My Genealogy Hound

Capt. W. E. Lacy, a prominent farmer, residing three miles southwest of El Dorado, is the fourth in a family of seven children born to the marriage of Rev. William S. and Janlia A. (Eldridge) Lacy, the father a native of Virginia, and the mother of New Hampshire. The ancestors of the Lacy family came to America in 1703, and Thomas Lacy was the great great-grandfather of our subject. The grandfather, Drury Lacy, D. D., was a prominent Presbyterian minister of Virginia, in Revolutionary days, and was a professor in the College of Hamden Lyden of Virginia. In this college William S., father of our subject, received his education and studied law under John Randolph, of Roanoke. Before he began the practice of his profession he experienced religion, and began making preparation for the ministry, beginning to preach at the age of twenty-six years. In 1817 he removed to Missouri, and was one of the pioneers of the Presbyterian Church in that State. He followed a ministerial life here, preaching in many important places until 1836, when he removed to Tennessee, and settled in Giles County, where he was active in his ministerial duties. In March, 1845, he came to Arkansas, settled near New London for a few mouths, and in December of that year, came to El Dorado. Here, with Mrs. Lacy, he started the first school of that place. He drew students to his school from distant parts of Arkansas and Louisiana, kept this school for two years, and then moved to a farm one mile west of El Dorado. He organized the churches of Camden, Mount Holly, El Dorado, Scotland and Ebenezer, and while teaching served all these churches. He continued in active church work until the outbreak of the war, and then lived a retired life until his death in 1880, at the age of ninety years. Capt. W. E. Lacy was born in Fayette County, Tenn., on December 30, 1839, and divided his time in youth between assisting on the farm, and in attending the common country schools, where he remained until sixteen years of age. He then superintended his father’s farm until hostilities between the North and South began, when he enlisted in the first company raised in Union County, Company A, under Capt. Morgan, and was attached to the First Arkansas Infantry Regiment. He was in the first battle of Manassas, Va., Shiloh, and at this last named desperate struggle all the officers of this company were killed or wounded, and Mr. Lacy was appointed by the colonel as lieutenant, securing commission from Jefferson Davis for gallantry. He was then at the battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro, receiving a wound at the last-named place which still troubles him. After this he was not in active service on account of this wound, but became captain of the company. He was in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and did mostly post duty until the close of the war. Subsequently he began farming in 1865, was married to Miss Sallie Holcombe, a native of Mississippi. In 1868 he bought a farm of 120 acres in the woods on credit, and began clearing and improving. In 1880 he added 120 acres more, and now has ninety acres under cultivation, a good orchard, two tenement houses, and the timber of the uncleared is the best. Mr. Lacy died in 1889, and left seven children: Julia Estella (died at the age of two years), George Holcombe (is now attending a theological college at Batesville, Ark.), Mary, William Sterling, Eugenia, Annie, Sallie and Watson Mosley. Capt. Lacy was married, the second time, in 1890 to Mrs. Lizzie Woos, nee Arnold, daughter of John Arnold, who was a native of Prussia, and a millwright and machinist by trade. He was a pioneer of this county, and died in 1886. Capt. Lacy and his first wife were members of the Presbyterian Church, but the present Mrs. Lacy is a member of the Baptist Church. The Captain is a member of the Masonic fraternity, El Dorado Lodge No. 13, and is a pleasant, sociable gentleman.