My Genealogy Hound

A. J. Gunnell was the eldest son in a family of ten children born to Benjamin and Caroline (Ayers) Gunnell, natives of Virginia and South Carolina, respectively. They were married in Jefferson County, Ala., in 1828, and in 1835-36 moved to Tippah County, Miss. The father was a blacksmith by trade and was a soldier in the War of 1812, dying in 1852, at the age of sixty-five years; his wife passed away in 1885, at the age of seventy-seven. He was a son of Nicholas Gunnell, a Virginian by birth, and a soldier in the Revolutionary War, who died in Georgia, at the age of ninety-eight. The father of Caroline Ayers, William Ayers, was born in South Carolina, and died near the place where Birmingham, Ala., now stands. He was of Irish descent. A. J. Gunnell first saw the light in Jefferson County, Ala., in 1829, being reared on a farm, and while never having had an opportunity to attend school, he has improved his spare moments and is a well-read man. In 1853 he came to Arkansas and located on the farm on which he still makes his home, consisting of 400 acres; at that time it was wild land covered with timber, but now 120 acres are under cultivation. In April, 1861, Mr. Gunnell joined the Confederate army, as a member of the First Arkansas Infantry, in which he served until the battle of Shiloh, when he was wounded and received his discharge and returned home. After his recovery he joined Company E of the Thirty-first Arkansas Infantry. He was made first lieutenant, and served until June, 1865, participating in some of the hardest fought battles of the war. After the war he returned home to find all of his property destroyed and left nearly without a home. He was married in September of the same year to Miss Amanda Luckett, daughter of John L. and Mary Luckett, originally from Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively; she was born in Mississippi. They are the parents of six children: Katie (now Mrs. Jones), Benjamin T., John Nicholas, Winfield D., Callie and Emma. When Mr. Gunnell came to this county it was impossible to raise hogs on account of the wolves and bears. The country was full of game of all kinds. He is now one of the leading men of this community and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as are also his wife and two eldest children.