William James, Calhoun County, AR

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SOURCE: Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
Contributed by Carol Smith.
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Calhoun County, Arkansas - from Goodspeed's History of Arkansas

William James. In compiling a correct history of Calhoun County, mention should certainly be made of one of its oldest and best known
residents. Mr. James has been a resident of this county ever since its organization in 1850, and is still residing on the place on which he settled
on first coming to this county. He was married in 1841, wedding Miss Mariah Brazil, by whom he has had a family of twelve children, viz: Robert,
Lydia J., Cynthia, John, Elizabeth, Martha, Mary M., Alabama and Tennessee (twins), George, Nancy A., and one child unnamed. Tennessee,
George and the one unnamed are dead. The rest of the children, with the exception of Nancy A., who married Mr. Thomas J. Owens, and resides
in Perry County, Arkansas, are all residents of Calhoun County. Mrs. James was a daughter of V. E. and Virginia Brazil, who moved from Illinois
to Missouri, thence to Arkansas, settling in Saline County in 1828, where they lived for sometime. They finally moved to Ouachita County,
where they resided until their death. Mr. James enlisted in the late war in February, 1863, in Company K, Thirty-third Arkansas Infantry, and
served as private until the close of the war. He participated in the battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. In politics Mr. James is Democratically
inclined; in 1862 he was elected as bailiff. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, which he joined sixteen years ago, also the Farmers' Union.
He is also a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, which he joined in 1850, and his family are all church members, with the exception of his
son, Robert. Mr. James was born in Ripley County, Missouri, March 3, 1822, the youngest of seventeen children born to Carey James, a resident
of Ripley County, and came to Saline County, Arkansas in 1833, where he was raised by his brother, George, his parents having died previously.
As schools were very scarce in this county at that time, his education was extremely limited. In 1844 he moved from Saline County to Ouachita,
and resided in this latter county until the organization of Calhoun County, when he moved on the farm where he occupies at present. His farm
consists of 320 acres of land, with about sixty-five acres under cultivation, which he devotes principally to the raising of cotton and corn,
raising one bale of the former to three acres of land, and fifteen bushels of corn to the acre, without fertilizing. By using fertilizers he could raise
one-half bale of cotton and thirty bushels of corn to the acre. He is one of the substantial farmers of this section, is a worthy citizen, and is
respected by all.