My Genealogy Hound

A. J. Hawthorn holds an enviable place among the prominent and successful farmers and stockmen of Hempstead County, and has proven himself to be an industrious farmer and a law-abiding citizen. He was born in Abbeville District, S. C, in 1833, and is a son of Andrew C. and Mary E. (Barmor) Hawthorn, who were also born in that district, the former in 1800 and the latter in 1805, and died in 1876 and 1884, respectively, being worthy members of the church. Mr. Hawthorn was a farmer and merchant by occupation, and several years filled the position of sheriff of Abbeville District, and after the war was appointed and served a short time as auditor of the State of South Carolina. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and was quite wealthy prior to the war, but at that time lost heavily. His parents came from Ireland and died in South Carolina, being of the same family as Nathaniel Hawthorn, the author. William Barmor, the mother’s father, was a farmer and merchant, and died in Abbeville District when very old. A. J. Hawthorn is the seventh of a family of sixteen children, fifteen of whom lived to be grown, and after attending the common schools he finished his education in Erskine College, S. C, and in the year 1856 was married to Linnie A., a daughter of Daniel and Allie Pruitt, whose place of birth was also Abbeville District, Mr. Pruitt being a successful agriculturist of that region. Mrs. Hawthorn was reared and educated there and died in 1877. Mrs. Eliza Sandifer became Mr. Hawthorn’s second wife in 1831, and they are now residing on the farm on which she was born. She is a daughter of Elijah and Miranda Ferguson, who were born in Kentucky and Hempstead County, Ark., respectively. The father was a farmer and lawyer and died in 1875, his widow’s death occurring in 1883. Mr. Hawthorn became the father of eight children by his first wife, three sons and one daughter being now alive, and by his present wife has had four children, a son and two daughters of whom survive. In 1850 he removed to Mississippi, in 1859 to Ouachita County, Ark., and in 1868 to Hempstead County, where he has for four years lived on his present farm of 540 acres, being the owner, however, of about 800 acres, all told, in different tracts. In 1861 he joined Company F, Twelfth Arkansas Infantry, but soon after became a member of Company F, Thirty-third Arkansas Infantry, and operated in the Trans-Mississippi Department, being in the engagements at Prairie Grove, Fort Smith, Little Rock, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins’ Ferry, acting in the capacity of orderly sergeant throughout this time. He surrendered at Marshall, Tex. He has been a Democrat all his life, and his present wife is a member of the Methodist Church, the former having belonged to the Associate Reformed Church.