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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Little River County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  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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Jacob Moon, farmer of Franklin Township, Little River County, Ark. In reviewing the lives of prominent citizens of Little River County, the name of Jacob Moon is justly given an enviable position, for it is difficult to find one of the present day more entitled to honorable mention, or who possesses to such an extent the esteem of his acquaintances. He owes his nativity to Georgia, where he was born in 1826, being a son of Jesse and Mary (Phelps) Moon, natives of Georgia. The former and the noted Alexander Stephens were bound boys in the same county. They were both taken in charge of by Jesse Mercer and sent to school at Penfield, Ga., and both graduated there at the same time, and afterward became distinguished in the Missionary Baptist Church. Jesse Moon moved to Alabama in his forty-fourth year, and there made his home until his death, in 1848. His life had been passed in his ministerial labors, and at the time of his death he had charge of the church at Salem, Ala. He and wife were the parents of thirteen children, five of whom are now living: Jeptha M. (farmer of Miller County), Jacob, Jesse M. (a farmer of Georgia), H. H. (of this county), and Joel C. (of Georgia). The mother died in this State in 1868. Jacob Moon obtained his education at Antioch, Ga., and at the age of twenty years commenced tilling the soil on a farm in Alabama, given him by his father. He farmed in that State until 1858, when he moved to Claiborne Parish, La., and followed agricultural pursuits there for three years. In the early part of 1861 he came to this county and settled where he now lives, fourteen miles east of Richmond. He first purchased eighty acres of land, to which he has since added the balance of 400 acres. This was then all unimproved, but he now has 200 acres under a fine state of cultivation, with good substantial buildings, outhouses, etc. His principal crop is cotton, of which he raises about forty bales annually, and gives considerable attention to raising horses, mules and cattle, and has the reputation of raising the finest hogs in the county. He is also justly proud of a diploma received at the New Orleans Exposition for being the producer of the finest cotton grown in America, or the world. He commenced growing cotton fifteen years ago, and since that time has been improving the quality of his product, and since 1875 has been receiving from 3 to 5 cents per pound more for his cotton (known as Moon's improved cotton) than any other man in the United States. He raised forty bales during the year 1889, which sold for from 12 1/2 to 15 cents per pound. He does his own ginning, and never allows any other cotton ginned on his gin The seed of this cotton sells for $1.50 per bushel, and he does not raise enough by one half to supply the demand for it. From 1862 until the close of the war, Mr. Moon served in the confederate army, the first two years as assistant agent of the Commissary Department, but the year of 1864-65 was spent in the regular army, in Col. Robert Newton's regiment, in the Trans-Mississippi Department. During this time he participated in a few skirmishes, but no regular battles. His command was disbanded at Doolie's Ferry, on Big Red River, and immediately after he returned to his home and resumed his farming operations. The close of the war left him in a deplorable state, all his negroes gone, and his family residing on a new place, without anything done in the way of making home comfortable. He was married, in 1849, to Miss Mary H. Spinks, of Alabama, and the fruits of their married life were eight children, five of whom grew to maturity: Henry N. (a farmer of this county), J. T. (also a farmer of this county), George S. (in a dry goods store in Texarkana, Tex.), and Caado L. and Mary A. (at home). Mr. Moon belongs to the A. F. & A. M., and in politics is a stanch Democrat.

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This family biography is one of 38 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Little River County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Little River County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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