ROBERT M. HANCOCK. It is a pleasure and a privilege to record the character and enterprise of men of business who have made their own way in life, and no more efficient man could have been found for the office of circuit and county clerk than Robert M. Hancock. He is keenly alive to his responsibilities, fulfills them in the most prompt and thorough manner, and even his political enemies have come to understand that he is the “right man in the right place.”
He owes his nativity to Coffee County, Tennessee, where he was born February 11, 1847, a son of William A. and Elizabeth (McCrary) Hancock, both of whom were natives of Middle Tennessee. After their marriage they moved to Gibson County, West Tennessee, and from there to Arkansas in 1861, locating on a farm a little over a mile from Mountain Home. There the father died in 1876, at the age of fifty-two years, and his widow at Potterville, Missouri, in 1879 while trying the waters of the medical spring of that place for her health. William A. Hancock was a stanch Democrat in politics, was active in political matters and successfully filled the offices of deputy sheriff and justice of the peace. In 1861 he joined Shaver’s regiment as first lieutenant of his company and was with that command until taken prisoner below Little Rock. He was sent to Rock Island, Illinois, thence to Ft. Delaware and other places, and after eighteen months of hardships and privations was released. He was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and socially was a member of the A. F. & A. M. His marriage resulted in the birth of seven children:
R. M., the eldest, received his education in the common schools of the neighborhood, and in the summer of 1863 joined Schavell’s battalian of cavalry, with which he served until shot at Ashly Station in the latter part of 1864. He was shot through the lungs and was left on the field of battle for dead. After the war was over he returned home, and up to 1874 was engaged in farming. The three subsequent years were spent in Northwest Texas, where he worked at the carpenter’s trade, and he continued to follow this occupation for a number of years after his return to Baxter County and built many houses throughout the county. He has for some time held the office of county and circuit clerk and has made an a no. 1 official, faithful and conscientious in the discharge of his duties, and as a result he has made many friends. In 1876 he was married to Miss Sarah Moody, who was born in Arkansas, and four sons and a daughter have blessed their union. Mr. Hancock is a member of Mountain Home Lodge No. 225 of the A. F. & A. M., the I. O. O. F., and in the latter has filled all the chairs, is a member of the Encampment, and has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge of the State. Politically he is an enthusiastic Democrat.