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Goodspeed histories
in PDF files
 When
you order these files in electronic format, we'll e-mail you a link to download
your file. You should receive our e-mail within one business day. If you don't,
contact us at
desmondwallsallen(at)gmail.com. No shipping charges are added for electronic
delivery.
Click here to return to the Historical Reprints page
In the 1880s and 1890s, Goodspeed Publishing Company of
Chicago produced dozens of county history compilations covering many of the
Southern and Midwestern states. Eight of the books include Arkansas folks. We're
offering them in electronic form with searchable text.
Goodspeed volumes usually follow a standard format. The first 112 pages are a
general history of Arkansas, then chapters are devoted to each included county.
County chapters are laid out with a detailed history covering early settlement
with a list of the earliest settlers, boundary changes, geographic data,
climate, crops, livestock, transportation, population figures, county government
(with lists of officials), attorneys, industry, businesses, towns and cities,
newspapers, Civil War events and units, schools, churches, hangings and
lynchings, followed by biographical sketches of the prominent citizens (anyone
who paid the fee) of the county.
The publisher apparently sent out questionnaires as the biographical data
submitted follows a routine pattern. The information collected was typed and
sent back to submitters for corrections. Volumes were sold on a "subscription"
basis, that is, commissioned salespeople sold them, probably taking most of
their orders when the biographical data was collected. The books themselves are
lovely-large, gilt-edged tomes, but they're very rare now. A few of the
submitters (about one in a few hundred) included portraits of themselves. In our
list of the 7,350 people covered, an asterisk ( * ) denotes an included
portrait.
Click here to view the list of all the people whose bio sketches are included in
the eight Goodspeed volumes which cover Arkansas (and the Ozark portion of
Missouri). There are thousands more people mentioned in these books and the
searchable text in the files will turn up those references. This list is just the
tip of the iceberg.
In order to more clearly identify these folks who head the biographical
sketches, we put in their years of birth and birthplaces if they were given in
the first part of the bio sketch. The sketches themselves contain much more
detailed information.
Folks included aren't all white men. Nearly, but not all.
There are 25 "colored" men (we've added "AfAm" to their names in our index), and
fifty women (we put in their maiden names, too).
Click
here to see an example of what these biographical sketches contain. (This
one is about Tyre M. Lingo, and if you're related to him,
we're cousins.)
Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas in
electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-381-3, $9.95
Covers Greene, Clay, Fulton, Craighead, Randolph, Mississippi, Poinsett,
Independence, Sharp, Lawrence, Jackson, and Izard Counties.
Originally published 1889, 1,020 pages.
Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas in
electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-382-0, $9.95
Covers White, Woodruff, Cross, Crittenden, St. Francis, Monroe, Lee, Arkansas, Prairie, and Phillips Counties.
Originally published 1890, 822 pages.
Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas in
electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-383-7, $9.95
Covers Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland, and Hot Spring Counties.
Originally published 1889, 812 pages.
Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas in
electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-384-4, $9.95
Covers Clark, Miller, Sevier, Howard, Pike, Lafayette, Hempstead, Columbia, Little River, Nevada, Cleveland, Ouachita, Dallas, Bradley, Calhoun, Union, Ashley, Drew, Lincoln, Desha, and Chicot Counties. Originally published 1890, 1,093 pages.
Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas and Goodspeed's Historical Reminiscences and Biographical Memoirs of Conway County, Arkansas
in electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-385-1 & 978-1-56546-388-2, $9.95
Covers Yell, Pope, Johnson, Logan, Scott, Polk, and Montgomery Counties. Originally published 1891, 504 pages.
Separate volume, published 1894, 130 pages, covers Conway County.
Goodspeed's History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas
in electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-386-8, $9.95
Covers Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties.
Originally published 1889, 1,388 pages.
Goodspeed's A Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region in electronic format
ISBN 978-1-56546-387-5, $9.95
Covers (in Arkansas) Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Cleburne, Crawford, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Hot Spring, Howard, Izard, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Montgomery, Newton, Pike, Polk, Scott, Searcy, Sebastian, Sevier, Stone, Van Buren, Washington, and Yell Counties.
Covers (in Missouri) Barry, Carter, Christian, Dallas, Dent, Douglas, Greene, Howell, Laclede, Iron, Jasper, McDonald, Newton, Oregon, Ozark, Phelps, Polk, Pulaski, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Stone, Taney, Texas, Webster, and Wright Counties.
Originally published 1894, 791 pages.
Attention Librarians!
Index to Arkansas Goodspeed Biographical Sketches
Compiled by Desmond Walls Allen,
ISBN 978-1-56546-390-5, 134
pages, $22.00
If you already have a set of Arkansas Goodspeed volumes on your library shelf, here's a comprehensive index to the people in all the Arkansas volumes who are the subjects of biographical sketches. Put this book with your collection so patrons can quickly look for
ancestor and go directly to the volume and page they need.
Click here to return to the Historical Reprints page
Contact us: Arkansas Research, Inc., PO Box 303, Conway, AR 72033
Voice: 646/470-1120
E-mail: desmondwallsallen(at)gmail.com
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