Henry Clay Earnest

SOURCE: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889
Contributed by Michael Brown
18 Oct 1998

---------------------------------------------------------------------- SEBASTIAN CO

Henry Clay Earnest, farmer, miller and postmaster, at Milltown, Ark., is a son of David and Jennie (Smith) Earnest, the former of whom was born in Franklin County, Va., in 1781. His wife was born in North Carolina in 1785. They were married about 1802, and located in Ashe County, but in 1835 moved to Bradley County, Tenn., where the mother died in 1854. About 1861 the father went to Walker County, Ga., where he resided until his death, in 1865. For a great many years he held important official positions in Ashe County, N. C., filling the position of county and circuit clerk of Ashe County for forty years. He was a Henry Clay Whig, and throughout life was extensively engaged in farming. His father came from Germany at an early day, and followed the occupation of blacksmithing. Henry Clay Earnest is the only surviving member of a family of nine children, and was born on the 12th of May, 1823, in Ashe County, N. C. He received the education and rearing of the average farmer's boy of his day, and at the age of twenty began tilling the soil on his own responsibility. In 1844 he espoused Mary Melton, who was born in Cocke County, Tenn., in 1827, and in 1859 they moved to Walker County, Ga., and seven years later removed to Washington County, Ark., where they made their home until 1883, since which time they have resided in Sebastian County. Mr. Earnest's chief business through life has been farming, but since locating in Sebastian County he has operated a grist-mill and cotton-gin. In 1884 he was appointed postmaster of Milltown, and is a Republican in politics, and his wife is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. They own sixty-eight acres of land in Sebastian County, and eighty acres in Washington County, and are the parents of the following children: Winfield S., Mary J., Mattie, Margaret, David, John, Thomas, Charles, Amanda. Henry, Minnie and Otto. The eldest son is a merchant of Milltown.