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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  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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John W. Eidson, one of the pioneers and prosperous cotton-growers of Yell County, and a citizen of Centerville Township, was born in Alabama on November 15, 1843, and son of Edward and Mary (Mame) Eidson, natives of the Palmetto State. In 1851 his father, thinking to better his fortunes, moved his family to Texas, settling on a farm which proved to be a profitable investment, and operated it till his death in 1865. The principal of this biography spent his youth in his native and adopted States, where he obtained but a limited education, and on reaching manhood engaged in farming till April, 1861, when he enlisted in Company A, First Texas Infantry, Commandants Col. Wakefield and Capt. Bobo, doing duty in some of the departments under Gen. Hood, and participated in many of the principal engagements, namely Seven Pines, West Point, the seven days’ fight around Richmond and others, being in the noted battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg, and here was discharged from service. In 1862 he reenlisted in the cavalry service in the Department of Mississippi, whose movements were controlled by Col. Hodges and Gens. West and Adams, and did duty as a scout till the surrender in July, 1865. Remaining in Mississippi till the next year, he went to Northeast Texas, thence came to this State and purchased eighty acres of land, to which he has since added forty acres more, 100 of it being fine, productive land, yielding good crops of cotton, corn, wheat and oats, and he has an orchard of peaches, apples and plums, and altogether a very valuable farm and comfortable home. He was married in 1868 to Lurilla Huckaby, born in 1848 in Mississippi, and they have been the parents of eleven children, eight of whom are living: Suvanal (wife of Frank Sloan), Phoebe E., John A., William A., Walter E., Roy, Ira and Ora. In religion he and wife are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and politically he is a Democrat, and in 1884 served his party as justice of the peace, and has been elected to the second term of office. Socially he is connected with the Grange and Wheel, and gives liberally to the support of all charitable, educational and religious institutions.

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This family biography is one of 124 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Yell County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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