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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Sharp 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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John L. Gawf is a well-to-do farmer of Washington Township, and grandson of Edmond Gawf, of North Carolina, who died in Tennessee. John’s father, George W. Gawf, was born in Tennessee, in 1818, and went when a boy with his parents to Tennessee, where he married. He was a farmer, and in 1852 he went to Carroll County, Ark., and to Sharp County in 1864, where he is still living. He is of Dutch descent. His wife was Mary A. Doss, born in 1819, by whom he had eight children, six of whom are living: William, James P., Margaret Stoddard, Mary Ann Montgomery, Jerusha Shaw, and John L., the subject of this sketch, the eldest, who was born in Henderson County, Tenn., December 25, 1840; he was raised until eleven years of age in Tennessee, where he received part of his schooling, and the remainder in Sharp County. In 1867 he married Miss Margaret C. Johnson, who was born in Tennessee, Knox County, in 1847, and whose father was Jahue Johnson, a Baptist minister, and old citizen of Sharp County, where he now resides, and whose mother was Rebecca Johnson. Margaret is the mother of nine children, eight of whom are living: William W., Mary A. R., Jehu L., John H., Catherine E., James M., Samuel N. and Dora B. Mr. Gawf has a farm of 280 acres, on which he has resided since 1870, 150 acres of which are cultivated. He served in the Confederate Army, in Company G, Fourteenth Arkansas Regiment, in the battles of Pea Ridge (Ark.), Corinth and Iuka (Miss.), Delhi (La.), and various other skirmishes, and was discharged in 1865. He is a Democrat in politics, and is an influential citizen and well-to-do. His two eldest children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 43 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Sharp County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Sharp County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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

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