JAMES D. STANLY. The farming class of America, and especially of the Western States, is noted for the degree of intelligence that is possessed among its representatives. Mr. Stanly is one of the most progressive of men, and as a tiller of the soil, as well as a merchant, he has been successful, pushing and enterprising. He was born in Perry County, Tennessee, to Henry T. and Jane (Dickson) Stanly, who were born and spent their lives in Tennessee, and inherits English blood of his father.
He is the eldest living member of the children born to his parents, and he and his brother Harrison L. are the only ones living in Marion County, Arkansas He came to this section with an ox team, and upon his arrival here had but $150 in money. Having been brought up to a knowledge of farming, he began following this occupation upon starting out in life for himself, and in 1857 purchased a portion of the farm on which he is now residing, which at the present time consists of 700 acres of fine arable land, well adapted to the raising of all the products of that section. For some five or six months he was a soldier of the Civil War, and during that short time he was a participant in seventeen engagements, among which were Devall’s Bluff, Iron Mountain, and all the engagements of the Price raid in Missouri. In the fall of. 1864 he returned to Arkansas, and located on White River, remained there two years, and in 1865 he and his neighbors fought a hard battle with some guerrillas. In 1866 he returned to his present farm, and on this farm in 1870 he opened a general mercantile store, and has successfully conducted the same ever since, a period of twenty-four years.
He has always been a substantial and enterprising citizen, held the position of postmaster before the war, and has long been a member of the Baptist Church, in which he holds the offices of deacon and clerk. Mr. Stanly was first married in Tennessee in 1854 to Miss Margaret Blackburn, and a family of fourteen children were given them: Carson W., William H., Albert L., Mary E., Joseph H., Nancy J., Thomas W., Marion T., Parthena A. (deceased), John C. (deceased), and the others died in infancy unnamed. The wife and mother died in 1878, and in 1882 Mr. Stanly wedded Sally H. Lancaster, who was born in Tennessee, a daughter of William H. Lancaster, and by her has five children: Matilda A., David B., Frances A., Lillie M. and James B. Mr. Stanly is a shrewd and practical business man, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that the property which he now has, has been acquired through his own unaided efforts.