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Below is a family biography included in The History of Sebastian 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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Dr. Edgar M. Davenport was born in Lawrence County, S. C., in 1850, and is a son of Dr. Thomas and Louisa (Huller) Davenport, natives of the same State. When Edgar was five years old the family came to Scott County, Ark., and in 1879 to Witcherville, where the mother died in 1880. The father died at Greenwood, August 20, 1887. He graduated from the Transylvania Medical College, of Lexington, Ky., when twenty-six years of age, and also possessed a good literary education. He made medicine his life-long occupation, and for a short time during the war served as surgeon in the Confederate army. Both parents were of English descent. Dr. Edgar Davenport is the eldest of a family of seven children, and his early education was received at Cane Hill College. He began the study of medicine with his father, and in 1875 graduated from the Louisville Medical College after a two years’ course, in a class of over 300, and about seventy graduates out of this number who passed their examination in all the branches of medicine. He then returned home, and on June 15, 1875, married Mollie, daughter of David and Pauline Moore, of Cane Hill. Mrs. Davenport was born in Washington County, and is the mother of two living children, Alberta and Marvin. The Doctor located at Waldron soon after this, where he had a very large practice, extending over an area of twenty-five miles, notwithstanding there were a dozen or more old physicians in the town and county. Since that time he has practiced at Mansfield and Witcherville, coming to the latter place in 1878, and is the oldest practicing physician in Witcherville, where he owns a good house and two business houses, a two-story stone building and a one-story brick. The great-grandfather of our subject was a descendant of the English Davenports, and belonged to one of the best families of Virginia. He afterward removed to Lawrence County, S. C., where Birket, the grandfather of our subject, was reared, and died in the vigor of manhood, leaving a widow and four children. Thomas, the father of Dr. Edgar Davenport, began the study of medicine when twenty, and became a well-to-do and successful physician. Dr. Edgar Davenport is a member of the Knights of Honor, a member also of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the principal officers at this time. He is also a trustee of the Episcopal College, known better as Buckner College. He has entire control of the institution, although he is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

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This family biography is one of 217 biographies included in The History of Sebastian County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Sebastian County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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

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