Porter Oglesby,
an old settler of Lafayette Township, was born April 14, 1834, in Bedford County, Tennessee, a son of William and Margaret (Gammill) Oglesby, natives of North Carolina and Tennessee respectively. William Oglesby, a farmer by occupation, was born about 1786, and died in 1851, leaving a widow, who followed him in 1876, at the age of sixty-eight years. They were members of the Presbyterian Church. In 1836 they moved to Hardin County, Tennessee, and in 1849 came to Arkansas, locating in Ouachita County. They were the parents of eighteen children, five of whom are living, of whom our subject is the eldest. The remaining four are Loveniney (now Mrs. Flint, of Texas), Arch (a farmer of this county), Elizabeth ( now Mrs. Alma Rhodes of Texas), and Sallie (now Mrs. Wood of Texas). At the death of his father, Mr. Oglesby took charge of the old homestead, where he remained until 1860, when he was married and commenced farming for himself.
The following year he enlisted in the Confederate service, in the Thirty-third Arkansas Infantry, in which he served as orderly sergeant until the close of the war. He engaged in many skirmishes and battles, the principal battles being Mansfield, Louisiana, and Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas in the latter battle receiving a slight wound in the arm. He returned home in May, 1865, and resumed his farming operations, at which he has engaged ever since. Mr. Oglesby purchased his present farm in 1800, and now owns 200 acres of land with about 100 under cultivation, which he devotes chiefly to the raising of cotton and corn. He has been twice married: First, in 1860, to Miss Laura T. Fling, a native of Mississippi, who died the following year leaving one daughter, Nancy (now the wife of Edward P. Reynolds of this township and whose farm adjoins this). He was married to his second and present wife in 1865. She was Miss Rebecca Woodward, a native of Tennessee, born in 1828, a daughter of Wiley Woodward of that State. By this latter marriage he had two children: Ida Luella (deceased), and Jewell, who lives at home. Mr. and Mrs. Oglesby are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which they are zealous workers. Mr. Oglesby is also a member of the County Wheel. He is one of the oldest and best known men in Ouachita County, and is a man of large influence throughout Lafayette township.[