| William Sills,
one of the prominent citizens of this county, is the owner
of the Sills' saw and grist mills and cotton-gin. He was
born near Milford, Ohio, January 2, 1886, the son of William
and Elmira (Davis) Sills, natives of Ohio. His father's
occupation was that of ship-carpentering up to the time
of his death, in 1835, when the rest of the family came
to Arkansas with our subject's grandfather, Mr. William
Davis, and settled in Crawford County. In this county
William Sills was reared to manhood. He received a very
limited education, and at an early age learned the printer's
trade, but his health failing, he was compelled to give
that up, and took to farming. At the breaking out of the
war Mr. Sills enlisted in Company B, First Arkansas Cavalry,
under Capt. Powhatan Perkins and Col. De Rosta Carroll,
and went with the regiment to Oak Hill, where he was taken
sick, and was discharged. He then returned to Van Buren,
Crawford County, and continued farming until 1882, when
he sold out, coming to Yell County. Here he invested in
200 acres of land, in company with his son-in-law, J.
W. Blevins, who owned 500 acres at the time, well cultivated,
and on which he had built a comfortable frame residence,
good barns and sheds necessary for his stock. Owing to
the fact that Mr. William Sills is the proprietor of the
largest mills in his county, he does a large share of
the work, and has the contract for furnishing the lumber
for the new pontoon bridge to be built across the Arkansas
River. His mills are patronized by the farmers from Logan
and other counties in the neighborhood, the ginning-mills
producing from 325 to 500 bales of cotton. Of his farm
land, Mr. Sills has 100 acres under cultivation, forty
acres of corn and sixty acres of cotton. The subject of
this sketch was married in 1863, to Miss Elenora Bushong,
a native of Kentucky, but of French descent. Of a family
of nine children born to them, six are now living, viz.:
Willie A., Mary E. (wife of J. W. Blevins), James E.,
Ollie, Renna and Harry. Those deceased are Eugene, Le
Roy and Emma. Both he and wife are members of the Christian
Church. In polities Mr. William Sills is a Democrat, having
been elected sheriff of Crawford County in 1866 on that
ticket. He is the supporter of all enterprises of a public
nature that would be of benefit to his county, and being
a very charitable man is ever ready to help the needy.
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