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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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David Diedrich was born in Wurtemberg, and emigrated to the United States before the Revolutionary War (in which he served as a soldier), not later than 1750. He settled first in Pennsylvania, but afterward removed to Winchester, Va., which had been settled by Pennsylvania Germans in 1732. He was a member of the Lutheran Church as early as 1764, as shown by a copy of the paper deposited in the corner stone of the church there at that date. After his emigration to this country he married a lady of American birth, but German ancestry, whose name was Boher. The two conversed exclusively in German. The children of this marriage (who accepted the anglicised name of Deaderick) were David Deaderick, Jr., George Michael, Thomas, John, Susanna and Elizabeth. The wife survived, and afterward married Dr. May, an Englishman, by which union there were three children: Samuel, Frank and Rosanna May. The eldest son, David Deaderick, Jr., who married Margaret Anderson, sister of Joseph Anderson, United States senator from Tennessee, and appointed by President Monroe first comptroller of the United States treasury, settled at Jonesboro, Tenn., January 1, 1795, and the other three brothers established themselves at Nashville. The youngest of David Deaderick’s children is James W. Deaderick, who has filled the office of chief justice of Tennessee since 1870. George Michael Deaderick, the next brother (mentioned before as senior partner of Stephen Cantrell, Jr.), was a prominent and influential man in the early days of Nashville, from 1785 to the period of his death. He was a large property holder in the town, and on Brown’s Creek, two miles south of it, and was extensively engaged in merchandise. The ground of Deaderick Street, leading from the public square southwest to Cherry Street, was donated by him to the city of Nashville, and hence received its name. His habit and style of living was liberal, his intercourse with others courteous and kind, his principles upright and humane. His style of dress was that of the Continental period, top boots, short pantaloons, silver knee-buckles, swallow-tailed coat, slightly powdered hair, arranged with a queue. When the moss and lichens were removed from his tombstone, which may yet be seen at his old residence at “Westwood,” the only legible inscription on it was his name, “George Michael Deaderick, president of the Bank of Nashville.’’ In view of limited space, all mention of the other two brothers, Thomas and John, and Elizabeth, the younger daughter, maybe omitted, and the history of Susanna Deaderick, the elder daughter, continued, who became the wife of David Wendel, Sr., and mother-in-law of Stephen Cantrell, Jr. Whether David Wendel, Sr., came with the Deadericks to Tennessee or not, is a matter of conjecture. There is a tradition that two brothers Wendel emigrated from Germany to the United States and afterward separated, one going north and the other south. A descendant of this latter, David Wendel, married Susanna Deaderick. They had nine children, viz.: David Wendel, Jr. (married Sarah Nelson), William (never married), Rebecca (married Judge Foster), Rachel (married J. P. Wiggin), Rosanna (married Judge Howell Tatum), Polly (married Judge Bennett Searcy), Elizabeth (married Col. Robert Searcy), Juliet Ann Deaderick (married Stephen Cantrell, Jr.), Matilda (married Alfred M. Carter). Juliet Ann Deaderick Wendell, whose marriage with Stephen Cantrell, Jr., January, 1807, has been noticed before, was born in Winchester, Va., April 8, 1787. At the time of her marriage, the Searcys, Fosters, Tatums and Wiggins were prominent and influential citizens of Nashville and its vicinity. They were high minded and progressive people, kind and hospitable almost to a fault. Mrs. Cantrell was richly endowed with personal attractions, and proved an ornament to the circle. Tall and graceful in movement, with a sweet benevolence of countenance, clear blue eyes and soft voice, she attracted every one, and her piety, charity and compassion for suffering in any form riveted the friendship of all who knew her intimately. She was for many years a devout communicant with the Presbyterian Church. She died, deeply lamented by her devoted family, July 3, 1839. A miniature picture, taken in girlhood and caused to be copied by her granddaughters (Mrs. Decatur Axtell, of Richmond, Va., and Mrs. Benjamin S. Church, of New York City) for the different members of the family, is in possession of Dr. Cantrell, a relic of almost a century. The children of Stephen Cantrell, Jr., and Juliet Ann Deaderick Wendel were: George Michael Deaderick (married to Clara Walker), Mary Ann (married to Dr. T. J. J. Howard), Emmeline Susanna (married to Alex. A. Casseday), Elizabeth Searcy (married to Abram Van Wyck), Matilda Carter (married to “William F. Mason), Elvira Searcy (married to Edwin Ferguson), David Wendel (born 1832, died 1835), William Armour (married to Ellen M. Harrell), Margaret Armstrong (born 1829, died 1834). William Armour Cantrell, M. D., the eighth member of the group, was born January 22, 1826, at his father’s farm near Nashville. At a later date the family removed to the city, where he attended the primary schools until he was thirteen years of age. He was then sent to Princeton, N. J., and placed at Edgehill Seminary, where he made good record as a student. While there he met with the great bereavement of his life, the death of his mother. Preceding this came the financial wreck of his father. He was recalled and became a student at the Nashville University, but soon began the study of medicine with his cousin, Dr. James Wendel, of Murfreesboro, Tenn. In 1845 he entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, Ky., where his kinsman. Dr. Lunsford P. Yandell, Sr., professor of chemistry and pharmacy, was one of his preceptors. Drs. Gross, Short, Cobb, Drake, Miller and Caldwell occupied