GOODSPEED'S BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
MEMOIRS OF NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS, 1890s |
O. P. Stroud is a prominent farmer and stockman
of Izard County, Ark., and is one of the old settlers of Guthrie
Township, having come here in 1851, and has been residing in the
house in which he now lives since 1857. He was born in Tennessee,
August 10, 1820, and was reared on his father's farm, receiving
a common school education, and at the time of his location in
this State the country was almost a wilderness, and wild game
was quite abundant. Mr. Stroud was fond of hunting, and on one
of his hunts killed six deer in one day, this being in 1856, when
the snow was very deep. At one time he took fifty three deer hams
to Mount Olive, to market, receiving for them $53. The woods abounded
with wild turkeys, and Mr. Stroud says they were easier killed
than the common domestic fowl of to-day. Although he did not take
an active part in the Civil War he served in the commissary department
for two years. He lost heavily during the war, principally in
personal property, however, but owned 800 acres of good land.
He now has 400 acres, with about 140 acres under cultivation,
furnished with good buildings and otherwise well improved. He
was married in 1844 to Miss Martha Jourdan, of Mississippi, and
to them have been born a family of fourteen children, eleven of
whom are living: John A., William L., George R., Martha E. (wife
of W. Pierson), James M., Lawson R., O. H., Mary F., Richard A.,
Robert H. and Taylor M. Mrs. Stroud is a daughter of John and
Edith (Alexander) Jourdan, who were born in the State of North
Carolina, and became the parents of nine children. Both parents
died in Texas in 1856. Mr. and Mrs. Stroud are members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a Democrat in his
political views. His parents, Thomas and Lucy (Jarvis) Stroud,
were of German descent, and were born in the “Old North State.”
At an early day Thomas removed with his father to Tennessee, and
was there reared to manhood on a farm. He served in the War of
1812, under Jackson, and was in the battle of New Orleans, his
father also being in service in that war. Gen. Jackson was an
intimate friend of the Strouds, and made their house his home
a great portion of the time, and lived with them during the period
he was making the race for the presidency. Thomas Stroud became
a wealthy man, and to his marriage, which occurred in 1813, a
family of fourteen children were born, ten of whom are now alive:
Sarah, wife of William McSpade; A. L., O. P., Elizabeth, widow
of John McAfee, Thomas J., Resi, Marcus L., Fannie, widow of William
Sapp; Hettie and Minerva, wife of Robert Henderson. In 1872 Thomas
Stroud died on the same place he settled when he first came to
Tennessee. His father's death occurred in 1840, at the age of
seventy-four years. The maternal grandfather was in the Revolutionary
War, being severely wounded in one of the battles. He settled
in Tennessee, also, and there died.