My Genealogy Hound

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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Roscoe Greene Jennings, M. D., of Little Rock, Ark., was born in Leeds, then Kennebec, now Androscoggin County, Me., June 11, 1833, of English ancestry, who settled in Salem, Mass., in the early Colonial period. His great-grandfather, who was a man of wealth, held an office under King George III at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and from this circumstance, probably, connected with his reverence for royalty through his early training, he became an ardent advocate and follower of the fortunes of the crown of England. In the struggle of the American Colonies for their independence, his lands and property were confiscated, himself and family scattered; and, in order to preserve their lives, he and some portions of his family buried themselves in the wilderness of the eastern territory which afterward became the State of Maine. The subject of this sketch first saw the light of day in a humble cottage on the banks of the Androscoggin River, where he was reared on a farm on which he, when quite young, worked assiduously during the summer months, and attended the country school three months each winter. When he had reached his seventeenth year he had so zealously applied himself to his studies, that he was recommended for and assumed control of the village school he had formerly attended, and as a compensation received the, then to him, magnificent sum of $14 per month and boarded himself. The success of this undertaking stimulated him to renewed efforts, and with the money he had thus earned he paid his expenses the next fall in attending school at Wayne Village, under O. O. Howard’s instruction, who has since become a distinguished general in the United States army. Thus by strict economy he managed to attend the Monmouth Academy and the Kents Hill Seminary at Reedfield, Me., several terms in the fall months, by teaching school each winter following, to obtain the necessary means to enable him to pursue this periodical course of study. July 25, 1851, his father died, and this event changed his plans of entering Bowdoin College, for which he had nearly prepared himself, and which design he had ever contemplated with all the fervor and ardor of youth. Up to this date he had never traveled farther than Augusta, the capital of Maine, some twenty-five miles distant, and the adjacent towns of Hollowell and Gardner. An almost irresistible desire now took possession of him to travel and see for himself how the people and the country looked in other States. He therefore induced his elder brother, Floras, to loan him $100 (about the amount due him from his father’s estate), the biggest sum of money he ever had in his packet, or had ever handled. He, in company with a young companion, who had had some experience in traveling, and who had been to New York City previously, left home for Portland, where they remained a couple of days, and then went to Boston on a steam-vessel. After spending a week in Boston, they proceeded by steamer to New York City, spent two weeks in sight-seeing here and in visiting the first World’s Fair in America. The Crystal Palace and its contents were wonders to him almost beyond conception. From New York he wandered into New Jersey, visited Easton, Penn., staged it over the mountains to Lambertsville, Boardentown, and other places of interest in that section of the State, and finally found himself in Still Valley, Warren County, with the small sum of $2.50, with no future prospect of anything to do before him. After a night of agonizing, sleepless worry and fevered rest, he determined to make an effort to secure a school. So, bright and early that morning, he tramped twenty-two miles to a place called Port Golden on the Lehigh coal canal, where, after an energetic effort, he succeeded in inducing the school trustees to employ him to teach the school at this point at $100 per month. There had been no regular school taught here for several years, and he afterward learned that the trustees had given it to him with this unusually large salary, believing that he would follow the fate of all other teachers in a few days, and be thrown out of the window; as the pupils, who were hard customers, and who during the summer drove the mules on the canal towpath, were denominated “canal and New York wharf rats,” attended school only for devilment in winter. He easily passed the examining board for the same reason, and when he stated that he weighed 117 pounds, they all laughed and winked at each other, as much as to say, let him have his fill; it will last but a few days. It was a ground hog case, admitting of no delay. He precipitated the inevitable struggle for supremacy on the second day, before they had fully organized, winning a complete victory, and made the school of over 100 pupils a grand success, ending it after four months’ work and exhaustion of the school’s surplus finances. It was while engaged in this school that he determined on the profession of medicine as his future career, and he accordingly commenced the study under Dr. William Cole, a most estimable gentleman, whose special kindness did much toward inducing this course. Closing his school, Mr. Jennings returned to Maine and entered the office of Dr. Alonzo Garcelon, of Lewiston, becoming a member of his family, with whom he remained the balance of his pupilage, attending his first course of lectures at Dartmouth Medical College, Hanover, N. H., and two other courses at the Medical School of Maine, from which institution he graduated with honor in June, 1856. Very soon after graduating, Dr. Jennings determined to follow Greeley’s injunction and ‘‘Go West.” He accordingly gathered his little effects together, and a few days thereafter was again in the “Hub City.” He had formed no positive objective point to go to, but