My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin E. Harville was born in the State of Alabama July 13, 1838, his father, William Harville, being a native of Georgia, a farmer by occupation, and a participant in the Creek and Seminole Wars. He died in Dallas County, Ark., in 1855, having come to this county with his family in 1848, purchasing land to the amount of 300 acres, on which place he died. Benjamin F. Harville started out for himself four years after his father’s death, and although his early advantages for acquiring an education were not good, he had a thorough knowledge of farming, and was naturally intelligent and quick to grasp at new ideas. He began speculating in land with a brother in Prairie County, Ark., and out of this enterprise made a fine fortune, taking up over 5,000 acres of land, but lost it all during the war. He was married, in the spring of 1858, to Miss Fannie White, of South Carolina, but her death occurred three months after their marriage, in July, 1858. In 1861 Mr. Harville joined Company G, Fifth Arkansas Infantry, and the first important battle in which he took part was the bloody combat of Shiloh, but at a later period he was in the engagements at Corinth, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Liberty Gap, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Crab Orchard, Peach Tree Creek, Perryville, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. He was captured at Jonesboro, was sent to Louisville, Ky., and was there at the time of the surrender, receiving his parole there. He then went to a point on the Mississippi River, just above Memphis, where he dealt in wood for about a year, selling to the steamboats that plied up and down the river for $1 to $1.50 per cord. From there he came to Ashley County, Ark., and was here united in marriage to Miss Mary Thacker, a Virginian and a daughter of Milton Thacker, who died in December, 1861. Mr. Harville, upon coming to this county, purchased 640 acres of creek bottom land, and now has 100 acres under cultivation, upon which he raises 1,000 pounds of cotton to the acre. From the time of his settlement here he has applied himself steadfastly to agricultural pursuits, and with what success may be inferred when the fact is mentioned that he has one of the best improved farms in the county. He is a Democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, his wife also becoming a member of this church about 1880.