chairs at the same time, and S. S. Nicholas was president of the department. Dr. Cantrell graduated at this university March 6, 1847. The year following he spent at New York, where he received the appointment of assistant physician in Bellevue Hospital. He was then appointed to relieve Dr. Winterbottom as physician of the Nursery Hospital at Blackwell’s Island, and remained there during the summer of 1848. The following year he went to New Orleans, La., where, feeling qualified, he proposed to enter upon his life work. The solitary condition of his father, however, impelled him to abandon this purpose. After one winter of medical experience at New Orleans, where he treated yellow fever in epidemic form, he established himself at Pine Bluff, Ark., in the vicinity of which his father resided, and later, at Little Rock. Here, in 1849, he met his future wife, Miss Ellen M. Harrell, who had lately arrived with her family from Nashville, Tenn., fleeing from cholera, then decimating the city of Nashville. On February 13, 1852, Dr. Cantrell and Miss Harrell were married in Little Rock, by the Rev. A. R. Winfield. During what proved to be the last year of his father’s life, Dr. Cantrell took his family to live on an adjoining plantation, and was with him at the time of his death, in September, 1854. Afterward he resumed his practice in Little Rock, where he rapidly built up a solid reputation as a practitioner. In 1857 he purchased three lots on the southwest corner of Scott and Fourth Streets, where he built an ornamental frame cottage. This he sold afterward to Ex-Gov. Miller, then auditor of State, and purchased lots on the northeast corner of Scott and Seventh Streets, where he built a commodious two-story brick building, in which he has resided with his family since 1860. He also invested in real estate near the city, which, in the course of years, has become very valuable property. During this long interval he has filled successively and honorably the positions of city physician, county physician, president of State board of medical examiners, president of College of Physicians and Surgeons, delegate to the public health association, besides attending to a heavy practice among the most intelligent, refined and wealthy families in the community. He is the only surviving member of the first medical society of Little Rock, which he helped to organize, the managing board being R. A. Watkins, M. D., president; W. A. Cantrell, M. D., secretary; A. W. Webb, M. D., Craven Peyton, M. D., George Sizer, M. D., Corydon McAlmont, M. D. In 1861 he was appointed surgeon of First Mounted Regiment of Arkansas, in the Confederate army. After Lee’s surrender, he was solicited to take charge of the United States Post Hospital, at Little Rock garrison. He accepted and held this position of acting assistant surgeon during the command of Brevet-Maj-Gen. Arnold, captain Light Battery G, Fifth Artillery, and that of Col. C. H. Smith, Twenty-eighth Infantry, a period of five years. His record as physician at this hospital added much to the reputation for sagacity and skill already earned. Very lately he has had charge of the sick at the school for the blind in this city. Dr. Cantrell is sixty-three years of age, enjoying good health, is in comfortable circumstances, and blessed with a wife and seven children, the youngest of whom, a son, has just completed his nineteenth year. His home, built in the old Southern style, with wide hall, verandas front and rear, spacious rooms and windows is seated in the center of four lots, shaded with elms, maples, fruit trees and evergreens of his own planting. It looks like a veritable home, with fine specimen fowls enjoying the lawn, the rearing of which, together with gardening, affords the proprietor a chosen relaxation from the arduous duties of his profession. It has been the scene of merry makings without number for children and youth, and one of the centers of art culture to the literati, so well represented by his accomplished wife and children. The making of this home is a fair exponent of the energy and domestic virtues of the builder, whose only inheritance was sound health, sound discipline and sound principles. Dr. Cantrell became a confirmed member of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1855, and served as a member of the vestry of Christ Church, Episcopal, Little Rock, during the incumbency of Rt. Rev. Henry C. Lay, bishop of Arkansas and rector of Christ Church, Rev. J. T. Wheat and Rev. P. G. Robert, and is now junior warden of the same, Rev. Wallace Carnahan, rector. While the social amenity of his disposition and grace of manner have caused him to be sought by the most polished circles, the earnest simplicity and sympathy of his nature have endeared him to the most humble in rank. Like a full river, bravely bearing its own burdens to the sea, yet dispensing life and refreshment on every side, his course has shown a long succession of private and public services, proving that the prominent desire of his soul has been to be useful. The children of Dr. and Mrs. William A. Cantrell, all born in Little Rock, and to each of whom has been given a classical education, are: Lillian (who finished her course of study at St. Mary’s Hall, Episcopal, Burlington, N. J., married to Joseph Lovell Bay, of St. Louis, Mo.), Ellen May (graduate of Franklin College, Holly Springs, Miss., married to Decatur Axtell, C. E., of Elyria, Ohio), Daisy (first graduate of Arkansas Female College, married to Lucius Junius Polk, of Columbia, Tenn.), Wendell (born October 28, 1860, died October 1, 1861), Isadore (graduate of Arkansas Female College, married to Philo Hiram Goodwyn, of New Orleans, La.), Bessie (graduate of Arkansas Female College, unmarried), Deaderick Harrell (student at Washington and Lee University, Virginia, licensed as an attorney and counselor at law, June 24, 1889), William Armour, Jr. (now student at University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.) They have had eleven grandchildren. Mrs. Ellen Catherine