In 1889, Goodspeeds' Publishing Company sent out one or more traveling salesmen-interviewers into Northwest Arkansas for the purpose of selling local "histories" that included biographies of local individuals and their families. TheGoodspeeds' Historiesare often called vanity books because the salesmen-interviewers would pre-sell the books to the individuals whom they had interviewed with the promise of including their biographies. Unfortunately, some interviewees exaggerated, hid and/or neglected to mention some facets of their ancestry. Some named only still-living members of their family, whereas others named sons-in-laws, but not daughters. Added to that are errors made by the interviewers and the typesetters -- all of which tends to place the facts garnered from these histories more in the category of family lore than documentation. Nevertheless, the Goodspeeds' Histories are a valuable tool for Southern researchers and historians, particularly since so many Southern courthouses were burned during the Civil War, but also because they contain histories of the counties and communities in addition to the individual biographies.

The Madison County, Arkansas Online Researchers is to bring to life the pioneer men and women who came to Northwest Arkansas - many of them long before roads had been built - on horseback, in oxcarts and on foot -- bringing little in the way of furniture, but driving cattle and pigs, hauling sacks of grain and corn, carrying toddlers, bearing infants alongside the trail - These Were Our Ancestors:

Goodspeeds' Biographies - Other Locations Other Madison County Biographies Towns, Cities & Settlements (From Goodspeeds) Arkansas Biographies Project

Note: The Goodspeeds' biographies included herein were excerpted from theHistory of Northwest Arkansas, Goodspeeds' Publishing Company, 1889. A very few original editions are still extant; however, although presently out-of-print, Southern Historical Press, Easley, SC, issued a reprint in 1978 that is available in many public and or genealogical society libraries.

Also Note: All bracketed items are the authors' entries, not the original interviewer's.