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 94
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Thomas A. Nail is one of the industrious farm- ers and law- abiding citizens of Izard County, Ark., and has a good farm of 160 acres, which he has acquired by his own energy and good management since the close of the Civil War. His property is located on Lafferty's Creek, and is considered very valuable, as it is underlaid with mineral ore in paying quantities. Twenty-five aeres are under
dition. Mr. Nail was born in the State of Missis- sippi, in 1842, and at the early age of eighteen years he was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Sallie Brown, a daughter of Levi Brown, of Izard County. To them were born a family of three children: William A., Mary F. and Charles F. When the Civil War broke out he, in 1862, joined the cavalry under Capt. George W. Rutherford. now of Independence County, Ark., and was in many important engagements during his service. He surrendered at Jacksonport and returned home, and has since given his attention to farming with the above mentioned results. He is a son of Will- iam S. Nail, whose sketch precedes this.
Joel D. Patterson has been familiar with farm work from his earliest youth, and is now ranked among the prosperous farmers of Izard County. He was born in North Carolina in 1826, and is a son of David and Mecca (Holder) Patterson, who were also born in the "Old North State." In 1846 David Patterson removed to Kentucky, where he engaged in farming, having previously worked at house carpentering and cabinet making in his native State. He was also married there in 1825, and to him and wife were born eight children, five of whom are living: J. D., Caroline, wife of La Fayette Wright, of Kentucky; Susan, wife of M. V. Belma, of Kentucky; Francis M., a black- smith, also residing in Kentucky, and Mary, wife of C. C. Ashworth, of Tennessee. Mr. Patterson volunteered, but did not serve in the War of 1812. He died on the 16th of May, 1855, at the age of sixty six years, followed to his long home by his wife in 1883, her death occurring at the age of seventy-eight years. They were members of the Baptist Church, and were worthy and honored citizens. Joel D. Patterson attended the commou schools of North Carolina, and, after his removal to Kentucky with his parents, he gave his atten- tion to agricultural pursuits, with the exception of two years, when he worked in a wagon shop. In 1859 he moved to Izard County, Ark., and eu- tered 160 acres of land near the town of Philadel- phia, where he resided two years, then. upon the opening of the Civil War, he returned to Ken-
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
tucky, where his attention was given to farming for four years. He then came back to his farm in Izard County, but about two years later traded it for another place, but also disposed of this at the end of two years. He then purchased and has since resided on his present farm (which amounts to 277 acres, with eighty acres improved, with good buildings and under cultivation), with the excep- tion of about twenty months, when he resided in Fulton County. He was married, in 1853, to Miss Miranda Egbert, of Kentucky, and five of their eight children are now living: James R., who is now residing in Smithville, Ark., but expects soon to go to Texas; Joel B., residing in Indian Terri- tory; Francis L., Marcus L. and Hiram E. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson are members of the Baptist Church, and he is a Democrat politically, and is decidedly in favor of all movements which prom- ise to benefit the community in which he resides.
