My Genealogy Hound

J. Y. Harrison, a prosperous and enterprising farmer of Jefferson Township, was born in Christian County, Ky., near Hopkinsville, on the 22d of April, 1847. His parents were Robert and Isabella (Means) Harrison, the father a native of Tennessee and the mother from Kentucky. The elder Harrison moved to Kentucky in his youth, and was afterward married in that State, taking his bride to Arkansas in 1850, and locating in Jackson County, near Jacksonport. He entered a tract of land in Bird Township, where he commenced cultivating the soil, and remained until his death in 1874. The mother yet survives him as well as five children: Margaret, wife of A. D. Anderson; James, Robert, Frank and Mary, the latter married to C. B. Coe. J. Y. Harrison, one of the sons, came to Arkansas when only three years of age, and grew to manhood in this State, receiving in the meantime the best education afforded by the schools of that period. He left his parents when eighteen years old, in 1867, with 85 cents in money. He has always made farming his vocation, and after his marriage located on a tract of land in Bird Township, where he resided and cultivated the soil until 1863, when he removed to his present residence and rented land up to 1881, and then buying 160 acres. He now owns 740 acres of some of the most valuable land in that section, and has 320 acres under cultivation, 180 acres of which were cleared and improved by himself alone. The principal crop is corn and cotton, and of the former this year he has had 300 acres, and 200 acres of the latter. Besides his farm Mr. Harrison deals extensively in stock, having splendid facilities for that business, and raises some of the finest horses, cattle and mules in that section. He also owns a cotton-gin, grist and saw-mill, and raises some grass for the market. In 1869 he was married to Miss Mary Hunter, by whom he has had eight children: Emma, Ida, Minnie, Norah and Pinkey (both deceased), Bertha, Spriggs and Cleveland. In politics Mr. Harrison is a Democrat, and a valuable man to his party, as well as a popular citizen of his county.