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William M. Kizzia, county treasurer, Murfreesboro, Ark. Were one to ask the
leading characteristics of Mr. Kizzia as a man, the answer would come
almost involuntarily that he is a safe, cautions person, unpretending, but
well informed, universally esteemed and of unswerving integrity - a man who
has been tried, but not found wanting, and one capable of discharging his
official and private duties with competency. He was born in Pike County,
Ark., in 1858, and is the eldest of nine children born to the union of
Nathan and Isabella (Gould) Kizzia, and natives of Arkansas. Nathan Kizzia
came to Arkansas with his parents when a small boy, and has followed
agricultural pursuits all his life. He still resides in this county, and
is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William M. Kizzia
passed his youthful days on the farm, attending the common schools, and at
the age of twenty-one years commenced farming for himself. In 1879 he
entered 160 acres of land three miles east of Murfreesboro, and on this he
has cleared about forty acres. He has a fine farm, good buildings and has
plenty of timber. His marriage to Miss Amanda E. Burkett, a native also of
Pike County, Ark., and the daughter of David Burkett, an old settler here,
who died during the (Civil) war, took place in 1877, and four children are
the result of this union: Nancy I., Dyer Martin, Emmett Edgar, and Joseph
Osgood (who died in infancy.) Mr. Kizzia has always taken an active interest
in politics, served two terms as juste of the peace, and in 1886 was
elected treasurer of Pike County, being re-elected in 1888. He is a member
of the Masonic fraternity, Pike Lodge No. 91, and the family are members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County,
page 331.
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