Biographical and historical memoirs of northeast Arkansas : comprising a condensed history of the state biographies of distinguished citizens a brief descriptive history of the counties, and numerous biographical sketches of the prominent citizens of such counties. V. 2, Part 1

Author:
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis : The Goodspeed Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

USA > Arkansas > Biographical and historical memoirs of northeast Arkansas : comprising a condensed history of the state biographies of distinguished citizens a brief descriptive history of the counties, and numerous biographical sketches of the prominent citizens of such counties. V. 2 > Part 1

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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02293 5693

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BIOGRAPHICAL

AND HISTORICAL

MEMOIRSof

00 OF 00

NORTHEAST ARKANSAS.

COMPRISING

A Condensed History of the State, a Number of Biographies of Distinguished Citizens of the same, a Brief Descriptive History of each of the Counties named herein, and numerous Biographical Sketches of the Prominent Citizens of such Counties.

V.2 ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO, NASHVILLE AND ST. LOUIS: THE GOODSPEED PUBLISHING CO. 1889

15213

АЛЯАТ

ЗААНТЯСИ

491

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY.

1620743

Being a "chip of the old block " he entered heart and soul into clearing this land and getting it into good shape for farming, and up to the pres- ent time has put about 300 acres under the plow, and has erected twenty dwelling houses on the place, among which is his own handsome residence, a well-finished two-story house in T shape, the main part of the building being 35x48 feet and the annex being 25x48 feet. In addition to this he has a fine barn and a cotton-gin and saw-mill, the latter two enterprises giving em- ployment to about twelve men. The different branches of work on his plantation call for the la- bor of at least seventy people, and Mr. Driver is compelled to work early and late to attend to bis big farm and keep the wheels of fortune moving. In early life his means and opportunities for ac- quiring an education were excellent, and after at- tending the schools of Cape Girardeau, Mo., he entered the East Tennessee University, located at Knoxville, where he pursued his studies assidu- ously. His wife, a lady of much culture and re- finement, was a Miss Matie Williamson and a na- tive of Mississippi County, her parents being Miss Letha Hale and Mr. B. Williamson. Mrs. Dri- ver is a member of the Baptist Church at Winches- ter, Tenn., where she received her education, and he is a Mason, both being members of the Kallo- rama Lodge of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, of Osceola. They have two very interesting little children, Harry Lee and Ida May, who add much happiness to their pleasant home.

Dr. H. C. Dunavant. The professional minds of physicians may be divided into two separate and distinct classes, aptly designated the perceptive and the memorative. To one class belong those whose medicinal knowledge and perception depends upon memory; to the other, those who rely chietly upon their conscious resources and mingle them with their own judgment. To those acquainted with Dr. Dunavant it is unnecessary to mention to which class he belongs. He was born in Tennessee in 1844, and was next to the youngest in a family of fourteen children born to Leonard and Mary Beaufort (Reid) Dunavant. The parents were natives of Virginia and Tennessee, respectively.

The father left his native State at the age of six- teen and went to Tennessee, where he was engaged in contracting and building for many years. He held the position of major in the War of 1812, and during the battle of New Orleans, when one of the soldiers was sick. Maj. Dunavant took his gun and used it with telling effect during the remainder of the engagement. He was also in a number of Indian fights. Later he went to West Tennessee, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, and this occupation continued until his death, which oc- curred in 1869. The mother had died previous to this, in 1856. The maternal grandfather came to Tennessee, and was the first school-teacher in Nashville, where he made his home during life. Young Dunavant attended the common schools of Tennessee until sixteen years of age, and when the war broke out entered the Confederate army, en- listing in Company E, First Confederate Cavalry. He participated in the battles of Paris (Tenn.), Guntown (Miss.), Perryville (Ky.), Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and was with the army on the re- treat through Georgia. He was with Gen. Wheeler in his celebrated campaigns, and also with Gen. Forrest at Gainesville, Ala., at the time of the sur- render. After the close of the conflict he attended school two years, then earned some money, and en- tered that well-known and far famed institution. the University of Nashville, and graduated from the medical department in 1873, thoroughly pre- pared to enter actively upon the discharge of his professional duties. He practiced one year with his brotber in -law, Dr. Mitchell, and January 25, 1874, selected Mississippi County, Ark .. as the scene of his future labor. He located at Osceola. and there he has since remained. The Doctor travels all over the county, and claims that the sanitary condition of this section has improved very much since his residence here. His career as a physician has long been well and favorably known to the many who have tested his healing ability, and abundant proof of his practice at this time is seen in the extended territory over which he goes to alleviate the suffering of the sick. The Doctor was married in 1874 to Mrs. Hattie Lanier, nee Binford, a native of Kentucky. She died in 1878

