My Genealogy Hound

Capt. Dudley Milam, farmer and stock raiser, is a son of John and Levica (Hamby) Milam, who were born in North Carolina, and when young went to Hickman County, Tenn., where they married, and where the father died at the age of about forty-two years. The mother spent her last days in Boone County, Ark., where she lived to be sixty years of age. The father was a soldier in the War of 1812, being a participant in the battle of New Orleans, and was a blacksmith, wood workman and farmer by occupation. He was an old-time Democrat, and a son of Jordan Milam, who served seven years in the Revolutionary War, and died in Arkansas at the age of one hundred and ten years. Capt. Dudley Milam is the eldest of seven children, and was born in Hickman County, Tenn., February 9, 1826. He was reared on a farm, and received just enough education to enable him to read, and at the early age of fifteen years began earning his own living. He was of a rather roving disposition, and spent several years’ earnings in traveling in different States. During the Mexican War he spent nine months in Capt. Whitfield’s company, and the end of that time was discharged from active duty on account of sickness, and then returned to Tennessee, and in 1847 came to Franklin County, Ark., locating soon after in Johnson County, where he was married in 1852, to Miss Lennet Wood, who was born in North Carolina October 16, 1825. Since 1857 they have resided in Sebastian County, where owns a fertile farm of 100 acres, with about fifty acres under cultivation. In April, 1862, he enlisted in Capt. Oliver Bassham’s company, Confederate service, and at the end of three months joined Capt. Leister’s company, but two months later this company split, and Capt. Leister joined the Federal forces. Mr. Milam was then elected captain of the company. At Mark’s Mill, in Bradley County, Ark., he was leading a battalion of advance skirmishers, and in the heat of the battle he was struck by a minie-ball in the left ankle joint, the bone being so shattered that his leg had to be amputated a little below the knee. This was done in April, 1863. He has been the hero of two wars, and is yet hale and hearty, and has never had to pay a doctor’s bill for himself in his life. He is a stanch Democrat in politics, and is the father of seven children: Emeline P. (deceased), Kansas, William M. (deceased), John, Wood B., Lennet A. and Frances E. Mrs. Milam is a member of the Methodist Church.