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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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Dr. Asa Brunson, formerly a practicing physician of wide and honored acquaintance, and now one of the wealthy planters of this county, was born in Tennessee, near Clarksville, in 1822, being the son of Jesse A. Brunson, an extensive manufacturer of pig metal. The latter’s father was Dr. Asa Brunson, a surgeon in the Revolutionary War, who just before that event came to the United States. When Jesse A. was about twelve years of age, his father moved to Tennessee, locating near Clarksville, where he was engaged in planting and stock raising. He was a man of much property, of superior education, and decided intellect. Of his four sons, all but one were physicians. The father of the subject of this sketch married Louisa Shelby, of Tennessee, now deceased, who had nine children: Sarah, Asa, Elizabeth, Atherton, M. D. (deceased), Penelope, Clark S., M. D. (deceased), Dr. Jesse (deceased), Thomas E., M. D. (who was assassinated while quietly reading a paper, being shot through his window by an unknown person), and Dr. Randolph, of Pine Bluff. Young Asa Brunson attained his majority in Tennessee, supplementing his literary education with a course in medicine, and, in the spring of 1842, graduated from the medical department of the University of New York. The same year he located near his present residence, practicing till the time of the late war. In 1854 or 1855 he engaged in cotton planting, in which business he has since continued most successfully. He at one time owned about sixty slaves, and during the war was allowed to remain on his plantation because of his principles. Dr. Brunson is a Democrat, and a man of good sound sense, a characteristic by no means common in this day. He is respected for his sterling integrity, and enjoys the esteem and confidence of hosts of friends. A large part of his land has been washed away by the river. In 1845 Dr. Brunson married Alcinda Simpson, of Virginia, who was born in 1824; she died in Pine Bluff in 1864, leaving one child, Mary, now the widow of Frank Tomlinson. His second wife was Mrs. Louisa A. Fowler, nee Murdough, of Mississippi. They have three sons, Asa, Percy and Edgar, the two eldest of whom are at school at Knoxville University.

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This family biography is one of 136 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Jefferson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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