HON. WILLIAM B. COTHRON. This able and efficient probate and county judge of Stone County, Arkansas, was born in Greene County, this State, March 10, 1849, a son of Alexander and Jane B. (Hughes) Cothron, who were born in the Old North State and Tennessee, respectively. They became residents of Greene County, Arkansas, about 1847, and from there moved to Lawrence County, Arkansas, and finally to what is now Stone County in 1863, but the father died in Lawrence County in June, 1863, when about fifty years of age. The mother also died when about that age, in 1873, in this county. Their family consisted of two sons and two daughters: Mary Ann, wife of W. E. Becker, who is now in the Choctaw Nation ; William B., the subject of this sketch; Theresa, wife of W. L. Lancaster of Mount View; and James L., who died in Arkansas County, Arkansas, in 1886, at about the age of thirty years.
In this county William B. Cothron was reared and educated, and his early days were marked by hard labor, for it fell to his lot to help support the family, owing to the early death of his father. In July, 1864, he joined Fristo’s regiment (at the age of fifteen), was in the Missouri raid and was in the battles of Ironton, Big Blue, Little Blue and numerous skirmishes, besides other engagements of more or less note. He surrendered June, 1865, at Jacksonport, Arkansas, after which he found himself almost penniless, and he at once turned his attention to farming and did his first work of this kind on Cooper’s Hill in this county. Later he removed to another farm in the neighborhood, and in 1891 bought a farm one mile west of Mount View, where he has a fine tract of land comprising eighty acres, besides which he owns a good farm on Sycamore Creek.
In 1868 he was married to Mary Maloy of this county, by whom he has three sons and five daughters, one of the latter being dead. For six years he held the office of justice of the peace, and in 1888 was elected county judge, an office he has ever since very ably filled and has discharged his duties with impartial fairness and with the best of judgment. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and are very highly esteemed in the section in which they reside. He has always been a stanch Democrat in his political views, and he has at all times given his support to the men and measures of that party, who have in turn shown their appreciation of his services by supporting him.