Biography of William Bridges, Randolph Co, AR *********************************************************** Submitted by: Bridgette Cohen Date: 1998 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************** SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas Copyrighted and Published 1889 by Goodspeed Publishing Company William Bridges. In any worthy history of the county the name that heads this sketch will always be given an enviable place among the leading citizens of the county, and its self-made agriculturists. Mr. Bridges is a native of Randolph County, having been born here November 18, 1827, and is the seventh of ten children, three of whom are now living, the other two being Martha, wife of William Fry, a farmer of this county, and Nancy, born to the marriage of John Bridges and Cynthia Spivey. Both parents were born in the "Old North State," and the father died in Randolph County, Ark., when about forty-four years of age, the mother dying in Fulton, while on a visit several years after the war. After their marriage, which occurred in their native State, they came to this part of Arkansas, it being then a Territory, and engaged in farming, which occupation proved quite successful. Game of all kinds was quite plentiful at that time, and Indians were also numerous, but they never molested the Bridges family, although many of the other settlers suffered severely at their hands. Mr. Bridges was a lifelong Democrat, and he and wife were members of the Presbyterian Church. William Bridges remained with his parents until their deaths, and has been a farmer all his life. In 1861 his farming operations being interrupted by the opening of the Rebellion, he laid down his farming implements to take up the weapons of warfare, and enlisted in Capt. Wright's company, Col. William Patterson's infantry, Confederate States Army, and served until the close of the war, his regiment being the first to cross the Mississippi River. He was at the battles of Shiloh and Perryville, and also participated in a number of skirmishes. Since returning home from the army he has been engaged in farming and stock raising, and from starting in life with not so much as a good suit of clothes, he has become one of the heaviest tax payers in the county, and now owns 773 acres of some of the best land of which the county can boast. He has long been a Democrat, and is one of the enterprising citizens of the county. His marriage with Elizabeth Wells took place July 21, 1864, she having been born in Randolph County, Ark., a daughter of Hugh Wells. To them were born five children, now living: Elizabeth, William W., Margaret, Hugh and Nevada. John died March 10, 1889, at the age of twenty-one years; George died December 30, 1888, in his seventeenth year; Emily died December 15, 1888, when twenty-four years of age, the wife of George Wells; Hugh died when thirteen years old; Samuel when three years of age, and two infant daughters are deceased. Mr. Bridges, like his father, is a Democrat, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.