My Genealogy Hound

W. S. Shuford, treasurer of Jackson County, born in North Carolina, November 29, 1821, in Lincoln County, was a great-grandson of Jacob Shuford, one of the earliest settlers of that section; at his death, in 1844, there were present seventy-five grandchildren, twenty-four great-grandchildren and several great-great-grandchildren. Jacob was born about 1764, in Lincoln County, was a farmer, and conducted a large plantation, owning several. He was several times elected sheriff. Our subject’s parents were Abel H. and Adeline (Perkins) Shuford, natives of North Carolina, their parents, who were of Dutch and English descent, coming from Pennsylvania and Virginia, respectively: Abel H. was the fourth of eleven children: Betsey (Smyer), Eva (Ramsaeur), Fanny (Cansler), Susan (Reinhardt), John J. (merchant and farmer), Martin (member of the legislature), Abel Eli (farmer), Elkanah (farmer), Jacob (farmer), and Andrew (farmer, representative and Baptist minister); they all lived and died in Lincoln County. Adeline (Perkins) Shuford was a daughter of Ephraim and Elisabeth (Abernathy) Perkins, natives of Lincoln County, and she was the eldest of a family of ten children: Adeline (died at the age of forty-two in North Carolina), Elisha, Caroline, Catherine, Elizabeth J., John (deceased), David, Patsey, Daniel, Robert J. M. Abel H. Shuford was born October 11, 1796, and died January 4, 1858; October 4, 1820, he married; both himself and wife were members of the German Reformed Church. He was a Whig, but took no active part in politics. The subject of this sketch was reared to farm life, and spent his school days in the old schools of that date. He worked with his father till 1846, when he went to Northern Mississippi, where he resided seven years, and in February, 1851, he married Miss Ellen Grider, daughter of Jesse and Polly Grider, natives of Kentucky. After marriage he remained in Mississippi two years, when he came to Jackson County, Ark., and engaged in farming and clerking in Jacksonport till after the war, he being exempt from military service on account of age, and of being a cripple. Like a great many others, he lost all his property during the war, and when peace was declared found himself in possession of a dog, which had followed him to Texas and back, and two old mules. From 1865 to 1870 he clerked, and then bought 160 acres of land, on which he now resides, having cleared about ninety acres of the same. In 1874 he was elected county treasurer, which office he has held continuously since, with the exception of the years 1880 and 1882, and is the present incumbent. He is a Democrat, though conservative, is a member of Poole Lodge No. 40, Chapter and Council, of the A. F. & A. M., at Jacksonport, and he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he being trustee and steward. The family consists of Fanny (wife of Frank Howell), Mattie (wife of Rev. David Hare, deceased), Jesse (married and living at home), Mary T. (died at the age of eighteen months). Mrs. Hare and her four children live at home. Mr. Shuford had one of the first cotton-gins in this country, a horse-power (in 1871), and in 1876 erected a steam gin, and has been engaged in ginning and milling, during the season for such work, ever since. He was one of the first settlers of the county, and gives his support, as far as able, to schools, churches and all other public enterprises.