William Floyd Stroud was born in McDowell County, North Carolina, on March 12, 1894. Stroud served as a private in the U.S. Army during World War I, serving overseas from May 1918 to April 1919. He was a lifelong resident of Broad River township where he was a farmer, judge, and justice of the peace. He died in Asheville (Buncombe County) on May 4, 1982.