William N. Poe, born in 1846 in Benton County, Ark., was a farmer in Washington Township and judge of the Dade County Court from the Eastern District. Son of John and Matilda Ann (Ferguson) Poe, his family moved to Dade County, Mo., when he was nine months old. After his father’s death in 1863, William remained on the family farm, eventually owning 140 acres. In 1869, he married Louisa Cecil, and they had four children. A dedicated Republican, he served as county judge starting in 1888 and was active in the I.O.O.F. and the Methodist Episcopal Church, where he served as steward for nearly twenty years.
William N. Poe, farmer of Washington Township, and judge of the Dade County Court from the Eastern District, was born in Benton County, Ark., in 1846. His parents were John and Matilda Ann (Ferguson) Poe, he of Dutch descent, and probably from North Carolina, and she from Tennessee. About 1845 they removed to Benton County, and, when William N. was about nine months old, moved to Dade County, finally settling on a small improvement of the farm where our subject now lives, and where they were burned out in 1862. In February 1863, Mr. Poe died at the age of sixty-three, his wife afterward marrying John B. Evans, and dying in 1879 at the age of fifty-two. Both were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Poe was married three times, the first two wives living but a short time. He had two children by his second wife. The subject of this sketch is the second of a family of eight children, all the sons and two daughters living. He attended school but very little, and, after the death of his father, the family returned to the farm on which our subject has since lived. He is now the owner of 140 acres of good farmland. In March 1869, he married Louisa, daughter of William and Isabelle Cecil, of North Carolina, who came in 1841 to Johnson County, where the mother died in July 1888. The father, who served in the Federal Army, and who was constable for some years, is still living. William N. has four children: John William, Albert, Arthur, and David Lee. In 1888 he was elected county judge by a good majority. He is a Republican, having voted for Grant in 1868, and every Republican candidate since; is a member of South Greenfield Lodge No. 292, I. O. O. F., having served one year as vice-grand. He and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for nearly twenty years he has served as steward.