Joseph George Williford (1839-1922?) was a former Confederate soldier who settled in Harrison, Boone County, Arkansas, in 1874. Originally from Alabama, Williford enlisted in Company B, 11th Alabama Infantry, in the spring of 1862. On June 30, 1862, while fighting with his regiment at the battle of Seven Pines, Virginia, Williford received a wound in the right eye, and it was surgically removed several days later. He married Margaret Ann Knox on December 14, 1865, and the couple had seven children. Two daughters, Lola Inez Williford and Nona Vivian Williford, became schoolteachers in Boone County. Lola married a Harrison resident, Walter J. Slagle, at Bellefonte, Arkansas, in 1915. Their son, Joseph D. Slagle, displayed artistic talents at an early age and is responsible for saving many of the items in this collection.