Biography of C. C. Colburn, Franklin Co, AR *********************************************************** Submitted by: Date: 16 Aug 1998 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************** SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889. C. C. Colburn, editor and proprietor of the Ozark Democrat, was born in what is now Logan County, Ark., July 3, 1845. His father, Ferdinand M., was born in Montgomery, Ala., and after attaining his majority settled in Johnson County, Ark. He was engaged in journalistic work all his life, and edited the first secession paper published in Arkansas. For some time he was in the newspaper business in Clarksville, and then went to Dardanelle, and later continued the same business at Fort Smith, where he died in 1863. He was a soldier in the Confederate service, and participated in the battle at Oak Hill. His first wife was formerly Miss Jane Rogers, and she was married to Mr. Colburn in Johnson County, Ark. She died in 1849, when our subject was but a child, after which Mr. Colburn was married a second time. C. C. Colburn lived in Johnson County until fourteen, and then went to Fort Smith. Having learned the printer's trade he started a paper at Fort Smith when but sixteen years old, which he published about six months. In 1863 he enlisted in the Southern army under Col. Lee Thompson, and among others participated in the battles of Fayetteville, Mark's Mill, Poison Springs and Pilot Point. He accompanied Price upon his raid through Missouri, and upon the retreat, in a battle near Fort Scott, received a slight wound in the foot from a piece of shell, which caused him to be taken prisoner. He was held until the close of the war, a period of six months, when he was exchanged. In 1866 he went to Texas, but returning located at Van Buren, where for nine years he worked as a journeyman. In April, 1873, he wedded Anne E., daughter of Judge John B. Ogden; she received a good English education at Van Buren and Fayetteville. Mr. Colburn removed to Little Rock in 1875, but two years later came to Ozark to assume the editorship [p.1232] of a paper. He soon obtained a lease of the paper, and two years later became the proprietor of the organ, through which he has since kept the people of Ozark informed of current events. He devotes his paper to the advancement and improvement of the county, and is a firm advocate of education, temperance and morality. Mr. and Mrs. Colburn have had five children, of whom Jane and Flora are the only ones living. Clara, the eldest, died aged three: Claudius, aged nine, and Ernest, aged three. Mr. Colburn is Noble Grand in the Ozark I. O. O. F. Lodge, and himself and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.