Biographical and historical memoirs of eastern 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., Part 94

Author: Goodspeed Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; St. Louis [etc.] : The Goodspeed Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 836

USA > Arkansas > Biographical and historical memoirs of eastern 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. > Part 94

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George W. Bullard ranks among the leading agriculturists of Lee County, and although he was born in Tennessee in 1853; he has been a resident of Arkansas since he was three years old, at which time his father and mother, George T. and Eliza- beth (Curts) Bullard, came here from their native State of Tennessee. They settled in St. Francis County and bought some unimproved land at $5 and $7 per acre, but rented land the first year of his stay. On this farm he resided until his death in 1875, and witnessed many changes in the growth and prosperity of the county as it was a very wild and unsettled region at the time of his locating. During the Civil War he suffered much at the hands of bushrangers who claimed to belong to the Union and Confederate armies, but did not himself serve in either army. Seven of his ten children lived to be grown and five are living at the present time: George W., Mattie J. (wife of John Lind- sey), Octavia A. (wife of W. T. Inge), Margaret H. (wife of F. C. Danerhougher) and Alice L. The mother of these children still resides on the old homestead and manages her farm successfully. She

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LEE COUNTY.

is, as was her husband, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he was a member of Bethel Lodge No. 254, A. F. & A. M. George W. Bullard attended the common schools near his home in his youth and in 1870 entered Abernathy's School in Montgomery County, Tenn., where he acquired a sufficiently good education to fit him for the toils and cares of business life. At the age of twenty-one years he commenced the battle of life for himself but did not leave home until he was married, in 1882, to Miss Ella Davis, she being a daughter of J. P. and Mollie (Jackson) Davis, of Alabama, who came to Arkansas about 1870. She was born in 1865 and is one of two surviving mem- bers of their family of three children: Ella, Willie and James, the latter being deceased. Mr. Davis died in 1879 and Mrs. Davis in 1877, both being worthy members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the former also a member of the I. O. O. F. Mr. and Mrs. Bullard have a family of three children: George W. (who was born February 11, 1884, and died August 23, 1886), Daisy Lee (born February 1, 1886) and Reuben E. (born October 21, 1889). Mr. Bullard owns a fine farm of 240 acres, of which 175 acres are nicely improved with good buildings of all descriptions. He raises an- nually from sixty to seventy-five bales of cotton, besides plenty of corn and hay, stock-raising also receiving a considerable portion of his attention. He is a rising young farmer and in all matters per- taining to the welfare of the county he is deeply interested. He is a member of Bethel Lodge No. 254, of the A. F. and A. M., and Lodge No. 1861, of the K. of H., at Haynes. His wife is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Capt. William H. Clark, of Marianna, Ark., was born in North Carolina in 1841, and in 1846 moved with his parents (James and Virginia L. (Pinnell) Clark), to Memphis, Tenn., and from there, in 1857, to Walnut Bend, Ark., where the father purchased land. The latter was born in Guilford County, N. C., in 1816, and was a painter by trade. This he followed until after he moved to Walnut Bend, where he resided up to 1867, when he died of yellow fever. He followed merchan- dising, and owned some land in Walnut Bend.

Clark's Landing was named in honor of him, and he owned the same. The mother was born in Vir- ginia, in 1824, and died in Memphis, Tenn., in 1854. They were the parents of three children, Capt. William H. Clark being the eldest; and the second, James Preston, was captured in Walnut Bend during the war, and died from a fever con- tracted in prison. He was a member of Capt. Cowley's company, C. S. A. The youngest child died when young. Capt. William H. Clark was reared and educated in Memphis. He commenced steamboating in 1856, as clerk on the steamer Katie Frisbee, and followed this in different ca- pacities until 1861, when he joined the Confeder- ate army at Memphis. Previous to this, in 1859, he was appointed route agent for the United States mail, between Memphis, Tenn., and Vicksburg, Miss., and was serving in that capacity when the war broke out. He joined the One Hundred Fifty- fourth Senior Tennessee Regiment as private, in Company B (Bluff City Greys), was a clerk in Adj. - Gen. Bragg's office, of the Army of Tennes- see, under command of Gens. Bragg, J. E. John- ston and Hood, at department headquarters, and served from May, 1863, until the close of the war. He participated in the battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Corinth, Richmond (Ky.) and Perryville, with his company, the Bluff City Greys. During the fight at Richmond there were seventy-five in the com- pany, and they captured from 125 to 150 of the enemy, and were in front all day. After the battle nearly all had their clothes torn by bullets, but no man of the company was wounded. They were sharp-shooters of Gen. Preston Smith's brigade. Capt. Clark was with the Army of Tennessee while under the commands of Gens. Braxton Bragg, J. E. Johnston, John B. Hood, G. T. Beauregard and Dick Taylor, from Murfreesboro, Tenn., to the surrender at Greensboro, N. C., serving continu- ally in the adjutant-general's office under the dif- ferent commanders. After the surrender he re- turned to Memphis and followed steamboating until 1876, part of the time being engaged in the cotton seed business. He was married in 1866, to Miss Maggie Harrison, who was born in Paducah, Ky. Her grandfather moved to Christian County,