to eviten

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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

of yellow fever, having borne two children, Harry Binfort, who died just before his mother, aged three years, and Julia. Dr. Dunavant was married the second time, in December, 1879, to Mrs. Bettie Wheeler, nee Pulliam, a native of Tennessee, and the daughter of Elijah Pulliam, one of the oldest settlers in the State of Tennessee, and who died a short time since at the age of eighty-five years. To the second union were born two chil- dren, Harry Pulliam and Buford Nelson. The Doctor is a member of the American Public Health Association, also a member of the Medico-Legal Society of New York, and a member of the Tri- State Medical Society, composed of the States of Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. He is quite active politically, but is not an office-seeker. Aside from his professional duties he is actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, and in this, as in all other enterprises, makes a complete success. Mrs. Dunavant is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

George H. Evans (deceased). For nearly a quarter of a century the name that heads this : sketch was borne by a man who was identified with the interests of Mississippi County, Ark., in more ways than one. Honest and worthy in every par- ticular, his life was one of great industry, and was spent in an earnest endeavor to do good to all. His father, Jesse Evans, was a successful cotton planter near Shelbyville, Tenn., where he married Miss Levina Tipton, a sister of Gen. Jacob Tipton, of Tennessee. George H. Evans's birth occurred in Shelbyville, Tenn., where he re- mained until seventeen years of age, and then fin- ished his education at Covington, in the same State. Afterward he became deputy county clerk of Tipton County, and was then elected to the of- fice of circuit clerk, which position he held for a number of years before leaving that county. In 1836 he was married to Miss Edith White, daugh- ter of William White, of Tipton County, Tenn., but formerly of North Carolina, and the fruits of this union were three children: Levina Tipton, now the widow of J. W. Uzzell [see sketch and portrait ]; J. Tipton Evans, the only son, who en- listed in the late war, but died before reaching the

field, and Edith E., married to Dr. St. Clair, by whom she had one son. In 1844, after the death of his father, who had entered a large tract of land in Mississippi County, but had not proven it up, George H. Evans, then a married man with a wife and three children, moved upon the place un- til he could prove up, after which he returned with them to Tipton County, Tenn., and there re- sided until 1850. He then returned to the farm with his family, and there continued until his death, which occurred in 1867. He left each of his daughters 1,000 acres of land and his widow 5,000 or 6,000 acres, only a few hundred acres, however, under cultivation. Mrs. Evans now oc- cupies one of the most desirable places to be found in the State. She has ten acres of fine orchard, besides some seven acres surrounding the house, where she has 1,000 different varieties of fruits and flowers. She takes great pride in her flowers and spends much of her time among them. She may well be proud of them, for she has virtually made the " wilderness blossom as the rose," as when she came there, in 1850, all was a deep forest and the cane-brake was twenty feet high. Mrs. Evans was born in Pennsylvania, but left that State with her parents when six years old and moved to Tipton County, Tenn.

