My Genealogy Hound

R. H. McConnell was born March 6, 1815, in Blount County, Tenn. His father, Samuel McConnell, was of Scotch descent, and was born in Pennsylvania. Early in life he went to Tennessee, where he grew up on a farm. He served throughout the entire War of 1812, and in 1820 immigrated to McMinn County. In 1840 that county was divided, and the part he resided in was named Polk County. He died there in 1849. The mother, Mary (McGill) McConnell, was born in Tennessee, and reared on Duck River. She bore seven children, named as follows: Peggy A., Susan, Eliza J., Marella, Elizabeth, Robert H. and Isabella (deceased). The paternal grandfather of our subject was a soldier in the Revolution, and a native of Pennsylvania, as was also his wife. R. H. McConnell grew to manhood upon his father’s farm in Tennessee, and received a good common-school education. In 1842 he married Minerva Hawkins, also a native of Tennessee, who died in 1864, and was the mother of eight children: James H., Samuel K., Mary J., Robert H., Jane A., Mary E., William O. and John (deceased). In 1866 Mr. McConnell married Martha Pitts, a native of Madison County, Miss., and daughter of Samuel and Mary (Frazier) Dufful, natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively. This union has been blessed with but one child, Alma E., who is deceased. While in Tennessee Mr. McConnell served twelve years as justice of the peace, and for four years was president of the county court. During the war he served a short time in the Confederate army, and at the battle of Pea Ridge he supported a battery. In 1853 he came to Sebastian County, which he represented in the Legislature in the years 1856, 1858, 1874, 1878 and 1883. In 1885 he was elected State senator from the Twenty-eighth Senatorial District, which term of office has just expired. He is one of the influential and highly respected citizens of the county, and himself and wife belong to the Missionary Baptist Church. He has been a Mason over thirty-two years, and is a member of the “Alliance.” In politics he is a Democrat.