My Genealogy Hound

Andrew Jackson Legate, if for no other reason, is deserving of prominent mention as one of the oldest settlers of Central Arkansas. He was born in Williamson County, Tenn., May 28, 1815. His father, Charles S. Legate, originally from North Carolina, went to Tennessee when a young man, where he married Sarah Gray, a native of that State, her parents, Jacob and Mary Gray having been among its early pioneers. Mr. Legate was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was also with Jackson, at the battle of New Orleans. In 1821 he came with his wife to Arkansas, and located in Pulaski County, where they resided until their death, he dying in 1825, and his wife in 1823. Andrew J. was reared in the pioneer days of Arkansas on his father’s farm. At the age of thirteen he was mail carrier from Little Rock to Montgomery’s Point, on the Mississippi River, the route lying through an unbroken wilderness, with no road but a bridle path, and no houses for thirty miles along the way. In 1842 he went to Pulaski County, and located at Moss Prairie, eighteen miles from Little Rock, when that section was inhabited by Indians. No schools were found such as now obtain, and the children received the rudiments of an education in what was called the subscription schools, in which the teachers were paid by subscription. Mr. Legate was married, in 1842, to Mrs. Sarah Eagle, a native of Tennessee. She died in 1863, at the age of fifty years, leaving seven children, two of whom are now living. In 1865 Mrs. Derryberry, a native of Tennessee, became his wife, she surviving until 1871. She was a member of the Baptist Church. In 1875 Mr. Legate married his present wife, Mrs. Mary Sessums, a native of Tennessee. Mr. Legate has had some stirring experiences during life. At one time he had a narrow escape from a panther, and at another, engaged in a fight with a bear and four cubs, but came out victorious, with bear meat enough to last several weeks. He located on his present farm in 1884, in Section 21, Lonoke Township, which comprised 213 acres. Mr. Legate was a Whig during the existence of that party, and when it became extinct, he joined the Democratic ranks. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church.