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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Johnson County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  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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J. K. Baskin is well known throughout this region, for he was born here in 1852, and as a youth and man he at all times made numerous friends. His parents, J. M. and Melissa (Laster) Baskin, were born in Tennessee, and came to Arkansas with their parents in 1839 and 1831 respectively, their union taking place here. It resulted in the birth of the following children: Nancy C., William M. (who died in 1863), Abram L., Hester Ann, Octavia F. (wife of William Davis, a farmer of Scott County), Manisia, J. K., Mary M., Robert M., John C., Minerva (who died in 1861), Darthula (who married Robert Gillian, lives in Sebastian County), and Frank C. The father of these children removed to Texas in 1864, and there remained until the termination of the war, when he returned to his family in Johnson County, Ark., and here has since tilled the soil, being now the owner of 220 acres of land in Horsehead Township, ninety acres of which are under cultivation. J. K. Baskin, the immediate subject of this sketch, was married in 1879 to Miss Minerva Yandell, daughter of Thomas Yandell, by whom he has two boys and two girls: Virgil Q., Chester D., Bonnie A. and Maud M. He has a fertile and well-tilled farm of 170 acres, seventy-five acres of which are in a good state of cultivation. He owns a half interest in a good cotton-gin with J. M. Laster, the gin being on Mr. Laster’s land. He had fairly good school advantages in boyhood, and gives liberally of his means in the support of worthy enterprises of all kinds, being an equally liberal contributor to churches. He is a Democrat, but is not however, an enthusiastic politician. His wife is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

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This family biography is one of 65 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Johnson County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Johnson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Johnson County, Arkansas family biographies here: Johnson County, Arkansas

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