My Genealogy Hound

John A. Todd was born in South Carolina in 1830, and is a son of James Todd, who was also born there, on December 7, 1775, and died March 9, 1875, having been a mechanic by trade, and a soldier in the War of 1812. John A. Todd spent a number of his early years in South Carolina, but afterward went to Louisiana, where he remained until 1854, then settling in Sevier County, Ark., and on December 22, 1867, came to his present place of abode. Society was in a very lawless condition at that time, and if a man had the hardihood to attend church he was compelled to take his gun with him for protection. Mr. Todd built the first school house in Monroe Township, and was compelled to go from eight to twelve miles for help to assist him in raising it. He has a fertile farm of 160 acres, on which he has lived for nearly twenty years, and the manner in which he has acquired his present property denotes him to be energetic and enterprising. In July, 1861, he joined the army, and was in the engagement at Arkansas Post. Subsequently he went to Shreveport, La., and was left in charge of the sick on the field, but soon after returned to his home, where he remained for three or four months. Upon again returning to the service he joined a cavalry company, Tenth Arkansas Regiment, with which he remained until it was disbanded at Spring Hill. In 1850 he was married to Miss Frances Fuller, of Louisiana, a daughter of Miller Fuller, a pioneer planter, and by her he had a family of two children—Martha (deceased) and Frances (wife of W. N. Porterfield). Mrs. Todd died in the spring of 1857, and Mr. Todd wedded her sister—Elizabeth, in 1859. They have no family of their own, but have reared seven orphan children. Mr. Todd represented Hempstead County in the State Legislature in 1883, a position he filled very creditably for five years, being a candidate of the Democratic party, of which he has always been a member, and he has also held a number of local offices. He and wife are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and for the past twenty five years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity.