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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of St. Francis County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  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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M. W. Izard & Co. are the owners and operators of the largest saw and grist mills and cotton-gin in St. Francis County, located near Colt Station. The firm is composed of M. W. Izard and John N. Cotton, both representative, active young business men, and thoroughly worthy of the position to which they have attained. Mr. Izard was born in Fayette County, Tenn., on March 3, 1855, being a son of F. J. and Sarah E. (Whittaker) Izard. Reared in this county, he attended public and private schools and received a good education, and at the age of seventeen was employed as a clerk, which occupation received his attention for about ten years. Subsequently he went into business for himself as a butcher, and two years afterward entered in the saw-mill business, later forming a partnership with his father-in-law, John N. Cotton, in the grist-mill and cotton-gin business. He also owns a large farm of 190 acres of land, with sixty-five acres under cultivation, having good improvements, a small orchard, etc. Mr. Izard was married June 12, 1879, to Miss Emma Cotton, daughter of J. N. Cotton, his partner in business. They are the parents of two boys: John and Mark W. Mr. Izard is an outspoken Democrat, and he and wife are members of the K. & L. of H. John N. Cotton owes his nativity to Western Tennessee, where his birth occurred March 2, 1834. His parents, John and Easter (Nelson) Cotton, were natives of Virginia and of English descent, their ancestors coming to this country in colonial days and taking part in the great struggle for liberty. Mr. and Mrs. Cotton moved from Virginia to Kentucky, and in 1834 to Arkansas, settling on a farm in this county, where they both died within two years after their arrival. John N. worked on a farm, and attended school three months during the first seventeen years of his life, improving his spare moments and finding opportunity to prosecute his studies for a few terms after reaching that age. Thus he acquired a good common-school education. He was then engaged in clerking in a grocery at Taylor’s Creek, now Colt, until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in the Twenty-third Arkansas Infantry and served as first lieutenant until the close of hostilities. After peace was restored he embarked in the general mercantile business in Forrest City, followed it for ten or twelve years, and then entered into the tie and timber business in company with his son-in-law, M. W. Izard. Mr. Cotton was married on June 20, 1861, to Miss Taylor, who died in 1865, leaving one daughter, Emma, the wife of Mr. Izard. He was married the second time, September 2, 1867, to Mrs. Gullett. They are the parents of three children: Edna, Guy and Willie. Mr. Cotton has held several important offices since living in Forrest City, among them chief magistrate of the city, and deputy sheriff of the county. His family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. fraternities and of the County Wheel, belonging, too, to the K. & L. of H. He is also a thorough Knight of Labor.

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This family biography is one of 87 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of St. Francis County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: St. Francis County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional St. Francis County, Arkansas family biographies here: St. Francis County, Arkansas Biographies

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