My Genealogy Hound

Col. B. F. Grace, attorney, Arkansas City, Ark. Col. Grace, one of the oldest legal practitioners of the county, and a lawyer of thorough preparatory training, both literary and professional, was born in the Blue-Grass State in 1828. His parents, Preston and Jane (Kilgore) Grace, were natives, respectively, of North Carolina and South Carolina, the father a brick-mason and contractor by occupation. Col. B. F. Grace moved to Arkansas in 1851. He had previously graduated at Princeton, Ky., and after coming to Arkansas studied law with Grace & Murry, being admitted to the bar at Pine Bluff in 1855. He then located at Napoleon, practiced there for some time, then moved to Watson, and then came to this place when the county seat was moved here. He has served as county judge of Desha County, but has never meddled very much with politics. He joined the Confederate army in 1862 as a private, was promoted to the rank of quartermaster sergeant, and filled that position until the close of the war. He participated in the battle of Prairie Grove, the fight at Van Buren, was with Gen. Taylor through Louisiana, was at the battle of Alexandria, and took a prominent part in many minor engagements. In 1864 he was ordered to Louisiana to purchase supplies for the army, and was thus engaged when the war closed. When Judge Grace first came to Napoleon to practice his profession a prosperous community surrounded the town, and there were many large land suits. The principal part of the large cases were of a criminal character, and the docket generally contained from three to 400 cases. Napoleon was at that time filled with a fine class of settlers, though there were constantly passing through a number of traveling gamblers, who gave the law-abiding citizens considerable trouble. The Government had a very fine marine hospital located there, but owing to the caving in of the town in 1863 not a vestige of the place is left. From there Col. Grace moved to his farm, three miles from where Napoleon once stood, and practiced at Watson, the second county seat of Desha County. In 1879 he was instrumental in getting up a petition to move the county seat from there to Arkansas City, and was successful in this venture. In 1880 he moved to this town, and still retains a large practice. He was married, in 1853, to Miss Amanda Boyd, a native of Harrodsburg, Ky., the daughter of G. W. Boyd, who was born in Rockingham County, Va., and who came to this State in 1850, settling at Pine Bluff. He was one of the pioneer merchants of that place, and died there six years later. His wife, who was a native of Lexington, Ky., also died in Pine Bluff. Mrs. Grace is a member of the Episcopal Church.