Newton J. Evans is the fifth of eleven children born to his father and mother, his birth occurring in Osceola, Mississippi County, Ark., in 1849. The occupation he is now following was learned on his father's farm, and during this time, while directing the plow, he received some educational advantages. In 1871, he rented land, began farming on his own responsibility, and four years later commenced following that occupation in Chickasawba Town- ship, his labors being on rented land until 1888. In 1880, he wedded Miss Joe Lee, a daughter of an old pioneer resident of this county, by the name of James Sawyer, and from that time up to 1SSS he was engaged in raising crops on land belonging to his father-in-law. At the latter date he became the owner of eighty acres of some of the finest laud in this section, forty seven acres being in a fine state of cultivation, aud will usually average a bale of cotton to the acre. To Mr. Evans and his

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wife, who is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, have been born the following named children: Alice Dean and Minnie, living; and Maggie, Charles N. and James, who died in infancy. His parents, Newton and Amelia (Bowen) Evans, were born in Putnam County, Ind., and were reared and married in their native State. They removed to the State of Arkansas about 1836, and settled on land near what is now Osceola, where the father cleared about eighty acres of land, and made many other valuable improvements. Af- ter selling this land they purchased other property near Elmot, which they also improved, but meet- ing with heavy losses by fire, they soon moved back to near Osceola, where Mr. Evans passed from life in 1870. His wife's death had occurred in 1854.

J. E. Felts, a physician of Osceola, was born in East Tennessee, in 1817, being the third in a family of four children born to Tilman and Rebecca (Ellis) Felts. The father was a carpenter by trade, and also followed farming. The paternal grand- father was a native of Germany, and came to this country before its independence, serving seven years during the Revolutionary War. He died at an old age in Sussex County, Va. Tilman Felts was a pioneer settler of Kentucky, locating in War- ren County, near Bowling Green, where he re- mained till 1836, and then removed to Jackson's purchase, Hickman County, making it his home till 1856. Then he came to Arkansas to live with Daniel Lee Ferguson was born near Pulaski, Giles County, Tenn., September 30, 1832. His family was an old North Carolina family of Scotch origin. His father, Edmond Ferguson, moved from Wilkes County, N. C., to Giles County, Tenn .. in 1824, where he soon afterward married Mary Sheron, who was also of a North Carolina family, and of English descent. They both died in 1840. leaving a family of seven children. Daniel Lee was the fourth child, and only eight years of age when his parents died, and from that early age he has fought his way unaided through the world. He is a fine representative of the self-made men of our times. In September, 1852, he married Mary T. Combs, of Pulaski, Tenn. She was the daughter of James Combs, attorney at law, and our subject. He died in Mississippi County, in 1857, at the age of eighty-four. Young Felts spent his youth in Kentucky, remaining at home till eighteen years of age, when he moved to Hick- man County, and began farming. In 1839 he married Miss Eliza Pickett, a native of Tennessee, after which he entered upon the study of medicine, under Dr. J. A. Wording, at Columbus. He stud- ied and practiced with this doctor for three years, and then began practicing for himself in the same place, where he remained till 1855, when he came to Arkansas, and located at Mill Bayou, in this county. Resuming farming on rented land, he also followed the practice of his profession till 1868, when he moved to Osceola, where he has since made his home, enjoying an extensive prac- | granddaughter of Capt. Charles Buford, a noted

tice till 1875, when failing health caused him to practically retire. Dr. Felts has always been active in the political affairs of Mississippi County. In 1878 he was elected county judge, and served for two years; also acting as deputy clerk in 1881 and deputy sheriff from 1883 to 1886. He has seen many changes in these years, and has taken part in most of those that promised to promote the wel- fare of this section. He had two sons who served in the Confederate army: David C., who was a member of Capt. E. H. Fletcher's company, and William T., who was a member of Capt. Grider's company. David was taken prisoner, and died at Nashville in 1862. William served till the close. To the union of Dr. and Mrs. Felts, who have been married now nearly fifty-one years, were born the following children : David C., Sarah Jane and William T., all deceased; Martha C., wife of H. M. Pope, residing at Nodena; Mary E., wife of John Pierce, living at Caruthersville; John E., deceased, and Daniel H., married, and residing in Dunklin County, Mo. Dr. and Mrs. Felts are members of the Baptist Church of Osceola. Dr. Felts belongs to Osceola Lodge No. 27, A. F. & A. M., and Osce- ola Chapter No. 57. He has held nearly all the offices in both lodge and chapter. He is enjoying the autumn days in the declining years of an active and well-spent life among the friends whom he has served so long, esteemed and respected by all.

