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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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John Ingram. The earliest evidence of the history of this illustrious family is obtained from family annals, kept from generation to generation and handed down from father to son. About the year 1680 Sir Nedom Ingram appears as a prominent citizen of Worcestershire, England. He was pure Scotch blood, and belonged to that sturdy, old and honored historical religious sect called “The Waldenses.” An active advocate of the Protestant reformation, he was among those who (at that time) courageously encouraged, both in word and deed, the dissemination of that light which was first manifested under “Crammer’s” preaching, he who has been aptly styled “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” Sir Nedom Ingram, it seems, was twice married, and had four sons, two by his first wife, Emanuel and Joseph Ingram, and by his second wife, Nedom and Thomas Ingram. At a later day, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, Joseph and Thomas emigrated to the colony of North Carolina, in North America, settling first near Raleigh. Joseph Ingram is reported as marrying a Miss Rains, and had several children, among whom where two boys named Nedom and Shadrach Ingram. In time both married, and Shadrach Ingram had four children: Nedom, Joseph and Shadrach, and one girl, Elizabeth Ingram. Shadrach Ingram, who was the grandfather of John Ingram, the subject of this sketch, was born in Edgecombe County, N. C., about the year 1767, and married Miss Elizabeth De Loche, who was also born in the same county in the year 1765. Her ancestors emigrated from France about the year 1590, to escape Catholic persecution, and settled in the colony of Virginia. After Shadrach Ingram’s marriage, he settled down to farming with slave labor in that county, his good old father having left him, and all his other children, a moderate competency. Soon after the beginning of the present century, he moved to the Territory of Tennessee, and located near Lebanon, in Wilson County, where he continued farming on an extensive scale for that day and time. He served faithfully through the War of 1812 against Great Britain. Sometime between 1830 and 1834, he (Shadrach Ingram), like many other good-hearted, but unfortunate men, became the security of a friend, and the result was financial ruin. All his little fortune was swept away, leaving him and his family almost homeless and penniless. Soon after, leaving Wilson County, Tenn., he moved to Washington County, Ark., in 1836 or 1837, where he again opened a farm and did the best he could, though in the latter years of his life he and his good wife were cared for by their youngest son, Shadrach Ingram, Jr., until their death, which occurred between the years 1855 and 1859. A true and noble man, sincere and honest, none ever lived who loved his wife and children more devotedly and affectionately. Although his ancestors were Scotch and he was a native American, his love for the old land, as well as an ardent and devoted advocacy of educational and religious training, were among the most prominent traits of his character. He had eight children, four boys and four girls. All of them are now deceased, except three: Shadrach, Dilley (Sherry) and William Ingram (the father of John Ingram). William Ingram was born near Lebanon, Tenn., March 16, 1815, and remained with his father until seventeen years of age, when he went to the State of Illinois, near Carrollton, where, in his eighteenth year, he became a member of the church (Old School Baptist). There he also met and married Miss Elizabeth A. Pearson, of Puritan stock, March 6, 1833. She was born April 17, 1817, in Gibson County, Ind. Early in the September following their union they started for the Territory of Arkansas, arriving at Fayetteville in October, and settling near that (then) small village, where Mr. Ingram commenced farming and preaching. Arkansas was then a wild and dreary wilderness, and when he went out to preach he could do no better than some of his earliest predecessors, go out without scrip or purse, because wild meat and honey were plenty, and both proved an acceptable diet in those days. On the night of November 10, 1833, Mr. Ingram and wife went out on the mountain (four miles from town) to sit up with old Uncle Johnnie Miller, who was quite ill, some eight or ten persons also being present. During their night watch, and about 2 o’clock A. M., on the morning of the 11th, the whole heavens were singularly alight by an immense blaze, which, upon discovery, was found to proceed from a great meteoric shower; this occasion of “the falling stars” has ever been a matter of historical comment. In their extreme anxiety many kneeled and prayed to God to preserve them from a burning world, though others, and the more Curious, watched the proceeding until it’s close. Rev. Mr. Ingram and his wife are both living and well, still residing near Fayetteville, at the age of seventy-four. He is as regular in his devotions to the ministry and the service of his Divine Master, as he was in starting out fifty-five or fifty-six years ago, and indeed more so, the trust which he once had having been found by experience to be the only sure dependence, the beauty of which increases with years. Mr. and Mrs. Ingram are the parents of seven children, four boys and three girls: Mrs. Mary Davis (the eldest, living in Washington County), John (subject of this memoir, in Little Rock), Miss Elizabeth A. (died in 1864), Jones P. (a successful farmer near Waveland, in Yell County), Miss Irena (lives with her respected father and mother), Sandy O. Ingram (also a farmer in Washington County) and Albert J. Ingram (the youngest). The parents reside on the family homestead, and Albert J. is a successful farmer, well-to-do, and it is under his roof that the old people (his parents) and his youngest sister find a home of cheerful welcome, loving care, and all the needed comforts in their declining years. His father, now seventy-four years old, whose ministry runs back to his eighteenth or nineteenth year, is one whose life has been well spent, like Samuel of old, a servant of the most high God. Not only may he look back upon a life well spent in his efforts to call others to repentance, but he can and does sincerely enjoy the proudest heritage of all mankind, that of knowing that his ancestors, for several centuries back, have been prominent in supplying servants and soldiers for the Cross of Christ. John Ingram, son of Rev. William Ingram, was born near Fayetteville, Ark., May 3, 1836. He remained with his father on the farm and attended the schools of the county, until about fifteen years old, after which he was employed in the circuit clerk’s office, under Presley R. Smith, who was a native of Fayetteville, Tenn. Remaining there and also attending school at the Arkansas College (then under the superintendence of Rev. Robert Graham, president) for some time, he subsequently taught a country school about one year, and at the end of that period was tendered and accepted a clerkship in the large and extensive wholesale and retail dry-goods and grocery house of Wallace Ward & Co. At the time of this offer to him, the firm name was Ward & Southmayd, Van Buren, Ark. The year 1861 still found him at this place, but he soon left it to enter the service of his native State, in the great contest for constitutional liberty. In eight or ten months the troops were transferred to the Confederate cause, which cause he served faithfully until the last of May, 1865, when he was paroled with others by Gen. Canby. He arrived here in June, 1865, and has made this his place of residence ever since. Soon after his arrival Mr. Ingram was married to Mrs. E. A. Broughton (formerly Miss Calhoun), who had one child, Mollie Broughton; the latter married Col. A. S. Fowler, a prominent citizen and highly cultured gentleman of this city, who is doing a most extensive and profitable life-insurance business. Mr. Ingram has three children: Sue Ayliff, Charley Calhoun and Carrie Eugenia.

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This family biography is one of 156 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Pulaski County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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