Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - L. B. Byars

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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L. B. Byars, senior partner of the firm of Byars & Co., was born in De Soto 
County, Miss., in 1842, and is a son of Abraham and Sarah (Moreland) Byars, 
natives of Rutherford District, S. C., who, after their marriage, went to 
Alabama. From there they went to Mississippi, and in 1874 came to Crawford 
County, Ark., where the father died in 1885, and the mother is still living, at 
the age of eighty-five. Mr. Byars was a son of Strippling Byars, who settled in 
Alabama in an early day. Our subject is the eighth of a family of nine children, 
and during his youth received a common-school education. In 1866 he married 
Nancy J. Cathy, also a native of De Soto County, Miss., in which county he 
farmed until 1870. After coming to Crawford County, at that time, he farmed here 
one year, and then engaged in the mercantile business with B. P. Renfroe for 
three years, after which he farmed five years and clerked one year. In 1883 he 
established his present business with L. T. Byars, his nephew, as a partner, but 
the firm, which is now known as Byars & Co., is composed of our subject and H. 
S. Lewers. They transact one of the largest businesses in the county, their 
stock being valued at $4,000, and their annual sales amounting to about $8,000. 
Their stock of general merchandise is well selected, and they are prosperous and 
leading men in the community. Mr. and Mrs. Byars belong to the Christian Church, 
and have had seven children, four of whom are living. Mr. Byars is a Democrat, 
and cast his first presidential vote for Seymour, in 1868. During the war he 
served in the Confederate army, in Company B, in Wirt Adams' regiment of 
Mississippi cavalry, operating in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and 
Louisiana. He was present at the fights of Shiloh and Vicksburg, and 
participated in a number of skirmishes. He surrendered at Gainesville, Ala., in 
1865.