My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin T. Clement, merchant, Kirby, Ark. Mr. Clement is one of the prominent business men of Antoine Township, and his success is due largely to strict attention to business, study of the wants of his customers, and fair dealing. He was born on May 25, 1838, in Campbell County, Va., and is the eldest of four children born to the marriage of George W. and Sallie (Turner) Clement, natives of the Old Dominion. The father attended the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Penn., and graduated in 1809. He was a surgeon in the War of 1812, and his father before him was a surgeon in the War of the Revolution. After the war George W. Clement practiced his profession in Virginia for many years. Grandfather Turner was with the Virginia militia in the War of 1812. Benjamin T. Clement was reared in Virginia, and obtained his education in the German Institute in Germantown, N. C. At the age of twenty one years he started out for himself as a teacher, and this has since been his principal occupation. He came to Arkansas in 1881, locating first in Hempstead County, where he taught school for a short time, and in 1887 he permanently settled in Pike County. He has been three times married; first, in Virginia, to Miss Sallie J. Gravely, a native of Henry County, Va., who bore him two children, both of whom died while young. Mrs. Clement died in 1870, and on October 12, 1885, Mr. Clements was married to his second wife. In 1889 he married Miss Alice B. Williams, a daughter of W. W. Williams, who is a native of Georgia. Mr. Williams came to Arkansas in 1883, and settled in Pike County, where he continues to reside. Mr. Clement enlisted in the late war in 1861, as first lieutenant, in the Confederate service, Company B, Thirty-eighth Virginia Infantry, and was in the following engagements: Second battle of Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Five Forks and numerous skirmishes. He was slightly wounded at the battle of Fort Darling. He is a Republican, but is not active in politics. He settled in this township in 1890, engaging in the mercantile business. He carries a stock of goods valued at $600, and will do an annual business of $4,000.