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Submitted: 2/24/13 • Approved: 2/24/13 • Last Updated: 2/27/13 • R837754-G0-S3
May 4, 1871 - Apr 24, 1906
*Ira was born 4 May, 1871 in what is, today, Brethitt County. Most likely he was born near the community of Jackson, KY, where his parents, Alexander and Mahala, lived. He was the second of nine children that Alex and Mahala had.
Ira come to Arkansas with his parents in May, 1876, when he was just five (5) years old. He grew up in Newton County and married Lillie Independence Crawford on 22 February, 1887, when both he and Lillie were both only 15 years old. He and Lillie had one daughter, Stella Viola Dixon, born 27 January, 1888. They were divorced 9 July, 1890. Lillie went on to marry Ira's first cousin, Alec C. Dixon, on 3 September, 1890.
Ira married two other times: to Elizabeth Allen and Myrtle Bradford, and had one (1) daughter by each of these wives. He studied medicine and became an MD, practicing in and around Newton and Van Buren Counties until his death in 1906 at the age of 34.
Ira was shot and killed by a patient of his who was either drunk or deranged. The patient was said to be a "Will Cullum". Cullum was related in some manner to Ira's third wife, Myrtle Bradford, according to notes from Ira's niece, Wilma Cowan Walsh, written in 1994.
Wilma reported also, in 1994, that Ira was initially buried in a cemetery near Eglantine, AR, in Cleburne County. When Greer's Ferry Lake was built, the cemetery site was flooded. Ira's body was moved to the McElhaney Cemetery in Cleburne County at that time. Alexander and Mahala had a grave monument placed at his grave at The McElhaney Cemetery.
Contributed on 2/24/13 by hawknsdonna
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Record #: 837754