My Genealogy Hound

A. L. Harden. There is in the development of every successful life a principle which is a lesson to each man following in its footsteps; for let one be industriously ambitious, and honorable in his ambitions, and he will rise, whether having the prestige of family and wealth or the obscurity of poverty. We are led to these reflections in looking over the life of Mr. Harden, who has attained his present enviable position as a leading agriculturist of Mississippi County, Ark., by indomitable energy and pluck. He was born in Florida in 1838, being the second of three children born to William and Martha Harden, and is of German descent, as both his father and grandfather, John Harden, were born in Germany, the latter of whom became an extensive farmer of Georgia. A. L. Harden was reared on a farm in Tennessee, and received no educational advantages in his youth, but in 1866 began farming for himself, and at once identified himself with the more advanced agricultural and stock raising interests of this community, a position he has continued to occupy since that time. Although his first efforts for himself were on rented land, since coming to Mississippi County, in 1859, he has prospered. In 1874 he purchased a small farm of forty acres on the river at Daniel’s Point, but at the end of one year came to Chickasawba Township, and bought a timber tract of 160 acres, and while clearing his land farmed on rented ground. At the present time he has 200 acres in all — seventy acres under cultivation, with forty more soon to be put under the plow, and his land will readily yield a bale of cotton to the acre. He also runs a dry-goods store on his farm. He has built three dwelling houses on his place, and has set out a large orchard of choice varieties of fruit; also owning a house and lot in Blythesville. His marriage to Miss Rebecca Wilson, a native of Alabama, was consummated November 5, 1866, and they are the parents of the following children: Martha, who died at the age of nineteen years; Millidge F., Arthur A., Malinda A. and Robert.