My Genealogy Hound

Wiley J. Westmoreland, farmer and stock raiser, is a son of William and Annie (Bridges) Westmoreland, natives of Georgia, William’s father being a native of Westmoreland County, Va. Wiley J. was born March 16, 1833, in Georgia, being the eldest of a family of twelve, four of whom are still living in Arkansas. Our subject was raised on a farm, and never engaged in any other business than farming. He came to Arkansas with his parents in 1857, and made his first purchase of land, a forty-acre tract, in 1859, in White County. About twenty acres were cultivated; he put in one crop, and in the fall of that year sold it, after which he rented land, which he worked till 1862, when he enlisted in the Thirty-fourth Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, participating in the Prairie Grove battle in 1862, the battle of Helena in 1863, and also the battles of Pleasant Hill and Jenkins’ Ferry, and served faithfully till May 5, 1865, when he returned home, having been under Gen. Kirby’s command, Pierce’s division. On his return, he rented a farm in Barren Township, where he lived till 1868, when he bought the farm upon which he now lives. At the present time, he has forty acres under cultivation, and raises good grades of horses, cattle and hogs. In 1885 Mr. Westmoreland married Mrs. Sarah (Gray) Swick, who has one child, Susan Naomi Swick. They have had no children. Mr. Westmoreland has served his township as school director for five years, and in May last was elected for a term of three years. In politics, he is a Democrat, and with his wife, belongs to the Missionary Baptist Church of Denmark, a small village of Barren Township.