My Genealogy Hound

W. T. Lane, sheriff and collector of Craighead County, was born in Greene (now Craighead) County, December 30, 1850, and is a son of Thomas J. and Mary (Hughes) Lane, the father a native of Illinois, and the mother of Tennessee. Thomas Lane emigrated with his father, William Lane, to Arkansas about 1840, and located ten miles south of the present site of Jonesboro. They were among the first settlers of this section. William Lane engaged in mercantile business, and in rafting on the St. Francis River, in both of which he was very successful. He never returned from his last trip on the raft, and the cause of his death is uncertain. The body was recovered almost two years later, and was identified by his suspender buckles and raft auger. While a resident of Illinois, he was a colonel of a regiment of State militia, and held a commission as lieutenant under Gen. Jackson. His son, Thomas J. Lane, was a stock dealer and general trader, owning also a small farm. He died in 1858, and his wife in 1860. Both were estimable and greatly respected citizens. They were the parents of but one child, W. T. Lane, the immediate subject of this sketch, who, left an orphan in infancy, was reared by his grandmother Lane, now in her eighty-sixth year. He received a common-school education, and so far as his means would allow, became engaged in farming and stock dealing. He made his home with his grandmother until 1880, when he was elected sheriff and collector, to which office he has been re-elected each ensuing election. At Summerville, Tenn., in December, of 1887, he was united in marriage with Miss Mattie Thurman, a native of that State, and to them has been born one child, now deceased. Mr. Lane possesses extraordinary stability of character and perseverance, and being eminently qualified for the position which he holds, fills it satisfactorily to his constituents.