My Genealogy Hound

J. B. Sanders, county examiner of Prairie County, Hazen, Ark. There are many men in this county at the present day in whose lives there are but few thrilling incidents, or remarkable events, yet whose success has been a steady and constant growth, and who, possessed of excellent judgment, strong common sense and indomitable energy, have evinced in their lives and character, great symmetry, completeness and moral standing of a high order. To this class belongs Mr. Sanders, whose birth occurred in Johnson County, N. C., in 1834, and who was the second in a family of eleven children born to the union of B. T. and Eliza C. (Boone) Sanders, natives of North Carolina. The father was a man of education, having graduated from the University of North Carolina, in the class of 1828, and was a large land owner in his native State. In 1870 he moved to Prairie County, Ark., and later in life settled at Hazen, where his death occurred in 1887. The mother had died in 1885. The father was not active in politics, but took a great interest in church work, and was moderator of the Grand Prairie Baptist Association at the time of his death. J. B. Sanders was initiated into the duties of farm life when young, and received his education in the Baptist College at Clinton, Miss., graduating with the class of 1856. He then commenced cultivating the soil, continuing at this until January, 1863, when he enlisted at De Soto County, Miss., in the Eighteenth Mississippi Cavalry, in Chalmer’s division of Forrest’s cavalry. Mr. Sanders participated in many of the battles and raids of Forrest’s cavalry in West Tennessee and North Mississippi, and was taken prisoner at Spring Hill, Tenn., in January, 1865. He was confined at Camp Chase, Ohio, paroled there on June 13, 1865, and afterward returned to De Soto County, Miss., when he found all of his property, stock, etc., gone and he reduced from affluence to poverty. He was married in Madison County, Miss., in 1856, to Miss Ezza Denson, a native of Mississippi, and the daughter of Harvey and Jennie (King) Denson, early pioneers of Madison County, Miss. One child, Harvey, was born to this union, and he is at present and has been for nine years, a clerk in the Gates mercantile store at De Vall’s Bluff, Ark. Mr. Sanders was married in De Soto County, Miss., on December 23, 1865, to Miss Lucy C. Gwyn, a native of the Old Dominion, and the daughter of James H. and Caroline S. (Ransom) Gwyn, natives also of Virginia, and both now deceased. After his second marriage Mr. Sanders settled on a farm, and in 1870, came to Prairie County, where he has been engaged in teaching most of the time for sixteen years. He takes a very great interest in educational matters and had charge of the school at Judsonia, Ark., in the winters of 1881 and 1882. He has been county examiner most of the time since 1881, and has filled that position in a highly creditable manner. He took an active part in the organization of Hazen Township, where he has resided since 1881, having bought seventy acres in the woods, and now has forty acres fairly improved. He takes considerable interest in politics and votes with the Democratic party. He was chairman of the Democratic executive committee of Prairie County for years. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, White River Lodge, at Des Arc, Ark., and is a member of Quitmana Chapter, Hernando, De Soto County, Miss. He and Mrs. Sanders are members of the Missionary Baptist Church; Mr. Sanders being moderator of the Grand Prairie Baptist Association, comprising this and Arkansas Counties. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders were born seven children: Walter Troy (clerking at De Vall’s Bluff), Joseph (who has been contracting for the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad, building wire fence for them since eighteen years of age), James (working for the Little Rock & Memphis Railroad), Bappy (John Thomas), Alice, Hall, and Lucy. Mr. Sanders has seen a vast change in Prairie County, from a moral as well as an educational standpoint, since his residence here. When he first came to Arkansas guns and dogs were often heard on the Christian Sabbath, but now the church and Sunday bell sounds forth instead of the hunter’s call. He can say what very few can say, that he has not lost one of his own intermediate family since he came to the State, twenty years ago. This speaks well for the health of Prairie County, Ark.