Rev. Eli W. Pharr, 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 Rev. Eli W. Pharr, one of the honored and respected old residents of Ouachita County, Arkansas, should be accorded a worthy place in this volume, for he has been associated with the agricultural interests of the county since 1849. He was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, February 25, 1819, being a son of Samuel T. and Mary W. (Guffin) Pharr, the father of whom was born in South Carolina, in 1792, having been a tiller of the soil, and a minister of the gospel by occupation. He and wife became the parents of four children, two of whom are living at the present time: Eli W. and Mary A. (wife of William G. Casey, a resident of Alabama). At an early day Samuel T. Pharr removed from his native State to Georgia, and from there to Arkansas, in 1849, settling in the northern part of the State, his wife dying here in 1880, and earnest member of the Presbyterian Church. Eli W. Pharr first started in life for himself at the age of twenty-one years as a farmer and was married in 1840, to Miss Elizabeth Lowe, a native of South Carolina, by whom he became the father of seven children, four of whom are now living: John W. (a farmer and merchant of this county), Mary L. (wife of L. R. Hollingsworth, a resident of Hughes Springs, Texas), Edward I. (a farmer and merchant of Columbia County, Arkansas), and Joseph S. (a farmer of this county). The mother of these children died in 1856, a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, and in 1857 Mr. Pharr espoused Mrs. Parthenia Seehorn, a widow of Alex Seehorn. She was born in Mississippi, in 1820, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Pharr received an excellent education in his youth, and for some time was an attendant of a college at Graffenburg, Alabama, which was under the management of P. M. Sheppard. He also graduated from a medical college in 1854, after which he entered actively upon the practice of that profession, continuing from 1855 to 1856, in Alabama, when he removed to Arkansas, and from that time until 1873, was a practitioner in Union County. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1864, being a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and has been actively engaged in the saving of souls ever since. He is well to do as far as worldly goods is concerned, and is now the owner of about 400 acres of good farming land, with about 200 acres improved. His principal crop is cotton and corn, and he is a partner in a fine steam cotton-gin and grist mill. He belongs in the Masonic fraternity, and in his professional as well as social relations, he is esteemed and respected by many.