Benton Co., AR - Biographies - Dr. Thomas Hopkins Roughton

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Dr. Thomas Hopkins Roughton is one of Benton County's oldest citizens, 
as well as one of its largest real estate holders and prosperous 
physicians. He was born in Warren County, Tenn., in June, 1820, and 
when a boy of twelve years of age removed with his parents to Bedford 
(now Coffee) County, Tenn., where he was reared to manhood. In his 
twenty-second year he was married to Harriet Ewell, who was born in 
Bedford County, Tenn., and died September [p.887] 15, 1883, leaving 
three out of five children: James Richard, Sarah E., widow of T. H. 
Harrell, and Polly Adeline, wife of Harvey Davis. After his marriage 
Dr. Roughton began the study of medicine under Drs. D. Ewell and 
Stephen Wood, and began practicing that profession in 1848 or 1849, 
and in 1851 came to Benton County, Ark, where he has since made his 
home, with the exception of a few years during and subsequent to the 
war. His practice has secured for him an income of from $1,000 to 
$2,500 per year, and besides this work he has also been engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. After serving for about three months in the 
late war he was released from service, and after some time removed his 
family to Rush County, Tex., where he made his home until the close of 
the war. He next moved to Titus, Tex., but at the end of one year 
purchased a farm of 640 acres in Red River County, Tex., where he 
spent three years managing his farm and practicing his profession. 
During this time his health became very poor, and he removed to Benton 
County, Ark., and here has since made his home. In 1871 he purchased 
property in Springtown, and also has two good farms in an adjacent 
county. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a man of undoubted integrity, 
and is a physician of skill and ability. His parents, James and Nellie 
(Messick) Roughton, were born in Surry County, N. C., in 1787 and 
1791, and died in Tennessee in 1884 and 1842, respectively. The father 
was a member of the Christian Church, and a son of Josiah Roughton, 
and Englishman and farmer. Richard Messick was the paternal 
grandfather. He was also a farmer.