THE ARKANSAS FAMILY HISTORIAN
VOLUME 48, NUMBER 1 March 2010 Arkansas Genealogical Society P.O. Box 26374 Little Rock, AR 72221-6374
Publications: [email protected] Membership: [email protected] AGS E-Zine: [email protected] Questions: [email protected] Website: www.agsgenealogy.org
Officers and Board Members
President Susan Gardner Boyle Little Rock 2011 1st Vice-president Jan Hearn Davenport No. Little Rock 2010 2nd Vice-president Linda Fischer Stuttgart 2012 Recording Secretary Lynda Suffridge No. Little Rock 2010 Treasurer Whitney McLaughlin Little Rock 2012 Membership Secretary Rebecca Wilson Little Rock 2012 Historian Nina Corbin Little Rock 2011 Parliamentarian Bob Edwards Russellville 2012 Gloria Futrell Little Rock 2012 Rita Benafield Henard Little Rock 2010 Wensil Clark Little Rock 2010 Russell P. Baker Mabelvale 2012 Suzanne Jackson No. Little Rock 2012 William T. Carter Pine Bluff 2010 Kaye Holmes Paragould 2010 Richard Butler Little Rock 2011 Rufus Buie Rison 2012 William Lindsey Little Rock 2012 Euna Beavers Morrilton 2012
Editorial Board
Susan Gardner Boyle, Editor Rebecca Wilson, Technical Editor Rita Benafield Henard, Contributing Editor Whitney McLaughlin, Contributing Editor Bob Edwards, Contributing Editor
On the Cover: James Russell Winn who, with his wife and children, is the focus of Brown or White Sugar: The Story of a Mixed-Race Plantation Family in 19th Century Arkansas, which begins on p. 5.
The ARKANSAS FAMILY HISTORIAN ______Volume 48 Number 1 March 2010
Contents
BROWN OR WHITE SUGAR: THE STORY OF A MIXED- RACE PLANTATION FAMILY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARKANSAS, PART 1 William D. Lindsey ...... 5
THE LEE-CRAIG CONNECTION IN OAKWOOD CEMETERY AT PARIS, LOGAN COUNTY, ARKANSAS Bill Hanks ...... 24
IRVIN H. COUCH OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, ARKANSAS Rebecca V. Wilson ...... 33
JOHN MCLEAN ESTATE ACCOUNTS DUE, BRADLEY COUNTY, ARKANSAS Louise Mitchell ...... 41
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FORDYCE, ARKANSAS William T. Carter ...... 47
THE ARKANSAS PRIOR BIRTH CERTIFICATE OF MARY MISSOURI ROY Susan G. Boyle ...... 52
TWO EARLY WEDDINGS AT THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF RUSSELLVILLE, ARKANSAS, 1886 Robert R. Edwards ...... 55
© Copyright 2010. Arkansas Genealogical Society (AGS), Little Rock, Arkansas (ISSN 0571– 0472). The Arkansas Family Historian is sent quarterly to all members of the society and to libraries by subscription. Periodicals postage is paid at Little Rock, Arkansas.
BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIA OBITUARIES OF FORMER ARKANSANS WHO DIED IN 2009 Mildred Tatum ...... 59
ARKANSAS ANCESTRY CERTIFICATES through Oscar Theodore Jones, Sr. and Vernia Mayhue ...... 65
ARKANSAS QUERIES ...... 66
TREASURER’S REPORT, 2009 ...... 70
HALF-PRICE SALE CONTINUES
AGS still has some copies of Prior Birth Index Volumes 1 & 2 which will be sold for $30 each.
Include $12.50 for shipping for each order. Arkansas residents include local & state sales tax.
