My Genealogy Hound

A. J. McElroy served four years in the Confederate service during the late war as a member of Company B, McRae’s Regiment, and participated in the battles of Helena, Red River, Prairie Grove and a number of other battles and skirmishes, remaining in the field of duty until the surrender in 1865. Leaving home at the age of twenty-six he engaged in farming on 160 acres of land which he had bought in this county, and where he still resides. He now has upward of 100 acres under cultivation, with good buildings and good stock. Mr. McElroy was born in Georgia in 1833, as the son of John and Mary (Stephenson) McElroy, natives of South Carolina. Soon after the latter’s marriage he came to Georgia, remaining until 1848, when he moved to Arkansas, settling in this county, where he entered 480 acres of land. Here he lived until his death in 1866, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was four times married. His first wife, Miss Shy, became the mother of one child, now deceased. By his second wife (Miss Belk) he had five children, only one of whom survives: J. C. (of this county). After her death Mr. McElroy was married to Mary Stephenson, who died in 1859 leaving nine children. Two only of these are living: A. J. (our subject) and Elizabeth. Mr. McElroy’s fourth and last wife was Rachel McDuffie. The union of A. J. McElroy to Miss Rebecca J. Lantroupe, of Tennessee, was consummated in 1853, she being a daughter of William and Charity Lantroupe. Mrs. McElroy departed this life in 1880, having been the mother of eight children, four living: Robert (in this county), George, James and Parlee (now Mrs. Weeden, who resides in Wynne). Mr. McElroy is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also his wife. He is a leading and respected farmer in this township.