My Genealogy Hound

David A. McCollough, the subject of this sketch, was born in Columbia County, Ark., in a little village called Liddesdale, just preceding the Civil War. He was the sixth child of Thomas D. and S. L. (Curry) McCollough, natives of South Carolina and Georgia, respectively, who emigrated to Arkansas in the year 1857. Thomas D. McCollough was engaged in the mercantile business at Liddesdale before the war, an occupation to which he afterward devoted himself. He was also quite an extensive farmer. Though at heart a Union man, when his adopted State seceded he linked his fortunes with the Confederacy, and went out early to battle for its cause. When the war was over he was considerably crippled financially, as he was rather a large slave-owner, which property he lost as a result of civil strife. November 11, 1873, at the age of forty-nine years, he died. He was a Royal Arch Mason, and took much interest in that order. No man in Columbia County was more greatly esteemed for his honesty, generosity and high moral character than he. He was also a strict and consistent member of the Baptist Church. On account of his willingness to do such an extensive credit business, his failure to collect forced him to discontinue mercantile trade a short while previous to his death. At the time of the death of his father, David was thirteen years of age. Thinking Arkansas not large enough for him at that age, he went to Texas and secured a position in his uncle’s store at Craigleville, Van Zandt County. After one year he returned to Arkansas and attended school the next two years, following which he taught school, attended store and farmed one year. Subsequently, he and his brother, John L. McCollough, founded the little town of Longstreet, where they were engaged in the mercantile business. Leaving there David went to Texas, and with a partner was engaged in the grocery business and tie-contracting. Happening to be unfortunate in that transaction, on account of fire, he again returned to Arkansas, and with his elder brother, J. C. McCollough, carried on the business of a retail grocer in Magnolia. During this time he was also a law student under Col. J. M. Kelso. Closing out in that town, he traveled one year throughout Texas and the northwest territories, finally settling in Sherman, Tex., where he conducted a large broom-manufacturing business. Selling out in Texas, he took the contract to carry the mail on the Princeton and Malvern route. One year later he purchased the Malvern Weekly News, which he changed to the Arkansas State Journal, January 26, 1888, and which he is still running. Mr. McCollough was elected justice of the peace at the general election, September 4, 1888. He is still having the mail carried, is farming, and is thinking of going into the real estate business on an extensive scale. His enterprise is recognized wherever he is known, and certainly no one deserves success more than he.