My Genealogy Hound

Capt. William Paisley, one of Clark County's leading citizens and a prominent merchant, was born in Caswell County, N. C, at a noted place known as the Red House (noted for the reason that it was built in colonial times), April 28, 1842, the son of Rev. John and Eliza D. (Bradshaw) Paisley, natives of Guilford, N. C., and Greene County, Tenn., respectively. Rev. John Paisley was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, finishing his education at the theological seminary at Princeton, N. J. His ministerial duties were in North Carolina. He died near Hillsboro, N. C, in August, 1845, in his thirty-eighth year. He was the son of John Paisley, a well-to-do farmer of North Carolina. His old homestead still belongs to the Paisley family, having been handed down from generation to generation. The Paisley family are of Scotch descent, their ancestors having come to America about 1745, first locating in Pennsylvania, and afterward in North Carolina. John Paisley, the great-grandfather of our subject, served as colonel of an American regiment in the Revolutionary War, and died in North Carolina. The family as far back as can be traced have been Presbyterians. The Bradshaw family are of English descent. Mrs. Paisley was the daughter of Rev. C. C. Bradshaw, also a Presbyterian minister. She died in Dobyville, Ark., in 1880, at the age of fifty-nine years. After her husband's death, she was married in Leesburg, N. C, in 1847, to Capt. L. D. Lipscomb, a tailor by occupation, and the same year came to Dallas County, Ark., and settled at what was then known as Brownsville, afterward known as Tulip. Capt. Lipscomb is now living in Pine Bluff, but will soon make his home with his son, the subject of this sketch. To Eliza Bradshaw's union with Rev. John Paisley were born three children, the oldest of whom, John C., died when he was five years old, soon after the death of his father, leaving William, the subject of this sketch, and a sister, now Mrs. Mary A. H. Hall, wife of W. W. Hall, as the only surviving children. The subject of this sketch spent his school days at Tulip, Dallas County, and when but fourteen years of age commenced to help support the family, entering the employ of Maj. Alexander Butler as salesman, at Tulip, in whose employ he remained until Juno 25, 1861, when he cast his lot with the Confederate cause and joined the Tulip Rifles, which afterward became Company I, Third Arkansas Infantry, organized at Lynchburg, Va. He remained with this regiment until he was wounded at Sharpsburg, Md., and was discharged from active duty in May, 1862, and after that was given employment at Charlotte, N. C., in the medical purveying department, under Dr. T. J. Johnson, where he remained until the close of the war. While he was in rank he was in the battles of Greenbriar River, then at Copin Creek, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; was on the reserve at the Seven Pines, and on the reserve at the seven days around Richmond, and at Sharpsburg, where he was wounded. At the close of the war he purchased a horse on credit, at Charlotte, N. C., and rode home to Arkansas, and commenced to farm in Dallas County. In the September following he received some money from his old employer, to use in trading, for half the profit. He purchased cotton and sold it in St. Louis and made some money on it, and with a limited capital commenced the mercantile business at Tulip, remaining in the general merchandise business until the following year. He continued here until 1867 when he moved to Dobyville, Clark County, and resumed mercantile business with Mr. Joseph Doby. In 188B he came to Gurdon, and engaged in the mercantile business at this place, carrying a stock of goods valued at from $10,000 to $12,000, and has since done a very large business. October 18, 1866, he was married to Miss Emma E. Butler, daughter of his former employer, Maj. Alexander Butler. She was born in Henderson County, N. C, October 30, 1844, and died in Gurdon, January 16, 1887. She was the mother of nine children, viz.: John A. (now at Arkansas College, at Batesville), William B. (in the store), Emma E. (at home), Henry L., Mary E., Martha W., Lula G., James I. Annie O. died when not quite a year old. November 15, 1888, Mr. Paisley was married a second time, this time wedding Miss Martha O. Bland, of Nottoway County, Va., born June 30, 1855. Mr. and Mrs. Paisley are worthy members of the Old School Presbyterian Church, of which the former is an elder. Politically he sides with the Democratic party. Capt. Paisley is one of the prominent citizens of Gurdon, and takes an active interest in educational and religious matters, his liberality in all public enterprises being unsurpassed.