My Genealogy Hound

O. P. Stroud is a prominent farmer and stock man of Izard County, Ark., and is one of the old settlers of Guthrie Township, having come here in 1851, and has been residing in the house in which he now lives since 1857. He was born in Tennessee, August 10, 1820, and was reared on his father’s farm, receiving a common school education, and at the time of his location in this State the country was almost a wilderness, and wild game was quite abundant. Mr. Stroud was fond of hunting, and on one of his hunts killed six deer in one day, this being in 1856, when the snow was very deep. At one time he took fifty-three deer hams to Mount Olive, to market, receiving for them $53. The woods abounded with wild turkeys, and Mr. Stroud says they were easier killed than the common domestic fowl of today. Although he did not take an active part in the Civil War he served in the commissary department for two years. He lost heavily during the war, principally in personal property, however, but owned 800 acres of good land. He now has 400 acres, with about 140 acres under cultivation, furnished with good buildings and otherwise well improved. He was married in 1844 to Miss Martha Jourdan, of Mississippi, and to them have been born a family of fourteen children, eleven of whom are living: John A., William L., George R., Martha E. (wife of W. Pierson), James M., Lawson R., O. H, Mary F., Richard A., Robert H. and Taylor M. Mrs. Stroud is a daughter of John and Edith (Alexander) Jourdan, who were born in the State of North Carolina, and became the parents of nine children. Both parents died in Texas in 1856. Mr. and Mrs. Stroud are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a Democrat in his political views. His parents, Thomas and Lucy (Jarvis) Stroud, were of German descent, and were born in the “Old North State.” At an early day Thomas removed with his father to Tennessee, and was there reared to manhood on a farm. He served in the War of 1812, under Jackson, and was in the battle of New Orleans, his father also being in service in that war. Gen. Jackson was an intimate friend of the Strouds, and made their house his home a great portion of the time, and lived with them during the period he was making the race for the presidency. Thomas Stroud became a wealthy man, and to his marriage, which occurred in 1813, a family of fourteen children were born, ten of whom are now alive: Sarah, wife of William McSpade; A. L., O. P., Elizabeth, widow of John McAfee, Thomas J., Resi, Marcus L., Fannie, widow of William Sapp; Hettie and Minerva, wife of Robert Henderson. In 1872 Thomas Stroud died on the same place he settled when he first came to Tennessee. His father’s death occurred in 1840, at the age of seventy-four years. The maternal grandfather was in the Revolutionary War, being severely wounded in one of the battles. He settled in Tennessee, also, and there died.