Biography of William A Council, St Francis County, AR *********************************************************** Submitted by: Paul V Isbell Date: 14 Nov 2008 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************** Transcribed by Lisa Hamilton from ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago:Goodspeed Publishers, 1890. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The village of Council Bend was named after Redwick Council, who built the first house in that locality, and who was the grandfather of the subject of this biography. His son Simeon, was born in North Caroliina, in 1805, and removed to Arkansas in April, 1822, settling in Crittenden county for a short time and then removed to Walnut Bend on the Mississippi River, being married in St. Francis county, in 1827, to Rebecca Lane, who was born in Alabama in April, 1811. He died in April 1848, and his wife in 1879. They were the parents of eleven children, three of whom are still living: Allen (a farmer of St. Francis county), Mary J. (now Mrs. McKay, of Hood County, Texas), and William A. The latter was reared in this county and began life for himself at the age of nineteen. He was born here on December 28, 1847, and was married, February 22, 1874, to Miss Anna M. Smith, who died in July of that year. The following April, Miss Elizabeth Filingim became his wife, who died April 22, 1881, leaving one child, now deceased. Mr. Council's third matrimonial venture was in February 1883, to Miss Margaret L. Hubbard, of Alabama nativity, who died two years later, having borne one child, that died in infancy. He joined the Union army at the age of 16, enlisting in the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Infantry, participating in the battles of Buzzard's Roost, Big Shanty, Kenesaw Montain, Atlanta, and a number of others. After the conflict Mr. Council went to Wisconsin, and remained two years, then returning to Arkansas and settling in St. Francis County. He is now engaged in the timber business in connection with farming, and owns 160 acres on the St. Francis river, which is very fertile and well timbered.