My Genealogy Hound

Jefferson Collier is one who has long been identified with the farming interests of this section, but he has also used his interests in furthering all worthy enterprises, and as a result has the confidence, respect and esteem of his fellow-men. He was born on Collier’s Creek, in this county, on June 15, 1820, to Martin and Mary Belle (Anderson) Collier, the former born in Tennessee and the latter in Kentucky, in which State their marriage nuptials were celebrated. About 1812 they came to what is now Montgomery County, and settled on Caddo Creek, about twenty miles from any white settler, but did not remain here long, soon moving to what is now known as Collier’s Creek, where they spent the rest of their lives, the father dying about 1822 and the mother on August 30, 1861, a member of the Baptist Church. For many years their nearest trading point was Little Rock, and their nearest blacksmith’s shop twenty-five miles distant. As it was thirty miles to a flouring-mill, they often used a mortar instead of making that long (and as there were no roads at that time), tedious journey. There were no schools, so the early education of their children was sadly neglected, and as the husband and father died at an early day, his widow was left with ten children to care for in this vast wilderness, three or four miles from any neighbor. She nobly discharged every duty, and her children now “rise up and call her blessed.” Jefferson Collier is the youngest of the family, and as he received no advantages in his youth, he often felt the need of it, and after his marriage, began applying himself to his books and thus obtained a fair education. He was married in August, 1842, to Miss Susanna, daughter of Thomas and Lydia Markham, natives of Illinois, who came to Arkansas in a very early day and in 1835, to what is now Montgomery County, settling above Caddo Gap and there passing from life prior to the war. Mrs. Collier was born in Randolph County, Ark., in 1825, and has borne her husband fifteen children, four sons and seven daughters now living. When first married he settled on his present farm, which was then an old abandoned place, and this farm of 270 acres has been his home for nearly fifty years. He is the oldest native resident of the county, and throughout his long and useful career here, has kept his name unspotted from the world. Just after the war he was elected to the State Senate, but did not qualify. He served all through the Confederate Army, in a company of Arkansas Cavalry, with Capt. William Carroll, and was one of the brave and intrepid “boys in gray.” He has been a member of the A. F. & A. M. since 1854, being now a member of New Hope Lodge No. 42. He organized Cedar Glades Lodge, and Mount Ida Lodge, and for some time served as their worshipful master. He and his most worthy wife have been citizens who command the respect of all who know them, and for many years they have been members of the Missionary Baptist Church. They have lived a happy wedded life of nearly half a century and are yet in the enjoyment of good health. They have reared a large family of children to honorable manhood and womanhood, and the following are those who are living at the present time: Lydia E. (wife of Thomas White), Charles W. (of Texas), Harrison R. (the present surveyor of Montgomery County, and one of its best educators), Alfred M., Margaret (wife of William Robinson), Arzelia G. (wife of A. F. Maner), Matilda F. (wife of William Reece), Nancy J. (wife of Milton Robins), Ruthy Eleanor (wife of Franklin L. Cash) and Cynthia L. (wife of John J. Peart of Illinois). John W. Collier died at Camden while serving in the Confederate Army. Charles also served the Confederate cause. Mr. Collier was reared in the wilds of this county, and is probably more familiar with the early history of this county than any other one of its citizens. As an illustration of the expedients to which the early settlers were sometimes obliged to resort Mr. Collier tells of how his mother at one time “knit a pair of socks, from the wool which she picked from the head of a buffalo, and sold them to a merchant for a pair of cotton cards. Cards at that time sold for $10 a pair. The merchant’s name was William Barkman. My father was the first settler on Collier’s Creek. He shot a buffalo from his camp pole, and I now live within a mile of the same place.”