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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Phillips 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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James C. Kersey, a prominent farmer of Big Creek Township, was born in Union County, S. C., October 17, 1858, but has been a resident of Phillips County, Ark., since twelve years of age, attending the common schools of this county in youth, and later entering the Arkansas Industrial University, at Fayetteville. In April, 1886, he was married to Mary E. Copeland, who was born in Texas, in May, 1860, a daughter of Elijah and Margaret (Hennison) Copeland, both natives of Alabama. They are the parents of one son, William R. Mr. Kersey owns a fine farm of 452 acres of land, of which about half is under cultivation. His principal crop is cotton, he raising some sixty-five bales annually. In 1889 he erected a steam cotton-gin, at a cost of $1,200, for his own use and that of his neighbors. He has always voted the Democratic ticket, and cast his first presidential ticket for W. S. Hancock. Mr. Kersey’s father, William Kersey, was born in Upton County, Ga., about 1832, and died in Phillips County in 1882. He was reared in Georgia, and when a young man went to South Carolina, marrying there, in 1857, Miss Sarah H. Turner. He was a son of Robert Kersey, a native of South Carolina. Sarah H. (Turner) Kersey was born in that State in 1848, and is a sister of Nathaniel B. Turner, whose biography appears in this work. She is the mother of ten children, these still living: Anna J. (the wife of Richard Davis), Monroe, Mary A. (the wife of Thomas Hennison), Carley (wife of Wiley Clatworthy), Lee, James C. (the principal of this sketch), Ellen and Zeller (twins). In 1867 Mr. William Kersey moved to Arkansas, and purchased the farm on which the subject of this sketch now lives. He was a member of the Masonic order, and of the Baptist Church.

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This family biography is one of 103 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Phillips County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Phillips County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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