was inclined to turn to the then Territory of Kansas. While stopping at the American House, Boston, he was approached by a person who represented himself as an agent of a large emigrant company, who were going to Kansas to settle there, in the interest of anti-slavery. He was offered a fine repeating rifle, accoutrements, ammunitions, etc., and a free railroad ticket to Leavenworth. This offer seemed so extraordinary to Dr. Jennings, and possessing very limited means, he did not feel as though he should decline it without a better and fuller understanding of the sub-strata object and principle involved in so subtle a proposition. The farther he investigated and the more he saw, he became convinced that to accept this offer with all the binding restrictions encircling it, he must re-renounce his independence and political manhood forever. Up to this period of his life he had paid very little attention to politics, and did not consider that he had received that amount of education in this, to him, comparatively unknown wilderness, as far as he knew anything of the economic and problemic political doctrines. In local politics he had voted just as he felt disposed to favor the candidates, wholly without regard to the party they represented. He therefore followed out the design previously formed, and went to Albany, N. Y., where, by accident, he met a distant relative he had never seen before—a Mr. Robert Jennings— with whom he remained a week, enjoying the hospitalities of his relative, a rich pork-packer. From here he went to Buffalo, and was also very agreeably entertained by John A. Pitts, the great threshing machine manufacturer, who had married a sister of Robert. Thence to Niagara Falls, where he spent another week contemplating the beauties of this wonderful cascade; thence through Canada to Detroit, where he met other distant relatives, nephews of the Albany Robert—Mr. William H. and Ward H. Jennings—the former a resident of Rochester, and the latter of Lapeer, Mich. Here he was prevailed upon to go to Lapeer and practice his profession. He did so, and remained there the balance of the year 1886 and nearly all of 1887. Dr. Jennings soon secured a very good practice in Lapeer and the new and fertile country around it. Here he met Gen. L. Cass, and had the pleasure of dining with him on several important occasions. He also formed the personal acquaintance of several other inviduals, who afterward rose to marked distinction, politically, and through other channels, viz.: Zach. Chandler, Moses Wisner, Col. A. C. Baldwin and others. While in Michigan he formed the acquaintance of many of the afterward celebrities of the two, yes, all political parties, viz.: John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, W. H. Seward, of Albany, N. Y., and many other political speakers, who visited Pontiac and Detroit during the memorable canvass of this period. Although his practice was rapidly increasing in Lapeer, and he was surrounded with every prospective encouragement for advancement in his profession, yet he still yearned for other scenes and surroundings; and accordingly, late in December, 1887, he concluded to go south, and so “pulled up stakes’’ and went to Chicago. Here he met Dr. A. S. Frye, with whom he had studied medicine and attended lectures together, a bosom friend and companion, a brother of Senator W. P. Frye, of Maine. They held a regular reunion for a few days, when, bidding him good-by, Dr. Jennings went direct to Cairo, Ill., over the Illinois Central Railroad, and took passage on the Great Republic, a magnificent Mississippi River steamboat, for New Orleans, La. This journey seemed enchantment itself. All was new; boat, people, everything he saw seemed wonderful and picturesque in the extreme, and none less to him than the peculiarities of the negroes, or colored people. The great majestic river seemed alive with all sorts and conditions of boats and barges, and scarcely half an hour would elapse without passing or meeting some craft or other, and at night, the beauty of the spectacle seemed a thousand times enhanced and deepened; so much so, that sleep was out of the question, until the eye and ear were satiated, and nature had become wearied with this grand and ever changing vision. Such was the impression made upon the Doctor, that, although years, long, weary, eventful years have since passed, the vision has never faded. The commerce and travel of this mighty river were then the pride and glory of the people everywhere in the South, and the ties that this character of social travel occasionally formed became often as lasting as the lives of the parties who were thus limitedly thrown together. At the Crescent City, the Doctor again met a distant relative, Capt. Lote Jennings, whom he had never met before, and other friends who soon seemed like old acquaintances. Remaining here a few days, he embarked on a steamboat for Camden, Ark., and thence by stage to Washington, where his eldest brother, Hon. Orville Jennings, resided. Here he at once entered upon the practice of his profession by forming a co-partnership with Dr. Benjamin P. Jett, an old and highly respected physician of this place. In 1860 Dr. Jennings purchased Dr. Jett’s drug store, and ran it in connection with his practice until he disposed of it and entered the Confederate army, as surgeon of the Twelfth Arkansas Regiment, Col. E. W. Gantt commanding, to which he had been appointed and duly commissioned. This regiment was organized at Arkadelphia, and after being in camp at this place for about a month, moved from there to Little Rock, thence to Des Arc, and there took transportation boats for Memphis. In marching through Little Rock, Dr. Jennings was so much pleased with the place that he immediately wrote his brother, that should he be so fortunate as to survive the struggle then commencing, he should certainly go there to live the remainder