My Genealogy Hound

A. A. Rounsaville. The occupation which this gentleman now follows has received his attention the greater part of his life, and it is but the truth to say that in it he is thoroughly posted and well-informed, and his labors in this direction have contributed very materially to the reputation Mississippi County enjoys as a rich farming region. Like many of the residents of the county he is a Tennesseean by birth, having been born in 1839, and was the eighth of eleven children born to Clayborn and Elizabeth Rounsaville, who were born, reared and married in the State of Alabama, and shortly after removed to Tennessee. In 1851 they resolved to move still farther to the west, and accordingly settled in Mississippi County, Ark., where they opened up a large section of land, on which they spent the remaining years of their lives, the father dying in 1867, and the mother in 1854. From earliest youth A. A. Rounsaville has been familiar with the duties of farm labor, and up to the breaking out of the late war he was engaged in following this occupation, and in attending the old time subscription schools. He espoused the cause of the Confederacy and joined Capt. Fletcher’s company, and was a participant in the battles of Shiloh and Farmington, but after the latter battle was discharged from service on account of sickness, and returned home. In 1864 he re-enlisted in Price’s command, and accompanied that general on his raid through Missouri, taking an active part in all the battles of that campaign. After his surrender at Shreveport, La., in 1865, he returned to Mississippi County, Ark., where, until 1868, he was engaged in rafting and wood-chopping. The three following years he farmed the old family homestead, and in 1871 bought a tract of forty acres, one mile east of Blythesville, on which farm he has since built a commodious and substantial dwelling-house, and has reduced twenty-five acres to cultivation and otherwise added greatly to its improvement. He has purchased forty more acres of land, and also is the owner of some valuable town property. His lands are fertile, and will produce one bale of cotton to the acre, and forty bushels of corn. He also gives considerable attention to the propagation of a good grade of stock. He was married in 1868 to Mrs. Nancy Hudgins, formerly Miss Synclear.