"A LEADING merchant and planter of Coahoma county, Miss., is William R. Sadler,
who was born in Franklin county, Ala., December 24, 1843, being the sixth in a
family of thirteen children born to Joseph M. and Maria E. (Owen) Sadler, the
former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Tennessee. In the year 1846 they came
to Mississippi, locating in Chickasaw county, where the father spent the remainder of his
life as a progressive planter and a worthy and public-spirited citizen. At the opening of
the late war he was strongly opposed to secession, but when the ordinance of secession was
passed, he remained loyal to his state, and bent all his energies to the establishment of the
Confederacy. He was one of the pioneers of the state, and here was called from life in 1882,
at the age of seventy-six years. The paternal ancestors of William R. Sadler were from Germany,
and settled in Pennsylvania upon coming to this country, where they became substantial,
industrious and prosperous citizens. William R. has been a resident of Mississippi from
the time he was three years of age, and in the schools of Chickasaw county he received his
education. While fitting himself for college the war broke out, and as a loyal Southerner
he joined the Confederate forces, becoming a member of company C, Thirteenth Mississippi
cavalry, and served until the long struggle ended. He was one of the first to join his
company, and was in every engagement in which it participated, but was never wounded,
and during his protracted service he never received a furlough. He was at Iuka, Corinth,
Franklin, and in the Georgia campaign. He was as brave and faithful a soldier as ever shouldered
a musket, and although the cause was lost, he was conscious of having performed every
duty faithfully and well. He began his business career after the war closed as a merchant
and cotton speculator, in both of which he was very successful. In addition to these he has
carried on planting successfully, and has become the owner of two thousand acres of land,
seven hundred of which are in a good state of cultivation. The most of this he has opened
and improved at great expense. He is a stockholder in the Friar's Point oil mill, and is
part owner of the drug establishment of Sadler & Jones, in Jonestown. Like so many of the
prosperous business men of the present day, he is essentially self-made, and by persistent
and continous effort he has acquired his present property. He has been a member of the
board of supervisors of Coahoma county for two terms, and was one of the first to settle in
what is now Jonestown, being one of its most reputable and public-spirited citizens. He
lives a quiet and happy life, with no aspirations for political honors, and is a very social and
pleasant gentleman to meet, being by no means void of that hospitality characteristic of the
Southern people."
