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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Greene County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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James F. Newberry, a prominent and highly respected farmer of Greene County, was born in Alabama in 1844, and is the son of John Newberry, who came to this State in 1854. Here he engaged in farming and was for two years justice of the peace. At the breaking out of the Civil War he entered the Confederate service under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and was killed in 1862. He reared a family of six children, five sons and one daughter. James F. Newberry was in the Confederate service during the entire war, and was wounded in the left leg. In 1864 he returned to his farm in Greene County, and devoted himself to its improvement. He then owned 100 acres, which he has since increased to 425. A part of his farm is under cultivation, and he is also interested in raising cattle and fine mules. He married Mary Morgan, who bore him six children and died in 1880, aged thirty years. He chose as his second wife Mrs. Charity (Dennis) Ross, and to their union have been given four children. The nine children are: Robert E,, born in 1865; Martha C, born in 1867, died in 1880; Sarah F., born in 1870; John E., born in 1872; Isabella, born in 1874; Laura E., born in 1881; James J., born in 1883, died in 1884; Jennie B., born in 1885, and Myrtle G., born in 1887, died in 1889. Mr. Newberry is a stanch Democrat in politics, and he and his wife are popular in the community in which they live. W. C. Newberry is in every way worthy of being classed among the prosperous planters of Greene County, Ark. He was born in Weakley County, West Tenn., in 1852, and was the sixth of eleven children born to Samuel and Nancy (Trantham) Newberry, the former a native of North Carolina, and the latter of Tennessee. In 1854 they moved to Greene County, Ark., and settled near the farm on which W. C. Newberry is now residing, where they entered land and resided until their respective deaths, the father’s demise occurring in February, 1874, and the mother’s in 1883. They took quite an important part in the early history of the country, and the father assisted in organizing the county.

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This family biography is one of 120 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Greene County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Greene County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Greene County, Arkansas family biographies here: Greene County, Arkansas Biographies

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