Biography of Patrick Henry Crenshaw, Randolph Co, AR

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Submitted by:  Bridgette Cohen <bcohen@conwaycorp.net>
        Date:  1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas
Copyrighted and Published 1889 by Goodspeed Publishing Company

Hon. Patrick Henry Crenshaw, attorney, Pocahontas, Ark. Mr. Crenshaw
by virtue of his ability as a lawyer, and his victories at the bar, is
eminently worthy of a place in our record of successful men, and the
history of his life is an important part of that of his State and
country. He was born near Athens, in Limestone County, Ala., on the
8th of May, 1849, and is the son of James W. and Elvira (Winston)
Crenshaw. The father was born in North Carolina, but when a child
moved with his parents to Alabama, and settled near where the town of
Athens is now situated. At the age of fourteen, he enlisted in the
army and served as a private, under Gen. Andrew Jackson, in his
campaign against the Creek Indians, taking part in the battles of
Talladega, Emuckfau and Tohopeka, or the Horse-shoe Bend, on the
Tallapoosa River. In the last named battle the company to which he
belonged was the front of the assaulting column, and his captain the
first man to mount the works. After the close of the War of 1812, he
went as a naval cadet to Annapolis; and after the close of his term
there served some time in the United States navy, after which he
resigned, and after traveling over the greater portion of North and
South America, settled in Missouri, but after his marriage with Elvira
Winston he returned to Alabama, moving thence to Memphis, Tenn., about
1852. In about 1854, while in Boonville, Mo., with her daughters, who
were going to school there, Elvira Crenshaw was taken sick, and went
for a time up in Coldneck County, but died in a short time. James W.
Crenshaw continued to live in Memphis until 1856, when he married
Susan A. Harris, in North Carolina; and the pioneer spirit again
taking possession of him, he in the last named year, with his family,
consisting of three daughters, and the subject of this sketch, his
eldest daughter, Virginia, having previously married James W. Harper,
of Boonville, Mo., moved to Arkansas and settled in Lawrence County,
about six miles east of Powhatan, bringing with him about forty
slaves; but the health of both whites and blacks being had in the
river bottoms, he moved into the hills, on Eleven Points River, in
Randolph County, about nine miles southwest of Pocahontas. Then the
troubles of 1861 came, and James W. Crenshaw was elected as the
delegate to the State convention from Randolph County, and was a
member of that body when the State seceded; he voting against
secession, but being an earnest believer in State's rights, when his
State seceded he then adhered to the Southern cause; though he was too
old to bear arms in its behalf. In February, 1863, he was arrested by
the Federal troops, on a charge of carrying mail for the Confederate
forces, and was treated with great harshness, and cast into an old
jail at Pocahontas, where he was compelled to remain for several days
without either fire or blankets; after which some of the soldiers, who
had been detailed to guard him, conceiving a friendship for the old
man, prevailed on their officers to take him to their headquarters,
where he was treated with great kindness; and shortly after, finding
that the accusations were false, and had been made solely for the
purpose of making capital for the accuser, he was discharged, and
allowed to return to his home. The kind treatment, however, came too
late, for the first exposure brought on a violent cold, which resulted
in pneumonia, and on the 4th of March [p.388] (his birth day), he died
at his home in Randolph County. Freeman Crenshaw, the paternal
grandfather of our subject, was born in Virginia, but emigrated early
to North Carolina, thence to Alabama, where he was one of the pioneer
settlers. He also served in the army, under Jackson, in the same
company with his son, participating in the same battles; and after the
troops were mustered out of service returned to his farm in Alabama,
where he lived until his death, which occurred a few years before the
Civil War. Freeman Crenshaw, though a farmer by preference, was also a
skillful mechanic, and on one occasion, while in the army, at the
request of Lieut. Jackson, fixed his favorite pistol so as to make it
sure fire, the repairs he did being to case-harden the frizen and fix
the hammer, so as to go back farther when cocked, thereby to give the
mainspring additional strength. Gen. Jackson, after he had thoroughly
tested it, speaking of the last named change remarked, "She goes to
hell for fire, but she brings back a blank full." Mrs. Dorothea
Winston, the maternal grandmother of Patrick Henry Crenshaw, was a
daughter of Patrick Henry, making the subject of our sketch the great-
grandson of the renowned patriot and orator. Mrs. Winston named our
subject after her father. During the latter years of her life Mrs.
Winston, being left a widow, lived with her son-in-law, James W.
Crenshaw, and died at his house in Memphis, Tenn., and is buried in
Elmwood Cemetery, of that city. Our subject, Patrick Henry Crenshaw,
received the greater portion of his education at home, and in private
schools, going one year to the Cooper Institute in Boonville, Mo. He
had always attended the Methodist Church, though a member of none
until he began to study earnestly the foundation and origin of the
various churches. This investigation led him to join the Roman
Catholic Church, into which he was baptized by Rev. Father James S.
Okean, at Pocahontas, in February, 1869, and confirmed by Bishop
Edward Fitzgerald, of Little Rock. Like all boys of the South, who
were large enough to shoulder a gun, he served some time in the
Confederate army. After leaving school, he began life as a clerk in a
store, but through the influence of his friends, he was prevailed upon
to read law, and studied with the law firm of Baber & Henderson, of
Pocahontas, and in 1872 was admitted to the bar by Hon. Elisha Baxter,
who was then a circuit judge, and afterward governor of Arkansas. In
June, 1873, he moved to Clay County, and practiced his profession
there with good success until 1886, when he returned to Pocahontas,
the home of his boyhood. In 1879 he was married to Miss Sula Mack,
eldest daughter of Hon. L. L. Mack, of Greene County. Of this union
there has been born four daughters: Felicia Mary. Elvira Serena, Inez
Alphonsus and Nona Paula. In 1881 Mr. Crenshaw represented Clay County
in the house of representatives, but since that time has not been an
aspirant for political office himself, though he takes a lively
interest in the welfare of his country; and when occasion demands it,
is ever ready to assist in canvassing his part of the State in behalf
of the Democratic party, to which he has been a life-long adherent. He
is a man well versed in English literature in general, of which he is
quite fond, is a shrewd practitioner, a forcible and eloquent speaker,
and an irreproachable man-"a man in whom there is no guile." Among his
many friends he is known as an ardent lover of all kinds of field
sports especially the Southern amusement of fox hunting. He says he
came by these last named traits honestly, as all the Crenshaws, Henrys
and Winstons were given to like weaknesses, as is shown by the number
of pioneers among them. In his native State, three counties, Henry,
Winston and Crenshaw, are named for his ancestors.