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Submitted: 10/4/11 • Approved: 8/11/17 • Last Updated: 8/14/17 • R596566-G0-S3
April 28, 1852 - August 22, 1907
John Wilkerson is engaged in farming, and saw-milling in Magnolia Township, and since seven years of age has been a resident of this county, and here received his education and rearing. He was born in Marengo County, Ala., April 28, 1852, to Francis and Dicey A (Manes) Wilkerson, natives of Alabama, who took up their abode in Arkansas in 1859. Although the father was a carpenter by trade, on first coming to Arkansas he kept a grocery store in Magnolia for some time. When the Rebellion broke out, he entered the Confederate army, as a private, serving faithfully until the close of the war, and spent the following three years as a farmer of Louisiana, whither he had moved during the war, purchasing a farm in Caddo Parish, near Shreveport, where he spent the rest of his days, dying in 1869. His widow survives him, being a resident of Bossier Parish, La. Of the eleven children she bore her husband, only three are now living: John, Georgiana (wife of W. E. Boss, of Louisiana), and Meda (wife of J. J. Peterson). John Wilkerson never attended school a day in his life, but by close, self-application he secured a fair education, and is now one of the best-informed men on the general topics of the day, as can be found in the county. He first began farming on a place he had purchased on credit, and also on rented land, and by hard work succeeded in paying for his place, which consisted of eighty acres of wild land. He had fifty acres improved, with good buildings of all kinds, and although his place was small, he farmed intelligently, and thus made his land yield considerably more than many larger farms. He now has 280 acres, with 125 acres improved, and on its is a fine steam cotton-gin and a saw and shingle mill. He gins annually from 125 to 150 bales of cotton each year, and also manufactures a great deal of lumber and shingles. He lives only a short distance from town, and finds a ready sale for his product. Besides his home farm he owns two other places, one consisting of 160 acres, with thirty-five under cultivation, and the other of 280 acres, with fifty u8nder the plow, both being improved with fair buildings. Twenty years ago he had comparatively nothing, but he is now one of the wealthy men of the county, for which he has no one to thank but himself. His marriage to Miss Nancy V. A. Robinson took place in 1872, her parents being John and Narcissa (Houston) Robinson, and to the union of the latter couple the following family have been born: Louisa M. (wife of John Brown, of Texas), James B. (of Montgomery County, Tex), John (also of that State), and Nancy V. A., living, and three children deceased. Mrs. Robinson died in 1853, and her husband afterward married Louisa Wheeler, of Sevier County, and now resides in Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and to their union a family of seven children have been born: James, Leander, Lou E., Willie, Mattie, Arazona and Rena. (Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas - Goodspeeds Publishing Company - 1890)
Contributed on 10/4/11 by debbraszymanski
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Record #: 596566