My Genealogy Hound

Prof. Joseph E. Wootton, a prominent young farmer and educator living in Noland Township, was born in Pike County, Ark., in 1854. He is a son of Hiram H. and Sarah (Garrett) Wootton, the former a native of Tennessee, born in 1829, and the latter a native of Alabama born in 1831. They were married in Arkansas, whither Mr. Wootton had moved in 1850, and here they reared the ten children born to their union, eight of whom are still living. Those surviving are named Benjamin F., Joseph E., Josephine F. (wife of Isaac Anderson, a successful farmer and brick mason, of this county), Eudora (wife of James Anderson, a wood-worker of Hempstead County), Hiram H., John L., Rufus L. and Berta A. The father was a farmer by occupation, and pursued that calling with marked success all his life. He died in Pike County, Ark., in 1880, just nine years after the faithful companion of his life passed away. They were both church members, he believing in the doctrines expounded by the Baptist Church, and she in those of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The father belonged to the Masonic order, Joseph E. Wootton was reared to manhood in his native county, his boyhood being about equally divided between assisting his father on the farm, and attending the district school. Seeing the advantages to be derived from a good education, he entered the State Normal College, at Florence, and graduated at that institution in 1877. In 1882 he took a course in book-keeping at Lexington, Ky., under E. W. and W. R, Smith. Having taken a musical course at Greenville, under Keifer & Showalter, the former president of the College of Music, at Dayton, Va., he became very proficient in that art, and now writes and teaches music successfully. He commenced teaching school in 1878, and for five years taught in Crenshaw County, Ala. In 1855 he was the principal in Birmingham Business College, Birmingham, Ala., and for the last, four years he has been wielding the birch in Hempstead County, Ark., and is considered an excellent educator. He makes his home on his fine farm, comprising 200 acres of good tillable land, all of which is well improved. His family consists of an estimable wife and two children, Leonard and Ruthe. Mrs. Wootton, whose maiden name was Miss Lizzie Wylie, was born in Nevada County, Ark., December 12, 1867, a daughter of Thomas and Ruth Ann (Ware) Wylie. Mr. and Mrs. Wootton are both worthy and respected members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.