Biography of Parnic Reed, Mississippi Co, AR

*********************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE:
In keeping with our policy of providing free Information on the
Internet,  data  may be used by  non-commercial entities, as long as
this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages
may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by
other persons or organizations.
Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes
other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file
contributor.

Submitted by: Michael Brown
        Date: Sep 1998
*********************************************************************

Bibliography: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas.
Chicago:  Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.

Parnic Reed is one of the leading agriculturists of
Mississippi County, Ark., and since locating here, many years ago (in
1845), has seen many changes in the growth and development of this
community. He was born in the “Hoosier State” in 1826, and was reared
to the occupation of blacksmithing, but after leaving home, on the 8th
of June, 1843, he spent two years in fiat-boating on the river, and
after a short time spent in Illinois, came to Mississippi County,
Ark., locating at Hickman's Bend, where he was engaged in boating and
rafting, and kept a wood yard. At that time all the white settlers
lived contiguous to the river, the interior being still occupied by
the Indians, and wild animals of all kinds roamed the woods at will.
After residing in this locality until the 20th of May, 1854, he moved
to Kansas, where he followed teaming for some time, and during the
Kansas War was in the battle of Lawrence, and a [p.548] number of
other engagements in the spring of 1856. The following year he loaded
all his effects on a flat boat and floated down the Missouri and
Mississippi rivers to Hickman's Bend, in Mississippi County, Ark., at
which place he landed on the 22d of December, 1857, then buying land
on Buford Lake, where he soon had a good home. The most of his
attention was given to stock farming, in which enterprise he was very
extensively engaged during the Rebellion. He continued to make this
his residence for about twenty years, opening up some sixty acres in
the meantime, but sold out in 1875 and came to Clear Lake, where he
purchased the farm on which he is now residing, which comprises a
tract of about 100 acres under cultivation of some of the best land in
this sectiou, the most of which he devotes to the raising of corn and
cotton. He has been so unfortunate as to lose four wives, but is at
present living happily with his fifth wife. His first union was to
Miss Nancy J. Cotton, whom he married November 9, 1847. She was a
native of Missouri and died in Illinois, February 12, 1849, and was
buried with her child. His second marriage was to Miss Ellen Pints, of
Mississippi County, whose death occurred on the 11th of April, 1851,
she leaving a daughter named Elner, who died in the State of Kansas at
the age of six years, on the 30th of June, 1857. Susan Sawyer, a
native of Tennessee, and a member of a well-known family of that
State, became his third wife February 12, 1852, but she left him again
a widower on the 12th of April, 1874. Mr. Reed next espoused Miss
Caroline A. Mannen, a native of Mississippi County, who died a short
time after her marriage, in 1875, also being buried with her child.
His fifth and present wife, was Mrs. M. J. Rackley, a Kentuckian by
birth, who was the mother of four children by a previous marriage. She
and Mr. Reed have one child, a daughter, named Rebecca Susan. Mr.
Reed's various occupations through life have been somewhat
diversified, but unlike the old saying, “jack of all trades and master
of none,” he has been reasonably prosperous in every enterprise to
which he has given his attention, and now, during his declining years,
can look back over a useful and well-spent life. He has always been
quite an active politician, and has affiliated with the Democratie
party.