My Genealogy Hound

H. C. Winters is widely remembered as an old settler of Bedford Township. A native of Alabama, he is the eldest son of Henry and Sarah (Rinfrow) Winters, who came originally from North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively. Henry Winters went to Alabama in 1828 and settled in Morgan County, where he remained five years, going thence to Tippah County, Miss. He was twice married, and by his first wife had two boys, one of whom is living: Aaron, a resident of Pope County, Ark. Mr. Winters was married to the mother of our subject in 1828. They were the parents of six children, all of whom are still living: H. C., J. J., Thomas, William C., Mary E. (now Mrs. Harbinger) and Sarah J. (Mrs. Vandover), all living in Texas excepting the first named. Mr. Winters was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died in 1852. Mrs. Winters was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and died in 1880. H. C. Winters was born in Morgan County, Ala., in 1829, and was reared on a farm in Tippah County, Miss., remaining at home until twenty-six years of age, when he came to St. Francis County, Ark., and was an overseer for some five years on a plantation. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service, Fourth Arkansas Infantry, and served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, being wounded at the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry, and having the thumb shot from his left hand. After the war Mr. Winters returned home and engaged in farming on his own land, which he had bought in 1859, consisting of 160 acres. In 1880 he purchased the interests of the heirs of his father-in-law to his farm on which he now lives. It is a fine place, consisting of 240 acres of land, of which some sixty acres are under cultivation, and he also owns 600 acres besides, with forty acres improved. Mr. Winters has been married twice; first, to Miss Mary E. Meek in 1866, who died in 1886, after having reared eight children; five of these are still living: H. L., R. M., W. T., J. E. and G. M. In December, 1886, Mr. Winters was married to Mrs. Ada Edwards (nee DeKey). She is a member of the Baptist Church, his first wife being a member of the Christian Church as he himself is. Mr. Winters belongs to the A. F. & A. M., and is a charter member of Levesque Lodge No. 227; he is also a member of the I. O. O. F.