William C. Falkner

William Clark Falkner (July 6, 1825 or 1826 – November 6, 1889) was a military veteran, businessman, author, and politician in northern Mississippi. He is most notable for the influence he had on the work of his great-grandson, author William Faulkner.

Family background

He was born in Knox County, Tennessee, to Joseph Falkner (or Forkner or Faulkner) and Caroline Word (or Ward). Both Caroline's paternal grandfather Charles and his brother Cuthbert died during the American Revolutionary War while serving under the command of George Washington. Her father, Thomas Adams Word, moved the family to Georgia in 1812. Caroline's sister, Justianna Dickinson Word, married John Wesley Thompson, who in 1834 was arrested for killing a man during a fight. He was acquitted, and afterwards he moved with Justianna to Ripley, Mississippi. Thompson eventually became a district attorney and later a district judge in Mississippi.

William Clark Falkner lived with his family in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and Pontotoc, Mississippi, joining the Thompsons in Ripley in 1842. In 1847, he married Holland Pearce. Their only child John Wesley Thompson Falkner, named after WC's uncle, was born in 1848. Holland died in 1849. Elizabeth Houston Vance (1833–1910) became his second wife in 1851. They were the parents of eight children:

William Henry Falkner (1853–1878) - son

Willett Medora Falkner Carter (1856–1918) - daughter

Thomas Vance Falkner (1859–1861) - son

Lizzie Manassah Falkner (1861–1861) - daughter

Fannie Forest Falkner Dogan (1866–1929) - daughter