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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Clay County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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James Blackshare. Among all classes and in every condition of life where the struggle for a livelihood is going on, where will independence be found more clearly demonstrated than in the life of the honest, industrious farmer? Mr. Blackshare, who has followed agricultural pursuits for the past fifty-two years, and who has never missed a crop during the years thus spent, is a fair example of the independent tiller of the soil. He was born in West Tennessee, in 1824, and is the son of Rev. Jacob and Mary (Berry) Blackshare, the father a native of Tennessee, born in 1802, and the mother born in 1799. James Blackshare was left motherless at the age of ten years, and May 27, 1847, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. Dines, who bore him five sons: William S., a member of the firm of Blackshare & Co., in the manufacturing of staves and in the general milling business, is married and the father of six children; Robert B. (deceased), left a widow and five children; Sidney A. (deceased), left a widow and five children; James T., lives on a farm near Boydsville, is married and the father of three sons, and Jacob L., farmer near Boydsville, is married, and the father of two sons and two daughters. The mother of these children died in 1857. March 14, 1858, Mr. Blackshare took for his second wife Mrs. Ruth E. Evans, of Tennessee, and in the fall of the same year he and family moved to Clay County (then Greene County), Ark., and settled on the farm where he is now residing, three miles northeast of Boydsville, which consisted of eighty acres, to which he added eighty more. To his last marriage were born six children, three of whom survive at the present: Mary F., wife of Dr. John J. Prince, and the mother of one daughter, resides at Bethel Station, Tenn., where her husband follows his profession and is also engaged in merchandising; John S., a merchant at Rector, married and the father of one child, a daughter; Ora A., the wife of A. J. Burton, and the mother of three children, two daughters and a son, is now living near her father, where her husband is occupied in farming; Ira E., died in his sixteenth year. Mr. Blackshare came to this State with his wife and seven children in two wagons, drawn by oxen, being the owner of seven or eight head of cattle, six or eight head of horses, and about $200 in money. The first winter before there were gins introduced into the country, the cotton, which they picked with their fingers, was made into clothing for the family. There were no mills then except little hand mills, which were only used to grind corn, and were called corn crackers. They would crack the kernel into about four pieces. A few years later Mr. Blackshare raised a little wheat and ground it in the same mills and “sarcht it;” this consisted of a box with a muslin cloth over it, opened at one end, on which was dropped some of the meal, and then by a rocking motion the bran was forced to the top and back through the opening at the rear, while the fine flour passed through the muslin into the box. At that time their trading was done by exchanging pelting and furs for salt, sugar, coffee, etc., at Cape Girardeau, Mo., 100 miles distant, to which place they made their trips with ox teams about once a year. Mr. Blackshare has not taken a drink of liquor of any kind, or a chew of tobacco, for over forty years, or since joining the church, and has always been willing to render aid, as far as he was able, to all laudable enterprises. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Blackshare was township magistrate for four terms of two years each, and was also county treasurer for two terms. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is one of the representative men of the county. He is now the owner of 340 acres of land, after having supported his family and settled nine children at an expense of $14,000, and does not owe a cent.

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This family biography is one of 124 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Clay County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Clay County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Clay County, Arkansas family biographies here: Clay County, Arkansas Biographies

View a map of 1889 Clay County, Arkansas here: Clay County, Arkansas Map

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