Biography of Manoah B Hampton, Greene Co, AR

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Submitted by: Michael Brown
        Date: 5 Sep 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas

page 141

Manoah B. Hampton. This name is synonymous in Greene County, Ark., with successful
agriculture, for Mr. Hampton has been one of its enterprising tillers of the soil
since 1878. He was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., in 1841, and is a son of James M.
and Melissa (Owen) Hampton, who were also born in that State, the former's birth
occurring in 1812 and the latter's in 1823. The father was reared to maturity in
Lincoln County, Tenn., and there continued to make his home until 1871, then moving
to West Tennessee, where he died in 1876, having been an active member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and a stanch supporter of Christianity and education. His
wife died in Shelby County, Tenn., in 1883; she was a daughter of William Owen, a
prominent farmer of the middle portion of that State, where he died in 1861, being
eighty years old. The paternal grandfather. James M. Hampton, was born, reared and
married in North Carolina, and after becoming the father of a number of children.
moved to Tennessee and located on a plantation in Lincoln County, where he became a
wealthy planter and slaveholder. He died in 1858 or 1859 at the age of eighty years,
he, as well as the maternal grandfather, having been an earnest member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. The immediate subject of this sketch is one of the
following children: Martin F., Pinkney P., Pleasant R. (deceased), Manoah B., James
W., Martha J., Mary (deceased), John T., Franklin H. (deceased), Narcissa A., Maggie
(deceased), and Nancy S. Manoah Hampton attained his majority in Lincoln County,
Tenn., and received his early education in the old log school house. He remained with
his parents until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted in 1861 in the
Confederate army, in Company K, First Tennessee Regiment, under Col. Turner, and was
at first and second Manassas, Cedar Mountain, under Stonewall Jackson, Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Gettysburg,
Richmond and Petersburg, besides numerous other engagements. At Hanover Junction he
was wounded by a spent cannon ball striking him in the left side. He was taken
prisoner at Shepherdstown, Md., and taken to Baltimore jail, where he and 800 others
were condemned to be hung. They were afterward taken to Point Lookout, Md., where
they were kept in prison for eight months, then being exchanged. He, however,
remained there until the final surrender, when he returned home and continued his
farm work until 1867. Later he moved to Shelby County, Tenn., and in 1878 to
Arkansas, as above stated. He has an excellent farm here, with 100 acres of it under
cultivation, and is doing well financially. He was married in 1866 to Miss Mollie
Stevenson, who was born in Giles County, Tenn., in 1848; she became the mother of
three children: John B., who died at the age of eleven months; Mattie M., wife of
James R. Miller, deputy clerk of Greene County; and Sally N., who lives at home. Mr.
Hampton is now rearing a little girl by the name of Anna Davis. He is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, a stanch supporter of churches and schools, and in his
political views is a Democrat.