My Genealogy Hound

J. M. Garner was born in Georgia, in 1833, but his father, Thomas Garner, was a South Carolinian, a farmer by calling, and was a participant in the Creek and Seminole Indian War. J. M. Garner received a somewhat limited education in a private school, but afterward acquired a thorough knowledge of matters and events by contact with the world and by reading. He remained with his father until he was twenty-two years of age, when he began doing for himself, and in 1855 was married to Miss Isabella Blanchard, of Georgia, a daughter of a wealthy planter and merchant of that State, T. J. Blanchard. Nine children have been born to their union: Thomas Jefferson (who was married to Miss Ida H. Haynes), Mollie (wife of James Talley, of Texas), John Lucius (who is a physician of Houston, Tex., having graduated from the Medical University of Louisville, Ky., in 1887), Margaret (wife of Henry Reece, of this county), Emma (wife of William Rogers), Sallie (wife of John Card), Lula, Florence and Flora. Mr. Garner joined the Twenty-eighth Louisiana Infantry in 1862, under Capt. Brice and was in the battles of Franklin, Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. After his company was disbanded, Mr. Garner returned home to his family in Nevada County, Ark., and after remaining there, engaged in farming for three years, they came to Hempstead County, and in 1887 settled on their farm of 245 acres, which yields from 800 to 1,000 pounds of cotton, and from twenty to twenty-live bushels of corn to the acre. Mr. Garner and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, and in his political views he is a Democrat. He is a man who has made a success of his life, and he gives liberally of his means in the support of worthy enterprises.