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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 R. Turner, livery merchant, Poplar Grove, Ark. This stable, from the large business it does, not only exemplifies the importance of the town, but reflects credit on its management. Mr. Turner engaged in this business near where he is now located, at the age of twenty-one years, and in 1873 he moved to his present place of business, having built the first business house in the village, and started the first general store. He was also appointed postmaster in his twenty-first year, and served in that capacity for twenty years. At the time he was appointed postmaster he was elected justice of the peace, which office he retained for eight years. In January, 1868, he married Miss R. N. McCoy, a native of Phillips County, born on Christmas day, 1851, and the daughter of John and J. E. (Howard) McCoy, natives of Kentucky, who came to this State in 1840. Mr. McCoy was a short time in the Confederate army, and died in 1864. Mrs. McCoy afterward, in 1872, was united in marriage to M. A. Stripline, of this county. He died in 1877, and Mrs. McCoy now resides with her son-in-law, James R. Turner. To the latter’s marriage were born seven children, four now living: Robert N., Daisy, Eva and Templin. Three died when small. Mr. Turner is a member of the Masonic fraternity, La Fayette Lodge No. 97, and he and wife are members of the K. & L. of H., Poplar Grove Lodge No. 518, he being Treasurer of the same. Mrs. Turner is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Turner is an earnest worker for emigration, and is a member of the county emigration body called the Phillips County Emigration Society. He was born in Phillips County, Ark., in 1848, and is the third of nine children born to the union of W. R. and Elizabeth F. (Ewett) Turner, and the only one now living. The father came to this county from Maryland in 1836, settled near Helena, which was then only a small trading point, and when Indians were numerous. He bought land and tilled the soil the principal part of his life, and at one time, previous to the war, was the owner of a number of negroes. He was one of the pioneer settlers, and helped to open nearly every public road in the county. He served as justice of the peace previous to the late unpleasantness, and was for those days one of the best-educated men in the county. He was born in 1818 and died in 1877. He served for a short time in the Confederate service before the close of the war. He was twice married, first, in 1843, to the mother of the subject of this sketch, who died in 1862, and (in 1863 to a sister of his first wife, Martha A. Ewett, who bore him three children, two of whom are now living: J. C. (in the store of James R. Turner) and Mrs. Emma F. Pearson (of Poplar Grove.) Mrs. Turner resides with her daughter, Mrs. Pearson.

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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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