When William Champion Farris was born on 7 February 1824, in McNairy, Tennessee, United States, his father, Davidson Farris, was 27 and his mother, Elizabeth Nunley, was 32. He married Martha Anderson Hamm in 1847, in Franklin, Alabama, United States. They were the parents of at least 8 sons and 5 daughters. He lived in Mississippi, United States in 1870 and Locust Grove Township, Stone, Arkansas, United States in 1880. He died on 11 April 1900, in Stone, Arkansas, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Farris Cemetery, Onia, Stone, Arkansas, United States.