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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Hempstead 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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William G. Scoggin was brought up to a farmer’s life by his father, James W. Scoggin, and like the majority of boys has followed in his ancestor’s footsteps, and is now one of the prominent farmers and stockmen of Hempstead County. He is a native of Tennessee, his birth occurring in White County in 1829, but his education, a common-school one, was obtained in Missouri and Arkansas. His marriage occurred in the last-named place in 1850, his wife being Priscilla, a daughter of Samuel Leslie, a sketch of whom appears in another part of this work. Mrs. Scoggin was born on the farm on which Mr. Scoggin is now living, and there she was called from the scene of her earthly labors in 1874, having borne two children, James S. being the only one now living. Mr. Scoggin’s second marriage took place in 1875, to Leona, a, daughter of Jesse and Virginia Bryant, Tennesseans, who came to Hempstead County in 1859, the former dying at the age of sixty-four years, and the latter in July, 1889. Mr. Bryant was a soldier in the Confederate army throughout the war, was a farmer by occupation, and he and wife were members of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Scoggin was born in Tennessee, and has borne her husband seven children—three sons and four daughters. Since his first marriage Mr. Scoggin has lived on his present farm of 200 acres. Besides this he has 120 acres in Howard County, 225 acres in Pike County, besides owning an interest in the general mercantile establishment of Black & Scoggin, of Nashville. He has been a Democrat all his life, Pierce receiving his first presidential vote in 1852, and he is a member of the A. F. & A. M., Pleasant Valley Lodge No. 30, of which he has been senior warden. He has been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church for thirty years, but his present wife is, as was his first wife, a Methodist. In 1862 Mr. Scoggin joined Company I, Nineteenth Arkansas Infantry, but on January 11, 1863, he was captured at Arkansas Post, and was imprisoned at Camp Douglas, Ill., for over two months, after which he made his escape and came home. In the fall of 1863 he joined a home militia company of cavalry, subsequently operating in Arkansas until the close of the war. His parents, James W. and Sarah G. (Greene) Scoggin, were born in Virginia and Kentucky, in 1805 and 1806, respectively, and went with their parents to White County, Tenn., where they were afterward married. When the subject of this sketch was a year old they removed to Cooper County, Mo., and in 1846 to Hempstead County, Ark., settling on the farm where William G. now lives, where they spent the rest of their days, the former dying in 1864 and the latter in 1872, worthy Christians. The former was justice of the peace while in Missouri, and was a farmer and stockman. His father, Rev. John Scoggin, was born in Virginia, but came from Tennessee to Hempstead County, Ark., some time after his son James, did. He was of German descent, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and died at the age of eighty-six years. The grandfather, Rev. John Greene, was probably a Virginian, but died a farmer and a Baptist minister in White County, Tenn. He was also a soldier in the Revolutionary War.

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This family biography is one of 131 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Hempstead County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Hempstead County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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