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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Columbia 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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J. M. Bolger, M. D., is a farmer of Magnolia Township, and was born in Georgia, in 1854, being the second of five children born to J. M. and Lucy (Garrard) Bolger, also Georgians, who came to Arkansas in 1857, entered land in Columbia County, on which they resided until 1888, when they moved to the village of Waldo, and engaged in the grocery and confectionery business. Mr. Bolger served as justice of the peace for some time, and during the latter part of the war, served in the Confederate army. Of the five children born to himself and wife, J. H. is the eldest, then comes Dr. J. M., Francenia (is the wife of Ed Farrar, of this county), Alexzenia (is the wife of Tom Pullig, of Waldo), and Lena (is the wife of T. Mauldin, a farmer of this county). Dr. Bolger obtained his education by self-application and a short attendance at the common schools near his home, and after devoting his energies to the cultivation of the rich lands of this county until he was twenty-eight years of age, he entered a medical college of Louisville, and graduated from the same in the spring of 1886, coming home the same year, and settling where he now resides. He has a very extensive practice, and the territory over which his practice extends is very large indeed, in fact, is larger than that of any other physician in the county, a fact that speaks louder than words can do as to his skill and ability. His marriage, which occurred in 1878, was to Miss Kate Murphy, of Claiborne Parish, La., she being a daughter of A. F. and Dora (Moody) Murphy, natives of North Carolina, who came to Louisiana in 1859, there rearing their family of five children: John (still residing there), Mary (wife of Lem Dawson, of Louisiana), Ellen (now Mrs. Hendricks, of Nevada County, Ark.), Kate (wife of Dr. Bolger), and Lizzie. Mr. Murphy had previously been married, and by his first wife had two children: Charles (who was killed while serving in the Confederate army during the late war) and Sarah (the widow of Richard Cleaver). Dr. and Mrs. Bolger have a family of five children: Estelle, Charley, John, Alma and Perry, and he is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, while she belongs to the Old School Presbyterian Church. On starting out in life for himself, the Doctor had to commence at the bottom round of the ladder, but he is now a successful farmer and physician, and is the owner of an excellent and finely improved farm of seventy-two acres.

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This family biography is one of 106 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Columbia County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Columbia County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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