Biography of Joseph E. Duran - Conway Co, AR

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Submitted by: Cathy Barnes <bbarnes@cswnet.com>
        Date: 21 Jun 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.

page 64

Dr. Joseph E. Duran, of Ada, this county, was born in Alabama, January 27, 1837.
He is the fourth son of ten children born to Joseph E. and Catherine C.
(Carmichael) Duran. Paternal grandparents were among the earliest settlers in
Tennessee, where father was born in 1807. He moved to Alabama in 1837, and
resided in that State till his death in 1876. He was a most active and
enterprising citizen, and held the office of Sheriff of Marshall County,
Alabama, for fourteen years. He was married in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1826,
to Catherine, a native of Tennessee, where she was born in 1807. She died in
1883. They were both long-time members of the Presbyterian Church. Joseph, the
subject of this sketch, began life for himself at the age of 20, by farming on
his father's land, and was married in Marshall County, Alabama, in 1858, to Miss
Mary E. Jennings, a daughter of Elisha and Louisa (Head) Jennings. She was born
in South Carolina, August 25, 1839. To this union have been born thirteen
children, eight of whom are now living, and are married: Andrew M., Mary E.,
Frances E, Margaret E., James R., John W., Alberta G., and Joseph E. Mrs.
Duran's parents were natives of South Carolina, where father was born in 1805,
and mother in 1810. They were married in 1828, and were the parents of fourteen
children, eight sons and six daughters, five of whom survive parents. Moved from
South Carolina to Alabama in 1856, and from that State to Arkansas in 1873,
where they settled in Faulkner County. They were both sturdy members of the
Baptist Church, and died (father) in 1875, and (mother) in 1878. The doctor was
a soldier in the late war, enlisted in Company I, Fourth Alabama Regiment in
1862, was in many battles, and saw much hard fighting during the entire term; he
was wounded by gun shot in the hand, and served till the close in 1865. He then
returned home and engaged in farming, and in 1868, began the study of medicine,
beginning the practice of that profession in Independence County, in 1873, and
has been in constant practice since. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, a
Democrat politically, and he and Mrs. Duran, are members of the Baptist Church.