My Genealogy Hound

Reuben D. Crenshaw is one of Desha County’s most successful merchants and planters, and the manner in which he has acquired his present property is well worthy the imitation of the rising generation. He was born in Shelby County, Tenn., January 2, 1848, and is a son of David S. and Clara C. (Brown) Crenshaw, whose marriage was consummated in Tennessee, September 14, 1842. The father’s birth occurred in Sumner County, of that State, on June 17, 1817, and in that State he died April 5, 1884, having been a farmer throughout life, and an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. He was also a Mason. His union was blessed in the birth of ten children: Reuben D., John T., Susanna F. (wife of Robert Lack, now a resident of Fayette County, Tenn.). James C, Mary V. (deceased), George D., Llewellyn, William D., and Garland C. (deceased). Reuben D. Crenshaw commenced for himself as a merchant in Drew County, Ark., in 1872, and this occupation has followed ever since, but from 1876 to 1878 he was a resident of Chicot County. In the last-named year he came to Desha County, Ark., and in 1880 settled at Trippe Station, where he is now doing an annual business of $15,000. He also owns a good tract of land comprising eighty acres, and has about 470 acres in Tennessee. He was married in Shelby County, Tenn., in 1873, to Miss Mary L. Winston, a daughter of William and Mary (Brown) Winston, and by her had a family of two sons and three daughters: Winston, Mary L., Reuben C., Louis D., and Garland (deceased). The mother of these children was born in Tennessee, September 7, 1851, and is an earnest and devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her father was a Virginian, who was taken to Tennessee by his parents when a small boy, and died there in 1851. His wife died in 1856, both having been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Crenshaw is a prominent resident of the community in which he resides, and is interested in all good works. He has held the office of justice of the peace in Chicot, as well as this county, and has been postmaster of Trippe for the past ten years, and a member of the local school board for four years. Socially he is a member of Monticello Lodge of the K. of H., and Valley Lodge No. 21, Arkansas City, of the K. of P. His grandparents, Reuben D. and Lucy (Thompson) Brown, were born in Virginia, January 16, 1777, and January 17, 1784, respectively, and died in Sumner County, Tenn., 1848, and Tipton County, Tenn., in 1869. They were married in 1801. The paternal grandfather, Garland Carr Crenshaw went to California in 1849, and a brother of his, John T., was elected by the miners of California to the first Legislature ever held there. Dr. James C. Crenshaw, a brother of the subject of this sketch, was born in Shelby County, Tenn., October 19, 1854, and when twenty years of age began for himself as a clerk in a dry goods house, and was afterward railroad agent for two years. After following merchandising on his own responsibility for seven years he entered a medical college at Louisville, Ky., from which he was graduated in 1875. His first practice was as assistant physician in the Insane Asylum, Little Rock, in 1886-87. He then spent some time in Memphis, after which he came to Desha County, Ark., where he has since made his home, being an active medical practitioner of this region.