Biography of C R Handford, 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 675 

C. R. Handford & Co., manufacturers of mountain red cedar, telegraph
poles, railway piling, sawed and split fence posts, cedar shingles and pickets,
oak, yellow pine, sycamore, walnut, ash and cottonwood lumber, have the largest
enterprise of the kind in this part of the State, and do an immense business in
the manufacturing line. This [p.675] business was established in 1884, and has
been in successful operation since its organization. The firm employs a great
many hands, and carries on business the year round. The senior member of this
firm, Charles R. Handford, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1842, and was
partly reared in that State, and in Philadelphia, Penn. He subsequently moved
to Cincinnati, Ohio, and thence to Kansas, leaving Philadelphia in 1854. In
1856 he arrived in Wyandotte County, Kas., just as the border trouble was
beginning, and there he worked at the lumber business, and at farming, securing
such education as the time afforded. He came to Arkansas in 1872, in August,
before the Iron Mountain Railroad was built, and located in Pulaski County,
going then to Saline County. He was married in Iowa, to Miss Sarah Brown, who
bore him six children: Myrtle, Stanley, Charles, Jack, Willie and Frances. In
1884 Mr. Handford came to Batesville with his family, and in that year the
present business was established. He owns a nice residence in that town, and is
also interested as a stockholder in the Bank of Batesville. His parents, Joseph
and Narcissa (Robertson) Handford, were natives of Philadelphia, Penn., and
Ohio, and descendants of English and Scotch ancestors, respectively. Charles R.
Handford enlisted in the Federal army while living in Wyandotte, Kas., in 1862,
Company A, Sixth Kansas Cavalry, and served until August, 1865. He participated
in all the principal engagements, and was never sick a day, nor was he ever
wounded or captured. The junior member of the above-mentioned firm, J. S.
Handford, was born in the city of Philadelphia, in 1854, and went to Kansas
with his parents. He engaged first as a clerk in a dry goods store, and was
thus occupied for a number of years. In 1876 he engaged in the saw-mill
business in Arkansas, and carried this on for about twelve years, being
interested in it at the present. He became a member of the firm at Batesville
in 1884. He was elected president of the Batesville Bank on the 1st of July,
1889, at its organization, and now holds that position. He was married in
December, 1879, to Miss Abbie J. Boyer, a native of Illinois, and to them were
born five children. Mr. Handford is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and is also
a member of the K. of P.