GOODSPEED BIOGRAPHIES
Contributed by Charlene Holland
WILLIAM ARRINGTON
William Arrington, farmer, Cedar Creek, Ark. William Arrington is the son of Charles and Narcissa Ann Arrington, and was born in Cherokee County, Ala., on March 12,1835. The father was a farmer, and owned considerable land in Cherokee County. The mother died in 1840, and the father received his final summons when our subject was fifteen years of age. The latter's opportunities for an education were limited, and after his father's death he hired out to work on a farm, which occupation he continued until the opening of the war. In 1857 he went to Montgomery County, Ark., and, there in September, 1861, he was married to Miss Jane Salliers, who died but little over a year afterward, childless. Mr. Arrington enlisted in Company A, Tappan's regiment of Arkansas Infantry and was in service four years. During the most of this time he was wagon- master, and had charge of the transportation train. In 1866 he was married to Mrs. Jane Lawrence, widow of Joseph P. Lawrence, who was killed in the battle of Franklin, Tenn. Mrs. Arrington's maiden name was Miss Jane Morgan, daughter of Thomas P. and Fanny Morgan, of South Carolina. Soon after marriage Mr. Arrington moved from Montgomery County, where he had lived since the war, to this county, and in 1871 he homesteaded the place where he now lives, buying out the claims of others until he had 240 acres. When he first came here he had, in money and stock, about $500. He began improving the place by erecting a good hewn-log house, cleared and fenced the land, and from that time to this he and family have never been off the place but one year, and then for the purpose of giving the children better opportunities for an education. Mr. Arrington now has 100 acres under cultivation, a good, comfortable house, 34 x 46 feet, substantial stables, and all his land fenced. His principal crops are oats, corn, cotton and potatoes. His crops are good, oats yielding about fifty bushels to the acre, and cotton is yielding three-fourths of a bale to the acre this year (1890), although he has cotton that yields more than a bale to the acre. He is the owner of some fine timber, consisting of oak, pine, elm, ash and walnut. His land lies along Cedar Creek, and is very fertile. Mr. Arrington is quite extensively engaged in the raising of stock, having some fine cattle and hogs, as well as horses and mules. He has five living children - four sons and one daughter: Narcissa Ann, James A., William R., Charles and Thomas P. James is married and lives in the western part of the county. His wife, Margaret, is the daughter of John and Nancy Jane Robertson of Cauthron, this county, and his union was blessed by two children, a girl, named Zella Ann, and a son, John William. Mr. Arrington and family are devout church members, and take an active part in the promotion of church and school interests. Mr. Arrington is a self-made man in every sense of the word, and has never had any help from outside sources. He is a Democrat in politics.