William D. Hardin was an activist Methodist layman, he served as Justice of the Peace during much, if not all, of the time from 1878 to 1901. He was church secretary and as a chairman of a church board in 1895, and was on a committee of the Guilford County Sabbath School Association. He seems for a time to have served on the school board and to have operated retail stores off and on. He was a Masonic Lodge secretary in 1872 and 1875 and perhaps at other times as well. In 1896 and 1898 he was a tax list taker in Fentriss, North Carolina and was a register for political elections (time and place unknown). In 1891 and 1895 he was vice-president of the Pleasant Gardens Farmer's Alliance, No. 2195 of Guilford County. He was president of the Julian Milling Company of Jullian, North Carolina in 1899-1900.
From the guide to the William D. Hardin papers, Bulk, 1870-1900, 1838-1946, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
