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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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Melvin Parse (deceased). Among the well-known and highly-esteemed business men of Pine Bluff was Mr. Parse, who was born in Ohio in 1838, and died in May, 1882. He left the parental roof at the age of fifteen or sixteen years, and went to Cincinnati, where he learned the jeweler’s trade, subsequently, on turning from Ohio, settling at Cairo, Ill., and thence to Arkansas in 1857 or 1858. He located at Pine Bluff, and engaged in the jeweler’s business, carrying on a successful trade until his patriotic instincts led him to join the United States army in the late war, and he enlisted in 1862, serving till the close. He returned to Pine Bluff upon the cessation of hostilities, and in 1868 was married to his second wife and surviving widow, Mrs. Mary (Elliott) Coustey, who still carries on the business left by her husband. She is a very estimable lady, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which she is active and prominent, as was Mr. Parse in his lifetime. The latter was much interested in political events, though not an office holder. There were no children by her last marriage, but Mrs. Parse had a daughter by her former husband, Mary, who married Harry H. Shinn, a photographer of Pine Bluff. She died June 1, 1889, leaving two children, Hallie and Mary, who are living with their grandmother. Mrs. Parse is a native of Virginia. When a child, she moved to Mississippi with her parents, and when grown, to Louisiana, in 1866 coming to Arkansas. She was the daughter of Simeon and Eliza Elliott, of Virginia. The father died in Mississippi in 1851, and the mother in 1866, at this place. There were five children in this family, only two of whom are now living, both of Pine Bluff. Anna, the wife of G. W. Prigmore, died in 1878, leaving two children; her husband died in 1887.

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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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