My Genealogy Hound

James A. Yowell is a member of the mercantile firm of Yowell Bros. & Rector, of Nashville, Ark., and their establishment is very attractive and complete in every particular, and would be conspicuous in larger cities. Mr. Yowell was born in Middle Tennessee in 1856, being the sixth of seven children born to W. R. and Mary S. (Medearis) Yowell, a record of whom is given in the sketch of J. G. W. Yowell. The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools in Tennessee, and at the age of twenty-one, secured the appointment of enrolling clerk in the Supreme Court clerk's office at Nashville, Tenn., but after filling this position very satisfactorily for about one year, he was compelled to resign, on account of failing health, and returned to his father's farm. In 1884 he became traveling agent for the McCormick Harvest Machine Company, and although he succeeded admirably in this calling, he discontinued it at the end of three years, coming in 1887 to Nashville, Ark., to become a partner with his brother in the general mercantile business. He soon after took advantage of an opportunity to introduce improved farm machinery, and in 1888 sold the first self binder in this section of the State, following it up with rapidly increasing sales, and in the spring of 1890 bought the first carload of Sunbeam cultivators ever imported into Southwest Arkansas. This stock sold rapidly, and they soon ordered another carload. The firm does an exclusive cash trade, and in 1889 had a gross business of $25,000. Mr. Yowell was married in 1882 to Miss Julia A. Stone, a native of Tennessee, and to them have been born two children: Joe Edwin and Mary Alice. The family belong to the Christian Church, in which Mr. Yowell is an elder.