E. S. Pearson is a member of the mercantile firm of Sanders & Pearson, of Oxford, Ark., and also of F. W. Pearson & Co., of Thayer, Mo., both of whom carry a varied assortment of goods, which can not fail to satisfy every want of their patrons. He was born in McMinn County, Tenn., in 1829, and is a son of Edmond and Cynthia E. (Hardwick), natives of South Carolina and Alabama, respectively. The father removed to Tennessee in 1824, where he farmed, in connection with preach- ing the Gospel, and for ten years he was an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1832 he settled in Jackson County, Ala., but he afterward moved to Talladega County, where he died in the fall of 1847, at the age of fifty-two years, having been a minister of the Gospel for twenty-eight years. He and wife became the par- ents of the following children: Charles D. (who died, leaving a family in Texas), F. A. (deceased, left a family in Mississippi), B. T., F. C. (a min- ister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, residing in Texas), F. C. (also a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Texas, besides engaged in farming), Martha C. (wife of Marion Simmons, of this county), Cynthia E. (the de- ceased wife of Carroll White, her family residing in Mississippi), Mary C. (wife of D. B. White, of
Texas), Watson H. (a Methodist minister, residing in Izard County), and W. W. (deceased, was also a minister of the Methodist Church, and died in Mississippi, in 1871). E. S. Pearson was reared on a farm, and educated in the schools of Alabama. Upon reaching the age of twenty-one years he be- gan farming on land which he owned, but this work he gave up, on the breaking out of the war, to enlist in the Confederate service. He joined Company F, under Gen. Forrest, and served as his commissary for three years, and, in 1865, surren- dered at Corinth, Miss. He then returned to Mississippi, where he had located in 1850, and be- gan farming and merchandising at Houston, but, four years later, he moved to Lee County, and en- gaged in farming. He took up his abode in the State of Arkansas, in 1869, and, after residing for some time on a farm of 400 acres, he sold out and went to Newburg, where he was engaged in the mercantile business for three years. From that time until 1880 he again farmed, and then followed merchandising once more. He sold this establish- ment to Garner & Richardson, and up to March, 1889, his attention was given to agriculture alone. He has since followed merchandising, and has also managed his farm of sixty-tive acres. His home place is also under cultivation, and in the two enter- prises to which he has given the most of his at- tention he has met with flattering success, and. besides the income which he derives from his farm, the sales in his mercantile establishment will amount to about $12,000. He was married. in 1850, to Miss Ellen Morris, of Pontotoc County, Miss., and by her he became the father of eleven children, seven of whom are living: C. Elizabeth (wife of John M. Smith, of Polk County, Mo.), F. W. (a merchant at Thayer, Mo.), Alice M. (wife of Joseph Harklerood, a farmer of Fulton County, Ark.), Mary E. (wife of Jasper Rader, of Fulton County), Emma (wife of W. Martin, a farmer of Izard County), Thomas W. and Josie L. (the latter two at home with their father). Adolphus L., the eldest child, died in 1883 the wedded the daughter of Judge Hunter, of Fulton County); W. W. died in his twenty-third year, in 1876, and two died in infancy. Mr. Pearson was
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called upon to mourn the death of his wife in 1879, she having been an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and, in 1880, he wedded Mrs. Sarah J. (Hancock) McCollough, a daughter of Joel and Sarah (Hall) Hancock, na- tives, respectively, of Kentucky and South Caro- lina. Mrs. Pearson was reared in Ohio, to which State her father was taken when he was a small boy, and from this State her father enlisted in the War of 1812. He was a farmer, and he and wife were the parents of the children whose names are here given: Robert T. (of Ohio), L. B., J. K., J. H., J. B., J. R., Harriet (wife of Ezra Clark, of Indiana), and Sarah J. (Mrs. Pearson). Mr. Hancock died in 1863, and his wife in 1875, both being earnest members of the United Presbyterian Church at the time of their deaths. Mrs. Pearson was first married, in 1848, to Aaron Michael, in Ohio, soon afterward emigrating to Arkansas, and settling in Jackson County, where Mr. Michael died, in 1857. In 1874 Mrs. Michael was united in marriage with William McCollough, who died in 1878. He was a Confederate soldier, and was with Price on his last raid through Missouri. He was a member of the Baptist Church, and belonged to the A. F. & A. M. Since 1884 Mr. Pearson has been a licensed minister of the Cumberland Pres- byterian Church, with which church he united in 1880. While residing in Mississippi, in 1868, he became a licensed minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. Politically, he is a Democrat. Mrs. Pearson has in her possession a bed-spread, with a double-woven top, in blue and white, and on the under side is the year (1837) in which it was woven, and also the name of the weaver, she having herself spun the thread, of which the bed- spread was made, when a girl.
