Biography of W. R. Jones

The subject of this sketch was born in Wayne County, Illinois, December 1, 1861. His father and mother were born in Illinois; both his grandfathers were born in Kentucky, and his great-grand-father, Cadwaledar Jones, was born in South Carolina. His ancestors took a prominent part in the Revolutionary War, one of them, Robert Anderson, being a chieftain along with Marion and Sumter. The Jones family originally came from Wales. The Anderson family, into which the grandfather of the subject of this sketch married, came from Ireland. The Staten family, into which the father of the subject of this sketch married, … Read more

Biography of I. C. Wilson

I. C. WILSON. This gentleman is one of the oldest pioneers of Marion County, and his name is so inseparably mixed with its progress and welfare that to leave it out of this work would be like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. He was born in North Carolina February 2, 1814. Of that State his parents, James and Celia (Askew) Wilson, were also natives. In 1845 they turned their faces westward, eventually landed in Arkansas, and here they breathed their last, the father’s death occurring in Yellville at about the age of sixty-seven years, and the mother’s … Read more

Biography of Col. William B. Jordan

COL. WILLIAM B. JORDAN. This gentleman is one of the leading farmers of Independence Township, Baxter County, Arkansas, and has followed this calling from his earliest boyhood, having been initiated into its mysteries by his father. He was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, in 1808, to Baxter Jordan, who was born in the same county in 1777 and died in 1823, having followed the calling of a merchant and farmer. His marriage resulted in the birth of two children, William B., and Thomas, who died in Alabama. The subject of this sketch was educated in his native county and an … Read more

Biography of Capt. Joseph Thompson McCracken

CAPT. JOSEPH THOMPSON MCCRACKEN. Among the well-known farmers and stock dealers of Marion County, Arkansas, none has a better or more thoroughly cultivated farm than he whose name is here given. He is a product of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he was born November 29, 1830, a son of Joseph R. and Isabelle (Thompson) McCracken, the former born in North Carolina in 1776, and the latter in Virginia about 1780. They were taken to Rutherford County, Tennessee, in their youth and were there reared, married and made their home until 1851, when they came by wagon to Marion County, Arkansas, the … Read more