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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Monroe 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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Samuel R. Pointer, a planter of Montgomery Township, Monroe County, Ark., is of English descent, and traces his ancestry back to his great grandfather, who came with a brother to the United States, and settled in Virginia, where his son, Samuel (the grandfather of our subject), was born, his birth occurring in Halifax County. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Dr. David Pointer (his son), was born and reared in Halifax County, Va., the former event taking place in 1802. After his marriage to Miss Obedience Torian, who was also born in Halifax County, her birth occurring in 1807, he removed to North Carolina, and in 1844 emigrated westward, settling in Marshall County, Miss., his death occurring at Como of that State, in 1871. He was a successful physician for a number of years, then turned planter, and in this occupation became wealthy. He was a member of the A. F. & A. M. The maternal grandfather,_____ Torian, was born, and spent all his life in Halifax County, Va., and was also of English descent. Samuel R. Pointer was born in Caswell County, N. C, in 1828, and was the second in a family of eight children, and received his education, or the principal part of it, in the College of La Grange, Ala. In 1849, Eliza, a daughter of James and Esther (Hicks) Mooring, became his wife, she being a native of Marshall County, Miss., her parents coming to that county from their native State of North Carolina, and there dying in 1857 and 1856 respectively, both members of the Methodist Church, and the former a planter by occupation. Mrs. Pointer died at her parent’s home in Mississippi, in 1856, having borne one son, who is also deceased. In 1858 Mr. Pointer espoused Susan E., a sister of his first wife, she having also been born in Marshall County, but he was called upon to mourn her death in July, 1884. Their family consisted of ten children, one son and five daughters only being alive: “Willie (wife of R. D. Mayo), Susan E. (wife of L. Hall), Edwin M., Hallie, Ethel and Pearl. In 1853 Mr. Pointer came to Arkansas, and in 1856 to Monroe County, settling on a woodland farm six miles northeast of Indian Bay. His farm now comprises 800 acres, and he had about 500 acres under cultivation, all of which property he has earned by his own efforts and the help of his worthy wife. Politically he is a Democrat, and socially is a member of the A. F. & A. M., Indian Bay Lodge No. 259. He comes of a long-lived race of people, and although he has reached the age of sixty-one years, he shows but very little the ravages of time. His brothers and sisters are all living, the eldest sixty-four years of age, and the youngest forty-four. He has always been interested in the cause of education, and he has endeavored to give his children the advantages of a good education, three of whom are now attending an excellent school in Tennessee. During the war he served three years under Capt. Weatherly, who operated in Eastern Arkansas to protect the homes of the citizens, and although he furnished his own horse and ammunition he has never received any compensation.

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This family biography is one of 86 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Monroe County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Monroe County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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