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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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Newton J. Evans is the fifth of eleven children born to his father and mother, his birth occurring in Osceola, Mississippi County, Ark., in 1849. The occupation he is now following was learned on his father’s farm, and during this time, while directing the plow, he received some educational advantages. In 1871, he rented land, began farming on his own responsibility, and four years later commenced following that occupation in Chickasawba Township, his labors being on rented land until 1888. In 1880, he wedded Miss Joe Lee, a daughter of an old pioneer resident of this county, by the name of James Sawyer, and from that time up to 1888 he was engaged in raising crops on land belonging to his father-in-law. At the latter date he became the owner of eighty acres of some of the finest land in this section, forty-seven acres being in a fine state of cultivation, and will usually average a bale of cotton to the acre. To Mr. Evans and his wife, who is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, have been born the following named children: Alice Dean and Minnie, living; and Maggie, Charles N. and James, who died in infancy. His parents, Newton and Amelia (Bowen) Evans, were born in Putnam County, Ind., and were reared and married in their native State. They removed to the State of Arkansas about 1836, and settled on land near what is now Osceola, where the father cleared about eighty acres of land, and made many other valuable improvements. After selling this land they purchased other property near Elmot, which they also improved, but meeting with heavy losses by fire, they soon moved back to near Osceola, where Mr. Evans passed from life in 1870. His wife’s death had occurred in 1854.

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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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