James Sloan was about 14 years old when he left North Carolina for the west with his family and 40 other families. Their objective point was the part of the Louisiana Purchase that is now Missouri. This colony of people were left in Christian County, Kentucky, possibly for a year to make a crop and some of the men in company with Daniel Boone went to Missouri to view the country and select a site for the settlement of the colony. These families left Christian County, Kentucky September 16, 1807 and arrived in Caledonia Missouri November 30, 1807. James served with the Missouri Militia in the War of 1812.
James Sloan and his first wife Sarah Black were original members of the Strawberry Congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Old Lawrence County, Arkansas in 1825. From writings in the Southern Standard Newspaper it is said that James brought his family to Clark County about 1825, but we only know that by January 1829 he married his second wife in LaFayette County Arkansas and by the 1830 census he is settled in what is now the South Fork Township of Clark County. James Sloan had 3 wives and raised 3 sets of children. He married first Sarah Black on July 18, 1820 in Arkansas Territory 2) Anna Carolyn McKinney on January 22, 1829 in Lafayette County, Arkansas 3) Anna Tyree on May 9, 1838 in Hempstead County, Arkansas.
He was the father of ten known children. The one child not listed on Find A Grave is Mary Anna who married James M. Browning and lived in Ouachita County, Arkansas. Her grave has not been located. He served as Clark County Treasurer from 1840 to 1850. His name is generously sprinkled in Clark County records. He died in the old Sloan house which was across the road from the Sloan Cemetery in Dobyville, Arkansas.
James Sloan was the grandson of Fergus Sloan and William Stevenson, both of these men came to America from Ireland.