My Genealogy Hound

Joseph Bryant Shannon, county clerk of Washington County, Ark., was born in Crawford County, of the same State, November 20, 1851, and is the son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Bryant) Shannon. The father was a native of Virginia, of the Old Dominion, and a farmer by occupation. He came with his father, John Shannon, to Arkansas when a young man (1827), and settled in Sebastian County, of that State. He was married in Crawford County to Miss Elizabeth Bryant, a native of Crawford County, Ark., and the daughter of Joseph Bryant, who was also a native of Sebastian County, and who settled in Crawford County, Ark., in 1832. Jeremiah Shannon died when his son Joseph B., was a small boy and the mother afterward married Rev. Thomas Dodson, who made a home in Madison County, Ark., where Joseph B. grew to manhood. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, and when a young man engaged in merchandising as clerk in a store at Wesley, Ark. He afterward embarked in the grocery business at Wesley for himself, but sold out and bought land in Washington County, Ark., in 1879. He then engaged in trading and dealing in live-stock for about five years, and in 1884 he was elected clerk of the county, and was re-elected in 1886 with an increased majority. After moving to this county he married Miss Minerva Adaline Garrett, daughter of James and Charity (Kimmins) Garrett, and a native of Tennessee. To them were born six children: Dora Gertrude, Maggie H. (deceased), James Gunter, Martha Hasselteen, Tommie Juanita and an infant named Mary. Mr. Shannon is a member of the K. of H. and K. of P. societies, and a member of the Baptist Church. During the Grange movement in Wesley he took an active part, and was a charter member of Wesley Grange.