Arkansas County, Arkansas - M. F. Pike  - Bio

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        Date: 20 Jun 1998
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SOURCE:  Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern 
Arkansas. Chicago:Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.
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M. F. Pike is prominently engaged in the mercantile business at Golden Hill, and has been
postmaster of that place for the past five years. Born in Alabama, he was a son of Capt.
John and Eliza (East) Pike, natives respectively of North Carolina and Tennessee. They
were married in Alabama and made that their home until 1849, then coming to Arkansas and
locating a claim in the woods, five miles from Mount Adams, where they spent the rest of
their lives. Mr. Pike died in 1868 at the age of sixty-three, and his wife ten years
later, when sixty-six years old. He was a son of Gen. Pike, a soldier and general in the
War of 1812, who, a native of North Carolina, moved to Alabama when the father of our
subject was a boy, and in 1855 removed to Arkansas and settled in this county, where he
died in 1856. 

M. F. Pike was born in Madison County, Ala., in 1846, but was reared and educated in
Arkansas County. He enlisted in April, 1861, in the Confederate service, and took part in
a number of hard-fought battles; was captured on February 14, 1864, and taken to New
Orleans, and was held captive for nearly a year. He was then exchanged at the mouth of the
Red River, and joined Gen. Fagan's escort, in which he served until a short time before
the close of the war, when he received his discharge and returned home. Of five brothers
and two cousins who left his father's house and joined the Southern army, all returned
home in safety. 

Mr. Pike was married on May 12, 1866, to Louisa S. Gravett, of Madison County, Ala. They
are the parents of six children, one son and five daughters. Mr. Pike has a farm of 120
acres, with fifty acres under cultivation. He entered into the mercantile business in 1889
at Golden Hill, but also still continues farming. Mrs. Pike has been a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church for a number of years.