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Below is a family biography included in The History of Washington 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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Jesse Lee Blakemore. Prominent among the early settlers and farmers of Washington County, Ark., are the Blakemores, who first became represented in this county, in 1831, by Hon. L. C. Blakemore, who was a Tennesseean, born in 1800. He was married to Charlotte Johnson, a native of North Carolina, and on coming to Arkansas first located in Fayetteville, where he was engaged in the hotel business for about two years, and then engaged in farming; was in the Legislature, and was afterward appointed register of lands. He returned to Fayetteville, where he filled the duties of that office for four years. He was afterward chosen to represent Washington County in the State Legislature, and after serving three or four terms retired to his farm in the country, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying in August, 1882, at the age of eighty­two years. He had lived a long, active and useful life, and his death was lamented by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Jesse L. Blakemore was born in Sumner County, Tenn., March 29, 1827, and was reared on a farm, making his home with his father until he attained his twentieth year, when he began fighting the battle of life for himself. He enlisted in an Independent company, under Col. S. B. Everett, and served in the Mexican war for about thirteen months, but although he saw some hard service he was in no battles. In July, 1848, he returned home, and, after making his home with his father for nearly two years, was married in 1849 to Eliza Jane Wheeler, and began farming on rented land. In 1852 he bought a farm on White River, which he sold at the end of two years and bought his present home. His farm consists of 216 acres, 150 acres of which are under fence and cultivation, and he has a fine young orchard of 400 apple and peach trees, just beginning to bear. His wife is a daughter of John A. Wheeler, who first settled in Yell County, Ark., in 1841. She was born in Campbell County, Tenn., and is the mother of thirteen children, ten living: Mary (wife of J. J. Pearson), Sally: (wife of W. B. Harrison), Charlotte (wife of W. West), Belle (wife of George Lisenby), Lee D., William W., Jesse J., James A., Benjamin I. and Burk F.; those deceased are John T., Anna E. and Lulie A. Mr. and Mrs. Blakemore are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and he is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and the Masonic fraternities.

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This family biography is one of 300 biographies included in The History of Washington County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Washington County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

To view additional Washington County, Arkansas family biographies, click here

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