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Rev. Jesse M. Hart, a Missionary Baptist preacher and farmer of El Dorado, was born in Chambers County, Ala., June 22, 1838, and was the fifth in a family of eight children born to John and Eliza (Johns) Hart, both natives of South Carolina.
In 1858 he came to Louisiana, settled on the Arkansas line, and in 1860 was licensed to preach. During the year 1861 he spent his time in Mount Lebanon University, Louisiana, being ordained on January 25 of the following year. For the next 10 years, he was preaching in both Louisiana and Arkansas, part of the charge being in both States.
In 1871 he moved permanently to El Dorado, where he was pastor of the Baptist Church until December, 1885, preaching for the church one-half of his time and spending the alternate Sunday with churches in the surrounding country. When he came to El Dorado he purchased a good farm of 160 acres one mile west of town, and sixty acres of this are under cultivation. In 1885 he removed to Morrillton, Conway County, Ark., where he had charge of the Baptist Church for three years.
After this he preached at Russellville, Ark., one-half of the time for one year and spent the alternate weeks traveling and preaching both for pleasure and partly in the interest of Ouachita College at Arkadelphia. In November, 1885, he was appointed by the State convention one of fifteen trustees to locate a site and arrange for the founding of a college for the Baptist denomination, and at the meeting of the board of trustees he was elected president, to which position he has been elected annually ever since.
In November, 1889, he returned to his old home in El Dorado, and now has his charge at Hillsboro and Blanchard Springs, and once a month goes to Summerfield, La. Mr. Hart was married on March 9, 1863, to Miss Margaret M. Clements, a native of Mississippi.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hart were born three children, all living: John Marion (at Weatherford, Tex.), Ida W. (wife of W. A. Freear, a merchant of Jackson, Tenn.), and Thomas C. (at home on the farm). In 1878 and 1879 Mr. Hart was president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention in Monticello and Hope, and in the fall of 1889, at the organization of the Baptist State Sunday-school Convention at Little Rock, and he was elected president. In 1888 he was invited to deliver the sermon on education at the commencement of the Mount Lebanon University in Louisiana, and at that time, by the recommendation of the faculty, the board conferred the degree of D.D. upon him.
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