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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Howard 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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W. R. Hughes has long been well and favorably known to the residents of Howard County, Ark., and is deservedly held in high esteem, for he is public spirited, enterprising and industrious. He is a native born resident of this region, his birth having occurred in what is now Howard (then Sevier) County in September, 1843, he being the second of five children born to John H. and Margaret A. (Sample) Hughes, who were born in Tennessee and Indiana, respectively. The father was a farmer in his native State, went to Texas in 1841, and the following year came to Arkansas and settled near Centre Point. In 1859 he moved to Clark County, and from there enlisted, in 1861, in the Confederate army, but was soon honorably discharged and returned with his family to Centre Point. In the fall of 1863 be went to Port Hudson to visit his son, John A., who was then encamped there with his company, and there the father died in November of that year. His widow survived him until 1874, when she too passed away. The subject of this sketch spent his youth on the farm at Centre Point, but in addition to following the plow, acquired a fair education in the common schools near his home. In 1863 he enlisted in Company G, that had been raised in 1861, belonging to the Nineteenth Regiment, but at the fall of Arkansas Post he was home on furlough. He then took part in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, and was in the Trans-Mississippi Department until the final surrender. He then returned to Howard County, resumed farming, and in 1868 began business at Centre Point, opening a harness and boot and shoe store. His stock of harness valued at about $1,000 was stolen by Clayton's militia in November, 1868, and upon Mr. Hughes protesting against such highway robbery he and several other men were arrested for treason, and during a week which he was compelled to spend in jail at Centre Point, his establishment was deliberately pillaged. Upon his release he found his store completely gutted and his business ruined. He then began clerking for H. W. Anderson & Co., and in the meantime saved enough of his salary to reopen a saddlery establishment in 1872, and after a year added a stock of general merchandise. He continued there until the fall of 1887, then removed his business to Antimony City for one year, and in the fall of 1889 came to Nashville, where he is now engaged with the Rector Hardware Company. He has always been active in politics, and in 1878 was elected on the Democratic ticket to the position of county judge, and was re-elected in 1880. He made many improvements in the way of buildings, and erected a fire-proof vault for the protection of the county records. At the time of his installation in office county scrip was worth only 15 cents on the dollar, but by the time he had been four years in office it had advanced to 75 cents. He has been married twice; first, in August, 1871, to Miss Carrie Custer, a daughter of Dr. J. Custer, an old pioneer of Centre Point, and upon her death, in 1881, she left a family of seven children: Lulu B., John Custer, William Augustus, Henry J., Emma A., Charley, and Thomas (who died in infancy). In 1885 Mrs. Fannie (Levi) Hughes became his wife, and by her he has one son: Robert Levi. Mr. Hughes is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Silver Hill Lodge, and is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 116 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Howard County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Howard County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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