My Genealogy Hound

Rev. G. P. Hanks, pastor of the New Hope Church, of Elm Springs Township, and the Pleasant Valley Church, of Cane Hill Township, was born in Washington County, Ark., in 1836, and is one of eight children born to the marriage of Nathan D. Hanks, who was born in North Carolina in 1811, and Martha B. Baker, who was born in Tennessee in 1816. After their marriage they came to Arkansas, and were among the first settlers of the State, and are at present residing in Cane Hill Township. G. P. Hanks was reared to manhood in Northwest Arkansas, and received his education in the Cane Hill College, in which institution he remained four years. In the fall of 1857 be went to Illinois, and was engaged in pedagoguing until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in Company A, Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, serving until the close of the war. He served as captain one year, and after peace had been proclaimed he began the study of theology, being ordained a minister of the Gospel in 1869. He preached in Illinois for about seventeen years, and in 1885 came to Arkansas, and has been a resident of Washington County ever since. While residing in Illinois (in 1858) he was married to Miss Cynthia C. Carager, who was born in Illinois, and died about one year after her marriage, leaving one child; Thomas W. He married his second wife, Miss Nancy Braden, in 1861, and by her became the father of four children, three of whom are living: Wilbur, Melvin and Virgil. The mother of these children died in 1875, and in 1888 Mrs. Fannie M. Fears became his wife. She was born in Bedford County, Tenn., but was reared in Arkansas. The two first wives were born in Illinois. Mr. Hanks is a stanch Republican in politics.