My Genealogy Hound

M. N. Lee has for some years devoted his attention to the raising of fruit in connection with farming, and being a man of energetic temperament and progressive in his views, he has made a success of both callings. He was born in this State in 1853 to William J. and Celia (Cooper) Lee, the birth of the former occurring in South Carolina, and that of the latter in Tennessee. Mr. Lee came to Arkansas about 1832, followed by his widow some four years later, and here they were married and began the journey of life together. When their son, M. N. Lee, was twenty-one years of age, he began making his own way in the world and also maintained them. In 1880 he purchased eighty acres of railroad land, and of this he now has seventy acres under cultivation, on which is a good house and other buildings. He afterward homesteaded forty acres, upon which he made improvements, and now has about seventeen acres under fence. He raises considerable corn and cotton, the yield of the former being from thirty to forty acres, and of the latter from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. From 250 to 300 bushels of Irish potatoes are also raised to the acre, and 200 bushels of sweet potatoes. He is now giving a great deal of his attention to the culture of fruit, at which he is meeting with remarkable success. To the union of our subject and his wife were born six children, all of whom are now living: Josephine, Luella, Walter Scott, Rhoda J., Ida May and Ada. For the past seven years Mr. Lee has served as a member of the school board of his district, and under his directorship, new furniture, of an improved kind, has been introduced into the schools and the school-year lengthened. Mr. Lee has two brothers: Kennedy C. and Ebenezer N.