My Genealogy Hound

John L. Collat owns a large farm and is engaged in general farming and stock raising. He was born in the year 1838, being the oldest of ten children in the family of Robert K. and Eliza (Collins) Collat, the former of whom was a native of Alabama, where he was married. Afterward moving to Georgia he opened up a large plantation which he sold in 1853 and removed to Saline County, Ark., settling on Saline River in what is now Traskwood Township, and took up a claim on which he resided until his death in 1856. His beloved wife passed from life within one week of his death leaving a family of ten children, one of whom was a babe only three days old, which was reared by an older sister, and one other child died during the same month. The family consisted of John L. (the subject of this sketch), William H. (who is married and resides in Saline Township), Taylor (also married and resides in Traskwood, being a merchant by occupation), Minerva (now Mrs. Fewell living near Benton), Eliza (Mrs. Tidwell, in Pulaski, the infant referred to) and five other children who are now deceased. John L. Collat at the time of his parents’ death was only seventeen years old and having his brothers and sisters to care for, he secured homes for them and broke up housekeeping. He commenced farming for him self at the age of twenty-three, and in 1861 was married to Lousia Montgomery, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Clauton) Montgomery; Mrs. Collat was born on the farm on which they at this time reside. Mr. Montgomery was a native of Tennessee and emigrated to Arkansas in 1830, settling in what is now Saline County, and taking a claim on which he resided at the time of his death in 1856, his wife surviving him until 1885. Mr. Collat after his marriage located in Saline Township, entered a tract of land of eighty acres, to which he afterward added another eighty, and on which he made his home for the next ten years. He enlisted in 1862, at Benton, under Capt. Adams in the Twenty-fifth Arkansas Infantry, for the period of twelve months. After the battle of Corinth the company reorganized when Mr. Collat again enlisted for three years or during the war. He served two years in the Trans-Mississippi Regiment (infantry) and eighteen months in the cavalry service, being discharged in Texas in 1865, and returning to Saline County. In 1871 he sold his homestead and bought a farm of 270 acres, of which forty were under cultivation. He has erected a fine frame residence and made other improvements, besides clearing most of the remainder of his farm. He is a member of Benton Lodge No. 34, A. F. & A. M., in which he has held the office of S. D., and also belongs to Saline Lodge No. 1317, Knights of Honor. Mr. Collat and his wife have a family of eight children: William (married), Mary (now Mrs. Cote), Thomas (married), Sophronia, Frank, Martha, Henry and David, all of whom reside in Saline County. Mr. Collat is a man of great energy and industry, and though having been obliged to make his own way in the world, has done so with great credit to himself.