William M, MD (Veteran CSA) ABNEY

CSA
8 Louisiana Cavalry
Civil War Confederate
March 2, 1846 - October 7, 1899

Born in Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Masonic Emblem


W. M. ABNEY is an honorable and useful member of society residing in
Bossier Parish, La., and as he was born here on March 2, 1846, he has a
large circle of friends and acquaintances by whom he is respected and
honored. His parents, Asbury A. and Catherine (McDade) Abney, passed from
life in this parish in 1866 at the age of forty-nine and in 1857 at the age
of thirty, respectively, he having been born in the Palmetto State, and she
in Alabama, their marriage taking place in the latter in 1844. They moved
the following year to Bossier Parish, and here he was chosen to represent
the people in the State Senate and for fully ten years he was active in
public life, being for a number of years clerk of the district court. He
was admitted to the bar in Shreveport, and until his death followed this
calling and merchandising in Bellevue, and was very successful in both. He
was a heavy loser by the war and did not live long enough afterward to
regain what he had lost. He served one year in the late war as lieutenant
in the Thirteenth Louisiana Battalion, and for some time was the
Trans-Mississippi Department. He was a self-made man in every sense of the
word, was a man strictly honorable in all his dealings, and was looked up
to and respected by all who knew him. After the death of his first wife he
married again, his second union being to a sister of his first wife, her
death occurring in Red River Parish. Mr. Abney was a Methodist, an R. A.
M., and inherited the French and English blood of his parents. The subject
of this sketch was the eldest of six children and although he was given
good advantages for acquiring an education, he left school to enter the
Confederate army, having been an attendant for six months in the military
department of the State University of Louisiana at New Orleans. In March,
1864, he joined the Eighth Louisiana Cavalry and was a faithful soldier to
the cause he espoused until the final surrender. In April, 1865, he was
transferred to the ordnance department, afterward to the engineers'
department. While in the ranks he was in several skirmishes, among which
may be mentioned Mansfield and Monett's Ferry. Soon after the close of the
war he commenced the study of medicine under Dr. Cook, of Bellevue, and in
1866-67 attended the medical department of the State University, and again
entered this institution in 1887-88, graduating in the latter year. He
practiced his profession until 1869, when he gave it up on account of ill
health and began keeping books for M. W. Sentell & Co., at Collinsburg,
remaining in their employ four years, and farmed the balance of the time
until 1887, when he entered college, as above stated, and since graduating
has practiced his profession with success. In 1884 he became a member of
the police jury of Ward 3, and has since continued as a member. He is
quite well fixed, financially, and is the owner of 400 acres of land near
Collinsburg, a considerable portion of which is under cultivation. In 1872
he was married to Miss Susan T. Marks, a daughter of Nicholas Marks. She
was born in this parish and she and the Doctor are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. The former is trustee board, and is a Democrat,
politically. Socially he is a member of the K. of P. and belongs to the A.
F. & A. M.

Contributed on 6/30/16 by debbraszymanski
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Record #: 131385

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