My Genealogy Hound

William M. Kizzia, county treasurer, Murfreesboro, Ark. Were one to ask the leading characteristics of Mr. Kizzia as a man, the answer would come almost involuntarily that he is a safe, cautious person, unpretending, but well informed, universally esteemed and of unswerving integrity —a man who has been tried, but not found wanting, and one capable of discharging his official and private duties with competency. He was born in Pike County, Ark., in 1858, and is the eldest of nine children born to the union of Nathan and Isabella (Gould) Kizzia, and natives of Arkansas. Nathan Kizzia came to Arkansas with his parents when a small boy, and has followed agricultural pursuits all his life. He still resides in this county, and is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William M. Kizzia passed his youthful days on the farm, attending the common schools, and at the age of twenty-one years commenced farming for himself. In 1879 he entered 160 acres of land three miles east of Murfreesboro, and on this he has cleared about forty acres. He has a fine farm, good buildings and has plenty of timber. His marriage to Miss Amanda E. Burkett, a native also of Pike County, Ark., and the daughter of David Burkett, an old settler here, who died during the war, took place in 1877, and four children are the result of this union: Nancy I., Dyer Martin, Emmett Edgar, and Joseph Osgood (who died in infancy.) Mr. Kizzia has always taken an active interest in politics, served two terms as justice of the peace, and in 1886 was elected treasurer of Pike County, being re-elected in 1888. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Pike Lodge No. 91, and the family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.