David Berry Warren

Researched by :

Joyce Warren Pruett

Great Granddaughter

Rev. D. B. Warren and Lucy Jane (Ford ) Warren

I have my information from A HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, ARKANSAS by Myrl Rhine Mueller.    I have the pages that I copied from the book but do not have the publisher or the date.      My other source is Goodspeed's History of Greene County .

     On page 50: About having the town of Paragould Incorporated:

David B. Warren Land Patent 1861

The petitioners were represented and signed for by John S. Boykin and David B. Warren.  These two men were among the originators of the petition and were probably responsible for collecting the list of signers.  Boykin, a young lawyer and surveyor, is credited with assisting in laying out the town and is said to have been the first lawyer to move into Paragould.  Warren was  Methodist circuit preacher and was known throughout the county, having been county clerk for ten years and a much respected citizen, often involved in civic affairs.      He helped build Warren's Chapel Church and was honored by having it named for him.  He was also for a time, publisher of the Gainesville Press, which was the first newspaper to be established in Paragould, the forerunner of today's DAILY PRESS.

Page 72:      D.B. Warren, a Methodist minister and promoter of Paragould, brought the first newspaper from Gainesville in 1884.  According to a grandson, he did not move into Paragould but had a home at Oak Grove.   John B. Boykin, an enterprising young lawyer, was involved with the very beginnings of Paragould.    He built one of the finest early homes at Fourth and Garland, which became a showplace.  He was an energizing force in the new town and died young, in 1890.  

Page 74:      The relocation of the county government added to the Council's responsibility because it brought citizens from all over the county into Paragould.  The first item of business which was presented to the Council was payment of fifty dollars to D.B. Warren, for services rendered in having the City of Paragould incorporated.  There was little doubt this was well earned, for Warren had assisted in securing names for the petition.  Widely known and respected throughout the county, his influence must have helped sway the vote in favor of moving the county seat.       ...........  The late Frazier Hammond, who spent his boyhood on the corner of West Highland and Fourth Streets, recalled at age ninety-one, in 1983, the endless grove of trees rising on the hills to the west from Fourth............  Neva and Frazier Hammond were good friends of the Warrens.   I remember as a child that our family visited with them in the 1940's.           

Page 132:        Among the early settlers in Oak Grove were the Hamptons, Sammons, Millers, Waldens, McKelveys, Kingstons, Latrells, McHaneys, Stimsons, Bkutlers and Blayolocks.  Not to be forgotten was Rev. D.B. Warren, a Methodist circuit preacher who left a lasting imprint on county history.  He lived at Oak Grove for many years, during his circuit riding days and the ten years he was county clerk. Gainsville was about four and a half miles from Oak Grove, and the distance could be divided in half by cutting across fields on horseback, which was a customary practice.  

Page 174:    paragraph 4.........more about rebuilding the church  

Page 175:      In reviewing the history of Warren's Chapel, Mr. Cothern said the building had been rebuilt 4 times, several of the earlier structures having been destroyed in storms.   When it was rebuilt in 1976, it was moved from the 1870 site and relocated about 2 miles from the...........  

Page 206:      Young Mack soon sold the paper to David B. Warren , a Methodist minister who became editor with C. H. Ford as publisher.  Warren, whose name appears frequently in the early history of Paragould, changed the paper's name to THE PRESS.      Warren, born in 1827 in Giles County, Tennessee, came to Greene County with his wife Lucy Jane Ford Warren , settling about 4 miles from Gainesville in the Oak Grove area.  Warren received a part of education away from Arkansas and taught in both TN and AR schools before being ordained (White River Conference) and licensed to preach in the Methodist Church.  He became a circuit preacher and was assigned to the Greensboro Circuit.  He was trusted and admired by his various congregations and was influential in the state organization of the Methodist Church.  He was also a prominent Mason and represented that organization throughout Arkansas.  According  to GOODSPEED'S HISTORY, he "performed more marriages and preached more funeral sermons than any preacher in Northeast Arkansas."  Though he and his wife (Lucy Jane Ford) were the parents of 8 children, they took in several orphans and raised them as their own.  (One of the orphans is still living in a Jonesboro nursing home.   She is Mamie Rosencrantz and is 96 at the time of this writing.)  (?)      More information can be found in HISTORY OF ARKANSAS, GOODSPEED'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, ARKANSAS, and EARLY METHODIST IN GREENE COUNTY by J.W. Thompson   David and Lucy had Ezra Berry who married Laura Kennedy (dau. of Augustus Madison Daniel Kennedy, Civil War Vet.).  I still can't find where the Kennedys are buried......either Greene or Craighead Counties.   My father was Thomas Berry Warren, youngest child of Ezra and Laura.   He was born in Paragould in 1899.