Harrell, the widow of Rev. Samuel Harrell, late of Halifax Court House, Va., whose history would grace the annals of womanhood anywhere, deserves honorable mention here. Four children were born during the brief period of her wedded life, viz.: John Mortimer, Ellen Maria (who died when about three years old), Mary Eliza and Ellen Maria second (who was named for the deceased baby sister). After the death of her husband, who ended his career as preacher and teacher before he reached the meridian of life, Mrs. Harrell nobly determined to exert all her powers to supply his loss, and her affections thereafter seemed to flow in one undeviating channel, that of motherhood. She resolved to quit the scenes made desolate by this calamity and seek a home in Tennessee. Crossing the mighty barriers that intervened, in company with a party of friends, she arrived in safety at the place of her destination in 1839. When the young widow, with her little family of three children, reached Nashville, from the home of Jacob Donelson, in Rutherford County, where they had been entertained for some months, she had one friend, as she thought, with whom she deposited $1,000 at interest, bravely resolving to maintain her children by her own genius and industry. She rented a large brick house that had lately been a church, and opened a school. The venture proved successful, otherwise the family might have lapsed into oblivion, for the “friend,” a respectable citizen and head of a family, betrayed her trust, and the $1,000 was lost, irrevocably. She rallied from the shock, and for four years labored unceasingly, and at length entered upon her reward. There may be some still living in Nashville, who remember a scene at the market place on the public square; when the then handsome brick residence near the northwest corner of Vine and Union Streets, built with a concert hall in the rear, by William Nash, professor of music, was cried at auction to the highest bidder. On the outskirts of the throng of men assembled there for real-estate exchange, was seen the small and trim figure of the widow, attended by her son, a handsome boy of ten, and two little daughters. A veil, half removed, disclosed a magnetic face; a broad, square brow, shaded with brown waves of hair, clear, fair complexion and intense blue eyes, then almost black with restrained emotion, as they were bent on the auctioneer. The bidding went on, rose and languished. A slight flutter of a white handkerchief and the sale was accomplished. The little group retired and entered into the new partnership of a solid home. There was now no obstacle in her path that might not be overcome. Faithful in her church duties as communicant, teacher in Sunday-school and almoner for the poor, she found strength and inspiration to accomplish the object of her life. The children each completed the usual classical course of study, with music and art combined. The son graduated at the University of Nashville, and was one of the class orators at commencement. The daughters took diplomas from the Nashville female academy. The elder daughter, Mary, also took a post graduate course at Patapsco Institute, Maryland, where the learnedly famous Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps presided. During the fearful scourge of cholera in 1848 and 1849 Mrs. Harrell leased her property, and, with her family, took refuge in Little Rock, Ark. She opened a school and finally concluded to remain. She disposed of her property in Nashville afterward, and invested in cotton lands on the Arkansas River and slaves. She died in Little Rock, at the residence of her son-in-law, Dr. W. A. Cantrell, to whom she went for medical attention, under permit of Maj.-Gen. Fred. W. Steele, then in command of the United States troops at this place. Thus was extinguished in forest seclusion, amid the fumes of prejudice, war and barbarism, a light that had burned with steady brilliancy for a quarter of a century, diffusing warmth, light and color to all who came within its range. She was buried, at her own request, by the Rev. E. Steele Peek, Federal, Episcopal chaplain of Maj.-Gen. Steele’s division. In this choice she disclosed the ruling passion of her heart, sympathy for the oppressed, for this clergyman had recommended himself to her by his holy ministrations and dying support to the young “rebel,’’ Owen, who was condemned and executed as a spy at this place, to the undying regret of all. This holy gentleman, offered daily prayers at her dying bedside also, and preached a funeral sermon over her remains. When the news came, a few years later, of his death on the Pacific shore, her bereaved children, with profound emotion, echoed the words selected by him on the occasion of their mother’s burial, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” By way of supplement to the foregoing biographies, a clipping from the Little Rock Republican, of date January 7, 1888, is appended, where, in a series of “Personal Sketches,” written by the Hon. W. Jasper Blackburn, editor, this sketch is given: Mrs. William Cantrell is a lady of scholarly attainments, and from early life was evinced an ambition for literary work. At the age of sixteen, she wrote a series of stories for Godey’s Lady’s Book, then the most popular literary journal in the United States. Since her marriage to Dr. Cantrell she has made various valuable contributions to magazines and newspapers, usually over a nom de plume; but, realizing that all her time and talents were justly due her growing family, she laid aside her pen, and for over twenty years had done little writing, though often tempted to by her natural proclivities. A series of papers entitled “Romance of History,” and a story called “Vesta” are among her most successful productions.

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This family biography is one of 156 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Pulaski County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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