Vinston S Grisham

Vinston S Grisham was born in Tennessee on March 15, 1827, and is a son of Moses Grisham, of North Carolina, who participated in some of the early Indian wars under Gen Jackson.  He was reared in Northern Alabama, receiving a common school education, and by contact with the business affairs of everyday life afterward acquired a valuable amount of general information.  Being reared to the occupation of farming in his youth, he has made that his calling through life, and by keen business foresight and industry he has become the ower of 450 acres of valuable land about one half of which is in actual cultivation and improved.  In 1848 he was married at Holly Springs, Miss., to Miss Christiana K Dishough, by whom he became the fathr of eight children:  William E (No forty-two years of age), Elizabeth P (deceased), Mary E (aged thirty-eight years), Wilton T (aged thirty-six), three having died in their infancy, Rebecca A (aged twenty-five).  Mr. Grisham was a participant in the Mexican War and served under Jefferson Davis for twelve months, enlisting in 1846 in Company I, First Mississippi Infantry services, and was at the battle of Monterey.  He was take sick at this place, and after remaining in the hospital for six months he removed to New Orleans, wehre his company was disbanded in Jul, 1847.  In the spring of 1862 he joined the Confederate army, and served under Gens. Forrest and Chalmers, and the first battle of importance in which he took part was at West Point, where Gen Forrest's brother was killed.  He was next at Collierville, Tenn, in two battles at that place, then Columbus, Miss., fort Pillow, Tenn., where he acted as a sharpshooter, and lastly at Selma, Ala.  Here he was paroled, afer which he returned to his home in Mississippi, and made a crop, but becoming dissatisfied with the country on account of the scarcity of schools, and wishing to give his children good educational advantages, he determined to seek a more favorable location, and came to Drew County, Ark.,where he proceeded to make a home for hiself and family.  He is a Democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and socially belongs to the A.F.& A. M.  His eldest son, William E, wasmarried to Miss Eugenia Pruit, of Drew County, by whom he was the father of six children - three sons and three daughters:  Wilton T. (married Miss Julia Lamb, a daughter of Thomas lamb, by who he is the father of nine children, two decased, of the surviving ones are five sons and two daughters), Mary E (became the wife of William H Boyt, and removed with him to Texas in 1875, thence to India Territory, where he died leaving a wife and five children to mourn his loss, five having preceded him, the eldest one living being a son of sixteen years), Elizabeth P. (was married to T P Howell, of Drew County, died on April 4, 1888 at the age of thirty-seven years; she ws the mother of ten children, six of them having preceded her; she left a husband and four surviving childre, the eldest being a daughter of twenty years.  Soon after the death of Elizabeth, her mother, Mrs Christiana Cristiana, died Oct 5, 1889, at her home in Drew County at the age of sixty-two years, leaving to mourn her irreparable loss a husband and four children, of who, Rebecca, the youngest child, is living with her father and is still single).

Last Update Friday, 02-Oct-2015 13:25:02 MDT