Leroy Dawson
SOURCE: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889
Contributed by Michael Brown
18 Oct 1998
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SEBASTIAN CO
Leroy Dawson is a worthy tiller of the soil in Sebastian County, Ark., and owns
a fertile farm of 160 acres, 110 of which are under cultivation. He is the
eldest of eight children, and was born in Jackson County, Ala., June 26, 1824,
and from his earliest boyhood up has been engaged in farming. At the age of
twenty he began the battle of life for himself, and June 26, 1847, was married
in Missouri, whither he had moved with his parents, to Elizabeth C. Burtoff,
by whom he became the father of four sons and three daughters. For his second
wife he chose Miss Elizabeth Wilhite, who bore him one son and five daughters.
Mr. Dawson is a Democrat, and since 1879 has been a resident of Sebastian
County, Ark. His parents, Larkin and Lucinda (Williams) Dawson, were born in
North and South Carolina, respectively, and when quite young were taken to
Jackson County, Ala., where they married and lived until about 1842, when they
took up their abode in Crawford County, Mo. They both died in 1864 at a good
old age, their deaths occurring one day apart. The mother was a true Christian
in every sense of the word, and was a devoted member of the Primitive Baptist
Church. The father was a Democrat in his political views, and was highly
esteemed and respected by all who knew him.