Mr. Alexander Showalter, born on April 22, 1839, in Butler County, Ohio, was a notable resident of Stone Township, Arkansas, engaged in agriculture and stock raising. His parents, John Showalter from Germany and Elizabeth (Hinkin) Showalter from Ohio, had four children. Alexander served in the Civil War with the 17th Indiana Infantry and later the 128th Indiana Infantry. In 1866, he married Rebecca Kaziah, and they moved to Arkansas in 1879, where he established a successful farm in Stone Township. The couple had seven children, and Mr. Showalter was active in the G.A.R. and the Lutheran Church.
Among the residents of Stone Township, actively engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising, is Mr. Showalter, who was born April 22, 1839, in Butler County, Ohio. His parents, John and Elizabeth (Hinkin) Showalter, were natives of Germany and Ohio, respectively, his father coming to this country in his early manhood and settling in Butler County, where he lived the remainder of his life. About two years after immigrating here, he married Miss Elizabeth Hinkin, whose father was a farmer of Butler County, a Revolutionary soldier, and a native of North Carolina. They were the parents of four children: Alexander, Jacob (born in 1840, was a Federal soldier, but is living on a farm in Henry County, Mo., where he has a wife and two daughters), Alfred (born in 1845, and living in Carroll County, Ind., has a wife and five children), and Sophia (only sister of the subject of this sketch, born in 1847, married John Brant, deceased, a farmer of Carroll County, Ind., where she still resides). Alexander was reared to farm life, but his education was not neglected, as his father gave him all the advantages that it was possible to obtain. When twenty-one years of age, he entered Wittenburg College at Springfield, Ohio, there remaining until the war broke out, when he volunteered his services, and was enrolled in Company E, Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, Col. Wilder commanding. He was in active service ten months, when he was discharged on account of severe sickness, and remained at home about one year, after which he re-enlisted, in 1863, in the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Infantry. He was with Sherman in his famous march to the sea, and took an active part in the battle of Franklin, Tenn., being honorably discharged, April 1866. He is now on the list of veteran pensioners.
On February 14, 1866, Mr. Showalter married Miss Rebecca Kaziah, daughter of John and Esther (Harget) Kaziah. The former was brought to America when a small lad, and was reared in North Carolina, of which state his wife was also a native, there being married. Her father was a farmer. Mrs. Showalter has seven brothers and sisters living, viz: William, Sarah A., Thomas, George W., Phoebe Jane, Minerva A., and Susanna Drusilla, all of whom are residents of North Carolina. After the marriage of our subject, he removed to Indiana, where he was engaged in farming (having rented a farm) until January 1879. At that time, wishing to secure a farm of his own, he immigrated to Arkansas, entered eighty acres of government land in Conway County, and later entered 160 acres of state land, of which he cleared forty acres. In 1884 he sold that tract of land, and bought the farm on which he now lives, situated in the southwest portion of Stone Township, at the mouth of the Cadron River. He has about seventy acres under cultivation, with good buildings, and is one of the prosperous and progressive men of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Showalter are the parents of seven children: Perry Jasper (born February 14, 1867, died March 6, 1867), John (born October 26, 1868, died November 26, 1887), Julia A. (born June 18, 1870, died April 8, 1872), Ira B. (born June 16, 1872, died August 24, 1873), Jesse A. (born November 24, 1875), Charles E. (born November 24, 1879, died August 31, 1880), and James William (born January 28, 1882). Mr. Showalter is a member of Fred Steele Post of the G. A. R.; is also an Odd Fellow, belonging to Morris Lodge No. 477. He and his wife are prominent members of the Lutheran Church, and are identified with every work that tends to the elevation of the community in which they live.