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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pope County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  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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Dr. C. L. Kirkscey is the oldest physician and surgeon of Dover, Ark., and has been a resident of this county since 1874, coming from Helena, Ala. He was born on December 2, 1838, at Alamucha, Lauderdale County, Miss. His father, John M. C. Kirkscey was a farmer and stock-dealer residing near De Sotoville and Butler, Ala., and on his farm the subject of this sketch was reared to the age of fifteen years, at which time he entered school at Gaston and Providence, Ala. Up to this time his advantages for acquiring an education were very limited, but his father now resolved to give him every advantage, and after remaining in that institution one year he entered the high school at Eutaw, Ala., remaining in this institution one year also. He next became a student in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, which was not only a literary but a military college, and here he remained two and one-half years, being a painstaking and zealous student. At the end of this time he entered the Confederate Army as third lieutenant and was first sent to Demopolis, Ala., to take charge of a drill camp at that place, and here he entered actual service in Company B, Eleventh Alabama Regiment his uncle S. F. A. Hail being lieutenant-colonel of this regiment. He was in the battles of Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines’ Mill, and White Oak Swamp, being wounded and taken prisoner in the latter engagement. After being sent to his home he was assigned to duty in the Commissary Department, where he remained until the close of the war, when here turned home to find himself without a dollar with which to commence the battle of life. He then followed school teaching for one year at a salary of $90 per month, at the close of which time he was prevailed upon to enter the ministry, and was a member of the Alabama conference for two years, in the Methodist Episcopal Church South; his first year on Randolph Circuit with three churches, second at Cahaba. He then returned to college, where he graduated as an M. D. at the Atlanta Medical College in 1874, after which he returned to Helena, Ala., and engaged in practicing, but remained only a short time, emigrating a few months later with his family to Arkansas, and settling at Dover, where he is still living. He purchased a farm near the town, also some town property, and as at that time there were few physicians in the country, his practice was necessarily large and has continued so up to the present time. During his career here he has devoted more or less attention to farming, being the owner of land during the entire time, and on his farm he has kept his sons usefully employed. In 1883 he entered into a co-partnership with D. P. Ruff in the practice of medicine and surgery, and the sale of drugs and groceries, employing a man to look after the store, but this venture proved unprofitable and they sold their stock of goods but continued to be associated in their medical practice. Dr. Kirkscey is the owner of 100 acres of land, 110 of which are improved, and he is now erecting a good house there on. He cultivates both cotton and corn, and this year has devoted thirty-five acres to cotton which promises an average yield, sixty-five acres are in corn and will yield an average crop, and in connection with his farming he raises a few horses and mules. His marriage, which occurred October 3, 1866, was to Miss Mary P. Grace, a daughter of G. B Grace of Choctaw, Ala., by whom he has four sons: Foster G. (born May 25, 1868, educated in the medical department of the Arkansas Industrial University, is now practicing his profession at Athens, Tex., and was married on December 24, 1888, to Miss Addie Dupree of Athens), Madison L., (born December 2, 1869, and is now teaching school in Johnson County, Ark.), Robert J. (born February 20, 1872), and Woodville J., (born on January 20, 1874). The Doctor with his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, with which church he united in 1856. He has been a local preacher in that church for the past twenty-two years, and has done much to aid the cause of Christianity. Socially he is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and the K. of P. and in his political views a Democrat, although he has never been what is called an active politician, preferring to give his time and attention to the practice of his calling. He is a liberal supporter of schools, churches, etc., and has always been a man of energy and determination of character. He has been a member of the State Medical Society since the year 1880, and has served on the committee on surgery or medicine every year until the present.

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This family biography is one of 96 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pope County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Pope County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Pope County, Arkansas family biographies here: Pope County, Arkansas

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