My Genealogy Hound

John H. Lairamore was born December 25, 1828, in Morgan County, Mo., and is a son of Obadiah and Emily (Esteys) Lairamore. The father was born in Greene County, Ky., July 8, 1800, and lived there until eight years of age. He afterward lived in Franklin and Sangamon Counties, Ark., and Ill., when these States were inhabited by Indians and wild animals, and he was of great assistance in driving the former to the Indian Territory. He grew to manhood in Petersburgh, and volunteered in the Black Hawk War from Illinois. He also enlisted in the Mexican War, and during the late war served as a Government scout and spy. He settled in this county, which was then Crawford County, over sixty years ago, when there were but two log cabins at Fort Smith. The mother was born in Sangamon County, Ill, where she was reared and married. She bore nine children. Those living are Nelton L., John H., Obadiah and Wiley. Those deceased: William, Martha J., Rebecca, Samuel, who was killed in the war and Elijah. Mrs. Lairamore died in Sebastian County in 1862, and Mr. Lairamore afterward married Polly Cordin, a native of Coffee County, Tenn., who came here in 1858. She is the mother of two children, Mary Doney and Elizabeth (deceased). The paternal grandparents of our subject were natives of Maryland, who immigrated to Kentucky, and the maternal grandfather was a resident of Illinois. John H. Lairamore came to Sebastian County when three years old, and here grew up with but a limited education. He lived with his parents until his marriage, in 1846, to Jane, daughter of Lewis Pinnell and wife, formerly a Miss Turney, early settlers of this county. Mrs. Lairamore was born in Illinois, and bore three children: Elizabeth, Mary and Clarinda (deceased). Mrs. Lairamore died March 12, 1858, and in 1860 our subject was united in marriage with Ann P., daughter of Theophilus and Elizabeth Petty, natives of Tennessee. Mrs. Lairamore was born in Missouri, and is the mother of six children: John H., Milford, Frances P., William, Martha and George W. (deceased). Mr. Lairamore is an ordained minister in the Free Will Baptist Church, and his wife belongs to the same denomination. In 1863 Mr. Lairamore enlisted in the First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry, and served in Company H until discharged at Fort Smith, August 10, 1865. Since then he has lived in Sebastian County, with the exception of two years spent in Missouri. He owns 155 acres of land, and cultivates sixty. In politics he is a Republican. Six months before the conscript law Mr. Lairamore sold 200 acres of land, taking it all in property, with a view of trying to get north. His position south of the Arkansas River was a most trying one, and the sufferings he, in common with other Union sympathizers, underwent, can better be imagined than described. At one time several of them were obliged to lie concealed in the brush until a favorable opportunity was afforded for reaching the Federal lines. When it became known that Mr. Lairamore had left the country, the jayhawkers entered upon a course of indignities toward his family wholly unwarranted. Everything obtainable was taken, his wife and children being left so destitute that the former found it necessary to travel fifty miles on foot to find a place of safety among friends. A return of peace was hailed with sincere joy, and harmony and good feelings have since prevailed.