My Genealogy Hound

Margaret J. Plumlee is the widow of Zachariah Plumlee, a descendant of one of the pioneer families of Tennessee, and early settlers of Arkansas. He was a son of Joel Plumlee, a farmer by occupation, and to whose marriage were born ten children: James, Isaac, Zachariah, Joel, John, Frank, Montgomery, William, Nancy and Elizabeth. Joel Plumlee was very successful in his agricultural pursuits, and lived to be an old man. He was a member of the Baptist Church. His wife died in 1888, and was eighty-four years of age. The Plumlee family were wealthy and respectable people. Their son, Zachariah Plumlee, the husband of the subject of this sketch, was born on his father’s farm in Arkansas, and secured a fair education in the common school. He was married in Missouri to Mrs. Margaret J. Jennings, a widow with one child, Isaac G. She was formerly Miss Margaret J. Jackson, the daughter of William and Charlotte (Kerns) Jackson. Mr. Jackson was from North Carolina and settled in Tennessee. He came to Mount Vernon and put up the first blacksmith shop in that city. After marriage Mr. and. Mrs. Plumlee moved to Arkansas and settled on a farm. They were the parents of five children: Francis J., Elizabeth A., Mary R., Sarah and Joel. During the late war Mr. Plumlee enlisted in the Home Guards, and after the battle of Wilson’s Creek he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantry, at Raleigh, Mo. He was in the battle of Pleasant Hill, where his brother Joel was wounded. He was also at the battle of Memphis, Tenn., Iron Mountain, where a bullet passed through his hat. He was also in a great many skirmishes. He died about one year after the war of chronic diarrhoea, and was about thirty-nine years of age at that time. He was a stanch Republican in his political principles, and both he and Mrs. Plumlee were Free Will Baptists. Mrs. Plumlee is now a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Plumlee was a man of upright character and of a religious turn of mind. During the war he went to Northern Missouri to escape from the bushwhackers, who had robbed him of all his stock and food, and, as a consequence, the family had endured great hardship. The gang committed all kinds of outrages. Mrs. Plumlee has reared her family, has bought eighty acres of land, and has given her children each a good common school education. She is a remarkable example of what may be accomplished by patient effort and industry. Many men, placed in the same position, would have made a complete failure of life. She is a woman of unusual intelligence, and commands the respect of all for her pluck and perseverance.