My Genealogy Hound

Sterling Hood deserves special mention as one of the oldest citizens of Tyronza Township. He was born in Limestone County, Ala, in 1818, being the second child of a family of three children given to the union of Frederick and Elizabeth (Moseley) Hood, natives of Virginia, as were the grandparents. The paternal grandfather, Sterling Hood, was a soldier in the War for Independence and the maternal grandfather was Captain William Moseley of Revolutionary fame, who went to the war from near Halifax, Virginia; he died in Alabama about 1830. Frederick Hood went to Alabama when quite a small boy and was with General Jackson in the War of 1812. He was sick at the time of the battle of New Orleans, and died in Alabama in 1836 at the age of forty years; he had been twice married, first to the mother of our subject from which union resulted three children, Sterling, William (deceased) and Robert (deceased). After the death of Mrs. Hood, in 1822, Mr. Hood was married to Betsie Bowlin, and by her was the father of five children, two of whom are still living. Sterling Hood, reared to farm life, was educated in Alabama, and at the age of eighteen years he commenced life for himself as an apprentice to a brick mason, for whom he worked three years in Decatur, Ala. He helped do the brick work on the freight house of the Memphis and Charleston railroad and was present in 1836, when the first boat landed at Decatur. After learning his trade he left Decatur and went to Yalobusha County, Miss., where he manufactured and laid brick, but only stayed there a short time, going thence to Coahoma County, Miss., where he followed overseeing for Dr. Hobson and his son and son-in-law for two years. Later he went to Carroll County for a short time, but in the fall of 1839 settled in Brazoria County, Texas on the Brazos River, where he engaged in keel boating cotton from the upper Brazos to Brazoria. He then was occupied as captain of a sailing vessel from the mouth of the Brazos River to Galveston, and after remaining on the vessel for some time returned to his former occupation, over-seeing, on the plantation of the Widow Whorton, close to the Brazos River. After staying here for eighteen months he left Texas in 1843 and started back to Mississippi by way of New Orleans. From that State he went to Memphis, resumed his trade and helped to build the navy yard (which was never completed), assisting also in erecting the first house in that city, built under the hill, by Enoch Davis for a tavern; the building has since been washed away by the river. He could have purchased one acre of land near where the Gayosa Hotel now stands, for $75, but thought it a poor investment. In 1840 Mr. Hood came to this county and two or three years later bought the land upon which he now lives, consisting of 120 acres of unimproved land, now having seventy-five acres improved. Since coming here he has devoted his whole attention to his land and the raising of stock. He was nearly ruined by the high inundations of the rivers in 1882 and 1883, losing over 100 head of cattle. When Mr. Hood first settled here there were but five or six families living on the Tyronza for a distance of fifty miles and no road to Memphis except a trail. What few people lived here were prosperous and happy and most of them depended on trapping for support. Many Indians still roamed the woods and the chiefs, Moonshine and Cornmeal, came with their tribes and hunted during the winter, but went west in summer. Also when first coming to this State Mr. Hood saw a number of the men that belonged to the Merrill clan. He was married in 1849 to Rhoda Richards of this State and a native of North Carolina, who came to Arkansas in 1839, settling where she and her husband now live. Mr. and Mrs. Hood are the parents of seven children, of whom five are living, viz.: J. W. (who resides in this county), Nancy (wife of B. F. Bush), Robert, Laura (wife of Thomas Wilkins, in Phillip’s County) and Eddie at home. Mr. Hood was constable and deputy sheriff for twenty years and until he was too old to serve any longer. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and takes great interest in public schools, churches, etc., favoring all public improvement and extending a welcome to all white emigration, from whatever country they may come to this, the land of prosperity and plenty. The early settlers of this county were compelled to go to a horse mill at Crawfordsville, and Mr. Hood erected a band mill, two rawhide bands being attached to levers and pulleys and run by horse power. He, Hood, is still able to ride through the bottoms to look after his land and stock, and is active as most men of forty-five or fifty years. He has taken very few doses of medicine and scarcely knows what sickness means either in himself or family.