My Genealogy Hound

W. J. Miles. The mercantile affairs of Hempstead County, Ark., are ably represented among others by the subject of this sketch, and his fame as a business man is co-extensive with the growth of the county and surrounding country. His business was established in 1888, and the average value of his stock is $8,000, his sales amounting to about $25,000. Mr. Miles was born in El Dorado, Ark., in 1860, his parents, B. F. and Sarah A. (Tatum) Miles, having been born in Autauga County, Ala. After reaching mature years, they were married there, but later removed to Louisiana, thence to Union County, Ark., and during the war, took up their abode in Russ County, Tex., where Mr. Miles died in 1864, and his widow in 1865, both worthy members of the Methodist Church, the former a general merchant and broker by occupation. He was a son of Abraham Miles, and his wife a daughter of Organ Tatum, who died in Alabama. W. J. Miles was the seventh son of a family of seven sons and two daughters born to his parents, and in 1880 he graduated from a high school in Arizona, La. For a short time he was engaged in farm labor, but he afterward turned his attention to clerking, and later opened a store of his own in El Dorado, in partnership with a Mr. Reeves, the firm being known as Reeves & Miles until 1888, when Mr. Miles came to Washington, and is now one of the leading merchants of the county. In February, 1886, he was married to Miss Mary Carrigan, who was born in Union County, Ark., but he was called upon to mourn her death December 27, 1887, she having borne him one son. She was an earnest member of the Presbyterian Church, and was a daughter of Dr. A. N. and Mary J. Carrigan, born in North Carolina and Alabama, respectively, their marriage taking place in Union County, of the latter State. In 1870 they came to Washington County, and here the Doctor died December 4, 1887, having been a successful physician and a surgeon in the Confederate army. His widow survives him.