My Genealogy Hound

B. J. Collins, merchant, Hazen, Ark. Jared Collins, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in North Carolina in 1807, was married in about 1832 to Miss Matilda E. Witty and reared a family of five children: Sally J. (deceased, married Dr. Jerome Cockran), J. W. (was killed in a battle at Jonesboro, Ga.), O. B. (is residing at Birmingham, Ala.), Emma C. (married Mr. Steadham and now resides at Pine Bluff, Ark.) and Mattie E. (now Mrs. Lawrence, resides at Memphis, Tenn.). Mr. Collins moved to Mississippi about 1835, and settled in Hernando County, where he was engaged in the tailor’s business, but later became a tiller of the soil in the same county. His wife died and he married Miss R. J. Irwin, the mother of the subject of this sketch, in 1842, and the daughter of Bashford and Sophia Irwin, natives of that grand old mother of States, Virginia. B. J. Collins is the eldest of the following children: J. W. (who is married and resides in Birmingham, Ala.), Laura A. (deceased, was the wife of Mr. G. W. Guthrie), J. D. (resides in Shubuta, Miss.), M. J. (resides in Cotton Plant, Ark.), Minnie (is the wife of Mr. Dobbins, of Hazen, Ark.), and M. J. (married and resides at Cotton Plant, Ark.). B. J. Collins was reared and educated in Mississippi, and in 1862 enlisted in Company C, Forty-second Mississippi Infantry, commanded by Col. Miller. He was discharged in 1863, and after the war was engaged in farming until 1869, when he went to Grenada, Miss., and until 1877 carried on the mercantile business. Returning to De Soto County he remained two years, and in 1879 removed to Brinkley, Ark. In 1881 he located at Batesville, Independence County, coming thence to Prairie County, in 1887, where he engaged in merchandising with Mr. Dobbins. Mr. Collins is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is a Democrat in his political views and is one of the successful men of the county.