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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of St. Francis 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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R. H. Sparkman, M. D., one of Forrest City’s enterprising citizens, was born in North Carolina, May 10, 1828, being the son of John and Nancy (Wooten) Sparkman. John Sparkman owed his nativity to North Carolina, but moved to Tennessee when the subject of this sketch was quite small, locating in Shelby County, Tenn., where his death occurred in his fifty-ninth year. Mrs. Sparkman was also of North Carolina origin and by her union with Mr. Sparkman became the mother of five children, R. H. being the only one now living. The name Sparkman, as might be supposed, is Irish, the ancestors of the family coming at an early day from the Emerald Isle. The grandfather was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, and the maternal grandfather served in the War of 1812. Dr. Sparkman received a good common education in the schools of Shelby County, and afterward attended his first course of medical lectures in Cincinnati, his early ambition having been to be a physician, and by his determination and diligent application to his studies he became a credit to that most noble of all professions. He graduated with honors from the Medical School at Memphis in 1857, and immediately began practice in Shelby County, but a year afterward, in 1858, making a trip to Arkansas became convinced that that State promised a better opening, so located on the Helena road, five miles from Forrest City. At the breaking out of the war he had built up an enviable practice. He joined the Confederate army, McGee’s company, McNeil’s regiment, afterward becoming surgeon of that regiment. The company was soon made independent and reported to Col. Dobbins, Dr. Sparkman remaining in the service about two years. He returned to Arkansas and practiced until 1875, but succeeded in collecting only about half of his bills, some of them of long standing. He has since retired from active practice, and is now engaged in farming, owning 450 acres of valuable land. Dr. Sparkman was united in marriage on December 23, 1859, to Mrs. Liza (Purvis) Daniel, of North Carolina. Dr. and Mrs. Sparkman are members of the Baptist Church, and the former is a member of A. F. & A. M.

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This family biography is one of 87 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of St. Francis County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: St. Francis County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional St. Francis County, Arkansas family biographies here: St. Francis County, Arkansas Biographies

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