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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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William Cowger, a thrifty farmer of Yell County, emigrated with his parents, Ira and Eliza (Proctor) Cowger, father of Tennessee, and mother of Alabama, from Mississippi to Arkansas in 1855, locating in Yell County. They were united in marriage in Alabama, and were the parents of twelve children, he whose name heads this sketch being the second child, and was born in the latter State, March 8, 1839. The father, a farmer, was killed by the Federals in 1863, his widow surviving him till 1887. Both were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Our subject was a soldier in the late war, enlisting in Company D, Fifteenth Arkansas Regiment, and being wounded was discharged from service in 1863. In 1868 he was joined in marriage to Miss Nancy Jones, also of this county, and who was born August 22, 1842, and they were the parents of four children: Robert P., Eliza E., and a son and daughter deceased. Himself and wife are worthy communicants of the Baptist Church. He has eighty-four acres of good land, all well improved, and is a high-minded and public-spirited man, upholding the building of churches and schools, and donates liberally to the support of the same.

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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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