My Genealogy Hound

Dr. E. O. Grigsby, the trusted and tried friend of suffering humanity, the center of a host of friends, is a prominent physician and citizen of this (Woodruff) county, was born in Madison County, Miss., on March 18, 1835, the son of John R. Grigsby, of Scotch descent. His father, John R. Grigsby, was born in Rockbridge County, Va., in 1781, and was reared and educated to farm life. When quite young he immigrated from his native State to Henderson County, Ky., where he married, and after losing this companion he then went to Mississippi, where he was again married to Mrs. Elizabeth Sanders (maiden name Briggs) in 1833. To this marriage three children were born, two boys and a girl: E. O., M. R. and Eliza (deceased). Mr. John R. Grigsby served in the War of 1812, and was called to his final home in 1847. Mrs. Elizabeth Grigsby was born near Natchez, Miss., in 1805, and died in 1841. Dr. Grigsby’s career as a man and physician dates from 1857. He attended lectures at St. Louis Medical College at that time, and graduated from this institution. He first practiced medicine in Madison County, Miss., locating in sight of the county school-house he attended when a boy, and in the neighborhood where he was reared an orphan, and there he remained until the late war between the States, and when Mississippi passed the ordinance secession, his Southern pride bade him go, and he enlisted at once in a company then forming and known as the Madison Rifles, afterward Company I, in the Tenth Mississippi Regiment, where he served twelve months as a private, though frequently detailed as medical assistant for special duties. At the expiration of his twelve months of service as a private, he was commissioned as assistant-surgeon, and assigned to duty with the Tenth Mississippi Regiment, the same in which he had served as a private soldier. In 1864 he was promoted to full surgeon, ordered to report to Gen. Forrest, who assigned him to duty with the Seventh Alabama Cavalry, under the command of Col. Colvin, where he remained until the close of the war, when returning to Mississippi and finding himself unable to live the life of former days, he immigrated to Arkansas, and in 1867 located in De View, where he has been engaged in the successful practice of his profession ever since, with the good-will of a host of friends around him, and always true to his trust and generous to a fault, and not lacking in those qualities which go to make up the courteous and affable gentleman. Dr. Grigsby was married to Mrs. Eliza Brigham in 1868, and by her became the father of two children: Nettie O. and John R. (deceased). Mrs. Grigsby’s maiden name was Norrell, and was born in Tennessee in 1836, and came with her parents to Mississippi when quite small, and from Mississippi to Arkansas in 1851. Her father was married in Alabama, and was the parent of seven children, two of whom are now living: Eliza and Amanda (the wife of Mr. James Crawford, of Walnut Springs, Tex.). Mr. Norrell served in the War of 1812, and was a devout and earnest Christian, belonging to the Baptist Church, and died in 1853, his wife surviving him but eight years and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The only association to which Dr. Grigsby belongs is the Knights of Honor and the society of true honorable men. He is now engaged in the drug and grocery business, in connection with his practice, and has been for the past six years.