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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lawrence 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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Philip K. Lester (deceased) was a resident of Greene and Lawrence Counties for a period of fifty years or more. He was a native of Middle Tennessee, born in the year 1819. His parents were John and Nancy (King) Lester, the former a Virginian and a farmer by occupation, who came to the State of Arkansas in 1831 or thereabouts. The elder Lester was one of a party who camped on Maumelle Prairie, Mo., the night of a great celestial phenomenon, when multitudes of stars were seen to fall from the heavens; a sight so grand and inspiring that he had occasion to remember it for a lifetime. He settled on Crowley’s Ridge (now the site of Lorano, in Greene County), where P. K. Lester was reared. When the latter reached his eighteenth year he attended school, and employed the greater part of his nights in studying. He was an apt pupil and a diligent student, and mastered his task with such success that eventually he taught school himself. While still a young man, he went into the real estate business and followed that until the war broke out. He enlisted, but served only six weeks, and in the winter of 1861, he came to Lawrence County, where he resided until his death occurred. He bought and sold stock quite extensively after the war was over, and was very successful in business, owning at the time of his death about 7,000 acres of land. He was a hearty, active man, but was stricken down with pneumonia and died January 28, 1877, at the age of fifty-eight years. His grave is on the old home stead farm, where it was his desire to be buried. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also of the Powhatan Lodge of Masons. In 1855 he was married to Miss Mary Ann Rogers, of Shelby County, Tenn., whose parents were Magilbra and Nancy (Staton) Rogers, of North Carolina, who had, besides this daughter, six other children, three of them still living: John M., Nancy V., the wife of P. B. Hill, and Robert L., of Little Rock, Ark. Mrs. Lester resides with one of her daughters, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 111 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lawrence County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Lawrence County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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

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