Biography of Thomas Cauthron, Logan Co, AR

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Submitted by:  Delaine Edwards <delaine@ipa.net>
        Date:  29 Jun 1999
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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SOURCE: Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago and Nashville, 1891.
Logan County

	Thomas Cauthron, planter and ginner, Booneville, Ark. Mr.
Cauthron is possessed of those advanced ideas and progressive
principles which seem to be among the chief characteristics of
those of Arkansas nativity. He was born in what is now Logan County,
October 16, 1836, was taught the duties of farm life in boyhood,
and was married in 1855 to Miss Nancy Anderson, a native of Arkansas,
born in 1838, and the daughter of Pinkney Anderson, a pioneer settler
of this State. Five children were born to this marriage: Charles C.,
Walter P., Edward, Thomas R., and Nancy H. (who is now the wife of
R.E. Rorie, of McKinzie, Tenn.). Mrs. Cauthron died in 1864, and was
a member of the Christian Church. In 1867 Mr. Cauthron was married
to Mrs. N.J. Cornelius, widow of Austin Cornelius, who bore him five
children, four now living: John E. (deceased), Robert M., Eleanor S.,
Samuel S. and Joannah. During the late unpleasantness between the
North and South, or in 1863, he enlisted in Company B, Second
Arkansas Regiment, Infantry, and served in the Union Army until
the termination of hostilities. In February, 1864, at an election
held in his regiment, and also in a number of precincts in his
county (Scott), he was elected to represent that county in the
Legislature, and served under what was known as the Murphy Government.
After returning home he resumed agricultural pursuits, which has been
his occupation since. In 1873 he was appointed by Gov. Baxter,
president of the Board of Registrars of Sarber (now Logan) County,
and in 1874 he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Sarber
County, which office he filled for two years. At the end of this
term he declined to become a candidate for re-election, and returned
to his farm. He built a steam cotton-gin and corn-mill combined, the
capacity of the gin being eight bales per day. His fine farm,
consisting of 300 acres, with seventy-five under cultivation, is
kept in the best of condition, and everything about the place
indicates to the beholder that an experienced hand has been at the
helm, figuratively speaking. Mrs. Cauthron received her final summons
in 1888. She was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of
which our subject is also a member, he being an elder in the same.
He is a Mason, and a member of Blocker Lodge No. 247, of Booneville.
His father, Col. Walter Cauthron, was a native of Georgia, born in
1797, and was a farmer by occupation. He was married in Red River
County, Tex., in 1822, to Miss Bashiba Wilson, a native of
Tennessee, born in 1803. They became the parents of nine children -
five sons and four daughters - five of whom are now living: C.W.,
Charles, Thomas, Parthenia (widow of Rev. Mr. Burns of Hood County,
Tex.), and Lucindia (wife of Maj. M.T. Tatum, of Greenwood, Ark.)
The father emigrated from Illinois to Arkansas in 1821, and settled
on Walnut Prairie, Sevier County, Ark. While a resident of Scott
County, Ark., he was county and probate judge, in 1852. He died in
Logan County, Ark., in 1877, and was a member of the Christian
Church, of which his wife was also a member. She died in 1849.