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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Columbia County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  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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Robert Minor Wallace is a prominent attorney of Magnolia, and is best known as an able advocate and brilliant orator. He was born in Union County, Ark., August 6, 1856, and was there reared and educated, first attending the common schools, entering, at the age of seventeen years, Arizona College, La., one of his instructors being Prof. Nicholson, now president of the State University of Louisiana, and from this institution of learning was graduated at the age of twenty years. He immediately removed to Little Rock, Ark., and began his legal studies in the office of Judge Rose, and was admitted to the bar in 1877 by Joseph W. Martin, who was then judge of the circuit court. Shortly afterward he located at Eldorado, and for two years prior to entering upon his practice he was deputy clerk of Union County. He then opened an office in Eldorado, and about this time he founded a paper, called the Union County Times, and this journal continued to edit for some time, in connection with his practice. In 1881 he was elected to represent that county in the Lower House of the Legislature for one term, and discharged his duties in a very efficient manner. In 1884 he moved to Magnolia, having sold his paper, and has here practiced until 1887, when he was appointed post-office inspector by President Cleveland, a position he held until July, 1889, when he resigned, and once more took up the practice of law. He has recently been elected as a Democrat, to the office of district attorney for the Thirteenth Circuit of Arkansas. Mr. Wallace was married in 1879, to Miss Minnie E. Pennington, of Claiborne Parish, La., and a daughter of J. D. Pennington. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace became the parents of four children, two of whom are now living: Roberta and Minnie, who are living with their uncle, Col. H. G. P. Williams, in Union County, as their mother died in July, 1886, having been an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Wallace is the second of three children born to W. J. and Susan A. (Williams) Wallace, the former a native of Georgia, and the latter of Alabama. Mr. Wallace was a planter, and at the opening of the Civil War, joined the Confederate army, becoming a major in the Ninth Arkansas Regiment. He was killed at Resaca, Ga., May 12, 1864, he at that time being quite a young man, his birth having occurred in 1833. His wife was born January 27, 1834, and died August 1, 1860. Their other living child is Mrs. Neil W. Carothers, of Chattanooga, Tenn.

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This family biography is one of 106 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Columbia County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Columbia County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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