My Genealogy Hound

Dr. William Park is one of Monroe County’s most eminent physicians and surgeons, and was born in Lawrence District, S. C., in 1829, and is a son of Andrew and Isabella H. (Park) Park, who were first cousins. In 1844 they removed to Mississippi, and in 1856 came to Monroe County, Ark., and settled on a woodland farm six miles east of Clarendon, and here the father met with a violent death, being thrown from a buggy and killed, in 1868. His wife’s death followed his in twelve years, both having been earnest members of the Presbyterian Church for many years. Andrew Park, the paternal grandfather, and James Park, the maternal grandfather, were brothers, born in Ireland, and came to America during the Revolutionary War and settled in South Carolina, James marrying an English lady and Andrew an Irish lady. Both were farmers and died in the State of their adoption. Dr. William Park is the third of six sons and three daughters, and his knowledge of the world up to manhood was only such as could be obtained on the home farm. After acquiring a good education in the common schools he concluded to engage in teaching in order to obtain means to carry on his medical education, and after two and a half years of this work, during which time he pursued his medical studies under his brother-in-law, Dr. T. F. Robinson, he entered the Medical Department of the University of Nashville (Tenn.), and at the end of two years, in 1856, graduated therefrom. He came immediately to Monroe County, Ark., whither his parents had just moved, and entered upon his practice, and has acquired no inferior reputation as a physician and surgeon, being now the oldest resident practitioner of the county. For five years he has made his home in Clarendon, and in addition to the pleasant home which he now owns in the town, he is the owner of 320 acres of land in different farms, with 130 acres under cultivation. Although formerly a Whig in politics, casting his first presidential vote for Gen. Scott, since the late Civil War he has been a Democrat. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and he and his wife, whom he married in 1866, and whose maiden name was Sarah A. Brown, have long been members of the Old School Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Park was born in Fayette County, Tenn., and is the mother of two sons and one daughter. Her parents are Thomas J. and Fannie Brown, a sketch of whom appears in another part of this work.