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Ky., in 1809 from Virginia, and was one of the owners and founders of Paducah. Her grand- father and William H. Harrison were first cousins, · and the subject of this sketch was named for that president. Capt. Clark came here in 1876, and engaged in the receiving and forwarding business. By his marriage he became the father of seven children: William H., Jr., Dudley S. , Emma, Mag- gie, Benigna, Ruth and Charles Preston. Capt. Clark is a member of the Masonic fraternity-Chap- ter, Council and Commandery-K. of H., and K. & L. of H. and K. of P. He and wife and all the family are members of the Episcopal Church. G. F. Clark was born in Guilford County, N. C., and was a first cousin of Abraham Clark, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was of Scotch descent. The grandmother on his father's side was a Lilly, and a relative of the Lillys of Halifax County, Va. The Carringtons, of Cumber- land County, were relatives to the wife's father.

J. P. Curtis belongs to the firm of Hughes & Curtis, of Haynes, Ark., general merchants, the former being also engaged in farming. He was the fifth of eight children born to William and Mary (Porchman) Curtis, natives of North Caro- lina and Tennessee, respectively, the former of whom came to Arkansas in 1856, and settled in what was then St. Francis County, but is now Lee, where he improved an excellent farm, on which he died in 1878. Of his eight children only two are living: Elisabeth (Mrs. Bullard of Lee County) and J. P. Curtis. Two children died in infancy, and three died between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. A sister, Mary, was the wife of Buck Dawson at the time of her death. The mother of these children died in 1875, she and her husband having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at the time of their death. J. P. Curtis was sixteen years of age upon his removal to this State, but the most of · his education was received in Lee County. He was in his twenty-first year at the breaking out of the late war, and he immediately donned a suit of gray clothes, and became a member of Company D, Fortieth Tennessee, and was on active duty with the Army of Tennessee, until 1862, when

he was transferred to the Fifteenth Arkansas In- fantry, and served on the east side of the Missis- sippi River, until the fall of Port Hudson. He was captured at Island No. 10, and was sent to Camp Butler, Ill., but at the end of six months was exchanged at Vicksburg, and rejoined his command near that place. He surrendered, and was paroled at Port Hudson, July 8, 1863, and reached home on the 23d day of the same month. After remaining at home for eight months, he, in 1864, joined Col. Dobbins' command, and was with Gen. Price on his raid through Missouri, participating in a number of engagements in that State. He surrendered at Wittsburg, in January, 1865, and returned to his home, where he com- menced to cultivate his father's farm, and con- tinued so to do until the latter's death. In Feb- ruary, 1889, he became a member of the above named firm, doing an annual business of about $35,000, and in addition to this they also deal in cotton, and in the year 1888 ginned 1,300 bales, but only ginned about 800 bales last year, on ac- count of poor crops. Mr. Curtis was married in 1867, to Miss M. C. Castell, of St. Francis County, a daughter of Calloway and Isabel (Simp- son) Castell, who were among the early settlers of the county, and by her has reared a family of five children, three dying when small. Those living are: Mary (wife of Charles Higginbotham, of this county), Walter B. (who is attending school in Madisonville, Ky.), William, A. E. and B. E. Mr. Curtis belongs to Bethel Lodge No. 2168, of the K. of H.

