Biography of John R Starnes, 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 173

The growth and prosperity of Greene County, Ark., has been upon a scale
commensurate with the immigration to this region in past years, and this
prosperity is largely due to the members of the agricultural profession,
prominent among which stands the name of Mr. Starnes. He was born in
Lauderdale County, Tenn., in 1829, and there remained until 1871, having
been engaged in farming for himself since 1861. Since the year 1871 he has
resided in Greene County, Ark., and since 1876 has been a resident of his
present farm, where he is doing a prosperous business, and besides being
engaged in tilling the soil, gives considerable attention to stock raising.
He was married in 1861 to Miss Elizabeth Lacey, who was born in Henderson
County, Tenn., in 1838, and is the mother of three children: Josephus,
Marshall and Parlee. Mr. and Mrs. Starnes are members of the Baptist
Church, of which he is an active supporter, and in his political views he
is a stanch Republican. His parents, Marshall and Sarah (Golden) Starnes,
were born in Tennessee and North Carolina, respectively, in 1818, and were
married on the 6th of December, 1838. The father was reared in Tipton
County, Tenn., but when a young man located in West Tennessee, on a farm,
and there continued to make his home until 1871, when he came to Arkansas,
and is now residing in Greene County on the farm on which he first settled.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was his wife, who died
March 21, 1849. They were the parents of four children, John R. being the
only one living. The father took for his second wife Parlee Johnson, on the
28th of May, 1851, and by her had twelve children, six now living: Mary J.,
Militia E., Martha F., Moses, Nancy P. and James. The paternal grandfather,
Moses Starnes, was a Virginian, who became a resident of Tennessee at an
early day and died at middle age, having reared a large family of children.