My Genealogy Hound

Col. M. F. Locke, planter, miller and merchant, of Alma, was born near Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1826, and is a son of William and Margeret (Bowman) Locke. The parents were natives of North Carolina, where they were probably married, soon after removing to Rutherford County, Tenn., where the father died in 1831 and the mother in 1881, respectively. Mr. Locke’s grandfather was of Irish descent, and his father commanded the “Murfreesboro Blues” at the battle of the Horseshoe Bend, in the War of 1812. The mother was a daughter of Col. Sam Bowman, of near old Jefferson, Tenn. Our subject, with an elder brother, was the main support of the family during his youth, and he consequently received but a common-school education. In 1849 he married Elizabeth Buie,, who died in Texas in 1864, whither Mr. Locke had gone in 1850. The following year he married Narcissa A. Montgomery. By his first wife he had six children, all of whom are living. Mr. Locke is a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for J. K. Polk. In 1852 he was elected a member of the Lower House in the Texas Legislature, and served until 1859. In 1856 and 1857 he was speaker. In 1860 he was elected to the State Senate, but in 1861 resigned, and was made colonel of the Third Texas State Regiment Cavalry, nine months after being transferred to the Tenth Texas Dismounted Cavalry, Confederate States Army, which he commanded until the close of the war. At the beginning of his service he had 1,200 men under his command, and at the end only sixty-five men were paroled. He participated in the battles at Farmington, Corinth, Richmond, Ky., Mansfield, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Dalton, and was through the entire Georgia and Atlanta campaign. His command was discharged at Meridian, Miss. In the winter of 1865-66 he came to Crawford County, Ark., and in 1868 purchased land upon the present site of Alma, which town he helped to found in 1872, and where he has been a prominent citizen ever since. For some years he was engaged in the mercantile business, and for a year and a half edited the Alma Democrat. He is now largely engaged in farming and the milling and gin business, having several cotton-gins and a flour and corn-mill at Alma. He is also the owner of 1,000 acres of land, and is considered one of the successful citizens of the county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and belongs to the Alma Lodge, No. 43. His wife, who died in 1886, was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and he is also a member of that denomination. During the Mexican War he served in the First Mississippi Regiment under Jeff. Davis.