of his life. The regiment was encamped throughout October, 1861, on the Raleigh road, about three miles from the city of Memphis, where it suffered immensely from measles; 950 out of about 1,100 men had this disease. On November 1, the regiment was sent to Columbus, Ky., arriving there a few days only previous to the battle of Belmont. In December following, it was transferred to New Madrid, Mo., where it remained throughout the winter of 1861-62. In March following, the fort at this place was captured by Gen. John Pope’s army, the regiment escaping to the Kentucky and Tennessee side of the Mississippi River. The night of the evacuation, Dr. Jennings was ordered to accompany all the sick and wounded men at the fort by steamboat to Memphis, turn them over to the post-surgeon there, and return to his command, if possible, after discharging this duty. The boat succeeded in passing Point Pleasant, twelve miles below, without observation, where a Federal battery had been stationed to prevent the escape of the Confederate forces, and arrived at Memphis with 150 odd sick, wounded and disabled. Here Dr. Jennings found the hospital excessively crowded, and without any room for others. He was accordingly ordered to proceed with his boatload of sick, wounded and disabled men, and also take charge of another steamboat, with about the same number of sick, to accompany him, and to proceed to Helena, Ark., and thence to Vicksburg, and establish Confederate hospitals there, remove the sick to them, employ civil physicians and surgeons to attend them, and on completion of this duty to return to his command. This duty was performed as rapidly as possible, notwithstanding that the authorities at Vicksburg had not made the least preparation for their reception and care. Dr. Jennings then returned to Memphis by rail, and, as soon as possible, to his regiment on a gun boat from Memphis, where he arrived just in time to participate in the abandonment of Island No. 10, and the capture of his regiment, or almost the whole of it. April 7, 1862, at Tiptonville, near the mouth of the Obion River, Dr. Jennings was taken with the balance of the command, but in the darkness of the night got separated and wandered about in the woods nearly two weeks before he could effect his escape. He got hold of a Butternut suit of clothes, which he put on over his uniform, and visited the Federal camp going on board a gunboat as a “swamp native;” his unkempt appearance from scudding under bare poles and sleeping in the bottoms, served greatly to strengthen this personated individual. He found an old boat one day, and thought he could calk up its numerous cracks and crevices, so that a dark night he could pass the Federal fleet, and make his way in this frail craft down the “Father of Waters.” He worked faithfully on the old boat with such implements at his command, viz.: an old knife and an old shirt, and thought he had succeeded admirably, but had never tested it for want of opportunity and limited time. So the first dark night he managed to drag it to the edge of the water, the river then being excessively full with overflowed banks, and with an old board rudely shaped as a paddle, he wormed his way through the thicket of willows that skirted its border, and boldly struck out into the deep, dark waters of this mighty river. Nothing could be seen but the distant lights of the great fleet of boats comprising the Federal navy of conquest, and to pass them the frail little craft, Dr. Jennings alone commanded, must hug the opposite or Missouri shore closely, or it would be observed and brought to. He struck the current, and sensibly felt the little craft spin and whirl like a kite played in the wind, but the situation and the novelty of the undertaking gave zeal and courage to the occasion. It was momentary, for a change in the motion of the boat became painfully perceptible, and conveyed an impression of weight, as though it would overturn at once with difficulty of maintenance of equilibrium. His feet and legs felt wet and cold, and putting down his hand he found the skiff was full of water, and liable to founder in a moment. The head of the skiff was now turned toward the shore it had left but a few minutes before, and propelled with all the energy human skill could exert; the effort was successful, and in a moment, none too soon, the rapidly sinking boat reached the willows again, and as luck would have it, the side of a huge forked tree anchored to the shore was felt, and in a moment more Dr. Jennings was straddle of it, and soon had his boat drawn partially upon it, where wet, weary, and completely exhausted, he patiently waited the first gleam of the dawn of day, to see how to extricate himself from the unfortunate dilemma he now found himself in. Relief came in time, and with light he found his way back to firm land again. Nothing daunted by this failure, he the next day made an arrangement with a fisherman to carry him across Redfoot Lake in his skiff, giving him a $10 greenback note, all the money he had except a few Confederate notes. The lake was over ten miles wide at this point. The next morning early they started, pushing away from the Federal picket gradually, until they got behind some cypress treetops, when they struck out through the various channels among the cypress trees, great numbers of which were standing, and presenting a truly wonderful appearance with their boughs extended, some places way above the water, and at others in it. This lake was the result of several earthquakes, and an actual volcanic eruption in the Mississippi River on the New Madrid side, when a lake south of this point was raised up, and a cypress swamp on the Tennessee side sank down correspondingly, and became known afterward as Redfoot Lake, with these trees left standing at varying heights, with their dead branches presenting a weird and ghostly appearance; and to add to this