HISTORY AND GENEALOGY RESEARCH
http://www.couchgenweb.com/arkansas/jackson/biog-c.htm
William Wesley Collier, a merchant of Tupelo, Jackson
County, is a
native of Limestone County, Ala., and is a son of Mark
M. and Elizabeth
(Harris) Collier, born, respectively, in North and South
Carolina, and of English and Scotch
descent. The father died in 1840, and the mother in 1864.
William Wesley
was born April 12, 1826, and obtained his education in
the private schools of his county, and the H.
H. Brown school, which at that time had a wide reputation,
being conducted by a Methodist preacher,
who was employed by the community.
At the age of twenty
years Mr. Collier was employed by Dewooddy, Turentine & Higgins, at
Athens, Ala.; at the expiration of one year he went to Aberdeen, Miss.,
where he served three years at the
carpenters' trade, with J. W. Ellis. February 3, 1849,
he emigrated to
California, with the Mississippi
Rangers, a joint stock company, which dissolved after
three months. Our
subject arrived at Los Angeles, July 6, 1849, where until
January, 1850,
he engaged in the carpenter
and joiners' trade. He then went to San Francisco, worked
for weeks as
journeyman, and then in partnership with R. T. Woody,
engaged in mining;
three months later Mr.
Woody died, and Mr. Collier bought a stock of general
merchandise, which
he established at Agufrior (sic) Gold Mines, Mariposa County,
Cal. He also
built a hotel at the latter
place, which he sold in 1851, carrying on his mercantile
business there
three years; he then took into partnership George Turner,
of New York,
and William T. Osburn, of
Georgia. Early in 1853, Mr. Collier went to Stockton
to buy goods and
supplies for the store, remaining until fall, when he
was notified by
his partners to return and close out
business, as they were not making anything; returning,
he found that
they had lost money gambling, and squandered the entire
resources of the
firm. After closing out the
business, he went to San Francisco, in October, 1853,
where he purchased
a ticket for his home in Alabama, arriving there the
following December.
In 1854 he located on his
mother's farm near Athens, where he lived the following
three years. In
January, 1856, he married Martha Walls, also a native
of Alabama. Of the
eleven children born to
them, six are now living, viz.: Albert, a farmer by occupation,
now
residing in Breckinridge Township; he married Laura Stanley;
William T.,
married a Miss Higgs of
Mississippi, and has two children; he is also a farmer
of Breckinridge
Township; J. M., who is engaged in business with his
father, and
farming; John M. is living with his
father; Catharine, of Arkansas nativity, married Mr.
W. C. Patrick, a
native of Mississippi, and has one child; and Allen C.,
who is now a
student at Searcy College, Ala. The
children have all been liberally educated in the English
branches. At
the time of his marriage, Mr. Collier owned about 370
acres of land,
some 100 acres of which were under
cultivation. He is a Democrat in polities, as are also
his sons and
son-in-law
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Jan 28, 2003