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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Bradley County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Charles P. Williams. Among the representative families of Bradley County, Ark., none are more favorably known or more highly respected than that to which the subject of this sketch belongs. He was born on the farm where he now lives, June 3, 1840, and is a son of James Williams, who was born in North Carolina in 1796, emigrating from there to Alabama, thence to Tennessee, and about 1836 came to White River, Ark., and two years later settled on the farm where his son, Charles P. now resides. The first year of his settlement here he and his two sons, Hamilton and Marmaduke, killed 760 deer, 160 bears, 60 wolves and 30 panthers. Twelve deer were killed in one day while on his way to Camden. He was one of the first settlers in this section, and although persevering in his determination to make a home for his family, he had to suffer many privations and hardships to accomplish his desires, and for a number of years barely kept the wolf from the door. To say that he bore the inconveniences of pioneer life without flinching would be stating the case very mildly indeed, for to the courage and intrepidity of such men as Mr. Williams, is due the credit of opening the way to civilization hereabouts. He was married in Alabama to Miss Mary Owens, and after her death, which occurred in Tennessee, he wedded Miss Jane Brown, a native of North Carolina, her death occurring on the old homestead in Arkansas in 1877. Mr. Williams also died here in 1867, beloved and respected by all who knew him. Of six children born to them, Charles P., the subject of this sketch, is the only one now living, but his father’s first union resulted in the birth of nine children, three being now alive. Charles P. was married in 1863 to Miss R. E. McKinney, who was born in Mississippi in 1842, and to them was born one daughter, Martha J., wife of Thomas A. Fowler, by whom she has three children, and makes her home with her father. Mr. Williams served in the Second Arkansas Cavalry, Confederate States Army, for four years as a private, and was in the engagements at Shiloh, Water Valley, was in all the engagements in which Price participated while on his raid through Missouri, and in numerous skirmishes. Since the war he has quietly followed the occupation of farming, and has been an honest and worthy citizen, having the county’s welfare at heart. He has held the office of justice of the peace for nearly eight years, and has been a school director eleven years. He is a Democrat, and has been a member of the Masonic lodge for the past twenty- five years. He and wife have been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for eighteen and twenty years, respectively.

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This family biography is one of 64 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Bradley County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Bradley County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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