My Genealogy Hound

F. A. Switzer is one of the substantial agriculturists of Ashley County, Ark., and in connection with tilling the soil he gives considerable attention to stock-raising. He was born in the Palmetto State, in 1828, being a son of Fred Switzer, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and participated in the battle of New Orleans. He was reared in the Old North State, and received his education in the schools of Madison. In 1848 he began making his own way in the world, and started out as a trader in negroes, horses and mules, handling many well known racehorses of fine breed. He came to Arkansas in December, 1859, and purchased 1,200 acres of land in Ashley County, and is still the owner of the same. His cultivated land produces one half bale of cotton to the acre, and an average of twenty-five bushels of corn, and on one occasion he raised thirty-three bushels of wheat to the acre. He has an exceptionally large and fine steam saw mill on the site of the noted resort, Sulphur Springs, which, at an early period, about 1830, was the headquarters of the noted bandit, Merrion. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate army, Company G, Trans-Mississippi Department, and took an active part in the engagements at White River, Mark’s Mill and Prairie Grove, after which he was detailed as a scout, his company being finally disbanded at Marshall, Texas, in 1865. Mr. Switzer then began merchandising at Petersburg, Ashley County, Ark , keeping a general stock of goods, and dealing in cotton, but after a time sold out, and has since given his entire time to farming. He raises considerable stock, and makes his farm self-sustaining. He was married in 1853, to Miss Julia Drummond, a daughter of Warren Drummond, a pioneer Baptist minister, of South Carolina, and by her has six children: Charley F., David M., Nettie M., Fred H., Isado and Rosa Lee. Mr. Switzer and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, and he is a Democrat and belongs to the Agricultural Wheel.