Biography of Robert T Powell, Sebastian Co, AR ********************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ********************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hon. Robert T. Powell, of Greenwood, is a native of Bedford County, Tenn., and was born in 1853, to the marriage of Judge Richard H. and Jane Taylor (Temple) Powell. The father was born near Petersburg, Va., in 1826, and is of Irish- Scotch-Welsh extraction. At the age of five years he went to Tennessee with his father, Thomas Powell, who died about 1854. Judge Powell was married in Bedford County, Tenn., to Miss Jane T. Temple, who was born in the last named county in 1831. She died in 1870. The Judge moved to Arkansas, and since becoming a resident of this State has resided in Independence and Izard Counties. He was in the late war, and was a captain; was captured in Independence County, Ark., and was held a prisoner at Johnson's Island during the greater portion of the war. He is an attorney by profession; was educated in law at Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tenn., and commenced his practice at Louisburg, Tenn. In 1860 he moved to Arkansas, began practicing at Batesville, and soon became distinguished in his profession. He was a member of the Legislature from 1862 to 1866, and was elected circuit judge of the Seventh Judicial District in 1866. In the year 1878 he was re-elected to the same office in the Third Judicial District, and was re-elected in 1882 and 1886, the district now being the Fourteenth. Judge Powell has served constantly for the last ten years, and at the last election had no opposition. He is a man of prominence and a person of eminent legal ability. He has been married three times, and is the father of eight children living, six by the first wife and two by the last. Robert T. Powell was the second child born to the first marriage. He was educated at La Cross Academy, in Izard County, and then attended the North Arkansas College, at Batesville. At the age of twenty-one he became a disciple of Blackstone under his father's instruction, and in 1879 he entered the law department of Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., where he remained seven months, being admitted to the bar at Nashville, Tenn., in 1880. The same year he returned to Arkansas, going to Fort Smith, where he was admitted to the bar. On October 3, 1880, he came to Greenwood, Sebastian County, opened an office, and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. Mr. Powell is Democratic in his political opinions, and in October, 1882, was appointed deputy county clerk of Sebastian County, and served two years. He has devoted the greater portion of his time to the practice of law, and in connection he deals in real estate. Hon. Robert T. Powell is one of the leading attorneys of Sebastian County, and a man universally respected. March 21, 1883, he married Miss Ida M. King, a daughter of E. W. King, and a native of Virginia, born in 1855. They are the parents of one child, Arte Lee. Mr. Powell is the owner of 800 acres of land, and good town property in Greenwood and Fort Smith; is a Master Mason, is an ancient member of the I. O. O. F., belongs to the K. of H., and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.