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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Izard County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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E. F. Smith, farmer and miller, Melbourne, Ark. All his life Mr. Smith has followed, with substantial success, the occupation to which he was reared and in which he is now engaged — farming — but in connection has also been largely interested in the milling business. He was born in Massachusetts, in 1833, and is the son of Roswell and Jane E. Smith, who were also natives of Massachusetts. Roswell Smith was a farmer by occupation, and was a man of only limited education. He was drafted in the War of 1812, but was not in any engagements. He was married about 1807 and became the father of fourteen children, twelve of whom lived to be grown, E. F. Smith being the only one residing in the South. At the age of seventeen the latter came to this part of the United States, located first in Tennessee, and later, or in 1859, in Arkansas. He was employed on the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad, and after that was finished he settled in Jacksonport, where he followed the carpenter’s trade. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army under Gen. Hindman, and served on the west side of the Mississippi River, participating in the following battles: Pea Ridge and Pleasant Hill, and was in the quartermaster’s department. He surrendered at Marshall, Tex., in 1865, returned home and located at Evening Shade, where he engaged in merchandising, and which he continued for two years. He then resumed the carpenter’s trade, which he followed until 1880, when he commenced farming. He bought his present property, consisting of a merchant-mill and cotton-gin combined, with a nice residence. He owns, besides this property, two farms in the county, with about eighty acres under cultivation, all the result of his own labor since the war, for at the close of that eventful period he had but $2. He was married on the 18th of October, 1866, to Miss Melissa J. Wasson, and they are the parents of two children: Ella G., at home, and Leander G., also at home. Mrs. Smith is the daughter of Lee and Jane (Mathews) Wasson, natives of Tennessee. Mr. Smith votes the Democratic ticket, is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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This family biography is one of 98 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Izard County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Izard County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Izard County, Arkansas family biographies here: Izard County, Arkansas Biographies

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