there also married, his wife being a Miss Ellen Street, and a daughter of William and Anna Street, their nuptials being celebrated on the 2d of March. 1869, at Batesville. To them were born four sons and three daughters, the following of whom are living: Jessamine, Claud B., Horace, and William F., all residing at home. During the rebellion Mr. Perrin served in the Third Arkansas Cavalry from 1862 to 1865, the first hard battle in which he participated being at Helena. After his return home he engaged in grist-milling, and now in ad- dition to his farm work he is furnishing railroad timber supplies, such as telegraph poles and ties. He and wife belong to the Presbyterian Church and are worthy and honored citizens of the county. He is one of three surviving members of a family of two sons and three daughters born to the marriage of David Perrin and Nancy M. Baldwin, the former a native of Michigan, born in 1786. He was also educated in that State, but moved to Ohio. and was there married, his wife being a sister of Rev. S. D. Baldwin, who was the author of the "Baldwin's Prophecy," and was pastor of the Me- Kendry Church at Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Perrin was a millwright by trade, and was a member of the Masonic lodge, and at the time of his death, on the 2d of April, 1869, he was buried with Ma- sonic honors in the cemetery at Batesville. He re- moved from the State of Indiana, where he had resided for some time, to Arkansas, in 1850, settling near Batesville, where he erected the first bridge ever built over Polk Bayou. His wife died May 28, 1877, both being members of the Old School Presbyterian Church.
Judge R. H. Powell, Melbourne, Ark., is one of whom it can be said:
" With an equal scale
James Perrin is one of the wealthy agricult- He weighs the affairs betwixt man and man." urists of this region, and at the present time is the He is a prominent man of Northern Arkansas, and judge of the district in which he resides. His birth occurred in Sussex County, Va., on the Sth of April, 1827, and he is the son of Thomas P. and Jane P. (Roland) Powell, both natives of the Old Dominion, the former born in 1803 and the latter owner of a fine tract of land consisting of 900 acres, of which there are about 100 acres under cultivation, all being the result of his energy, de- termination and attention to details. He was born in Lexington, Ky., December 1, 1844, but was ed- ucated in Independence County, Ark., to which : in 1806. The father was of Welsh descent, and place his parents moved at an early date. He was | was reared and married in his native State. He
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
966
moved to Tennessee in 1832, settling in Bedford County, and was a very successful tiller of the soil, being the owner of about thirty negroes, and some fifteen or twenty field hands. He was a Whig, and a very decided partisan, although he never held office. He split off from the Demo- cratic party in 1834 and joined with the Clay fac- tion. His first Whig vote was cast for Hugh L. White and Baily Peyton. He bade a final adieu to this world in 1853, and died as he had lived, an honored, upright citizen, one universally respected. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which his wife was also a mem- ber. She died in 1840 or 1841. To their mar- riage, which occurred in 1824, were born nine children, all of whom lived to maturity, and eight still survive: Dr. R. J. (resides in Izard County), R. H. (subject). Mary A. (wife of Dan Morten, and makes her home in Tennessee), Martha H. (wife of J. W. Nailer, resides in Tennessee), Margaret V. (wife of S. H. Winston, resides in Stone County, Ark.), Miranda (wife of James McCuistion, resides in Izard County), W. S. (deceased), Sarah J. (widow of Dr. David Deason, resides in Tennessee), and Harriet T. (wife of Town Scruggs, resides at Bell Buckle, Tenn.). The paternal grandfather of these children, Robert Powell, was a native of Virginia, and was a boy at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, but was present on that auspicious oc- casion. The youth of Judge R. H. Powell was passed in laboring on his father's farm and in at- tending the common subscription schools. When twenty-one years of age he entered the Salem Academy, remained there but three or four months and then engaged in teaching school, which pro- fession he followed until about twenty-eight years of age. He then attended law school at Lebanon, Tenn., under Judge Abram Caruthers and Judge Greene, and after passing a very rigid examina- tion received his license. He subsequently com- menced practicing at Louisburg, Marshall County, Tenn. (1855), and there remained until 1860, being first a partner of Gideon B. Black, of Ten- nessee, and later a partner of James H. Thomas, of Columbia. In 1860 he came to Batesville, Ark., remained there but a short time, and then moved
