My Genealogy Hound

Matthew Jerome Irvin, one of the old settlers of Center Township, Sebastian Co., Ark., residing about one and a half miles west of Greenwood, was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., 1833, and is a son of Charles Ellis and Malinda (Akins) Irvin, who were born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1771, and Kentucky, in 1801, respectively. At about the age of twenty-two years the father immigrated to the United States, locating in the State of Georgia, and afterward went to Lincoln County, Tenn., thence to Jackson, Madison County, where he died in 1844. He was a Methodist minister, and was engaged in preaching the Gospel until about 1820, when he gave up this calling, and spent the remainder of his days retired from the active duties of life. He was twice married, his last wife dying in Sebastian County, Ark., in 1876, having come here in 1857. She was the mother of eleven children, Matthew Jerome being the seventh born. From early boyhood he has been engaged in tilling the soil, and made his home with his mother until he was twenty-two years old, and after his marriage his mother made her home with him. In 1856 he left his native State, and immigrated to Sebastian County, Ark., where he was married in August, 1858, to Miss Mary Ann McCray, a daughter of Alexander and Keziah (Perkins) McCray, who came to Sebastian County in 1850, and were natives, respectively, of Georgia and Alabama. Mrs. Irvin was born in Tallahatchee County, Miss., in 1840. Ten children have blessed their union, only six of whom are living: Martha J. (wife of Robert H. Moore), William H., Lilllie Eudora (wife of Sanford Caudle), John Matthew, Susan Ellen and Frank Tatum. In 1860 Mr. Irvin purchased 120 acres of land in Center Township, and from time to time has since increased his acreage, until he now owns 220 acres of fertile land. He and wife have been members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for the past twenty-five years, and he has been a ruling elder in the same for the past twenty years. In 1862 he enlisted in Company H, Eleventh Regiment Arkansas Infantry, Confederate Army, and served for about one year, though he was a Union man at the commencement of the war. He is a Democrat in politics, and cast his first presidential vote for James Buchanan.