My Genealogy Hound

Willis W. Nolen, farmer and general trader, was born in Madison County, Tenn., in 1827, and is a son of James and Nancy (Anderson) Nolen, natives of South Carolina, who, after their marriage, removed to West Tennessee in an early day. In 1847 they removed to Hempstead County, Ark., where the mother died in 1865 and the father in 1875. They were members of the Methodist and Baptist Churches, respectively. James Nolen, the grandfather of our subject, served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and was a son of Irish parents. Willis W. was the fourth of a family of four sons and three daughters. At the age of seventeen he left home to work on a farm in Hempstead County, Ark. In 1849 he married Susan, daughter of Andrew and Rachel Henderson, a native of Illinois. Mr. Henderson died in that State, and the family afterward came to Arkansas, prior to 1844. The mother died in Texas. In 1869 Mr. Nolen came to Sebastian County, and until 1880 farmed and traded at various places. He then engaged in the mercantile business at Lavaca with M. Harwood for two years, after which he continued in business alone until retiring in the winter of 1887-88. He is one of the wealthy business men of the town, and himself and wife are highly respected members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. During the war he served nearly four years in the Confederate army. He was one year in Company E, Twentieth Arkansas Infantry, and afterward in Bryant’s regiment of cavalry. He operated in Arkansas, Mississippi and Indian Territory and was discharged in the Territory at the close of the war. Besides many skirmishes he participated in the battles at Vicksburg and Corinth, and accompanied Steele through Arkansas. He was formerly a Whig in politics, and cast his first presidential vote for Gen. Taylor, but since the war has been a Democrat.