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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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Rev. Jonathan C. Ragon is one of the prominent farmers and cotton-growers of Yell County. Coming to this State in 1850, he settled in Johnson County, where he remained thirty-seven years, owning at that time 140 acres of good land, which he sold, then removed to Riley Township, this county, and bought 167 acres. Of the land purchased he has about forty acres under cultivation, upon twenty-five of which he raises corn and fifteen cotton, besides renting out quite a number of acres. Mr. Ragon was born in Tennessee, July 24, 1825, the son of Eli Ragon, and was there reared to manhood, receiving a common-school education. He later learned the carpenter’s trade, in that line his work being principally gin and and press building. He was married in Hamilton County, Tenn., in 1847, to Miss Elizabeth Rogers, also a native Tennesseean, her birth occurring in 1830, a daughter of Elisha Rogers, of Virginia. She died in 1884, leaving three children to mourn their loss, two having preceded her. Those living are: Martha O. (widow of T. B. Smith), Cordelia (wife of J. G. Stevens), and Penelope (wife of William Moseley). Later (in the year 1884) Mr. Ragon took for his second wife Miss Annie E. Elliott, and by her has three children: Mary M., Lottie E. and W. S. During the late unpleasantness between the States, our subject enlisted in First Arkansas Infantry on the Federal side, under Col. J. M. Johnson and Capt. Parker, his regimental commander being Gen. Thayer. He participated in the engagements at Fayetteville, Hogewood Prairie and a great many skirmishes. On account of ill health he was discharged in 1865, just before the surrender. Socially he is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and is also a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, of which he has been a minister for over twenty-five years in different parts of the State. In politics he affiliates with the Republican party. When Mr. Ragon came to this State it was comparatively new, and there was little preaching and schools were few. He has lived through its wonderful period of development to see schools on every hand and churches in every hamlet and to witness a prosperous people living under just laws.

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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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