My Genealogy Hound

J. A. Sursa was born in Madison County, Ill., in 1840. He was the eldest in the family of seven children born to William and Elizabeth (Steward) Sursa, natives of Tennessee. William Sursa, who was a farmer and millwright, moved from Tennessee to Madison County, Ill., in 1832, locating on a farm, upon which he remained until 1847; he then moved to Jefferson County, purchasing a farm near Mount Vernon, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1865. Mrs. Elizabeth Sursa still resides in Mount Vernon, Ill. Of their children besides our subject, George is married, and is a farmer in Missouri, and Sarah, now Mrs. Staley, lives near Mount Vernon, Ill. J. A. Sursa was brought up on a farm, receiving his education in his native county. In 1876 he removed to Jackson County, Ark., first locating near Elgin, where he worked as a farm laborer. He then engaged in farming for himself, in Lawrence County, Ark., purchasing in 1880 a tract of timber of 120 acres, which he commenced clearing and improving; he erected a good log house, and now has all except forty acres fenced, with sixty acres under cultivation. Mr. Sursa was married, in Greene County in 1881, to Elizabeth Can, who was born in Tennessee and reared in Kentucky, a daughter of John and Margaret Can, the former of whom died in Kentucky; the mother removed to Greene County in 1880, and later to Jackson County, where she died in 1882. Mr. Sursa has a good home in Glass Township, and devotes his entire attention to farming and stock-raising; he is interested in every enterprise for the advancement of the county, and is a public-spirited man.