John Parr, Ouachita County, AR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889. Contributed by Carol Smith. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ouachita County, Arkansas - from Goodspeed's History of Arkansas John Parr, an old resident of Jefferson Township, owes his nativity to Maury County, Tennessee where his birth occurred on July 21, 1827, and is the son of William and Dolly (Johnson) Parr, the father born in North Carolina, February 11, 1794, and the mother in Tennessee, in 1795. The parents were married in the last-named State, but emigrated to Ouachita County, Arkansas in 1844, and were among the earliest settlers of the same. There they passed their last days, the father dying in 1877, and the mother in 1881. The paternal grandfather, John Parr, Sr., was a native of England, and was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. The maternal grandfather, George W. Johnson was a native of Wales. Brought up as an agriculturist, it was but natural that our subject should permanently adopt that calling as his life occupation, and he has always followed it. He was married in this county in 1852 to Miss Mary A. Mendenhall, a native of Alabama, who died in 1873. To them were born five children, four now living: Thomas M., Medora A. (wife of W. B. Randall), Joannah C. (wife of S. W. Anderson), and John T. On August 29, 1880, Mr. Parr took his second wife Miss Nannie R. Anderson, who was born in Tennessee, and one child, Jewel, was the result of this union. Mr. Parr has resided in this township since 1844, except about two years, and is the possessor of 160 acres of good land with about fifty acres under cultivation. He served in the Confederate army from 1861 until the close of the war, and was in a number of the principal engagements: Prairie Grove, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Jenkins' Ferry, and many skirmishes. A few years after his first wife's death he went tot he Lone Star State, and was there engaged in teaching school and peddling tinware, in order to see the country, for over a year. In August , 1879, he joined a party of sixteen men and started to Leadville, Colorado, but only got as far as Dodge City, when he gave up the idea of going to that point. He then went from Dodge City to Mexico, a distance of over 400 miles, where he was occupied in viewing the surrounding country. Seeing, however, nothing to compare with the State of Arkansas, he returned to Dodge City, Kansas, where he had left his hack, bought two ponies and returned to this State through the Indian Territory. Here he ahs since resided, and is one of Ouachita County's best citizens and farmers. He and wife are members of the Christian Church.