D. W. Davis, one of the old settlers of this county, and son of David W. Davis, who came to this State in 1829, was born in the Old Dominion in 1816, and accompanied his father to Arkansas in the above mentioned year, settling where the younger Davis is now living. This was at that time a wilderness, and there were, in what is now Lee County, about forty families on the east side of the L'Anguille, and none on the. west. In about 1835 Hardy Williams and brother, Jefferson Ezell, and two brothers, and one Mr. Burris, settled west of Haynes, in what is now Texas Township. The remaining portion of the county was an unbroken

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LEE COUNTY.

wilderness, filled with deer, bear, buffalo and many other wild animals. Where Marianna now stands there lived at that time two old Poles, Duskinuski and Coluski by name, and just south of them lived John Patterson, who was born in Helena in 1800. He lived to be eighty years of age. His sister, who was born previous to 1800, was the first white child born in Helena. Of all the early settlers of the county, Mr. Davis is the only one of the orig- inal families who is still living. He was one of eleven children born to his parents, five sons and six daughters, and is the only one surviving, al- though all lived to be grown and reared large families, except one sister and D. W. These chil- dren were named as follows: Mary (deceased, was the wife of A. G. McDaniel, family now resides in this and Monroe County), Solomon (deceased, family resides in Illinois), Nancy (deceased, wife of John W. Calvert, family deceased), Cornelius (deceased, family resides in this county and Arizona), Benja- min (deceased, family resides in St. Francis Coun- ty), Rebecca (deceased), Rachel (deceased, wife of William West, family resides in Kansas), D. W., W. H. (deceased, family resides with D. W. Davis, except one daughter, Elizabeth, who married G. L. Rodgers), Harriet (deceased, wife of T. R. Harris) and Eliza (deceased, wife of Bryant Lynch, family resides in Lee County, Ark.). David W. Davis, Sr., died in 1837. He was born in 1761, and par- ticipated in the Revolutionary War. He was on a war ship with Capt. Peterson during the principal part of the war, and was with Gen. Wayne in the war with the Indians, being wounded in the shoul- der in the last engagements. His wife was born in 1777, and died in 1861. Our subject, D. W. Davis, was educated in the subscription schools of Kentucky, and after coming to Arkansas received instruction from his father, who was an unusually good scholar for his day, and a fine mathematician. After the death of his father D. W. remained at home and took care of his mother. He was not in the war himself, but his family supplied quite a number of soldiers for the South. His father held the right of pre-emption on the land which he en- tered in 1836, there being about 160 acres in the original homestead, but to this our subject has

added 300 acres more, which belongs to him and the heirs of W. H. Davis. The Davis family, while being among the prominent ones of the county, never aspired to office, though one, J. C. Davis, is sheriff of St. Francis County. He is a nephew of D. W. Davis (subject). While Mr. Davis does not seek for official prominence he still manifests con- siderable interest in the local elections, and is a thorough Democrat. He is a liberal contributor to all matters relating to the good of the county, and is a man universally respected. Amanda Davis, widow of W. H. Davis, and daughter of Noah and Mary (Hearty) Reed, natives, respectively, of Mas- sachusetts and Kentucky, was one of two children born to her parents. The other child, Elizabeth, married J. L. Rowland. Previous to her marriage to Mr. Reed, Mrs. Reed had married a man by the name of Ramage, and by him became the mother of two children: Lucinda (deceased, wife of Ben- jamin Travis), and James (who resides in Paducah, Ky.). Mr. Reed died in 1845, and Mrs. Reed in 1842. Mrs. Amanda Davis was born in 1833, and came with her father to Arkansas when quite small. She had very limited educational advantages, and at the age of twenty-two years was united in mar- riage to George Halbert. The result of this union was one child, W. H., who resides in Haynes. Mr. Halbert died December 17, 1856, and in July, 1858, his widow married W. H. Davis, who died November 23, 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Davis were the parents of seven children, five now living: Richard (died at the age of twenty-five years), T. Jefferson (died at the age of fifteen months), Mary E., Annie, George B., William H. and Harriet A. Mr. Davis and his brother, D. W., had always re- mained together, and the business interests still continue as before his death. W. H. Davis had been married previous to his union with Mrs. Hal- bert, to Miss Sarah J. Boon, and by her became the father of five children, only two now living: Mrs. Rodgers, of Texas, and David R., who resides in Lee County, Ark. Mrs. Davis is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Robert C. Davis has been a resident of Arkansas since a short time after the close of the Civil War, in which conflict he took part on the Confederate

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side, enlisting in Company A, of the Twenty- seventh Mississippi Infantry, in 1861, when only seventeen years of age. After the close of hostil- ities he returned to Mississippi, his native State, where he remained until 1869, then coming to this State and locating in Phillips County, and in 1880 he came to Lee County and settled upon his present farm. Mr. Davis was born in Attala County, Miss., in 1843, being'a son of J. G. A. and Eliza- beth J. Davis, natives of Illinois and Tennessee, respectively. His educational advantages were limited to a few months' attendance at the common schools in each year. Mr. Davis has been twice married; first, in 1866, to Miss Sarah J. Cornish, daughter of William and Elizabeth Cornish, na- tives of North Carolina and Georgia, respectively. Mrs. Davis died in 1871, leaving three children, two of whom are still living: Cornish R. and Righ- tor C. He was married to his present wife, Miss Luivia J. Alexander, in 1872. He owns 560 acres of land, 130 acres cleared and in a good state of cultivation, with good improvements upon his place. Mr. Davis is a Democrat in politics, and was appointed postmaster of Lee in 1884, having held the office since that time. He and wife are members of the Primitive Baptist Church, in which they take an active part.

