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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson 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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R. V. McCracken, one of the leading citizens of Pine Bluff, now retired from active business life, was born in Limestone County, Ala., on December 5, 1830, and is a son of William and Margaret (Fox) McCracken, of South Carolina and Kentucky, respectively. The father was a prominent surveyor, and one of the finest mathematicians in the South, and for some years was also engaged in mercantile life in Alabama, in which State his death occurred, the mother dying at Columbus, Miss. The paternal grandfather, James McCracken, was a native of Scotland, who emigrated to America and settled in Union District, South Carolina, afterward removing to Alabama, where he resided until his death. R. V. McCracken was educated in the public schools of his native State, and remained in that place until his eighteenth year, when he came to Little Rock, Ark., and entered a business house at that city. During his term of employment he read law, and was also instructed by Elbert H. English, afterward chief but in spite of this advantage he keeps his prices justice, and in 1852 located in Pine Bluff. In 1858 he was licensed to practice law in all the courts, and continued at his profession with success until the year 1874, when he abandoned the law and entered into the insurance business. He has represented fifteen of the best companies in the United States, and transacted nearly all of the insurance business in that section, until his failing health forced him to give it up. Since then he has lived in practical retirement and ease, hoping to close a somewhat stormy life with a calm and beautiful old age. Mr. McCracken has always been a liberal man in his views as well as in a financial sense, when it came toward advancing the public welfare. He served several terms as treasurer of the city of Pine Bluff, and gave entire satisfaction to the people in that capacity. In 1856 he was married to Miss Virginia Harding, of Kentucky, and although he has never had any children of his own, he and wife have reared several orphan children with all the tender solicitude of true parents. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. McCracken are members of the Episcopal Church. The former belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a Knight Templar, and associated with the Order of the Mystic Shrine. He takes an active interest in religious and educational affairs, and has attended three sessions of the general convention of the Episcopal Church. When Mr. McCracken first came to Pine Bluff in 1852, it comprised only about 500 inhabitants, and upon locating in the woods (now the heart of the city) people laughed at him, but the wisdom of his choice has been substantiated, and he can now apply the old maxim that ‘‘he who laughs last laughs best.”

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This family biography is one of 136 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Jefferson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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