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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Garland 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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Michael Jodd, one of Hot Springs most prominent and enterprising citizens, was born in Missouri in 1853, being the third son in a family of ten children who blessed the union of Michael Jodd and Lenia B. (Becher) Jodd, both natives of Germany. The former was educated in Germany, and when a young man learned the brick-making trade and also the manufacture of artificially made ice, besides this running a hotel for a number of years. He emigrated from Germany to St. Louis at an early day, shortly after his marriage, which occurred in 1847. To himself and wife ten children were given: Mary (the wife of George Mincke, of St. Louis), Jacob (deceased), Michael (the subject of this sketch), Maggie (the wife of Thomas Doward), Benjamin (deceased), Jennie, Mathew, Lewis, Anna and Henry. Mr. Jodd, Sr., was in the Mexican War, and there received a wound for which his widow now draws a pension. He was also in the late war, enlisting in 1861 in the First Missouri under Gen. Blair, in which regiment he remained until the close of hostilities in 1865. He died at Baton Rouge, in 1878, of yellow fever. Young Michael began life for himself at the age of nineteen, having learned the brick-mason trade under his father in St. Louis. In 1878 he went to Baton Rouge with his father, who had contracted for the walling in of the National Cemetery. Before completing the work Mr. Jodd, Sr., and his son, Benjamin, were taken with yellow fever and died, after which Michael took charge of and finished the contract. He also contracted and completed the walling of the Andersonville Cemetery in Georgia. Mr. Jodd married, in 1876, Miss Mary Mahar, who died in 1878, and the next year he married Josephine Lasalle, of New Orleans. In 1880 they moved from New Orleans to Georgia, and from there to St. Louis, where he worked at his trade until 1885, when he came to Arkansas, and engaged in the brick-making business. He has now one of the largest and most extensive brickyards in the State, and has burned over 4,000,000 brick this season. He gives employment to from ninety to 100 men. Mr. Jodd was educated in St. Louis at Jones College. He is worth about $15,000, is a liberal donator to all public enterprises, and is a man full of push and enterprise, held in high esteem by his fellow-citizens.

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This family biography is one of 55 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Garland County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Garland County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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