to Izard County, in 1861. He was first married to Miss Jane Temple, in June, 1849, and the fruits of this union were six children, who lived to be grown: Dr. Dempsey T. (resides at Thayer, Mo., and is an assistant surgeon of the Kansas & Mis- souri Railroad), Robert T. (attorney at Greenwood, Ark.), Nancy J., Mary W. (wife of John W. Woods, who is an attorney in Melbourne), Henry Lee (wife of Ewing Kennard, who is a druggist at La Crosse), and William W. (an attorney). In 1862 Judge Powell joined Company B, Freeman's battalion, Shaler's company, and, although entering the ranks as a private, he was afterward elected by his company to the position of first lieutenant, in which capacity he served until December, 1863. He was taken prisoner near Batesville, and was sent to Little Rock, Ark. At the time he was taken prisoner he had been assigned to duty as commis- sary and quartermaster, by Gen. Price, and had in his possession some valuable papers and about $1,500. The United States forces secured the papers but failed to get the money. Mrs. Montgomery (sister of Capt. James Ruther- ford, of Batesville) managed to slip the money from the outside pocket of his overshirt, and sent it to Col. Freeman. After being sent to Little Rock, he was shortly afterward removed to St. Louis and quartered in the McDowell Col- lege, in February, 1864. The following April he was removed to Johnson's Island, and was there retained until the 9th of January, 1865. On the 29th of the following month he was exchanged and then came home on a sixty days' leave of absence. and had started back to rejoin his command, when he heard of Gen. Lee's surrender. He surrendered at Jacksonport on the 5th of June, 1865, and after returning home engaged in agricultural pursuits. which he continued until 1866. He then began practicing his profession in this and surrounding counties. In 1862 Judge Powell was elected to represent his county in the legislature, and this was the first legislature that met after the seces- sion of the State. In 1866 he was elected judge of this, then the Seventh circuit, and served until after the reconstruction of 1868, when he was dis- franchised. From 1868 to 1874 he was interested
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IZARD COUNTY.
in mercantile pursuits, and followed this business in La Crosse, Lunenburg and Newburg, Izard County, and at Paraquet Bluff, Independence County. He lost his wife in 1870. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1873 the Judge wedded Mrs. Harriet Herbert (nee Harris), and two children were the result of this union, both of whom died while small. Mrs. Powell died in 1876. She was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Judge Powell was again married in 1878 to Mrs. Elizabeth Davidson, widow of Dr. Davidson. Her maiden name was Gardner, and she was a native of Ten- nessee. Two children were born to the last union: Guy and Ruth H. In 1874 Judge Powell attend- ed strictly to the practice of his profession, and for four years remained thus engaged. In 1878 he was elected judge of the Third circuit, and filled that position until 1887, when there was a division in the circuit, and he was placed in charge of the Fourteenth judicial circuit. He has been judge ever since 1878 (now twelve years) without any in- termission, and his term expires in 1890. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Blue Lodge, R. A. C., and Council, and is also a Knight Templar. He is a straight Democrat in his political views, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South.
William M. Ray removed from his native State of Tennessee (he being a native of Bedford County, born in 1828), to Independence County, Ark., in 1858, and purchased and entered the land on which he is now residing, which comprises 360 acres, 100 acres being under cultivation. The tillable por- tion of his land he devotes principally to cotton, corn and small grain, and the manner in which he con- ducts his farm shows him to be well posted on all matters pertaining to the work. He was reared, educated and married in his native State, the latter event taking place in 1850, and being to Miss Nancy J. Holland, a daughter of William Holland. Seven of their nine children survive: Alexander, Joseph R., George F., Sarah J., James, William M. and Dorinda. Mr. and Mrs. Ray are members of the Christian Church, and he is an active mem- ber of the I. O. O. F. During the Civil War he ing to support enterprises of a worthy character.
espoused the cause of the Confederacy, and served in the infantry and cavalry for about six months during 1862. His parents, Alexander and Isabella (Scott) Ray, were born in North Carolina and Ten- nessee, respectively, and were married in the lat - ter State, in 1816, to which State he came with his parents, when near twenty-six years of age. He was badly crippled when about twenty years of age by white swelling, but notwithstanding this drawback he became quite well-to-do, and was the owner of 240 acres of land in Tennessee. Of the seven children born to himself and wife, only one is now living, William M., our subject. He died in Tennessee, July 30, 1856, his wife, who was a daughter of John Scott, of Tennessee, dying at the age of thirty-five years.
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