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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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Moses Burke has been long and worthily identified with the interests of Phillips County, and no worthy history of this immediate vicinity would be complete which failed to make proper mention of his life. He was born in the house in which he now resides March 1, 1848, and is a son of Elisha and Eliza (Cail) Burke, both natives of North Carolina, the former’s birth occurring July 13, 1798, and his death in Phillips County, Ark., June 21, 1860. His marriage took place March 24, 1825, and until 1835 or 1836 they resided in their native State, moving then to Arkansas, and soon after located on the farm on which our subject is now living. The father was a farmer all his life, and was very successful, and in connection with this work was engaged in milling, ginning, blacksmithing and wagon making, being successful in all these undertakings. While in North Carolina he represented his county several times in the State legislature, and after coming to Arkansas he represented his district in the senate three or four terms, and later was a member of the legislature from Phillips County. He was also colonel of militia in North Carolina and Arkansas for many years, and while the Whig party was in existence affiliated with that party. He was born of Irish parents, and his wife was of Scotch descent, her birth occurring on July 9, 1807. She bore her husband the following children: Eliza (wife of Dr. James H. Gibson, of La Grange, Ark.) and Moses being the only ones living. Those deceased are: Richard C. (who died in 1870 when about forty years of age), Sallie F. (wife of Joseph Neville, died in 1857 at the age of twenty years), Elisha (was accidentally killed at Helena in 1856 at the age of fourteen years), and the rest of the children, numbering three, died in infancy. Moses Burke received his early education at his home, and when only nineteen years of age he assumed the management of his mother’s property, and has continued to successfully conduct it up to the present time. They now jointly own 740 acres of land, of which 400 acres are under cultivation, nearly all of it having been obtained since the war, as during that time the most of their property was demolished. Mr. Burke was married in 1878 to Miss Jenny E. Goodwin, a daughter of Sanford E. Goodwin, her birth occurring in Phillips County, in 1852, and by her he has a family of five children: Aubrey, Elisha B., Ethel, Moses Oscar and Jennie E. Mrs. Burke is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in his political views Mr. Burke is a Democrat. He is a live and enterprising agriculturist, and his long residence in this county, his industrious habits and perseverance, as well as his strict integrity and honesty of purpose, have contributed to place around him a host of friends and acquaintances.

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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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