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Below is a family biography included in The History of Sebastian 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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Alexander B. Carruth was born November 4, 1820, in Lawrence County, Ala., and is a son of Alexander and Nancy (Elkins) Carruth, both of whom were of Irish descent. The father was born in South Carolina, and being reared upon a farm, devoted his entire life to agricultural pursuits. He immigrated to Georgia, and after living there some years went to Alabama, where he died at the age of seventy-four. Mrs. Carruth bore nine children, three of whom are living: James H., our subject and Eliza. Those deceased were named William, Jesse, Joseph, Thomas, Martha and John. Mrs. Carruth was born in Georgia, and died in North Alabama in 1862, where she had gone in 1818. Alexander was reared upon his father’s farm in Alabama, and during his youth received a common-school education, and learned the shoemaker’s trade, at which he worked twenty years. He began life for himself when eighteen by buying land in Alabama, and in 1844 married Jane Roberts, by whom he had ten children. Mary A., Joseph P., Jesse J., William John, Nancy and Harriet are living, and Absalom, Harry and Matthew are dead. Mrs. Carruth died in Illinois in 1864, and the latter part of the same year Mr. Carruth married Sarah Balom, who came to Kentucky from England when small. She afterward moved to Illinois, and there was married. She is the mother of three children, Belle, Emma and George. After farming in Illinois two years, in 1857 Mr. Carruth settled in Sebastian County, Ark., where he has a farm of sixty-five acres in cultivation. Mr. Carruth is a Democrat in politics, and is greatly interested in the educational advancement of the county, being a school director. Himself and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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This family biography is one of 217 biographies included in The History of Sebastian County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Sebastian County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Sebastian County, Arkansas family biographies here: Sebastian County, Arkansas

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