WILLIAM LOURY McPHERSON

From History of Texas, Published in 1896

WILLIAM LOURY McPHERSON is a representative of one of the prominent pioneer families of Hood County, and his long identification with its interests has been such as to advance its material welfare and all that pertains to its upbuilding and progress. He was born in Alabama on the 3d of May 1840, and is a son of Dr. S.R. McPherson, the pioneer physician, who was so long a leading medical practitioner of Hood County. Our subject was reared in Arkansas and Missouri, and became familiar with all the duties that fall to the lot of the agriculturist, while assisting his father in the development of the home farm and in working as a farm hand in the neighborhood near his home. After the removal to Texas he also engaged in clerking in Acton.

Feeling that his duty was to his country, he laid aside all business cares in 1863 and joined the Union army. Acknowledging the supremacy of the United States government above all else, he went to its defense when the attempt at secession was made, and on the 2d of September joined the "boys in blue." He was assigned to Company E, Second Arkansas Infantry, Third Division, Seventh Army Corps, and served throughout the remainder of the war, being honorably discharged on the 8th of August 1865, at Clarksville, Arkansas. He was a valiant and brave soldier, always found at his post of duty, and now that the trouble is over and the country is once more at peace, he quietly performs his duties of citizenship in his adopted county, deeply interested in all that pertains to its welfare.

Mr. McPherson continued to make his home in Arkansas until 1875, when he returned to Texas and resumed farming, which he still follows with good success. He possesses the determined, persevering nature necessary to the successful agriculturist, and his energy and good management have made his business profitable. His health, impaired in the army, has never been fully restored and the government therefore grants him a pension.

On the 1^st of December, 1859, Mr. McPherson was united in marriage with Miss Rachel A. Means, a native of Wayne County, Ohio, and a daughter of Daniel and Rosa (Franks) Means, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. They emigrated to Dubuque County, Iowa, about 1846, and were among the first settlers of that locality. In 1857 they took up their abode in Tarrant County, Texas, and in the spring of 1878 started for Kansas, but before reaching their destination the father died, this death occurring at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory. He was buried by the Masons of the town, he being a member of that fraternity. The widow and her family proceeded to Kansas, but returned to Texas the following spring. At length the family went back to Iowa and the mother died at Hazleton in 1884.

Mr. and Mrs. McPherson have three living children and have lost five. Those who still survive are Rosa, Ida and Bessie. The eldest is the wife of C.A. Newsome, a farmer of Hood County, Texas, by whom, she has eight children, namely: Pearl, Maud, William, Eliza, James, Omar and Naomi, twins, and Rachel Ann.

Mr. McPherson with his family resides on his farm near Acton and their home is noted for the true southern hospitality, which is enjoyed there by their many friends. The farm comprises two hundred acres of good land, about eighty of which are under cultivation. In his political views Mr. McPherson is a Republican, and socially he is connected with the Grand Army Post at Granbury. His church relationship is with the Primitive Baptists. All who know him respect him for his genuine worth and strict integrity. He has the courage of his convictions, is fearless in the defense of what he believes to be right and his straightforward conduct awakens the esteem of all.

1999 HOOD COUNTY TEXAS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY