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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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M. C. Gramling, who is one of the first and most successful farmers and stock raisers of Greene County, Ark., was born in Spartanburg County, S. C., November 29, 1839, and is the eldest in a family of twelve children born to the marriage of Benjamin M. and Mary (Wilson) Gramling, also natives of the “Palmetto State,” who were there engaged in farming until 1858, when they came to Arkansas and settled in Greene County. Here they entered a tract of 160 acres, and began immediately to make improvements, opening about seventy-five acres of land, erecting good buildings and setting out orchards. After living on this tract for about sixteen years the father sold out and purchased 100 acres in Cache Township, which he also greatly improved. He is here living at the present time, and is in his seventy-first year. M. C. Gramling, our subject, has always been familiar with farm labor, and assisted his father until twenty-one years of age, when he became an employee of the Government in draining this section of the State. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he enlisted in Company D, Fifth Arkansas Infantry, and was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee, and was with Gen. Joe Johnston, participating in the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro, Corinth, where he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and Chickamauga. In this engagement, while his company was making a charge, and he was crying to his comrades ‘‘Come on, boys,’’ he was wounded by a bullet striking him in the cheek. He was also at Ringgold, Resaca, where he was wounded in the thigh, and Jonesboro, Ga., where he lost his left arm by the explosion of a shell on the 1st of September, 1864. He remained in the field until the close of the war, then returned to Arkansas, and in 1866 was married to Miss Mary Smith, a native of South Carolina, and a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Otts) Smith, who were also from South Carolina, and emigrated to Arkansas in 1859, settling on 160 acres of land in Greene County. They were very successful, and in time became the owners of 1,100 acres of land. The father died in September, 1878, but the mother is still living. In 1866 Mr. Gramling located at Gainesville, where he started a general store, and in the fall of the same year he was elected assessor of Greene County, for one term of two years. In the spring of this year he was appointed treasurer of the county till the election of a successor, but continued also to manage his store for three years, then moving to St. Francis Township, where he rented land, and made one crop. In 1870 he bought 240 acres of land, and since that time has continued to add to his acreage until he now possesses 560 acres of fertile land. He has made many improvements on his property, and in 1877 erected a handsome residence, and has also built good barns. Two hundred acres of his land are under cultivation, and two acres are in orchard. He gives considerable attention to stock-raising, and has a full-blooded Holstein bull imported from Northern Missouri. In 1872 he was elected to the office of county sheriff, and subsequently was elected county judge, which he held two terms. He has always been active in political and school matters, and is always interested in every enterprise for the welfare of the county. He and wife are the parents of the following children: William M., who died on the 6th of August, 1879, aged eleven years, six months; James M., Alice, Jennie, Joseph F., Earl V., Jesse M., Elbert S., Van W., and Mary, who died in infancy.

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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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