Samuel F. Hart, M. D., was born in Bedford County, Tenn., in 1847, and now makes his home in Eddyville, Pope County. His father, Martin M. Hart, was born in the same county, about 1820, and was a son of Henry Hart, of the same place. Henry Hart was a well-to-do farmer for that period, and married Nancy Rainy (Rainey?), of South Carolina, who was born May 12, 1780, the day the British left Charleston. Mr. and Mrs. Hart reared all their fourteen children, seven sons and seven daughters, Martin M. being next to the youngest member of the family, and the sixth son. All these children, as well as their parents, have died, the father dying at the age of sixty-five, and the mother at the age of ninety years, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. George W. Gossage. She lived to see her youngest son twice married, and was a midwife for many years, being present at some two hundred and twenty births. She and her husband were well informed, and were devoted to the church to which they belonged. The law of heredity appears to show strongly in the case of her children, for there are three doctors in the family and one cousin is a physician.

Martin M. Hart, father of our subject, married Mary Morris, of Tennessee, and resided in that State on his own farm some years, after which they removed to Pope County, in 1854, the year of the great drouth. They made the journey by land, bringing with them their three children, and settled on a farm of eighty acres with limited improvements near Hartsville. Here the subject was reared on the farm from a child of six years of age, and was accustomed to hard work, such as plowing among the stones and stumps, beginning at eight years of age. He grew up healthy and strong, and by the time he was sixteen years old had received but thirty days of schooling, his teacher being J. C. D. Carr, now a physician of Gallatin County. He remained at home until his twentieth year, and then began as a traveling salesman in the patent medicine business. He remained thus engaged some five years, traveling in Illinois and Missouri, a part of the time on foot, and a part on horseback. Later on he traveled a portion of the time with a team, and received from $25 to $40 per month. Our subject was married at the age of twenty-seven September 23, 1875, to Miss Martha A. Randolph, who was born in Illinois June 7, 1855, to R. M. and Dorindia (Shurlock) Randolph. The parents of Mrs. Hart came from Tennessee to Illinois in 1846. Dr. Hart and his wife began domestic life on his father's old farm and farmed there some six years. They then settled on a farm of their own of one hundred and twenty acres a few miles west, upon which they lived some two years, when they sold out and moved to Eddyville, in November, 1882. They at first bought a small house and lot, and later bought a house and lot where his office now is. In 1887 he bought his present home, which comprises fifty-one acres of land and a good two-story frame house, for which he paid $1,000. The Doctor has obtained much of his education by his own lamp and fireside, his wife being his instructor, she having been well educated in her youth. The Doctor had one term of schooling in a select school at Eddyville after his marriage, and then took medical lectures at Keokuk, Iowa, receiving his diploma from Evansville, Ind., after which he first commenced the practice of medicine in Eddyville, and has been practicing here ever since, except one year in Columbus, Pope County. He has lost one infant daughter, and a daughter, Bertha, aged three and a half years, and has seven children living, viz: Ida L., a young lady of seventeen at home; Olive M., fifteen; James O., fourteen; Milton J. twelve; Zilla Ada, nine; Eunice, three; and Edna Beatrice, one year old. Dr, Hart has been Justice of the Peace two years, and is a third degree Odd Fellow, and a stanch Democrat. He has been a Democrat for many years, and helped elect Grover Cleveland in 1892. The children are well educated, and the eldest daughter, though possessing musical talent to an unusual degree, yet aspires to the medical profession. The Doctor has a large and profitable practice in both medicine and surgery, and has been very successful.

Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope and Hardin Counties Published 1893 page 411 -- 412
Contributed by Margaruette Powell