My Genealogy Hound

Dr. S. P. Sample, whose career as a medical practitioner of Washington County, Ark., has met with marked success, was born in Greene County, Tenn., May 9, 1841, being one of two surviving members of a family of four children born to the marriage of Robert Sample and Mary Johnson, both of whom were born and reared in Tennessee. They were married about 1837, and after the father’s death, which occurred in 1846, the mother was married to a man by the name of Alexander Rice, and spent the remainder of her days in Illinois, dying in 1880. She became the mother of one child by her last union. Samuel P. Sample grew to maturity in Sullivan and Grundy Counties, Mo., and after receiving a good education in the English branches, began the study of medicine under the instruction of Dr. Mantlow, and afterward was graduated from the Nashville Medical College as an M. D. He immediately located at Modena, Mo. At the breaking out of the Rebellion, in 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-third Missouri Infantry, and served under Gens. Grant and Sherman until the close of the war. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, and was with Sherman on his famous march to the sea, and witnessed the surrender of Gen. Johnston. After the war he located in Mercer County, Mo., and in 1866 was united in marriage to Mary E. Bradley, a daughter of James Bradley, a prominent merchant and stock dealer of that county, and in 1870 took up his abode in Franklin County, Ark., thence to Washington County in 1877. Since 1881 he has resided at West Fork, and has become one of the leading physicians of the county, being one of the examining surgeons of the Springdale Examining Pension Board. He takes an active interest in politics, and is a strong supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and belongs to the G. A. R. He is a Master Mason, and is a member of the I. O. O. F., and represented that fraternity in the Grand Lodge. He is the father of the following children; Emma E., William D., Belle and Eddie. He and family worship in the Methodist Episcopal Church.