My Genealogy Hound

John A. Huddleston is an excellent example of the success attending hard work and faithful and persistent endeavor, and he is now one of the wealthy planters of Polk County, Ark., of which he has long been a resident, although his birth place is Madison County, Tenn., where he was born in 1844. His parents, M. D. and Margaret (Hammond) Huddleston, were born, reared and married in Tennessee, and about 1846, came to Montgomery County, Ark., and settled down to tilling the soil of a farm at the head of Caddo Creek, and on this farm the father was called away by death, in 1868, at the age of sixty-two years, his widow surviving him, being about sixty-three years old. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, and he was one of the successful pioneer farmers of the county. He was a member of the A. F. & A. M., and was a son of David Huddleston, who died in West Tennessee. John A. Huddleston was the second of thirteen children born to his parents, six sons and six daughters being now alive, nearly all of whom reside in Scott and Polk Counties. Although he received but little early schooling, he was given a practical knowledge of farming, on this father’s home place, and by the time he entered the army, in 1862, his out-door life had been of great benefit to him, and he was eminently fitted to bear the privations of a soldier’s life. He became a member of Company B, Second Arkansas Infantry, and operated in Arkansas and Louisiana, until the close of the war. His marriage, which took place in 1866, was to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas W. and Telitha Cobler, who were Tennesseans, the birth of the former occurring in 1816. They were married in 1838, in Gibson County, Tenn., and in 1846 came to Montgomery County, and settled on a woodland farm, and although he is living in the same vicinity, it is on another farm. He was justice of the peace some years, and just after the war was county and probate judge and a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1874. Mrs. Huddleston was born in Montgomery County, and died there in 1876. They had three children, two now living. His second marriage took place in 1876, and was to Martha, daughter of John and Sarah Cotton, who removed from Mississippi to Polk County, the mother’s death occurring here, but the father is still living. Mr. Huddleston’s second wife was born in Calhoun County, Miss., and died in 1881, leaving two children. He married his present wife in 1883, her name being Alice, daughter of Silas and Araminta E. Hughes, who came from their native State of Tennessee to Montgomery County, Ark., in 1876, and are now living in Polk County. This union has resulted in the birth of two children. Since 1866 Mr. Huddleston has lived in Polk County, fifteen years being spent in Mountain Township, where he owns 350 acres of land, of which about 140 are under cultivation, all of which he has earned by his own efforts. He belongs to Hill Lodge No. 160, of the A. F. & A. M. His wife is a Methodist.