Biography of Elisha M Flinn, Independence Co, AR

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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas. 
Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
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page 667 

Elisha M. Flinn is a native of Guilford County, N. C., and was born in
1828. He is a son of Dr. Jesse W. and Margaret (Bowen) Flinn, both of North
Carolina. Dr. Jesse W. Flinn was born September 4, 1801, and lived in North
Carolina until our subject was three or four years of age, when he removed to
Madison County, Ky., and thence, in 1839, to McMinn County, Tenn., where Mrs.
Flinn died in 1844. Mr. Flinn married again, and in 1857 located in
Independence County, Ark., where he spent the remainder of his life as a farmer
and stock raiser, also practicing medicine to some extent; when young he was
for several years engaged as a circus performer; his death occurred in
Greenbriar Township in 1873. John Flinn, paternal grandfather of Elisha M., was
of Irish descent, and served as a soldier in the Revolution; he died in North
Carolina at the advanced age of one hundred and four years, still retaining his
eyesight. The maternal grandparents of our subject died when Mrs. Flinn was
quite small. To Jesse W. and Margaret Flinn were born three children. Elisha M.
received his early education in the common schools, and afterward attended for
eighteen months Eastmalla Academy, Eastern Tennessee, which qualified him to
teach, which profession he followed only one term as assistant. In 1852 Mr.
Flinn married Elizabeth, daughter of William and Tempie Moore, natives of North
Carolina, who spent the latter part of their lives in Independence County, Ark.
Mrs. Flinn was born in McMinn County, Tenn., and died in 1864, leaving one
daughter, Mary, now the wife of Jefferson Porter. In 1866 Mr. Flinn married
Anna Todd, a native of Randolph County, who died in 1872. Three children were
born to the latter union, viz.: James R., Emma Vernettie, and Jesse Lee
(deceased). Mr. Flinn located on his present farm in Independence County in
1856, and for the past thirty-three years has made his home there. He has 200
acres of fine farm land, of which 140 acres are under cultivation. He traded
extensively at one time, driving stock to Georgia and Florida. In the latter
part of 1861 he enlisted in Company C, Col. Newton's regiment of Arkansas
cavalry, and served as orderly sergeant, and quartermaster three and a half
years; he was in the battles of Little Rock, Cape Girardeau, Jefferson City,
and others, and was with Gen. Price on his raid through Missouri and Kansas.
During service he was twice slightly wounded. After the war he returned to his
farm, to which he has since devoted his entire attention. [p.667] He is
politically a Democrat, and for fifteen years has been a member of the A. F. &
A. M., Neill Lodge, of Jamestown.