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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Garland 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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W. H. Moyston, circuit and county clerk at Hot Springs, Ark., is one of the most efficient officers Garland County has ever had, and is eminently qualified in every way for the position he has occupied since 1886. His birth occurred in Wheeling, Ohio County, W. Va., on April 2, 1840, and he is the son of William A. and Anna (Caldwell) Moyston, the father a native of Schenectady, N. Y., and the mother of Wheeling, W. Va. William A. Moyston was educated for a physician, but never practiced. He engaged in merchandising in Virginia, and after the war went to Memphis, Tenn., where he died in 1867. The mother died in Wheeling in 1865. The maternal grandfather was an early settler of Virginia, and with the Zanes family founded nearly all Wheeling. William A. and Anna (Caldwell) Moyston were the parents of eleven children, only four of whom are now living. W. H. Moyston was married and received his education in Wheeling, completing his studies in the high school, and at the breaking out of the late war was engaged in the mercantile business. Previous to this he had studied dentistry. In 1861 he enlisted in Shriver Grey’s Company G, Twenty-seventh Virginia Regiment, Confederate States Army, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Winchester, put in a Wheeling prison and indicted for treason. He was released on bonds after attending three terms of the United States Court, the case being nolle prossed. In 1863 he went to Memphis, and began the practice of dentistry, and remained thus engaged until 1877, going through the yellow fever scourge in 1873. In 1877 he came to Hot Springs, where, for some time, he was engaged in merchandising. In 1886 he was elected to his present office, and so great was his popularity and so well did he fill the position, that he was re-elected without opposition in 1888. He was married in 1865 to Miss Lizzie McLean, a native of Wheeling, W. Va., who bore him four children: Lizzie, Eddie, Maude and Willie. The wife died July 23, 1889, and is buried at Wheeling, W. Va. Mr. Moyston is an Odd Fellow, Past Chief Patriarch and first Past Grand Chancellor of Tennessee K. of P. He is a Democrat in his political views, although named after William Henry Harrison.

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

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