My Genealogy Hound

John A. Brittain is a progressive agriculturist and stockman of Union Township, Lee County, Ark., but was born in Franklin County, Tenn., in 1828, being the eldest of four children born to James and Frances (Stoveall) Brittain, who were also Tennesseeans. The family first came to St. Francis County, Ark., in 1845, and here Mr. Britain purchased a farm on which a few improvements had been made, it being situated about one-half mile from Forrest City, which was then called Mt. Vernon. He lived in this settlement until his death April 9, 1849. He had been married twice, his first wife being the mother of our subject, but she died in 1836, and of her four children three are yet living: John A., Susan (wife of Abram Noah, resides in Texas) and Frances (the widow of Rufus Williams, lives in Tennessee). Benjamin died in 1881, and his family still reside in Lee County. After the death of his first wife Mr. Brittain was married, in 1838, to Miss Annie Staples, of Tennessee, and the three children which were born to them are now deceased: Martha A. was the wife of Aaron G. McDaniels, and died in 1867, and the other two died in infancy. Mrs. Brittain died in September, 1844. John A. Brittain remained in the county of his birth, acquiring there a fair education, until 1845, when he came to this State with his father, and, after assisting him on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, he followed clerking for a short while. Since that time he has followed the life of a farmer, and in 1851 purchased a portion of the farm on which he now resides, then consisting of forty acres. Very few improvements had at that time been made upon it, but he has since erected buildings, fences, etc., and now has his farm in a splendid condition for agricultural purposes. He has added 120 acres and has eighty acres under the plow. Cotton and corn are among his main products, but he also gives much of his attention to the propagation of stock. He was married in 1849 to Miss Mary McDaniel, a native of Arkansas, born in 1835. She has lived in three counties in this State, without having moved. She was born in Phillips County, which afterward became St. Francis County, and is now Lee County. She is a daughter of Archibald G. and Mary (Davis) McDaniel, who were born in Kentucky and moved to Arkansas in 1828, being among the first settlers of Phillips County, Mr. McDaniel being also one of the first postmasters in this portion of the State, a position he held until 1857. He and wife became the parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom lived to be over fourteen years of age, only two of whom are now living: Mary (Mrs. Brittain) and Harriett (the widow of Robert Shell). Mrs. McDaniel died in 1869. An uncle of Mrs. Brittain’s, John Calvert, was one of the first settlers of this region, and was a soldier in the War of 1812. Her mother came from Kentucky to Arkansas via Memphis, Tenn., which at that time was only a camp, said to be one of the camps of the noted bandit Murrell. Mr. and Mrs. Brittain are the parents of ten children, G. B., Robert McD., Mary W., M. L., and Eliza A. being the only ones living. A. T. died at the age of twenty years, and J. B. when twenty-four years of age. In 1864 Mr. Brittain joined the Confederate army, becoming a member of Company C, Dobbins’ Regiment, and was with Gen. Price through Missouri, and was in the battles of Pilot Knob, Lexington, and in numerous skirmishes. He was paroled in June, 1865, at Wittsburg, Ark. He and wife are worthy members of society and his wife is a member of the Methodist Church.