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Benjamin T. Clement, merchant, Kirby, Ark. Mr. Clement is one of the
prominent business men of Antoine Township, and his success is due largely
to strict attention to business, study of the wants of his customers, and
fair dealing. He was born on May 25, 1838, in Campbell County, Va., and is
the eldest of four children born to the marriage of George W. and Sallie
(Turner) Clement, natives of the Old Dominion. The father attended the
Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Penn., and graduated in 1809. He
was a surgeon in the War of 1812, and his father before him was a surgeon
in the War of the Revolution. After the war George W. Clement practiced his
profession in Virginia for many years. Grandfather Turner was with the
Virginia militia in the Ward of 1812. Benjamin T. Clement was reared in
Virginia, and obtained his education in the German Institute in Germantown,
N.C. At the age of twenty-one years he started out for himself, as a
teacher, and this has since been his principal occupation. He came to
Arkansas in 1881, locating first in Hempstead County, where he taught school
for a short time, and in 1887 he permanently settled in Pike County. He has
been three times married; first in Virginia to Miss Sallie J. Gravely, a
native of Henry County, Va., who bore him two children, both of whom died
young. Mrs. Clement died in 1879, and on October 12, 1885, Mr. Clement was
married to his second wife (Mary E. Parslay). In 1889 he married Miss Alice
B. Williams, a daughter of W.W. Williams, who is a native of Georgia. Mr.
Williams came to Arkansas in 1883, and settled in Pike County, where he
continues to reside. Mr. Clement enlisted in the late (Civil) war in 1861,
as first lieutenant, in the Confederate service, Company B, Thirty-eighth
Virginia Infantry, and was in the following engagements: Second battle of
Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, Five Forks and numerous
skirmishes. He was slight wounded at the battle of Fort Darling. He is a
Republican, but is not active in politics. He settled in this township in
1890,engaging in the mercantile business. He carries a stock of goods
valued at $600, and will do an annual business of $4000.
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County,
pages 321-322.
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