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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Union County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  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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Jesse P. Tatum, merchant of the firm of Tatum & Cummings, at El Dorado, was born in that city in 1849, and is the fifth of nine children, the result of the union of Edmond P. and Eliza J. (Tatum) Tatum, the parents natives of Alabama and second cousins. The father followed farming in his native State until 1837, and then, with a number of his brothers, emigrated to Arkansas, where their descendants make a large family in Union County. On his arrival here the father entered land at a point four miles west of El Dorado, and was quite extensively engaged in tilling the soil. Later he moved to town, built a fine residence, in which Judge Langford now resides, and there educated his children. In 1857 he sold his farm and went to Caldwell Parish, La., where he bought a large plantation, but only resided on it about one year before his death. The mother then sold out and brought the family back to Union County, near Hillsboro. In 1863 the family went to Texas, and after the war returned to the old plantation near Hillsboro, which consisted of 1,700 acres, and there the mother died in 1886. The estate was then divided among the heirs. The maternal grandfather, Cagan Tatum, was born in Alabama, came to Arkansas in 1859, and died there a few years later. Jesse P. Tatum attended the schools of Union County and worked on the farm until 1866, when he engaged as clerk for John Tatum, a merchant in El Dorado, continuing to clerk for various firms here until 1882, when he engaged in conducting the Armstrong Hotel in El Dorado, carrying on the same for three years. In 1887 he began merchandising with A. P. Cummings, under the firm name of Tatum & Cummings. The title was subsequently changed by the admission of another party. This firm did a good business, about $30,000 annually. On February 1, 1890, the firm dissolved partnership, and our subject, with his former partner, resumed again as Tatum & Cummings. The firm has a general store, and does a flourishing business in the way of plantation supplies, buying cotton, etc. They carry a stock of goods valued at $4,000, and are live, wide-awake business men. Mr. Tatum is the owner of about 500 acres of land, and the principal part of this is covered with good timber. He is a member of the K. of P. and the Seven Wise Men. He comes of an old and honored family, is social and genial in his relations with the public, and has gained for himself a reputation as a solid and reliable tradesman.

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This family biography is one of 84 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Union County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Union County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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