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Allen A. Gentry, another of the prominent planters of Pike County, Missouri
Township, was born in Clark County, Ark., on March 18, 1820. His father,
William Gentry, was born in South Carolina April 20, 1788, in which State
(and Tennessee) he was engaged in tilling the soil until 1817, when he
emigrated to Arkansas locating in Clark County, remaining until his death,
in 1857. He married Miss Jane Narrad, and they were the parents of thirteen
children - tens sons and three daughters - all of whom grew to maturity,
except the three youngest. The children were as follows: Patsy H., John H.,
William C., James M., Allen A., Alford, Franklin, Jurissia R., Samuel W.,
Betsey J., George W., Rufus and Andrew J. Mr. Gentry, Sr., served in the
War of 1812, enlisting as private in Carroll's brigade under Gen. Jackson.
He died in 1857; his wife died in 1852, a worthy members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. The immediate subject of this sketch was educated
in the private schools of Clark County, and when twenty-one years of age
started in life for himself, choosing farming as his vocation. May 29, 1859,
he married Mary A. Thomas, a native of South Carolina, and to this union
have been born eleven children - five boys and six girls - namely: Jane G.,
Lilly M. (deceased), William L., Mattie, John T., Charley V., Mary, Emma,
Jim T., Minnie G., Dora S. and Andrew J. (deceased). Mr. Gentry owns a
well-stocked farm of 200 acres, with forty acres under cultivation. He is a
members of Pike Lodge No. 91 of the Masonic fraternity, in which he held
office as junior warden at Rome, in Clark County, Ark., and also tyler at
Elmont, Los Angeles County, Cal. He served in the Confederate army, entering
in 1863, under Col. Trader, in Company I, Sixteenth Arkansas Regiment. His
regiment surrendered in Texas, and Mr. Gentry immediately returned home,
resuming his former occupation, farming. In 1852 he emigrated to California,
overland, remained there four years, and then returned to Arkansas. Both he
and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and are
highly esteemed and respected by their neighbors.
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County,
pages 326-327.
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