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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Sharp County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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Anderson Huston Vance, farmer and justice of the peace, of Washington Township, was born in Alabama, November 15, 1837. His parents were William and Sarah (Hudson) Vance. William was born in North Carolina about 1776, and died in March, 1866, in Sharp County, Ark., when about eighty-six years of age. He emigrated from North Carolina to Tennessee in an early day, with his parents (who were born in Ireland), and from Tennessee to Arkansas, in 1848, and located five miles south of where the county seat now is. He was a farmer. His wife died in October, 1858, in Sharp County. She was the mother of fourteen children, all of whom grew to maturity, only four of whom are now living: Nancy Clark, Claring Norman, Anderson H. and Mary A. Shirley. All but Mary reside in Sharp County, and she in Independence County. The subject of this sketch, the eleventh child, was raised in Sharp County, where he received his limited education. In 1859 he married Miss Margaret C. Johnson, who was born in East Tennessee, September 2, 1840, and died June 26, 1878. She was the mother of three children, one of whom is living, William Huston. December 3, 1888, he married Sarah J. (Hardester) Douglas, a widow, who was born in Independence County, in 1851. Mr. Vance was in Evening Shade before the town was thought of. In June, 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate army, Company F, under Col. Bob Shaver, serving four years, and participating in the battles of Pleasant Hill (La.) and Jenkins’ Ferry (Ark.). He is, and has been since 1867, a member of the Masonic order, and once represented his lodge in the grand lodge. In 1874 he was elected justice of the peace of Washington Township, and served eight successive years, and was again elected to the same office in 1888, and is now serving his fifth term. He is a Democrat in politics. He has 174 acres of land, and cultivates seventy-five acres of it. He and his first wife were members of the Missionary Baptist Church, his present wife being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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This family biography is one of 43 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Sharp County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Sharp County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Sharp County, Arkansas family biographies here: Sharp County, Arkansas Biographies

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