unnatural scenery they came upon two rafts, on which two or three decomposing dead bodies of soldiers, who had endeavored to escape over this same route, were lying, and in the dead branches of the cypresses were quite a number of vultures who had been feasting upon them. The sight was sickening in the extreme, and they hurriedly passed by them and landed near a little place called Wilson. Dr. Jennings then footed it to Troy, carrying his surgical instruments in an old gunny-sack. Here he lodged overnight, and in the morning tramped on his way along the track of the railroad to the Obion River. Here the bridge had been burned, and he succeeded in crossing it on a raft, nearly losing his life in the effort. He went on through Trenton to Humboldt. He found an engine with a few box-cars nearly ready to leave. He jumped aboard and went on to Jackson, thence to Grand Junction and into Memphis, where he found quite a remnant of his regiment. After a couple of days’ rest he went to Corinth, Miss., and reported to D. W. Yandall, M. D., medical director of Gen. Beauregard’s army. In a few hours thereafter, Yandall was superseded by Surgeon Ford, who ordered Dr. Jennings to report to Brig. Gen. John R. Jackson. This order was dated April 28, 1862. Gen. Jackson’s brigade of Gen. J. M. Wither’s division, consisted of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-first and Twenty-fourth Regiments of Alabama, and Fifth Regiment of Georgia. After the Farmington engagement, which followed in the earlier portion of May, Dr. Jennings was attacked with camp fever, entered the hospital at Corinth, and upon receipt of an indefinite sick-leave, went to Lafayette Depot, thirty-three miles east of Memphis, to Col. C. D. McLean’s plantation, in accordance with a previous promise made Mrs. McLean, who, on account of personal attention to her sick son William, desired to reciprocate favors in case of his sickness. Dr. Jennings remained at her house for several months, very dangerously sick; and though recovery was deemed so extremely doubtful that every preparation was made for his burial, he survived with a partial paralysis of the left half of his body, from which he did not fully recover for a long period. In August following he was able to travel, although on crutches, and was conveyed in a buggy to Holly Springs, Miss., thence by rail to Jackson, Vicksburg and Monroe, La., and thus on to Camden and Washington, Ark., which he reached sometime in November, 1882. At this place he gradually improved, and in the spring thought himself sufficiently able to return to his command. He traveled from Washington, Ark., to Jackson, Miss., alone on horseback with this object in view, but on completing the journey from Vicksburg to Jackson in the rain, he was again, at that latter place, attacked with acute rheumatism, which, as soon as he was able to travel (resigning his commission and passing an examining board), he slowly rode back over the same road to Washington, Ark., where he remained weak and feeble, until he (through permission) came into Little Rock, Ark., where he arrived on March 17, 1884. When he entered Little Rock, he was nearly naked, his clothes were ragged, and he did not have means enough at his command to purchase himself a very common meal of victuals. He found friends here that offered him immediate assistance, and he at once entered as a contract (or assistant army surgeon) in the United States army, being first given the Twelfth Michigan battery, then the Fifth Ohio, and then the garrison at Fort Steele (which fort had just been completed), and in a short time the officers’ hospital at the Woodruff building, and thence service at the St. John’s general hospital. In 1865 four assistant army surgeons, who had been assigned consecutively to the small-pox hospital, each contracted the disease, and as none of them had recovered sufficiently to return to duty, Dr. Jennings was ordered to take charge of it, which he did. After the St. John’s hospital was discontinued, Dr. Jennings was given the Freedmen’s hospital. When this latter was closed, Dr. Jennings, who had, notwithstanding his varied official positions, done a limited private practice, now devoted himself exclusively to it, and soon acquired reputation and standing in all his relations with the profession and citizens. When the Brooks-Baxter embroglio occurred in April, 1874, he sided with the cause of Gov. Baxter, and was appointed surgeon-general of his forces. He served faithfully through this trouble, but through some neglect or carelessness of the general officials, is the only officer of this renowned State that was never mustered out of service. In reality, therefore, he is the only surgeon-general of Arkansas today, as none other has since been appointed. Dr. Jennings has, therefore, been in the practice of his profession in the city of Little Rock almost twenty-six years. He has been intimately associated with the city, county and State medical organizations, in which he was one of the original movers, and has served as secretary and president of each society. He was also one of the founders of the Medical Department of the Arkansas Industrial University, and still acts as the secretary of the faculty, which he has done since its organization, in 1879. He is therefore well known throughout the profession of the State, and through his long membership in the American Medical Association, which dates from 1869, among the leading members of the profession throughout the United States. In April, 1869, Dr. Jennings married Miss Gertrude E. (daughter of William A. Elliott) of Camden, Ark., by whom he has had three children: Octavia, Orville and Elliott Crews. He still practices his profession in the city of Little Rock.

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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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