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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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Judge Joseph Gault, one of the pioneer citizens of Yell County, as well as one of the leading merchants of Dardanelle, was born in South Carolina to William and Winnie (Cooper) Gault, of that State, in 1812, and when old enough was placed in the common schools and received what schooling these afforded, and when twenty years old started out in the world for himself. In 1834 he married his first wife, Miss Bird, of South Carolina, and three weeks after the ceremony was performed embarked overland for Arkansas, being nine weeks on the way. Locating in Johnson County he broke ground for a farm, which he worked for three years, then came to Yell County and entered and made the necessary improvements on 160 acres of land, and soon established a general merchandise store on his plantation. In 1841 he was called upon to part with his wife, who had borne him a family of four children, and soon after he was united in marriage the second time to Miss Mary Briggs, daughter of James Briggs, who passed to her final home in 1870. In 1852 he was elected sheriff and filled this office till the bursting of the war cloud, when he joined the Confederate Army, serving but a short time, when he returned home and resumed his mercantile duties. In December, 1870, Mrs. Boles (daughter of Thomas May, an old settler of Johnson County as far back as 1834, and a well known stock-owner, planter and merchant, and member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church) became his third wife. In 1878 he established the business known as the firm of J. L. Gault & Co. His individual property is a fine tract of bottom land, and several hundred acres of upland and a lovely home on Mount Nebo, and a fine residence in Dardanelle, where he lives with his wife and several children. In 1882 he was elected county and probate judge, and served with great credit to himself and the county. The Judge has been the father of many children, eight of whom live in Yell County, the sons being merchants and farmers. His descendants and those of the present Mrs. Gault (she having had a large family by a former marriage) number nearly 100, and are all worthy and respected citizens in their respected communities, and their children give promise of inheriting the intellect and capabilities of their honored ancestors. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Mr. Gault enjoys the social pleasures found within the mysteries of the Masonic fraternity. The Judge, full of years and honors, is enjoying the fruits of a long life of active labor and the attentions of his many loving and appreciative friends.

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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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