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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  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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William T. Nolan, a blacksmith and wagon-maker by trade, being attracted by the rich forests of oak and hickory, which grew in and about Yell County, came to Bellville in 1882 for the purpose of engaging in business. After prospecting and looking around he connected himself with Mr. May, and is now known as the senior member of the firm of Noland & May, wagon-makers, cabinet makers and blacksmiths, and also owners of the extensive planing-mill plant, which was added to their immense business in 1888, and is fully supplied with machinery for cutting out spokes and felloes, and making a greater part of the wood work of the wagons manufactured in his shops, the material being supplied from the native timber. He was born in 1855, in the State of Mississippi, to Javid and Emma P. (Reese) Nolan, also of Mississippi, and who followed farming as an occupation. After the father’s death, January 15, 1870, our subject left school with a very limited education, and assumed the care of his widowed mother and an infant sister, who, having grown to maturity, has since married and resides in this county, his mother remaining with him till her death, August 3, 1890, being fifty-two years old. He was married November 10, 1878, to Tennessee Payne, who was born December 21, 1860, and was a daughter of Marcus and Nancy Payne, of Arkansas and Mississippi nativity. To this union were born seven children: Idella Vincent, Jessie, Cleveland and Mary Annie (living); Buffing, Ada and Javid (deceased). He and family are worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and socially he has been initiated into the Christian Lodge No. 394, of the A. F. & A. M., and politically votes with the Democratic party. As a citizen he is active and enterprising, doing everything in his power to aid and promote the interests of his county.

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This family biography is one of 124 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Yell County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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