In the middle of the sixteenth century, under the lead and power of the Romish Church, religious fanaticism reared its remorseless head against Protestantism in France, and fed the flames of desolation and extermination against the resolute Huguenot, until emancipation was proclaimed by the first Napoleon. These persecutions for two and a half centuries robbed France of much of her best blood. In 1724 Louis XV issued a severe edict against the Huguenots, which drove thousands to seek asylum in foreign lands, and amongst them Louis Mantaigne (a name illustrious in the history and literature of France for three centuries and more), who came to the western world, and sought and obtained asylum in South Carolina. From this ancestry in the paternal line young Martin is descended; from the maternal line he inherits Scotch-German blood. W. R. Martin, the subject of this sketch, was born at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, February 6, 1865. There is something phenomenal and interesting in the brief history of this, the youngest man accorded place in this work, and the simple historic facts are all we offer to ward off criticism, should there be those who like to indulge the weapon. His father, John M Martin of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is an eminent lawyer, ex-professor of law in the University of Alabama, and was a member of the forty-ninth congress from Alabama; was fifteen years a member of the Alabama legislature, and was speaker of the senate. His mother, Lucy G., is the daughter of that eminent jurist, Judge E. W. Peck, who presided on the supreme bench of Alabama for twenty years, and then resigned the office because of the infirmities of age. His paternal grandfather, Joshua L. Martin, was governor of Alabama, and declined to become a candidate for a second term, that he might accept a nomination for congress, to which he was elected, and died from sunstroke, before the expiration of his term, quite a young man.

His accomplished mother took charge of his early education, and at the age of fourteen he was fully prepared to enter the State university. But the laws of that seat of learning did not admit of matriculation until the candidate for university honors was eighteen years old. To meet the necessities of this special case the regents of the university, after thorough examination, repealed the statute, and made an exception, for exceptional reasons, to the general law, in favor of the young candidate. He remained at the university four years, and graduated with distinguished honors in 1882, receiving the degree of bachelor of arts. Without spending any time in recreations, immediately after graduation he repaired to the University of Virginia, and attended a course of law lectures, that year, under that celebrated jurist, John B. Minor. In 1833 he entered the law department of the University of Alabama, and by extra exertion graduated in one instead of two years, and received the degree of bachelor of laws. After graduating in the law department of the university, he applied to Justice Stewart, of the supreme court, for license to practice law, and was examined and pronounced qualified by that jurist, but he was then only nineteen years old, and minority presented the only disqualification. Judge Stewart‘s sympathies were moved for the young man, and of his own motion he prepared a petition to the legislature of Alabama, then in session, representing the facts, and asking the passage of a law removing the disabilities of the young man, and the act was passed. Immediately after the removal of his disabilities, his father gave him his inheritance and took him into partnership but after the father’s election to congress, the son removed, in the fall of 1885, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and has settled with us permanently. I have always had a passion for brilliant, worthy young men, and in more than thirty years’ experience at the bar have not knowingly wounded the sensibilities of one. These little kindnesses to young men have often brought rich rewards in the shape of retainers, to aid them in matters of moment, where they needed assistance.