Biography of James Gordon Frierson - Craighead Co, AR

***********************************************************
Submitted by: Unknown < >
        Date: 26 Sep 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
***********************************************************

SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1889.

page 332

James Gordon Frierson was born on Duck River, in Maury County, Tenn.,
November 5, 1838, and died in Jonesboro, Ark., March 8, 1884. His
father was Dr. Charles Curren Frierson, descended on the father's side
from French Huguenots, who settled in South Carolina some time before
the Revolutionary War; on the mother's side, he comes from Scotch-Irish
lineage-early emigrants to Middle Tennessee. Dr. Charles Frierson
married, in 1828 or 1829, Miss Mildred Payne, of West Tennessee, of
English descent, numbering among her progenitors some of the pioneers
of the State, and among her kindred some of the best people of
Tennessee and Mississippi, counting among their cherished possessions
many relics of the Revolutionary days, and pointing with pride to the
record of their family. Among these are the Van Burens, the Taylors,
the Alexanders, and others. Thomas Paine, the noted political and
deistic writer of early times, was a member of the family and was
spoken of with mingled feelings, in which pride of race did not
predominate. Dr. Frierson and wife were the parents of eleven children,
only five of whom are now living. They removed many years ago, with
quite a colony of neighbors and relations, accompanied by many colored
families who had descended to them, to La Fayette County, Miss., where,
four miles from Oxford, the site of the State University, they founded
College Hill with a fine Old Presbyterian Church, and male and female
high schools, and added much to the culture and refinement of that part
of the State. Dr. Frierson died at a ripe old age in 1879, and his wife
the previous year. Both were devout members of the Presbyterian Church,
in which faith their children were all reared. One daughter married
Rev. Mr. McLamroch, of Hernando, Miss.; another Hon. Martin L. Clardy,
of St. Francois County, Mo.; a third, Ben. G. Peers, [p.332] of
Farmington, Mo.; still another, a Mr. Hurt, of Germantown, Tenn. The
remainder of the family still reside at the old homestead at College
Hill, Miss. James Gordon Frierson was the second son. At the age of
twelve or fourteen years he was taken from the home of his birth, near
old Zion Church, in Maury County, Tenn., to Mississippi, the State of
his adoption. He was educated at Oxford, graduating with honor, and
numbering among his professors the distinguished Dr. F. A. P. Barnard,
Dr. John Waddill, Justice Lamar, Judge Longstreet, and others of less
note. Mr. Frierson volunteered at the age of twenty-three in an
infantry regiment, in the Confederate service, serving as captain under
the noted Gen. Walthall, in the Army of Tennessee, and was in many of
the fiercest battles fought in that section-Corinth, Iuka, Franklin,
Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Here
above the clouds he was captured by some of Hooker's men, taken to
Johnson's Island, held a prisoner for nineteen months, being released
at the close of the war, with health shattered by hardships and
privations and exposure he was poorly fitted by nature to endure. Soon
after the war (in January, 1869) he with his brother-in-law, Maj. M. L.
Clardy, located at the little village of Cleburne, Cross County, then
the county seat of the county, to practice law. November 12, of the
same year, he was married to Miss Emma G. Davis, the oldest daughter of
Dr. N. A. Davis, formerly of Ozark, Christian County, Mo. In 1870 he
was elected to the State Senate of Arkansas, held this office two terms
(four years), and was president of the senate during the Brooks-Baxter
war. Mr. Frierson, assisted by the Hon. James Berry, who was then
speaker of the house, drew up a bill the next day calling for a
constitutional convention. The bill passed immediately. He was then
elected a member of the convention, and took a leading part in its
deliberations. In 1882 he was elected judge of the Second judicial
district, consisting of the counties of Cross, Craighead, Clay,
Randolph, Greene, Mississippi, Poinsett and Crittenden. He held this
office to the entire satisfaction of all parties, by his pure life and
varied learning winning the respect and affection of the people. He
possessed, in an eminent degree, those virtues which adorn the bench,
and that law knowledge which makes the safe and wise jurist a unity of
purity and integrity. He was kindly, tree and patriotic, a zealous
Christian, and as legislator, patriot or jurist, his merit was only
exceeded by his modesty. He died at the age of forty-six at his home in
Jonesboro, Ark., leaving a wife and three children: Gordon, Camille and
Charles Davis Frierson. Mrs. Frierson established and conducted a high
school, which flourished for several years until superseded by the
Jonesboro graded schools, in which she at present occupies a position
as first assistant.