J. A. Proctor, Ouachita County, AR

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SOURCE: Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
Contributed by Carol Smith.
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Ouachita County, Arkansas - from Goodspeed's History of Arkansas

J. A. Proctor is one of the leading furniture dealers of Camden, Arkansas, and is in the enjoyment of a remarkably prosperous trade. He was
born in Meriwether County, Georgia, September 2, 1831, and is a son of Elias R. and Mary (Paterson) Proctor, the father a native of South
Carolina, and their union took place in Georgia. In 1849 they emigrated to Arkansas, coming overland, settling at Holly Springs, in Dallas
County, where they entered a tract of land, but sold, after making many valuable improvements, and came to Ouachita County, taking up their
abode near Camden. The father's death occurred in 1861, but the mother is still living. Mr. Proctor was a successful tiller of the soil of Ouachita
County. Three sons and three daughters, of the eleven children born to himself and wife, are now living, of whom J. A. Proctor, our immediate
subject, is the eldest. He was a resident of Georgia until seventeen years of age, and there received the most of his education, being an
attendant of the common schools, and until twenty -three years of age, the occupation of farming received his attention. In January, 1853, he
came to Camden and began clerking, but at the end of four years he embarked in business for himself, and successfully conducted a grocery
business, until 1861, but during the war he was not in the service, owing to ill health. From the time the war closed until 1869, he followed the
occupation of clerking and bookkeeping, but at the end of that time embarked in general merchandising, which continued to receive his
attention until 1882, when he changed his stock of goods and became a furniture dealer, and also sells sash, doors and blinds. He is doing a
thriving business, which is constantly increasing, and his successes have been due to his energy and enterprise, and his home is one of the
leading representatives in his line of trade in his section of the State. During the war, he served the people two years as mayor of the city and
since as city alderman. He has been a continuous resident of Camden for the pasty thirty seven years, and has witnessed and assisted in the
rapid growth of the city and county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which order he ahs advanced to the Commandery, and from his
youth up he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His wife, whose maiden name was Martha J. Mendenhall, and whom
he married in 1857, is also a worthy member of that church..