My Genealogy Hound

Francis H. Conway, county surveyor of Pulaski County, Ark. A number of years passed in a sincere and earnest endeavor to thoroughly discharge every duty incumbent upon the official positions Mr. Conway has filled, have served to show that he has established the reputation of being an accurate business man. He was born in St. Louis, Mo., on May 17, 1848, and was the youngest son of Frederick Rector Conway, and his wife, Martha L. Conway, a native of Orange County, Va., and a daughter of James and Lucy (Burton) Collins. Frederick Rector Conway and Martha L. Collins were married on May 18, 1836, in Howard County, Mo., and had in all six children, all natives of St. Louis, Mo. The eldest, James Rector Conway, was born on April 7, 1837, and died on September 14, 1837. The next was Lucy Ann Conway, born on December 15, 1838; Thomas Frederick Conway was born on July 29, 1841; Andrew May Conway, October 8, 1842; Mary Elizabeth Conway, born October 13, 1845, and died January 4, 1848. The mother, Martha L. Conway, died on June 1, 1849, and was buried in lot No. 329, in block No. 93, in Bellefontaine cemetery, near St. Louis, Mo., where her two children who had died were buried; and there her brother, May B. Collins, was afterward interred. Francis H. Conway, the youngest child mentioned, was placed by his father with his brother-in-law, William Shields and his wife, Eliza Shields, in Boone County, Mo., who took care of him six or seven years until his father moved from St. Louis to Boone County, and settled near Columbia. In the year 1859 Frederick Rector Conway was married to Mrs. Ellen A Jarvis, a daughter of Richard Chinn, of Kentucky, and the widow of Dr. Jarvis (deceased). By this marriage two sons were born. The elder, James Langridge Conway, born January 31, 1861, is a printer in Kansas City, Mo., and the younger, Elias Cabell Conway, born about two years subsequent, is engaged in mining near Silver City, N. M. At Silver City, N. M., Thomas Frederick Conway, a lawyer, resides, and his sister, Lucy Ann Conway, lives with him. Andrew May Conway makes his home in Ashley, Pike County, Mo., and is a physician. Francis H. Conway lives in Little Rock, Ark. None of the children of Frederick Rector Conway have married, except Dr. Andrew May Conway. Thomas Conway, the father of Frederick Rector Conway, moved with his family from Tennessee (where he had settled after he was married) to Missouri, and resided for some time in St. Louis, afterward going to Howard County, Mo., and settling and making a plantation three miles east of Glasgow, and ten miles west of Fayette, the county seat of Howard County, where he lived until his death. Frederick Rector Conway, remained in St. Louis, and after the lapse of years was made United States recorder of French and Spanish land claims in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, and was one of the board of three commissioners (the other two being Dr. Lewis F. Lynn and A. J. Harrison) for adjudicating French and Spanish land claims in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, and he was also afterward United States surveyor general of the district composed of the States of Missouri and Illinois, which was the last public office held by him. He died on December 16, 1874, and was buried in the cemetery at Columbia, Boone County, Mo., in the same lot where the remains of his father, Thomas Conway, and his brother, Thomas Asbury Conway (who was the sixth son, and who had been a merchant and died about the age of twenty-four years) now rest. His mother, after she became a widow, went and lived with her youngest son, Elias N. Conway, at his home in Little Rock, Ark., until her death, and was there buried in Mount Holly cemetery; there in the same lot is also buried her fifth son, William Conway, who had been judge of the circuit court, and also a judge of the supreme court of the State of Arkansas. Frederick Rector Conway had in all six brothers and three sisters. His oldest brother, Henry Wharton Conway, was a lieutenant in the war with England, in 1814 and 1815, under Gen. Jackson, until detailed to aid Com. Laurence, in battle at Mobile Bay, which resulted in the capture of the British fleet there. After the war was over, Henry Wharton Conway was retained in the regular army of the United States, until he resigned. After the United States land office was established at Little Rock, for the district of Arkansas, he was appointed the first receiver of public moneys of the United States, for said district, and not long after, he was elected delegate in congress, for the Territory of Arkansas, and was subsequently twice re-elected to that position. After his third election, he received a wound in a duel, from which he died on the ninth day, and was buried at the Post of Arkansas [See page 109]. Henry Wharton Conway was the oldest child of Thomas and Ann Conway, and next came their daughter Eliza, who married William Shields, a native of Maryland, for many years county surveyor of Boone County, Mo., and an accurate and efficient business man of the strictest integrity; he and wife, Eliza, having died, were buried in the cemetery at Columbia, leaving two of their children surviving: Mrs. Sarah Maria Pratt (of Columbia, Boone County, Mo., now the widow of the late George C. Pratt, who had been a professor in the State University of Missouri, and afterward a civil engineer on various railroads, and subsequently secretary for the board of railroad commissioners of Missouri, and after that, before his death, was elected and served for many years as one of the railroad commissioners), James Rector Shields (the surviving son of William and Eliza Shields, is a lawyer, now of Wichita, Kas.). James Severe Conway, the second son of Thomas and Ann Conway, was the first United States surveyor general of public lands, for the district of Arkansas, and afterward the first Governor of the State of Arkansas, and he died at his residence, at Walnut Hill, La Fayette County, Ark., on March 3, 1855, and was there buried; his widow subsequently died, and was also buried there. Next came Frederick Rector Conway, the fourth child, and third son mentioned, and following him was John Rector Conway, the fourth son, who was a physician of high standing, and died and was buried in San Francisco, Cal. Then came William Conway, before mentioned, and afterward Sarah Hundley Conway, whose first husband was Joseph M. Sheppard, who was a merchant, and later, until his death, a surveyor of public lands of the United States, and is buried in Mount Holly cemetery, at Little Rock, Ark., leaving surviving him his widow and three children: Thomas. C. Sheppard (who was a first lieutenant in the Confederate Army, during the late Civil War, and was killed in battle, near Atlanta, Ga.), and his younger brother, William A. Sheppard (who was a soldier in a regiment of Confederate troops of Texas, died while in service at Pine Bluff, Ark., and was buried there). His daughter, Ann Elizabeth Sheppard, first married Thomas Cryar, a cotton planter on Big Red River, Ark., and some years after his death, she married Dr. Bronson, of Columbus, Hempstead County, Ark., and afterward they moved and settled, and they now live, near Los Angeles, Cal., where Dr. Bronson is a practicing physician. Next came Thomas Asbury Conway, before mentioned. All of the relatives of Francis H. Conway, herein referred to, are dead. Elias Nelson Conway, the seventh son, was auditor of public accounts of the State of Arkansas twelve years, and afterward Governor of the State of Arkansas for eight years, and went out of office November 14, I860, since which time he has declined to hold any office, and is still living in Little Rock, Ark. MaryAnn Conway married William Pelham, who was United States surveyor general for the district of Arkansas, and after the acquisition of New Mexico and the adjoining country to the Pacific Coast was appointed surveyor general of the public lands of the United States for the district established, with the office at Santa Fe, N. M., and held the office until he resigned, and returned to his home, near Manchack Springs, Tex., where he died, leaving his widow and one child: Mrs. Teneyck (who is also a widow), surviving him, and they are both still living. Thus all of the ten children of Thomas and Ann Conway, the grandfather and grandmother of Francis H. Conway, are mentioned. Thomas and Ann Conway were natives of the State of Virginia, and their children were all natives of Greene County, Tenn.