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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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Capt. Daniel Matthews (deceased). From among the many estimable citizens of Mississippi County who have passed to their long home, but who, from an early day, were intimately and prominently associated with the county’s development, the name of Capt. Matthews cannot be omitted. Of Pennsylvania nativity, he was born in Huntingdon County in the year 1814, and about 1835 came to Arkansas, and lived for some time at what is now known as Milliken’s. Subsequently he ran a boat from Cincinnati to New Orleans, which calling he continued to pursue until 1850, engaging at that time in the mercantile trade in Osceola, Ark., at which place he conducted a store until his death, in 1884. He was one of the best-known men that ever ran on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and throughout Mississippi County, Ark., his name was synonymous with integrity, industry, and perseverance. For two years he was engaged in business in New Madrid, Mo., investing money in that place to the amount of $25,000, but met with heavy losses, and became involved to the extent of $7,000. He left that town with only $15 in his pocket, and went to New Orleans, where, through the kindness of friends, he was again started in business, and had paid all his debts and also had his goods paid for at the end of a few years. In 1849 he was married to Miss Mary Young, a daughter of Andy and Elizabeth Young, and located at Osceola, in Mississippi County, where they became the parents of three children: T. A., Mollie C. and Beulah, Mollie C. being the wife of H. D. Tomlinson, of Osceola, and the mother of two children. Beulah is married to O. B. Ferguson, of Ripley, Tenn., and is the mother of one child. Mr. Matthews was in business at Osceola for thirty-four years, and during this time accumulated a property valued at $75,000. No one unacquainted with him can realize what a benefit his life was to this county, or what an influence he exerted upon all those around him. His efforts in behalf of the poor and oppressed, without regard to race or color, will long be remembered, and his methodical business, coupled with strict integrity, may well be emulated by the rising generation. After his death, which occurred on the 2d of May, 1884, his body was taken in charge by the Masons, of which he had long been a member, and was buried by that order in Elmwood Cemetery, at Memphis, Tenn. His son, T. A. Matthews, was educated in the Christian Brothers’ Institute, at St. Louis. Mo., from which institution he was graduated in 1868. Capt. Daniel Matthews, during his life, had but one serious accident, and that back in the 30’s, in an eastern railroad collision, near Harrisburg, his native State, where he lost a leg, afterward making his way through life with a cork leg. Mostly through his exertions the St. Matthew’s Catholic Church at Osceola was built. This is a very fair frame structure for a town of such proportions as this. One of his relatives was living at Johnstown, which was lately destroyed by the great Pennsylvania flood.

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This family biography is one of 162 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Mississippi County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Mississippi County, Arkansas family biographies here: Mississippi County, Arkansas Biographies

View a map of 1889 Mississippi County, Arkansas here: Mississippi County, Arkansas Map

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