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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Hempstead 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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S. W. Brundridge, contractor and builder, Hope, Ark. Mr. Brundridge is a native of Mississippi, born in 1851, but was reared and educated in Searcy, White County, Ark. He learned the brick laying trade, and when seventeen years of age, started out to make his own way in life. He worked as a clerk in the dry goods store of B. Deaner for six or eight years, and when twenty-six years of age commenced contracting in brick work. In March, 1877, he moved to Hope, Ark., and has been engaged in contracting in this place ever since. He has built every business house in the city (about forty in number), with the exception of four or five, and besides numerous residences. Some he has rebuilt. He erected the largest business house in Gurdon, Ark., for a St. Louis company, and he is also engaged in agricultural pursuits, owning a large farm in the county, with about 100 acres under cultivation. On this he raises from twenty to thirty bales of cotton annually. He is constantly improving his farms, and is a man who will make a success of whatever he undertakes. He was married in 1876, to Miss Mollie Peebles, daughter of Thomas Peebles, of White County, and the fruits of this union are the following children: Jarett, Stephen (deceased), Fatie, Richard and Minnie. Mrs. Brundridge is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In politics Mr. Brundridge is a member of the Democratic party. His parents, Stephen and Minerva (Mitchell) Brundridge, were natives of Alabama. The father was a builder and contractor, and this occupation has carried on all his life. He moved from his native State to Mississippi about 1849, remained there until 1857, and then moved to Arkansas, settling in Searcy, White County. Here he continued building and contracting, and some of the old residences to be found in Searcy at the present day are the work of his hands. He still resides in Searcy, and is now in his eightieth year. He is quite a prominent man. The mother is also living, and is about seventy years of age. They are the parents of six children, all living: James (resides in Cleburne County, and represented the same in the Legislature of 1889), W. E. (resides in Alvord, Tex.), Tillie (wife of James Russell, of White County), Mollie (now a widow, of Searcy) and Stephen, Jr. (prosecuting attorney of the Second Judicial District).

 

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This family biography is one of 131 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Hempstead County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Hempstead County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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