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man of his day and time. A month after their marriage the young couple moved to Tunica Coun- ty, Miss., which at that time was an almost un- broken wilderness. Mr. Ferguson there began his career as a cotton planter, which business he has successfully followed ever since. In 1869, on ac- count of his wife's failing health, he moved to Memphis, Tenn., where he went into business as a į cotton factor and commission merchant, in the firm of Ferguson & Hampson. At the same time he kept up his business as a cotton planter. In De- cember, 1875, his wife died of consumption. Two children were born of this marriage, both of whom died in their early infancy. In January, 1877, he married again, his second wife being Mary Alcy (Carleton), widow of Benjamin R. Norris. Her ancestry on the Carleton side belonged to an old Virginia family of English descent. Her fa- ther was a prominent physician of North Missis- sippi before the war. On her mother's side she is connected with the Orrs, Grays and Alexan- ders, fine old Scotch-Irish families of Meck- lenburg County, N. C., and Mississippi. She had one child by her first marriage, Pearl Eglantine Norris, who died soon after her father, in 1874. One child has blessed this second marriage, a daughter, Alcyone Carleton Ferguson, who is now a bright little girl, eleven years of age. In 1877 Mr. Ferguson became interested in the Nodena plantation, in Mississippi County, Ark., which was then in litigation, and when it was sold by the supreme court of the State, in 1879, he bought it for himself and his partner, Mr. Hampson. Imme- diately thereafter he was plunged into a long and expensive lawsuit, which lasted nearly ten years, and seriously crippled him financially. But in the end he gained the lawsuit, after carrying it through all the courts of both Tennessee and Arkansas. His family have made Nodena their home since 1879. He found he could not give his business in Memphis the attention it required, and in 1884 closed up his affairs there entirely, and concentrat- ed all his energies at Nodena. He is one of the largest cotton planters on the Mississippi River above Memphis. A view of his broad fields, white

worthy of admiration. For thirty-seven years the steamers that float on the bosom of the mighty Mississippi have carried his cotton bales to the markets of the world. His plantation, with the rich alluvial lands surrounding it, is interesting from another point of view than its cotton fields. That pre-historic and once mighty race, " The Mound Builders," had an abiding place here, in the cen- turies long gone by, as is evidenced by the mounds they have left behind them. Mighty oaks crown the summits of these mounds, and speak in silent whispers of the watch they have for centuries kept over them. Races come and go, and these mounds still stand, the monuments of a forgotten people. Mrs. Ferguson is an enthusiastic mound explorer, and has quite a collection of the vessels and imple- ments of those pre-historic people. She hopes to be able, through her explorations, to throw some light upon the habits and customs of that early race. It is with regret that we leave Mr. Fergu- son and his interesting plantation, with the monnds and their buried histories, the cotton fields that will help to clothe the people of the world, and the majestic river as it sweeps onward in its resistless course to the sea. Mr. Ferguson seems to belong to such surroundings. A man of magnificent stat- ure and noble bearing, in his broad bosom there beats a heart that is large enough to sympathize with the sufferings of all humanity. Not one of the human family ever turned from his door hungry, or cold from nakedness. He is always ready to lend a listening ear to the woes of the afflicted and needy, and his purse is always open to the wants of the poor. It can truly be said of him, " He is one of Nature's noblemen."

Elliot H. Fletcher (deceased) was a native of Charlottesville, Va., born in the year 1805, and was the fifth child born to the second marriage of Thomas Clark and Susan (Jouette) Fletcher. These families trace their genealogy back to colonial times, and took an active and important part in the early history of Virginia. One of the ances- tors on the mother's side. John Jouette, is remem . bered for his timely warning to the Virginia legis- lature and to Gov. Jefferson, of Gen. Tarleton's with the open cotton, in the autumn, is a sight ; purpose to surprise and capture them. They

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made their escape, and Mr. Jouette was presented with a handsome sword. At the present time there are a number of prominent artists descended from this family. Until fourteen years of age Elliot H. Fletcher spent his time in his native State, attend- ed a private school, and clerked in his brother's store. At that age he went to Tennessee to live with an elder brother, Thomas H. Fletcher, one of the most celebrated lawyers in the annals of that State, and whose literary and legal attainments and achievements have often been mentioned in the literature of the Southwest. There he began a thorough course of study under his brother's ad- vice, and his intimate association with this most eminent man of Tennessee, who then resided in Nashville, gave him means of improvement which supplied the lack of a regular collegiate education. When he arrived at man's estate, he was appointed aid-de-camp to Gen. William H. Carroll. At about the age of twenty he engaged in mercantile pur- suits in Fayetteville, under the firm title of Fletch- er & Carr. This firm did an extensive business, and bought and sold cotton in large quantities. At the age of twenty-six he was united in marriage with Miss Frances Hickman, of Fayetteville. This lady was a great-granddaughter of Gen. Thomas Eaton, of North Carolina, a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary War, who married Miss Anna Bland, the sister of Frances Bland, who was the mother of the celebrated John Randolph, of Roan- oke. Miss Hickman's grandfather was Col. Guil- ford Dudley, who commanded a regiment of Con- tinental troops under Washington. and who dis- tinguished himself as a brave and gallant officer. About 1836 Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher came to Crit- tenden County, Ark., and he held some office in the Real Estate Bank of Arkansas. In 1840 he moved to Mississippi County, Ark., where he bought a small farm on Mill Bayon, afterward known as Fletcher's Landing. At that time the immense tract of country embraced within the limits of Mis- sissippi County extended as far west as the St. Francis River, and had a population of about 900 souls. All were living in plain huts, very little superior to those of the Indians among whom these white people resided. Such were the surround-

ings of Col. Elliot H. Fletcher and his fine and accomplished wife. They took up their residence in their log cabin on the banks of the Mississippi River, and there began a hand-to-hand struggle for existence, against obstacles before which a less brave and determined man would have failed. For many years the encroachments of the "Father of Waters, " by overflows and caving banks, brought him to the verge of ruin. But as time passed he gradually leveed-in his own river front, and thus having overcome his greatest enemy, the high water, he extended and developed his farm until he found himself in easy and independent circum- stances. Col. Fletcher's noble bearing and pleasing manners, together with his evident talent for bus- iness, soon attracted the attention of the people of the county, and in 1846 he was induced to become a candidate to represent the county in the legisla- ture. He was elected, and served his county and State with distinguished ability, taking rank at once with the foremost men of the State. He was re-elected in 1848, and again in 1850, at which session he was the chief member in organizing the public levee system of the State. In the mean- time his judicious management of his private af- fairs, and his investment in lands, had made him independent, financially, and although his talents for political employment were known and recog- nized throughout the State, the fact of his being a devoted Whig amounted to political disfranchise- ment, for the Democratic party then, as now, reigned supreme in the State. Being a lawyer, though never having engaged in the practice, he was urged to accept the office of circuit judge, but declined, although he would have been promptly elected had he been willing to serve. His three terms in the legislature ended his political career. though to this day, among those who still survive and who knew him, the mention of his name will start many an old man to speaking of his grandeur of manner and appearance. his nobility of soul, and the marvelous magnetism about him. Col. Fletcher was an ardent sympathizer with the South, and when the war began he equipped a company known as "The Fletcher Rittes." at his own expense. This company was commanded by

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Biographical and historical memoirs of northeast Arkansas : comprising a condensed history of the state biographies of distinguished citizens a brief descriptive history of the counties, and numerous biographical sketches of the prominent citizens of such counties. V. 2, Part 1

Author: Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis : The Goodspeed Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author:
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis : The Goodspeed Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1044