My Genealogy Hound

H. W. Scull, a prominent citizen of Jefferson County, now practically retired from active business life, was born in that county on March 12, 1834, and is a son of James and Mannette (Vaugine) Scull, the former a native of England and the latter from Louisiana. The father came to America with three other brothers at an early period and first settled in Philadelphia. They remained in that city a short time and then separated, each one going in a different direction. As early as 1809 a record of the elder Scull is found in Arkansas County, where he kept a trading post for the Indians. He was one of the first shippers from that section, and found a market for his goods at New Orleans. His son, H. W., has in his possession his father’s old account book which he kept during the year 1809-10, and in which only one entry for medicine is found, that being for a bottle of paregoric. Coffee, sugar and other luxuries were sold at fabulous prices in that region, and these articles the elder Scull shipped in large quantities to the Osage and other tribes. After leaving Arkansas County he moved to Jefferson County, where he was also one of its earliest settlers, the country then being a vast wilderness and inhabited almost entirely by savages and wild beasts. While at Arkansas Post he was an extensive shipper of furs, but upon coming to Jefferson County turned his attention to farming, and followed that calling with great success. His death occurred on July 3, 1846, when sixty-four years of age, while the mother died on February 8, 1859, in her sixty-fifth year. They were the parents of ten children: James (deceased), Ben M. (deceased), William (deceased), Eliza, (deceased), Louisiana, P. (widow), Mary H. (deceased), Joseph B. (deceased), Anna M. (widow), Hewes B. (deceased,) and Henry W. (the principal of this sketch). Henry W. Scull was reared on his father’s farm, and received a liberal education in the common schools of his native county, afterward graduating at Centre College, Danville, Ky. When twenty years of age he entered a business house at Pine Bluff, where he occupied a position of trust for several years. He afterward formed a partnership under the firm name of Scull, Donaldson & Co., dealers in general merchandise, but the Civil War commencing forced them to dissolve the firm. Mr. Scull then enlisted in the Jefferson Guards, commanded by Capt. Charles Carleton, and served four years through the war, taking part in a number of important battles and skirmishes, but for the greater part of the time was connected with the pay department. After the war he came to Pine Bluff stripped of everything, and was compelled to accept a subordinate position in a mercantile establishment at that city, where he gradually rose and remained for a number of years. For the past five or six years he has turned his attention entirely to real estate, in which he has been very successful and now owns considerable property in Pine Bluff and vicinity. On May 16, 1866, he was married to Miss Laura J. King, of Helena, Ark., by whom he has two children: Millie M. (wife of William I. Haizlip) and Julia. Mrs. Scull died in 1873, after proving herself a devoted wife and mother. Mr. Scull is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias and Royal Arcanum. He has done much to advance and develop the interests of his county, and is one of the most popular citizens in that section.