My Genealogy Hound

William D. Safley is well known and highly respected throughout Buffalo Island Township as one of its worthy and intelligent citizens, public-spirited and of sterling integrity. He was born in Stanley County, N. C., in 1851, and is a son of William B. and Mary Ann (Biles) Safley, natives of North Carolina, where they were reared, educated and married. In 1859 they came to East Tennessee, locating on a farm in Cocke County, where he died, but not until after espousing the Southern cause, and serving valiantly in the Confederate army. The mother and family came to Craighead County, Ark., in 1869, and located in Powell Township, where they remained for several years. In 1881 Mrs. Safley started for Oregon, where she died the day after reaching Eugene City, May 22 of the same year. She was a member of the Baptist Church, and well-liked by all who knew her. Mr. and Mrs. Safley were the parents of nine children, all of whom lived to maturity, and eight of whom are still living. They were Mrs. Sarah E. Jackson (deceased), Thomas F., Mrs. Mary L. Heritage, Alexander W., William D. (the immediate subject of this sketch), Julius H., Mrs. Rebecca E. Cox, Mrs. Margaret A. Yarbrough and Mrs. Edosia J. Hawthorne. William D. is the fifth child, and has made his home in this State since 1869. When twenty-four years of age he chose as his life companion Anna E. Stoddard, a native of this State, who died March 16, 1888, leaving a family of five children: David E. (deceased), Sarah M., Joseph F., Rosa Lee and Lillie May. Mr. Safley has since married Mrs. Sarah E. Meachiem, nee Foster, a native of Tennessee, who was the mother of two children by her former marriage. One of them, Willie, is deceased; the other, James E., lives with his parents. Mrs. Safley is a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Safley made a trip to Oregon and other points in 1888, and has seen a great deal of the world.