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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Dallas 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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Dr. P. W. Wood, physician, surgeon and minister, Fordyce, Ark. Among the citizens of Dallas, as well as surrounding counties, the name that heads this sketch is by no means an unfamiliar one, for it is borne by one who is actively and successfully occupied in the prosecution of his chosen profession, and whose career as a practitioner and thorough student of medicine has won for him no less a reputation than has his personal characteristics as a citizen and neighbor. Dr. Wood was born in Pontotoc County, Miss., in 1840, and is the son of Solomon L. Wood, a native, probably, of Alabama. The father was married to Miss Lucinda White (mother of subject), a native of Lawrence County, Tenn., and they afterward removed to Mississippi, where the mother died when our subject was but one day old. Mr. Wood returned to Tennessee, was married again, and he is now living in Fulton County, Ark., with his fourth wife. Dr. P. W. Wood was left with E. B. Shannon, and was reared by that gentleman, never seeing his father until eighteen years of age. He received his education in the country schools until seventeen years of age, and then spent ten months at Okolona Academy, preparatory to attending a higher school. At the breaking out of the war he joined the Okolona Rifles of the Eleventh Mississippi Infantry, operated in Virginia, and after the first Bull Run fight was discharged on account of ill health. He returned home, and soon after joined Company E, First Mississippi, as a private, but was soon promoted to adjutant. He was at Fort Donelson, made his escape and came home, where he was sick for some time. After recovering he joined the Forty-first Mississippi Infantry, and was with Gen. Bragg in Kentucky. He fought at Perryville, and just before the Murfreesboro fight the Fort Donelson refugees received orders to return to their original command. Dr. Wood received his old position as adjutant, and was in the service at Port Hudson. He was also in the battles at Atlanta, Peachtree Creek, Franklin, Tenn., and surrendered with J. E. Johnston. After the war he taught school for about eleven years, and then began the practice of medicine, which he had studied before the war. Since then he has practiced his profession, and has made a success of the same. He was married, in 1862, to Miss Lina D. Singleton, a native of Mississippi, and a daughter of Lemuel and Elsie Singleton, natives of South Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Singleton were married in Alabama, and removed from there to Mississippi, where Mr. Singleton died, when his daughter, Lina D., was an infant. Mrs. Singleton died in 1889. Both were members of the Baptist Church. To Dr. and Mrs. Wood were born five living children. During the winter of 1878-79 the Doctor removed to Pike County, Ark., where he practiced his profession until 1881, and then removed to near Chambersville, Calhoun County, Ark. Two years later he removed to his present farm of eighty acres, seven miles northwest of Fordyce, where he has a splendid practice. Politically he was reared a Whig, voted for Bell in 1860, and since the war has been a Democrat. He and wife have been members in good standing in the Primitive Baptist Church since 1865, and in 1868 he was licensed to preach. In 1870 he was ordained, and has preached more or less ever since, now having two regular charges.

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This family biography is one of 55 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Dallas County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Dallas County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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