My Genealogy Hound

Robert A. Wise is a brother of W. H. Wise, and both are residents of Weldon, Ark. Robert A. Wise was born in Hernando, De Soto County, Miss., May 24, 1844. He is now postmaster at Weldon and engaged in the drug and grocery business. He was the second child of W. H. and Mary E. (Brown) Wise, the former having been born and reared near Baltimore, Md., and the latter at Florence, Ala. W. H. Wise, a mechanic by occupation, came to Memphis, Tenn., in 1838, and went to work at his trade, but his health becoming bad he moved to Hernando, Miss., in 1839, and met Miss Brown, whom he married in 1840. He was elected magistrate and sheriff of De Soto County for a number of years, and he invested his income in real estate in the town of Hernando. Finally his health became so bad that he gave up his office and sold his property in town, and invested in a large tract of land four and one-half miles east of Hernando, turning his attention to farming and stock raising, and at his death, which occurred in 1856, his estate, consisting of land, stock and negroes, was valued at $100,000. He and his wife were strict members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Robert A. was raised on the farm, receiving his education in the common schools of North Mississippi, and at the age of seventeen he left school and enlisted as a volunteer in Company K, Ninth Mississippi Regiment, Monroe, Capt. Thomas White, Chalmer’s brigade, in the Army of Tennessee. He was at the battle of Shiloh and was sent home on furlough sick from Corinth. Returning to the army at Tupelo he was taken down with typhoid fever, which settled in his right leg, disabling him from duty. He received an unlimited furlough to go home, and remained until further orders. Some ninety days later he recovered, and was ordered to join the army at Knoxville, Tenn., as it came out of Kentucky on its way to Murfreesboro. He was in that battle and all the skirmishes and fights engaged in by his command through Tennessee, taking part in the battle of Chickamauga, and receiving a wound in the breast on the second day of the fight. This, however, did not disable him from duty, and subsequently he was in the engagements at Missionary Ridge, Tunnel Hill, at Dalton, Ga., and at Resaca; he was wounded in the thigh at Altoona Mountain. Following this he was occupied with his command in fights around Atlanta and at Jonesboro, but becoming ill again he was sent home, where he remained until the close of the war. Afterward he engaged in farming on a small scale. His father’s and mother’s estate was all destroyed during the war and taken away except the land. Robert A. received his portion of the land, which he sold and went to Louisiana to raise cotton on a large scale on Red River. He invested every dollar he had in a cotton crop, but the first year the worms destroyed half of it and the next year the overflow destroyed all. He then came to Jackson County, Ark., and engaged in farming, starting on borrowed capital, and by hard labor and economy he managed to pay for a farm near Newport, which he sold in 1887, and came to Weldon, embarking in his present business. He is a bachelor and a member of the Methodist Church, South, and was an active member in the district school board in which he lived before coming to Weldon. He was also a member of the Farmer’s Alliance or Wheelers. He has always been liberal, and has done his share toward building churches, schools and all public enterprises. He is now a cripple, being paralyzed in the right hip and leg, but is making a good support by his own exertion. Himself and his brother are the only surviving members of a family of nine children.