Send orders to our new address:
PO Box 26374 Little Rock, AR 72221-6374 or [email protected]
EDITOR’S NOTES
This issue of The Arkansas Family Historian contains the first part of a new article by Bill Lindsey which tells the story of a mixed-race family in southern Arkansas during the nineteenth century. In reading this installment, which presents James Russell Winn’s ancestral background, we can learn from Bill’s broad use of resources, thorough methodology, and careful analysis of his evidence. Bill Hanks submitted the second article to answer questions about the relationship between two Lee brothers and their Craig in-laws, most of whom are buried in Oakland Cemetery in Paris, Arkansas. The third article in this issue concerns Irvin Couch whose delayed birth certificate recorded one of the earliest births in the “Priors.” The author discovered that Irvin’s father died in 1865 shortly after returning from his Civil War service and the will he had made before he left did not include Irvin, who was ignored in early probate proceedings. A list of accounts due to a store owner in Bradley County when he died in 1867 contains many names of persons who received credit between 1858 and 1867 at the store in the Mt. Elba area of what is now Cleveland County. An old-timer’s recollected history of Fordyce was printed in a 1925 newspaper. The news issue containing the first installment is not extant, but the two that we reprint here provide names of many people who were important in Fordyce at least as far back as the 1880s. Two newspaper articles detailing weddings that occurred at the new Russellville Christian Church in 1886 provide a glimpse of life and custom in the late nineteenth century. Mildred Tatum has once again forwarded abstracts of obituaries of native Arkansans who died in or near Bakersfield, California, during the past year and we print them here as a permanent record. Mary Missouri Roy’s “Prior” certificate filed in the 1940s is notable for the information her father wrote on the back of it, providing more detail about his family than the certificate called for. An ancestry certificate lineage and four pages of queries complete this issue. Please note the Family History Writing Contest changes on the next page. We hope you enjoy your quarterly.
Susan Gardner Boyle
NEW Family History Writing Contest for 2010!
Part of the mission of the Arkansas Genealogical Society is to encourage members and genealogists in general to write their family history and share their research. The annual Family History Writing Contest was started in pursuit of that mission. While some have entered articles specifically for the contest, others have submitted quality articles for publication, but not to the contest. To amend that situation, the format of the contest is changing.
Every text article published in the Arkansas Family Historian during 2010 will automatically be entered in the contest. Following the compiling of the December issue, members of the editorial board, whose articles will not be included in the contest, will judge the articles. The writer of the best article will receive a $100 prize and second and third place articles will receive honorable mentions.
Writing family history can be fun and enlightening. You can do it in small batches, covering one family for a generation or two or through a particular period of history. It is the best way to determine where there are gaps in your research. It makes you look at old notes from a new perspective and analyze evidence in a new light. Other avenues of research may appear and additional sources may be available.
So look over your database, get out your notes, and start writing now. Cite your sources of information in footnotes or endnotes. Include photographs or other images if you have them. Submit your articles by email to [email protected] or mail them to AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374.
Judging will be based on quality of research; use of primary and secondary sources; citation of sources; style, theme, and content; and use of graphics (photographs, maps, charts, tables).
