Ouachita-Bradley County ArArchives Biographies.....Martin, William Thomas 1851 - 
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Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

JUDGE WILLIAM THOMAS MARTIN.
    Judge William Thomas Martin, attorney at law of Camden, was born in
Carthage, Lake county, Mississippi, July 16, 1851, and is of Scotch-Irish
descent. He is a son of James S. and Jane (Mann) Martin, the former a native of
South Carolina and the latter of Alabama. They were married in Carthage,
Mississippi, and in 1856 came to Arkansas, settling in Bradley county, where the
father purchased a plantation, bringing his slaves with him to this state and
carrying on the work of developing his place with their aid. His wife died when
their son, Judge Martin, was but two years of age. The father afterward married
a sister of his first wife, Penina Mann. He died in 1884 at the age of
sixty-three years.

    Judge Martin pursued his early education in the common schools of Bradley
county and was fortunate in having among his instructors Professor Hogue, a
noted educator of that day. In his youth he began reading law and finished his
studies under the preceptorship of Colonel Ben Johnson of Camden, being admitted
to the bar in 1888. Prior to this time he had been engaged in farming with the
exception of the year 1876, when he was employed by an uncle, G. D. Bustaumante
of Jackson, Mississippi, in the machinery business. After his admission to the
bar he maintained a law office in Camden but lived on the farm and continued to
have the place cultivated with the aid of others. In 1888 he went on the road as
a representative of the Memphis Appeal Avalanche, a prominent newspaper of the
south, continuing with that publication for six years, following which he was
with the Scimitar of Memphis for a year. Later he went to Nashville, Tennessee,
and took charge of the circulation department of the Nashville Sun upon the
organization of that paper, with which he remained for a year. He had made a
splendid record as an advertising man and by reason of this he decided to engage
in the advertising business on his own account, his operations covering the
entire country east of the Rocky mountains through a period of sixteen years,
during which time he became one of the best known advertising men of the United
States. In 1904, however, he left the road and that year was elected county
judge of Ouachita county. During his term of office, in the face of strong
opposition from west of the river, he induced the court to allow a one-mill
assessment as a sinking fund to build the Ouachita bridge at Camden, and before
the expiration of his term of office he appointed the commissioners and the
bridge was built during the following term at a cost of sixty thousand dollars
and was named the Martin bridge, in honor of Judge Martin. It is a public
improvement of the greatest value to the community, as even those who opposed
the move now acknowledge. Judge Martin, in 1912, originated a plan to build a
number of parallel levees a mile or less apart, back from the Mississippi river
to the mainland from above Cairo to above New Orleans, as spillways to let the
water through in an overflow, when it gets above the danger line, into the
rivers and bayous and smaller streams in the Mississippi valley, not allowing
enough to go through to overflow their banks, which would relieve the pressure
on the main levees on the Mississippi river front during a big overflow, being a
kind of safety valve for the water above the danger line. This method would
throw most of the water from the western watershed through the Atchafalaya river
into the Gulf, and a good deal of the water on the eastern side of the river
through Lake Pontchartrain into the Gulf. This was published as a front page
item by the St. Louis Republic and later published by all the leading newspapers
of the south and by this means was called to the attention of the government.
The measure was discussed in congress and congratulatory letters were written
him by the war department with the compliments of President William H. Taft. He
has always been a close student of public needs and opportunities and has ever
stood for progress and all that pertains to the general welfare.

    In November, 1876, Judge Martin was united in marriage to Miss Emma V.
Broughton of Camden, Arkansas, and they have become the parents of seven
children, six of whom are living: Henry S., a real estate man of Fort Worth,
Texas; Margaret, the wife of Napoleon L. Broughton of Pinewood, South Carolina;
Lucy, the wife of the Rev. Thomas Harkin, chaplain of the United States army now
stationed at Riverside, California; Charles M., an attorney at law, associated
in practice with his father; Lillian, the wife of E. B. McConnell, a commercial
salesman of Tulsa, Oklahoma;  Willie L., who became the wife of Joe F. Arnold of
Fort Worth, and died in 1919, leaving a daughter, Josephine, who is being reared
by her grandparents, Judge and Mrs. Martin; and Annie, not married.

    In addition to his home in Camden, Judge Martin has extensive land holdings
in Bradley and Ouachita counties. He is giving the major part of his attention,
however, to the practice of law and has gained a large clientage here since his
retirement from the bench. He prepares his cases with great thoroughness and
care and his presentation of a cause is always clear and forceful. Fraternally
he is connected with Camden Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and also with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, while his religious faith is that of the Methodist
Episcopal church, South. He is widely known by reason of the important work that
he has done, not only along professional lines but in the way of public
improvement, and he is accounted one of the most substantial and valued citizens
of Ouachita county and one of the best scientists and writers in Arkansas.


Additional Comments:

Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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