Biography of James A Meacham, 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 698

James A. Meacham, an energetic tiller of the soil, in Independence County,
Ark., was born on the west fork of the Cumberland River, in Montgomery County,
Tenn., October 29, 1810, and is one of three living members of a family of
eight children born to John W. Meacham and Mary Allen, both of whom were born
in the State of Tennessee, the former a native of Montgomery County, where he
was also reared and educated. He was an industrious and fairly successful
agriculturist, and showed his approval of secret societies by joining the
Masonic order, of which he was an active member. In 1814 he moved to the State
of Arkansas, which at that time was a Territory, and the nearest market where
he could sell the products of his farm, and the results of his hunting and
trapping expeditions, and purchase necessary articles, was St. Louis, Mo. His
wife was a member of the Methodist Church. James A. Meacham was educated in the
common schools of Independence County, attending a school taught by John
Daniels, in Batesville, which was the first house of the kind erected in the
town. He was married to Miss Mary N. Fenley, a Georgian, who was born on the
23d of January, 1812, their nuptials taking place on the 30th of April, 1835.
Of six daughters and two sons born to them, five of the family are still
living. Mr. Meacham owns 220 acres of fertile land, and, by industry and
judicious management, has put about 120 acres under the plow. He has been a
member of the Masonic order for about thirty years, and is an active member of
the Methodist Church. He was a border ranger for one year during the 30's, but
his services were not afterward needed. James A. Meacham, who is still a hale
and hearty old man, has sixty-six grandchildren, and twenty-one great-
grandchildren.