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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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William O. Garrett (deceased). The career of this gentleman was closed in the year 1887, he having been one of the most useful, enterprising and energetic farmers of this section. He was a South Carolinian by birth, and in September, 1828, came with his father to Arkansas, settling with him on a farm in Johnson County, where he acquired an excellent insight into the details of agriculture. At the age of twenty years he began doing for himself, renting a part of his father’s land, and at the age of twenty-three years was married, and purchased a farm in this township, on which he resided for six years, greatly improving it during this time. At the end of this time he sold his farm and moved onto the old homestead, to manage that and care for his aged parents, and here he was residing at the time of his death. Besides his wife, whom he married when she was fifteen years of age, he left a family of eleven children to mourn their loss, five of whom are living at home with their mother, and the rest earning their own living. Mrs. Garrett now has the farm under her management, and although it consists of 340 acres, and keeps her fully employed, she yet looks after affairs in an admirable manner, and has shown that she is a woman perfectly capable of business. The land is situated two and one-half miles west of Clarksville, and is one of the neatest and most fertile places in this section of the country. Mrs. Garrett’s maiden name was Martha J. Lemons, a native of Arkansas, and a daughter of Samuel Lemons. She is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and is a lady possessing true Christian principles. She has cared for the children left to her care in a noble manner, and tried to fit them for the duties of life by giving them good educations. Three of her sons were in the Confederate Army, one died when a prisoner at Alton, another was killed in Missouri while with Gen. Price on his raid, and the other returned home, and is now living at Clarksville.

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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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