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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Randolph 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. J. N. Bolen, editor of the Herald, Pocahontas, Ark. The enviable position which the town of Pocahontas occupies today as an industrial and mercantile center is due to the energy, enterprise and ability of the inhabitants, and to the wise and judicious government of the local authorities. Prominent among those who have made an impress on the history of the town, in more respects than one, is Capt. J. N. Bolen, editor and publisher of the Herald. Mr. Bolen owes his nativity to Fayette County, Penn., where his birth occurred in the year 1831, and he is the son of Reuben and Nancy (Walters) Bolen, natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively. The father was born in Powhatan County, Va., in the year 1790, was a soldier in the War of 1812-14, removed to the State of Pennsylvania in the year 1820, and soon thereafter was married to Miss Nancy Walters, only daughter of Abraham Walters, and there he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in the year 1840, the mother surviving the father until 1876, in which year she died at the home of her son, J. N. Bolen, at Murray, Calloway County, Ky., in the seventy-sixth year of her age. They were members of the old School Presbyterian and Methodist Church, respectively. The father was active in political affairs, always voting the Democratic ticket, having been three times elected sheriff of his county as the nominee of that party. The paternal grandfather of J. N. Bolen, Powhatan Bolen, was a native of Powhatan County, Va., and was a Revolutionary soldier. The maternal grandfather, Abraham Walters, was a native of Fayette County, Penn., and also a soldier of the Revolutionary War. J. N. Bolen was early trained to the arduous duties of the farm and this continued until eighteen years of age when he left the parental roof and served an apprenticeship at the tailor’s trade at Brownsville, continuing at this for ten years. He then learned dentistry, located at Murray, Ky., where he established the Murray Gazette, and ran the same for six years as a Democratic paper. He then came to Randolph County, Ark., and bought the Herald, of Pocahontas, which he has ably edited ever since. In June, 1861, he enlisted in the war and armed and equipped, at his own expense, a company of cavalry which was attached to the Seventh Kentucky Regiment, Col. Forrest commanding, and served until the close of the war with the command of captain, until the last two years, when he was promoted to the rank of major and commanded the battalion until the close of the war. He participated in the following battles: Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Jackson, Raymond, Baker’s Creek, Paducah, and in numerous skirmishes. By his marriage, which occurred in 1858 with Miss Carrie Allbutton, a native of Calloway County, Ky., one child was born, Ella, wife of Jacob Schoonover, of Pocahontas.

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This family biography is one of 110 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Randolph County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Randolph County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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

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