My Genealogy Hound

Rev. Washington Vines is a native of Edgefield District, S. C, his birth occurring September 22, 1841, the third in a family of five children born to Neely and Sarah (Porterfield) Vines, who were also born in the Palmetto State, but they took up their abode in Union Parish, La., in 1847, where they continued to make their home until the death of the mother, which occurred in October, 1865, the father’s death occurring in Winn Parish, La., in October, 1885. The subject of this sketch was principally reared in Union Parish, La., and received a good English education in the common country schools. At the age of twenty years he enlisted in the Confederate Army, in Company C, Nineteenth Louisiana Regiment, Cleburne’s Volunteers, in 1861, and was a faithful soldier in the private ranks for three years, taking part in the battles of Jackson, Miss., Chickamauga and numerous skirmishes. He was slightly wounded in the first-named battle. After the war and his return home he began farming, a calling he continued to follow in Louisiana for some time, after which he moved to Texas and followed farming for three years. At the end of this time he settled in Union County. Ark., and purchased a farm of about 400 acres with 150 under cultivation, and on this land he raises one half bale of cotton and fifteen bushels of corn to the acre. He has on his farm a fine cotton-gin, grist and saw mill, which he erected in 1885 at a cost of $2,200, and the average amount of lumber sawed by him per day is 3,000 feet, his gin turning out eight bales of cotton, the press he uses being known as the Double Quick. He was married in October, 1865, to Miss Tirza A. Smith, who moved to this county from Alabama with her parents, Thomas and Lucinda Smith, when she was quite young. Eleven children have been born to them, three of whom are dead: Jordan, Sarah (who died in 1876), Ida, Jo Eler (who died in 1874), Joannah, Franklin, Tirza I., Crawford, Minor W. (who died in infancy) and Annie Lee. Mr. Vines is a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, which he joined in 1880, having in 1869 become a member, and in 1873 a minister of the Episcopal Church. His wife and eldest three children are members of the Methodist Church also. He has been a Mason since 1873, his eldest son, Jordan, joining in 1887. He is senior deacon in the lodge located in Hillsboro, and although a Democrat takes but little interest in politics.