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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Ouachita 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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Rev. Eli W. Pharr, one of the honored and respected old residents of Ouachita County, Ark., should be accorded a worthy place in this volume, for he has been associated with the agricultural interests of the county since 1849. He was born in Abbeville District, S. C, February 25, 1819, being a son of Samuel T. and Mary W. (Guffin) Pharr, the father of whom was born in South Carolina, in 1792, having been a tiller of the soil, and a minister of the gospel by occupation. He and wife became the parents of four children, two of whom are living at the present time: Eli W. and Mary A. (wife of William G. Casey, a resident of Alabama). At an early day Samuel T. Pharr removed from his native State to Georgia, and from there to Arkansas, in 1849, settling in the northern part of the State, his wife dying here in 1880, an earnest member of the Presbyterian Church. Eli W. Pharr first started in life for himself at the age of twenty-one years, as a farmer, and was married in 1840, to Miss Elizabeth Lowe, a native of South Carolina, by whom he became the father of seven children, four of whom are now living: John W. (a farmer and merchant of this county), Mary L. (wife of L. R. Hollingsworth, a resident of Hughes Springs, Tex.), Edward I. (a farmer and merchant of Columbia County, Ark.), and Joseph S. (a farmer of this county). The mother of these children died in 1856, a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, and in 1857 Mr. Pharr espoused Mrs. Parthenia Seehorn, widow of Alex Seehorn. She was born in Mississippi, in 1820, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Pharr received an excellent education in his youth, and for some time was an attendant of a college at Graffenburg, Ala., which was under the management of P. M. Shepperd. He also graduated from a medical college in 1854, after which he entered actively upon the practice of that profession, continuing from 1855 to 1856, in Alabama, when he removed to Arkansas, and from that time until 1873, was a practitioner of Union County. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1864, being a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and has been actively engaged in the saving of souls ever since. He is well to do as far as worldly goods is concerned, and is now the owner of about 400 acres of good farming land, with about 200 acres improved. His principal crop is cotton and corn, and he is a partner in a fine steam cotton-gin and grist-mill. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and in his professional as well as social relations, he is esteemed and respected by many.

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This family biography is one of 91 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Ouachita County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Ouachita County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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