SHELBY COUNTY TN - Obituaries - William King Poston  1910

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August 2001



Obituary from CONFEDERATE VETERAN, Vol. XVIII, No. 10, August 1910



Obituary:  WILLIAM KING POSTON



"Strange, is it not, that of the myriads who Before us passed the door of

darkness through Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we

must travel too?"



Perhaps no more lovable character than William King Poston has left the

Memphis bar.  He was born in Memphis, Shelby County, Tenn., October 2, 1844;

and died April 18, 1910.  He enlisted in the Confederate army at the beginning

of the Civil War, in 1861, in Company A, 4th Tennesse Regiment, served in the

same command as a private throughout the war except when in prison at

Johnson's Island (a persecution worse than war), and was wounded at Shiloh and

Missionary Ridge.  As a soldier--a mere youth--he made a record of which his

comrades were proud and which his family cherishes as a precious memory.



At the close of the war (in 1866) he entered upon the practice of law at

Memphis.  He was the senior member of the well-known firm of Poston, Hume &

Scott, afterwards Poston & Poston.  When the dark days of war were over and

had ended in the sunlight of peace, he was not only a true citizen, but the

true counsel of his clients and an able, conservative lawyer.  None knew him

so well as the brethren of his profession, and none admired him more.  Cool,

clear-headed, fearless, able, honest, and faithful, he was a power before the

courts. An extraordinary memory of cases made him not only strong with the

bench, but a dangerous antagonist at the bar.  A battle with him was a fight

to the finish.



Thoughtful, kind, and cultured, he was true to those he loved.  He was an

optimist, and his charity for humanity was broad and limitless.  His

sufferings were of long duration, but he bore them patiently, without murmur.



A friend adds these lines in tribute:  [followed by five verses of a poem not

herein transcribed]