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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jackson County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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John Boen is the only child of Thomas and Sallie (Leonard) Boen, both natives of Tennessee, and of Scotch and English descent, respectively. Thomas Boen came to Arkansas from Tennessee in the fall of 1845, and located on Sections 14 and 15, in the township now known as Cache, purchasing from the United States Government 320 acres of heavily-timbered land, upon which he built a log cabin, and as he chopped down the trees made rails to fence the land. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1857 or 1858, he had seventy acres cleared and under cultivation, and his farm well stocked with cattle and hogs, wolves preventing the raising of sheep. His first wife dying when John was but an infant, Thomas Boen, in 1847, married Mrs. Nancy (Kirkland) Mackey, by whom he had two children: James Wesley, now married, and residing on our subject’s farm, and Andrew J., who died in 1877, at the age of twenty-seven years. John Boen was married, in 1859, to Miss Catherine Mathering, a native of Tennessee, and to them have been born two children, viz.: Henry J., born November 12, 1861, is a farmer, and resides near his father; he married Miss Callie Ragsdale, of Arkansas, May 2, 1886, and they have one child, Lena, about two years old. John R. Boen was born February 4, 1865, and was married, September 1, 1887, to Cynthia Lunley, who has borne two children, one, Laura Belle, dying at the age of two months; the other, Thomas Jefferson, is one month old. He is also a farmer, and owns a farm in Breckinridge Township. Mr. John Boen came into possession of forty acres of land through his wife; he now owns in all 320 acres of land, about 125 acres of which are under cultivation; corn and cotton are his principal crops, and his farm is well stocked with horses, cattle and hogs of good grade. Mr. Boen is interested in all matters tending toward the advancement of religious and educational interests, and is in every respect an enterprising farmer of Jackson County. Mrs. Boen is a member of the Christian Church.

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This family biography is one of 144 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jackson County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Jackson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Jackson County, Arkansas family biographies here: Jackson County, Arkansas Biographies

View a map of 1889 Jackson County, Arkansas here: Jackson County, Arkansas Map

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