William Marlden Estes, the son of James Madison Estes and Rebecca Nolan, was born Saturday, October 19, 1844, at Lawrence County, Arkansas.

On Saturday, December 13, 1862, William joined the Union Army, as a private assigned to Company C, 3rd Regiment of the Missouri Cavalry. His pension files listed Knoxville, Tennessee as his location of enrollment. His post office at the time of enlistment was Houston, Missouri, and the military listed this location as his place of enlistment. William was 5 feet, 8 inches, with dark hair and blue eyes. He listed his occupation as "farming." Near the end of the war, he transferred to Company B, 3rd Regiment of the Missouri Cavalry and finally to Company C, 11th Regiment of the Missouri Cavalry. Medical records say that he did not suffer from any wounds, injuries or diseases. The only entry was for July 7-8, 1865, but there was no diagnosis and he returned to duty. He was discharged at New Orleans, Louisiana Thursday, July 27, 1865, along with his brother Calvin.

After his discharge, William traveled with a fellow Union veteran, Thomas Franklin Due, to Frank's home in Potosi, Missouri. There he met Frank's sister, Mary Usuella Due. William and Mary were married Tuesday, December 14, 1865, just three years after William joined the Army. The Reverend Brown conducted the wedding in Potosi. William was 21 and Mary was 16.

William and Mary lived for one year in Potosi, Missouri, and then moved to Yellville, Arkansas in December of 1866. Mary was pregnant with the first of their 15 children.

It was also in this year that William became a member of the Church of Christ and attended services regularly until his death.

William and Mary are recorded in the 1870 Federal Census for the Union Township of Marion County, Arkansas, but their last name was listed as "Estice." Their personal property value was $300.00. There was no value for real estate listed.

In 1880, the family had grown by six children and they were still living in the Union Township of Marion County, Arkansas.

In February of 1884, the family moved to Ash Flat, Arkansas.

Mary gave birth to fifteen children. The first was born when she was 17 years old and the last when she was 44 years old. Two were stillborn and unnamed. Four others died in infantcy. The nine remaining children, five girls and four boys, survived into adulthood. Three of the girls married brothers: Luther, Arthur and Ranzy Billingsley. Their father, Clayton Billingsley, served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Saturday, May 1, 1897, William filed a "Declaration for Invalid Person," before Justice of the Peace David Mullins. The purpose was to obtain a Civil War Pension. William was "unable to earn a support due to rheumatism, catarrh, affection of spine, lumbago, anchylosis." He had contracted the lumbago about 1887, the catarrh (a mucous-membrane inflammation, especially of the nose and throat) about 1889, and the rheumatism about 1890.

In 1900, the Federal Census recorded the family. William was still a farmer and they were still living in the Pleasant Ridge Township, Fulton County, Arkansas. Ash Flat was the nearest Post Office.

William and Mary moved to Detroit, Texas in September 1902, and in December of 1904, they moved on to Stuart, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.

At the time of the 1910 Census, on April 10, the family was living in the Stuart Township.

William Marlden Estes died at 9:50 o'clock Sunday morning, September 16, 1928,at his home, 311 South Burns, in Holdenville, Oklahoma, at the age of 83 years, 10 month and 28 days. He had been ill for a month. Funeral services were held at 3 o'clock Monday afternoon at the Church of Christ. Among the songs that were sung at the funeral, the widow requested two special songs, favorites of William. They were "Heaven Holds All to Me," and "A Light at the River."