My Genealogy Hound

Hon. John Carroll was born on August 30, 1828, in what is now Claiborne County, Tenn. He is the second in a family of ten children of Hugh and Anna (Shelton) Carroll. The family is of purely Celtic origin. Hugh Carroll’s father came from Ireland to America, and was a hero of the battle of New Orleans in 1815. This branch of the Carroll family is most probably closely connected with the Maryland and Tennessee Carrolls, and so far as is know they generally followed agriculture and the professions. Hugh Carroll was born near Martinsburgh, Va. In Tennessee he engaged in farming and dealt extensively in horses. In 1836 he came west with the Cherokee Indians, and located first at Fort Gibson, I. T., but later settled in Neosho, Mo. In removing the Cherokees he was wagon master of a detachment of Indians. Upon settling at Neosho he engaged in farming, which he very successfully continue until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he joined the confederate service, and was killed in Newton County, Mo., in 1862. His wife was also born in Claiborne County, Tenn., and is now living about nine miles from Neosho, Mo. Hon. John Carroll was reared on the frontier, and received his education by his own personal efforts, mostly among the Cherokee Indians. When his father removed to Missouri he remained in the Indian Territory, and was married in the Cherokee Nation to Susan Ward, a quadroon. She died in 1856 leaving two children: Hugh, who was accidentally killed in 1885, at Vinita, where he resided, and Fincher, who now resides at Huntsville, Ark. While a resident of the Indian Nation Mr. Carroll dealt very extensively and successfully in all kinds of Indian supplies. From there he removed to McDonald County, Mo., and in 1857 was united in marriage with Huldah Holcomb, who was born of French parentage in Newton County, Mo. Seven children have been born to this union: Mary, now the wife of John Cecil, of Chico, Tex.; Dick, deceased; Jeff. D., deceased; Frank, a clerk in the post-office at Eureka Springs, Ark.; Nora, Albert S. J. and Nellie. Upon his removal to McDonald County, Mr. Carroll settled on a large farm, which he cultivated in connection with stock-raising until the Civil War broke out. He raised three companies for the Confederate service, and was made captain of a company in the State service under Price. On reorganization he still commanded a company until 1863, when he received a colonel’s commission, which he retained until the war ended. He passed through the service with many narrow escapes, but without injury. Returning home he settled at Huntsville, Ark., and engaged in general agricultural business and land dealing. He was a member of the first Legislature that convened after the war, and in 1874 was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. As early as 1857 Mr. Carroll’s ability to manage public affairs was recognized. In that year he was appointed sheriff of McDonald County, Mo., and United States Deputy Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas. He continued in business at Huntsville, Ark., until the opening of Eureka Springs in 1879, when he came thither and engaged in the improving and general merchandise business. He was chosen first mayor of the city, and was also chosen by the citizens to represent them in adjusting the land suit between the town site claimants and the agricultural claimants. In 1884 he was admitted to the bar, and practiced law as a member of the firm of Carroll, Glitsch & Vandeventer until he was appointed United States Marshal of the Western District of Arkansas, in October, 1885. He still holds this position, and is widely and favorably known in the Southwest. The Western District of Arkansas includes eighteen counties of Arkansas, besides the five civilized tribes of the Indian Territory, the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees and Seminoles, and does the largest legal business of any district of the United States. During Mr. Carroll’s service as marshal, seventeen deputy marshals have been killed. Politically our subject is a stanch Democrat, as was also his ancestry. He is a Royal Arch Mason.