W. T. Derrick, well known as the popular clerk of the circuit court of Lee County, is a na- tive of Alabama, and a son of H. B. and Evaline (Beal) Derrick. H. B. Derrick is still living, a resident of this county, seventy-one years of age. His wife died in 1885, at the age of fifty-eight. W. T. Derrick was born in 1842, and came to Lee County with his father when a boy. He served four years in the Confederate army during the war, holding the position of lieutenant in the Army of Tennessee, and participated in seventeen differ- ent engagements. After the war he returned to this county and carried on farming until 1884, when he was elected county and circuit clerk, and was re-elected in 1886, and again in 1888, filling the offices with great credit to himself and satis- faction to his fellow-citizens. Mr. Derrick's wife was formerly Miss Mary S. Jones, also of Alabama origin. They are the parents of two children:

Maria and Robert L. He is a member of the K. of P. and of the K. of H. It is unnecessary to add that Mr. Derrick is one of the leading Demo- crats of the county, having held prominent offices for the past six years. He is also highly esteemed not only by those of the same political party, but by all good citizens throughout this locality.

H. B. Derrick, Jr., liveryman, Marianna, Ark. Among the active enterprises of a town like Mar- ianna, the business of a livery stable occupies nec- essarily an important place, contributing as they do to the pleasure, convenience and actual neces- sities of the community. Among the most notable of this class in Marianna is that conducted by Mr. Derrick, which was established at this place in 1873. Mr. Derrick was born September 30, 1852, in Ala- bama and emigrated with his father from that State to Arkansas in 1859. Here he grew to man- hood and received his education in the common schools, and at Florence and Huntsville, Ala. He first engaged in tilling the soil but later entered a store as clerk. As above stated, he opened the livery business at Marianna in December, 1873, and was very successful at this until a snow storm came and crushed in his stable. He then rebuilt and in 1876, as misfortune seemed to cling to him, he had his stable destroyed by fire, sustaining a loss of about $1,500, and in 1883 the stable was again destroyed by fire with a loss much heavier than be- fore. Neither disheartened nor discouraged he again engaged in the business, built a brick barn and now has the best livery business in Eastern Arkansas. He also had a farm of 300 acres, after having sold some, and is one of the most practical business men of the county. He was married first in 1876 to Mrs. Ella Campbell, who is deceased. The children by this marriage are also deceased. Mr. Derrick afterward married Miss Emma Long- ley. Mr. Derrick is the son of H. B., Sr., and Evalyn Beal, the father a native of Alabama, born April 10, 1819. He is a farmer by occupation but is now living with his son. The latter is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Eli T. Diamond. Of all the old settlers in Ar- kansas there is no one more deserving of a place in the history of his State than Eli T. Diamond,

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who is also a descendant of Revolutionary heroes. His grandfather, John Diamond, was a native of Ireland and came to America in his boyhood days, being one of the first to respond to the call of his adopted country, and serving in the war for free- dom until its close. He was a member of Gen. Marion's famous band in all of its brilliant achievements. After the close of the war he re- turned to his home in South Carolina, but, being surrounded by Tories, and unpleasantly and dan- gerously situated, he removed to Georgia and set . tled on the site of the present city of Milledge- ville, once the capital, and where Robert Diamond, the father of our subject, was reared, he having been born in South Carolina during the stormy times of the Revolution. After his marriage Rob- ert Diamond removed to Robertson County, Tenn., and then to Illinois, in 1816, under the Territorial Government, and settled in Bond County, where he died in 1852. He was one of the early settlers of that State. Nancy (Rice) Diamond, the mother of the principal of this sketch, was a daughter of James Rice, an Englishman. She was born in Virginia, on the banks of the Potomac River, and was there reared and educated, but later removed to Georgia, where she met, captured and married the father of Eli T. She died in Illinois in 1857, having borne eleven children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the only survivor. He was born in Robertson County, Tenn., April 22, 1807, and accompanied his parents to Illinois at the age of eight years, where he was brought up and edu- cated. At the age of twenty years he went to Natchez, Miss., and lived with an uncle. Two years later he became employed as an overseer on a Mississippi plantation, being engaged in that oc- cupation for eight years, when he bought an inter- est in a plantation in Washington County, Miss., but, putting too much confidence in his partner, he was bankrupted. He then moved to Chicot County, Ark., in 1840, where he was employed as overseer of a plantation until 1842, at which time he went to Desha County, again becoming interested in a large plantation. For awhile he succeeded very well, but, another financial crash overtaking him, he again lost the greater part of the earnings of

