William Hathcock was born in Alabama in 1829, probably in Tuscaloosa or Bibb County. He moved with his parents to Tennessee when he was about 6 years of age. He married Elimina Heathcock 17 July 1854 in Lincoln County, Tennessee (Book A, page 265). He and his family appear on the 1860 census of Lincoln county along with an unidentified family of Rees Haithcoat.

In 1870, William B. Hathcock was still living in Molino, Tennessee and is enumerated in the 1870 Census of Lincoln County.

Apparently William B. Hathcoat died between 1870 and 1880 because his wife and children are listed as living with her brother M. D. Hathcock in the 1880 Census of Lincoln County. Since the only other Hathcocks in Lincoln County (other than the family of Charles Hathcock, Sr.) Elmira must have been the daughter of John Hathcock who appears on the 1850 Census of Lincoln County with a daughter of 16.2243