Freestone County, Texas
Biographies




Biography of William Albert Cobb
      (17 Feb 1829-19 Jun 1910, buried Wortham Cemetery)

Book - Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, 
Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas.  Lewis Publishing Company, 
Chicago, 1893.  p. 415-416.

"
   W. A. Cobb, Collector of Freestone county and an old citizen of the same, was 
a son of James A. and Maria Cobb. The father was a native of Georgia and a
representative of the distinguished Cobb family of that State. The mother was a
daughter of John Pillow and a native of Virginia. The parents were married in 
Giles county, Tennessee, and in that county our subject was born, February 17, 
1829, and is the third in the family of eight children, only two of whom are now
living, these being the subject, and Mary A., the wife of J. A. Tacker, of 
Freestone county. Two brothers, Wilson A. and Mack were killed in the Confederate
service in the late war.
   Our subject was reared in his native county, growing up on a farm, and married 
in that county September 16, 1847, Arry Ann Edmonson, a daughter of Thomas and 
Marta Edmoson. Mrs. Cobb was a native of North Carolina, but was reared in 
Tennessee, to which State her parents moved when she was young. In 1851, in 
company with R. F. Buchannan and George R. Beaver of Giles county, Mr. Cobb came
to Texas and settled in Freestone county, taking up his residence on the farm of 
Mrs. Catherine Williams, near Cotton Gin. 
   A year or two later Mr. Buchannan returned to Tennessee, Beaver moved on west
to Palo Pinto county, where he afterward became a wealthy man, and Mr. Cobb 
resided on the farm of Mrs. Williams for three years. At the end of this time he
purchased 320 acres of land on Cedar creek in the southwest part of Freestone
county, on which he settled and improved. After a residence there of four years
he sold and bought another tract, consisting of 23 acres in the George Lamb 
survey, south of his first purchase, and moved to this place and improved it.
All of this was open country and without any improvement whatever. He resided
here and engaged in farming until the opening of the war, and then entered the
Confederate service, enlisting in February, 1862, in Company H, Twenty-eighth
Texas cavalry.  On the organization of his company he was elected Second 
Lieutenant, was subsequently promoted to First Lieutenant, and during the greater
part of the war commanded his company. He served in the Trans-Mississippi 
department and was in most of the campaigns and engagements in Arkansas and 
Louisana, notably those following the expeditions of Steele and Banks into these
States. He was actively in the service from the date of his enlistment until the 
surrender, and was discharged at Hempstead, Texas, in May, 1865, and immediately
returned home, where he took up his pursuits on the farm and followed them 
uninterruptedly until 1882.
   At the date above mentioned our subject was elected Collector of Freestone 
County, which office he has since held by re-election. At an earlier date, as far
back as 1858, Mr. Cobb was elected Justice of the Peace and County Commissioner,
which offices he held at the opening of the war. He was re-elected to the office
of Commissioner in 1866 and held that office until he was removed under 
reconstruction measures. Being elected Justice again in 1873, he held that office 
until 1880, when he was elected Collector, having served as Justice all sixteen
years in the county.
   Although Mr. Cobb has thus had much to do with the law, it has always been as 
an official administrator of it not as a party litigant. He never instituted but
one suit against any one himself, and was never sued but once, and that was as a
suit in which he confessed judgment, etc., as soon as notified of its being filed.
He was never under arrest in his life either by civil or military authority. His 
life has been a blameless one in this respect and a very correct one in other
respects. No criticism has ever been made upon his private or public record, he
being spoken of in terms only of highest praise. 
   Mr. Cobb was married, as above stated, in Tennessee, four years prior to his 
removal to Texas. There were two children in the family, when they came to this
State, and seven have been born since, the names of the children being: Ellen,
who now is the widow of Joseph Betts and resides in Freestone county; Cap, a
farmer of this county; Mary, who is the wife of Charles Archer of this county;
Lafayette Monroe, a farmer of this county; Martha was the wife of Willing Radford,
but is now deceased; Emma J., who is the wife of John L. Lambert; and Parmelia, 
who was the wife of Sidney Jones, but is now deceased; Nora, who became the wife
of J. P. Archer; and Della who is yet at home with her parents.
   Mr. Cobb and family are members of the Christian Church, and he has for more
than thirty years been a member of the Masonic fraternity. "