My Genealogy Hound

Judge Samuel R. Cobb, farmer and county judge of Grant County, Ark., was born in Floyd County, Ga., November 3, 1844, and is the son of W. D. Cobb, a native of South Carolina. W. D. Cobb moved to Georgia with his father, Roland Cobb, when he was a young man, and settled in Floyd County, accumulating large plantations. He remained there and in other counties of that State up to the year 1856 or 1857, when they left Georgia, W. D. Cobb, the father of young Samuel, going to Arkansas, and Roland Cobb going to Texas, where he died. In the year 1857 W. D. Cobb died and his estimable wife, whose maiden name was Martha H. Henslee, only survived him a few months, thus leaving their family of eight children orphans when very young. Samuel was the eldest of the children, he being about fourteen years old at the time of his parents’ death. He was reared and educated by an uncle in Saline County, Ark., and remained with him until the breaking out of the late war, when his young blood was fired with an ambition to fight for his country, and he gave up the implements of peace and took up those of war. He enlisted in the Eleventh Arkansas Infantry, July 1, 1861, and remained in the Confederate service until the close of hostilities, being captured at Island No. 10, with his command, and held at Chicago as a prisoner of war until September, 1862, when he was exchanged at Vicksburg. He re-enlisted at Jackson, Miss., and after the reorganization of his regiment he was promoted as orderly to Col. Griffith’s regiment, in which capacity he served until the final surrender in April, 1865. Not only did he witness, but participated in twenty-seven regular engagements, besides numerous skirmishes, a few of which are New Madrid (Mo.), Clinton (La.), Keller’s Lane, Prichard’s Cross Roads, and among the twenty-seven days’ fight of Sherman’s raid, during which time he did not have his shoes off, or a chance to indulge in one square meal. Notwithstanding that he was right in the thick of these battles, he was not once seriously injured. After the final surrender Mr. Cobb returned to Saline County, where he attended school for some months, being desirous of improving every opportunity that presented itself. The year 1867 witnessed his marriage to Miss Paralee Poe, a native of Alabama, and daughter of Judge Poe, who moved to Arkansas when his daughter was quite young, she receiving her education in Saline County. In 1869 Mr. Cobb bought a place and farmed for two years, but the year following he disposed of that, and after a short time bought the farm where he now resides, which was at that time an unbroken wilderness. The Judge has added to his property from time to time until he now owns 310 acres in an excellent state of cultivation. A good, neat and comfortable dwelling, fair and substantial stables and barn, good orchards, meadows, etc., all indicate that slackness in business is something unheard of in his home. He is a man of wide experience and broad views, and his keen and quick decisions, which are never far from right, insure for him the confidence of all who know him. Mr. and Mrs. Cobb are the parents of five children living: William Lee (now attending college at Arkadelphia), James A., Louisa E., Essie May and Cora. Franklin Conway died at the age of sixteen, in July, 1889. They are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Cobb is a Master Mason. It would be difficult to find a more hospitable home than that of Mr. Cobb’s, in which love and good fellowship reign supreme.