My Genealogy Hound

J. A. Proctor is one of the leading furniture dealers of Camden, Ark., and is in the enjoyment of a remarkably prosperous trade. He was born in Meriwether County, Ga., September 2, 1831, and is a son of Elias R. and Mary (Paterson) Proctor, the father a native of South Carolina, and their union took place in Georgia. In 1849 they emigrated to Arkansas, coming overland, settling at Holly Springs, in Dallas County, where they entered a tract of land, but sold, after making many valuable improvements, and came to Ouachita County, taking up their abode near Camden. The father’s death occurred in 1861, but the mother is still living. Mr. Proctor was a successful tiller of the soil of Ouachita County. Three sons and three daughters, of the eleven children born to himself and wife, are now living, of whom J. A. Proctor, our immediate subject, is the eldest. He was a resident of Georgia until seventeen years of age, and there received the most of his education, being an attendant of the common schools, and until twenty-three years of age, the occupation of farming received his attention. In January, 1853, he came to Camden and began clerking, but at the end of four years he embarked in business for himself, and successfully conducted a grocery business, until 1861, but during the war he was not in the service, owing to ill health. From the time the war closed until 1869, he followed the occupation of clerking and book-keeping, but at the end of that time embarked in general merchandising, which continued to receive his attention until 1882, when he changed his stock of goods and became a furniture dealer, and also sells sash, doors and blinds. He is doing a thriving business, which is constantly increasing, and his successes have been due to his energy and enterprise, and his house is one of the leading representatives in his line of trade in his section of the State. During the war he served the people two years as mayor of the city and since as city alderman. He has been a continuous resident of Camden for the past thirty-seven years, and has witnessed and assisted in the rapid growth of the city and county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which order he has advanced to the Commandery, and from his youth up he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His wife, whose maiden name was Martha J. Mendenhall, and whom he married in 1857, is also a worthy member of that church.