Biography of Roderick Joyner - Craighead Co, AR

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Submitted by: Unknown < >
        Date: 26 Sep 1998
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1889.

page 338

Dr. Roderick Joyner, a successful medical practitioner of
Jonesboro, was born in Limestone County, Ala., July 22, 1833, and is a
son of Roderick and Emily (Williams) Joyner, both natives [p.338] of the
“Old Dominion.” The father was a soldier in the War of 1812, and in 1818
moved to Alabama, where he was a successful farmer in early life, and
later engaged in mercantile business. In 1859 he immigrated to Poinsett
County, Ark., locating five miles south of Harrisburg. He died in
Harrisburg in 1866, his wife having previously died in 1860. They were
the parents of eight children, four now living: Elizabeth (wife of G. B.
Parker, residing in Florida), Emily V. (wife of Judge John A. Tinnon, of
Nashville, Tenn.), Mary P. (wife of S. O. Nelson, of Montgomery, Ala.),
and Roderick, who is the youngest living member of the family. Dr. Joyner
was reared and educated in Limestone County, Ala., and when fourteen
years of age engaged in the drug business, and when twenty years old
began the study of medicine. He practiced some in Memphis, where he was a
druggist a number of years, and in 1859 came to Poinsett County, Ark.,
where he continued the practice of his profession. He also dealt in
general merchandise for several years, and in 1872 was elected to the
State legislature; in 1874 was elected a member of the State
constitutional convention, and in 1878 was re-elected to the State
legislature. In 1884 he came to Jonesboro, and the following year went
into the drug business and during the five years he has been in Jonesboro
he has built up a splendid custom and a wide practice, and has won the
esteem and confidence of the people. Being a physician of extraordinary
ability, and possessing the rare gift of bringing social sunshine as well
as medical skill into the sickroom, he stands high among medical
practitioners of his section of the State. In the late war he served in
the Twenty-third Arkansas Regiment until after the surrender. In 1860 he
was married to Mary E. Bradshaw, who bore him ten children, four now
living: Thomas W., Augustus G., Elisha B. and Mary E. Mrs. Joyner died in
1883, and the following year Dr. Joyner was again married, to Mrs. Martha
A. (Knight) Moberly. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and she of the
Methodist. Dr. Joyner is a Democrat in politics, and is a Royal Arch
Mason.