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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Monroe County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  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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Alfred J. Gannon is a son of John Porter Gannon, who was born in North Carolina in 1813, and immigrated to Tennessee in 1823 with his father, George Gannon. He was married in 1837 to Miss Elizabeth Hayes, a native of Virginia, and of English descent. The family of Gannon is of Irish ancestry. Elizabeth died in 1858, leaving seven children, four sons and three daughters: Martha A. (wife of Nathan McBroon, now of Delta County, Tex.), Alfred J., William C., John Q., Joanna (wife of William A. Sullivan), Fannie T. (wife of N. J. Mason) and James B. He was married a second time in 1859 to Miss Travis. They were the parents of three children, two of whom are still living: Isaac and Samuel L. He was a captain in the Mexican War. Capt. John P. Gannon followed farming and stock raising all his life. He was a strict member of the Christian Church, and a strong temperance advocate never allowing whisky to enter his house only in the form of medicine. His life was an exemplary one, both as a Christian gentleman and as a member of society. He died in August, 1870. Alfred J. Gannon was born in Cannon County, Tenn., on April 19, 1842, and being raised on a farm was taught farming and stock-raising until the war between the States in 1861. He was among the first to enlist in his State, and joined the company known as the “Woodbury Guards,” afterward called Company A, Eighteenth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers (Joseph B. Palmer, colonel). Mr. Gannon was in the Kentucky campaign of 1861, and was captured at the fall of Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862. He was sent to Camp Butler, Springfield, Ill., and was there confined in close prison for seven months, and was then sent down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg for exchange in the transport steamer A. McDowell, Commodore Farragut’s fleet. Here he was exchanged and went to Montgomery, Ala., and re-enlisted in the war. Mr. Gannon was in the battle of Murfreesboro and was one of the participants in the celebrated Breckenridge charge on the evening of January 2, 1863. He was also in the battle of Chickamauga, and here received a wound in his right arm, by reason of which he was honorably discharged from service. He had many narrow escapes during the war. He immigrated to this State in 1872, and was married to Miss Maggie L. Palmer on January 19, 1876, who was born in Phillips County on May 29, 1854. They have a family of five children: Katie L., John Hayes (who died on October 7, 1886, in the seventh year of his age), Maggie C., Alfred J., Jr., and Ellett Hewitt. His wife is the second daughter of John C. and Margret E. Palmer, of this State, and a granddaughter of Jesse J. Shell, one of the early settlers of the State. Mr. Gannon is a member of the Christian Church and his wife belongs to the Catholic Church. He owns a fine farm of 160 acres of land with good buildings, orchard, etc., and is also a breeder of fine cattle. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and a stanch Democrat, as his father and grandfather were before him.

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This family biography is one of 86 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Monroe County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Monroe County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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