years of labor. He then (in 1844) removed to Walnut Bend, on the Mississippi River, in Phillips County. Here he lived for twenty-four years, clearing up one of the best-improved farms in that section of country, owning 700 acres of land, and while here he secured a large tract of land in the western part of Phillips (now Lee) County. A large negro debt swallowed up his Walnut Bend property, and for the third time he was sent adrift in the finan- cial world. He then set out for his wild and unten- anted home in the wilderness of Phillips County. In 1860 he bought a family of negroes, expecting to pay for them when he could sell cotton, as he had two crops unsold. When the war came on the cotton was burned by the Confederates, and the debt accumulated during the war. That struggle found him with a good home surrounded by every convenience and comfort. In 1862 Mr. Diamond brought hands to this section, which was then a wilderness, and improved some of his wild land, where he now lives, but still retained his home on the river. But the ravages of the war and the ac- cumulation of debt compelled him to a compromise in giving up his river place, when he came west. Older in years, and with burdens and misfortunes sufficient to have paralyzed many a younger man, he began anew the work of making a home for his family, and soon the wilderness blossomed under his skill and husbandry. But the guns of Sum- ter were the death-knell of his high ambitions. The war gave freedom to his most valuable prop- erty, the negro, and the close of the war found him destitute of everything but the shattered re- mains of what had once been a magnificent prop- erty, and of which there only remains one-quarter section of land, on which he now lives with his son and his tenants, calmly awaiting the end of a well- spent life. Mr. Diamond has been twice married; first, in 1846, to Elizabeth Hall, a native of North Carolina, who died in 1857, leaving six children, three of whom survive: William H., Eli T. and Alford S. His second marriage was in February, 1868, to Miss Anna Owen, of Phillips County, who died in 1870. Mr. Diamond is a Democrat in politics, is a member of the Masonic order and of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to

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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

which he has belonged since twelve years of age. He is esteemed by all who know him for his good- ness of heart, and for his Christian character in every day life. He has kept a diary of public events since 1844, noting down all public events. There are several large volumes of the work, and many are the facts and statements therein con- tained, which, in time to come, and even now, are very valuable.

James J. Dozier came originally from Georgia, being a son of Woody and Eliza (Compton) Dozier, also natives of that State. The senior Dozier was born in Warren County in 1804, and his wife four years later in Jasper County. They were married in 1828, and became the parents of ten children, seven of whom are still living: Mary C. (wife of R. J. Bickerstaff, whose biography appears in this work), Sallie F. (Mrs. Sutton, of Forrest City), Emily V. (wife of R. P. Danart, a resident of Texas), Anna C. (wife of Rev. W. H. Pasley, also a resident of Forrest City), James J., the principal of this sketch), Elizabeth (the wife of Andrew C. Wood, a farmer of St. Francis County) and An- nette E. (widow of William Henderson). James J. Dozier was born in Jasper County, Ga., on July 1, 1843, but passed his boyhood days in what is now Lee County, Ala. He enlisted in the Confed- erate army in July, 1861, in the Thirteenth Reg. iment Alabama Volunteers, in which he served until the close of the war, serving as a non-com- missioned officer. He participated in the battles of Seven Pines, the seven days' fight before Rich- mond, South Mountain, Antietam, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, at which battle he was wounded by the explosion of a shell; he was also slightly wounded at the bat- tle of the Wilderness. He took part in the en- gagements of Spottsylvania Court-House, Peters- burg, Turkey Ridge, and a number of others, and was captured at High Bridge, three days before Lee's surrender, being held for three months. He ceme to Arkansas in January, 1867, and settled near Moro, where he now resides, on a farm of 220 acres, with about forty acres under cultivation. Mr. Dozier returned to Alabama in 1869, and was there married to Miss Olive I. Crabbe, of that

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Author: Goodspeed Publishing Company Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; St. Louis [etc.] : The Goodspeed Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 836

Author: Goodspeed Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; St. Louis [etc.] : The Goodspeed Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 836