My Genealogy Hound

James H. New traces his ancestry back to Revolutionary times, his grandfather, William New, having been a soldier in that war, in which he served as a member of Marion’s famous legion. The great-grandsire, William New, came to this country in 1763, settling on the Chickasaw River, in Virginia. He had two sons, John and William. William and his two sons were also in the Revolutionary War, the former being colonel of Lee’s dragoons. He was wounded on Roanoke River, while pursuing Lord Cornwallis, and died from the effects of that injury. William, pere, was in the War of 1812, and his two sons, John and William, were in the battle near Baltimore, Md. James H. is also a descendant, on his mother’s side, of Jesse Lee. His parents were James and Mary M. (Blankenship) New, Virginians by birth. James New, Sr., was born in Halifax County, on July 4, 1805, and was of English and Irish extraction. He was married in November, 1833, shortly after which he removed to Georgia, and remained one year, then going to Lauderdale County, Miss., where he lived until his death, on September 7, 1864. They were the parents of four children: Saleta A. (wife of John H. Anderson, of Illinois), Mary M. (widow of Irvin McRovy), John R. (a farmer of Lee County) and James H. (our subject). The latter, the next to the eldest, was born in Lauderdale County, Miss., on August 14, 1839. He commenced farming for himself at the age of twenty-two, and in 1869 came to Arkansas, and located on his present farm, which was then in Phillips County (now in Lee), composed of 160 acres of land, seventy acres being under a good state of cultivation. Mr. New was married in August, 1865, to Emily Clayton, also a native of Mississippi, who died in December, 1884, after having borne ten children, six still living: William U., Pattie L. (wife of J. A. Smith, a farmer of this county), James J., John R., Rebecca C. and Walter T. Mr. New enlisted in the secret service of the United States, in November, 1862, and was a member and non-commissioned officer of the First Mississippi Mounted Riflemen. He served until the close of the war, participating in the battles of Chickasaw Bluff, Harrisburg, and a number of others. He is a conservative Democrat, and a member of the Agricultural Wheel and Farmer’s Secret Alliance. He is also ruling elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a member eighteen years.