My Genealogy Hound

Rev. Daniel Westall, grocer and dealer in hay, corn, oats, etc., Pine Bluff, Ark., is well known to the many readers of this volume. He owes his nativity to Vanderburgh County, Ind., where his birth occurred December 31, 1840. His father, James Westall, was a native of England, who emigrated to America and settled in Indiana at an early date. He was there married to Miss Kesiah Barker, a native of North Carolina, and this happy union lasted until 1848, when Mr. Westall closed his eyes to the scenes of this world. His widow married again, and died about 1853. Rev. Daniel Westall remained in his native State until nineteen years of age, and in 1861 enlisted as a private in the First Indiana Cavalry, serving for over three years, or until the end of his term. He was in a number of noteworthy engagements, principally those of Fredericktown, Helena, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, and a great many skirmishes. He received his discharge at Indianapolis in 1864, and afterward returned to his home, where he remained but a short time, when he removed to Illinois and located in Wabash County. There he followed farming until 1870, when in August of that year he moved to Arkansas, and settled at Pine Bluff, then a small village of about 300 inhabitants. Here he engaged in the grocery business on a small scale, and on the same place where his present large brick store building now stands. He enjoys a large trade, and is one of the substantial businessmen of Pine Bluff. On the property adjoining his store he has built a good residence, and is also the owner of about fifteen tenement houses, the returns of which form a comfortable income. Mr. Westall was married in Pine Bluff, Ark. in 1863, to Miss Mary E. Edwards, originally from Georgia. Her father settled in Arkansas in 1861. To Mr. and Mrs. Westall have been born eight children: Sarah, Anna (wife of Alonzo McDonald), William, David, Millie F., Mary E., Joseph and Benjamin. Mr. Westall has been a member of the Primitive Baptist Church for twenty years, in which he is also an elder. He was ordained a minister about 1874 and now has charge of three churches.