Brown or White Sugar 5
BROWN OR WHITE SUGAR: THE STORY OF A MIXED-RACE PLANTATION FAMILY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARKANSAS
William D. Lindsey 519 Ridgeway Drive Little Rock, AR 72205 [email protected]; 501- 993-7933
The story I want to tell is a remarkable one. It is the saga of a family that managed to live with grace and dignity a complex familial life spanning the color line which, in their time and place, adamantly separated black and white human beings. It is a story of love between husband, wife, father, mother, and children that endured in the face of legal and social censure. It is a tale of faith that sustained those who knew that they were doing right despite the opposition of the majority. It is the story of an Arkansas family. This chronicle centers on the white son of a distinguished Southern plantation family with deep roots in the colonial history of the country. The narrative gives primary attention to his story because, as men have tended to do in our history and as white men from socially prominent families have especially done, he left documents that allow us to trace his life in some detail and to know his mind as he dealt with political, economic, and family issues. The story I’ve been given to tell focuses on this remarkable person because he made choices that few other white men of his time and place made when they crossed the color line to form quasi-marital unions with women of color. At a time and in a place in which it was not unusual for white plantation-owning men to father children by women of color, James Russell Winn lived with the mother of his children as her husband and acknowledged his children of color, providing liberally for them.1
1 There is a growing body of literature exploring the “outside families” of Southern plantation culture, in which white plantation-owning men took women of color as quasi- spouses, fathering children by them, but not often acknowledging those children: see Edward Ball, The Sweet Hell Inside (New York: Harper Collins, 2001); and Kent Anderson Leslie, Woman of Color, Daughter of Privilege (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia, 1995), especially pp. 12-14. Much recent research, including DNA findings, challenges the conclusion of previous generations that one can easily sort people into
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James Russell Winn: Notes on Family Background
James Russell Winn was born 6 January 1810 in Jackson County, Georgia, and died 1 January 1883 in Hillsboro, Union County, Arkansas.2 His parents, Abner Winn and Lucretia Posey, were from families that made a significant mark on the history of the American South. In order to illustrate the boldness of the decisions James Russell Winn made in “marrying” a woman of color and maintaining a family with her, I sketch something of the history of his parents’ families.3 His story unfolds against the backdrop of these parental family histories. Above all, it’s important to note two themes in these stories: the strong Methodist background of both families, who left the Episcopal church of their Maryland and Virginia forebears as they moved after the Revolution to Abbeville District, South Carolina; and the slaveholding heritage of these prominent plantation families, which often presented serious problems of conscience for them due to their Methodist affiliation.
A. The Posey Background
Lucretia Posey was the daughter of Thomas Posey (1740-1822) and Mary Hodgkin (1740-1830/1840). She was born 14 January 1773 in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, and died 19 April 1857 at Northport, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.4 clear, distinct racial groups. In this article, I am employing categories of racial categorization and analysis prevalent in the period in which this family lived. 2 James R. Winn family Bible passed down in the family of his son John Milton Winn, and now in the possession of descendant Rita Tharp in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The same date of birth is recorded in the Bible of his father Abner Winn. 3 Miscegenation laws prevented James R. Winn from marrying his wife of color, Margaret Shackelford. These articles will demonstrate that it is clear from his correspondence that he considered Margaret his wife and his children by her his legally begotten heirs. I will speak of Margaret as James’s wife, though, for the sake of historical accuracy, it should be kept in mind that the couple could not legally marry in most states during their lifetimes. 4 Dates of birth and death are on Lucretia Posey Winn’s tombstone in Old Northport Cemetery. I have photographs of the inscription, which reads, “Here are the remains of Lucretia Winn/ who was born January 14 1773/ and departed this life/ April 19th 1857 aged 84 years/ 3 mos and 3 days.” Billie Thomson Lockard and Mary Underwood Sinclair, Bridging the Past of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, vol. 2 (Tuscaloosa: Tuscaloosa Genealogical Society, 1987), have a drawing of the stone (p. 65). See also Beasley S. Hendrix, Jr., Old Cemeteries Found in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, with
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A valuable source of information about this family is two booklets of family data and stories written in longhand by Frances Fleming Dixon (1842-1919). They were published as a typescript entitled “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys, Ridgways, Stewarts and Other Allied Families of Georgia.”5 Dixon was a granddaughter of Thomas Posey's daughter Catherine. A comment on p. 35 in the manuscript indicates it was written about 1898, but Dixon apparently continued adding information as late as 1901. At another point, as the manuscript seems to end on p. 81, it has a comment indicating it may originally have been finished at West Point, Georgia, in November 1895. The Dixon manuscript depicts the family of Thomas and Mary Posey, James Russell Winn’s grandparents, as “a good and prosperous family who settled in Virginia or Maryland somewhere near the Potomac River,” and who were “well to do planters.”6 Prior to the family’s move to Virginia and then Abbeville County, South Carolina, and Elbert County, Georgia, Thomas Posey can be found in the records of Charles County, Maryland, where he lived at Port Tobacco and where daughter Lucretia was born. Thomas appears during the Revolution on the muster roll of his cousin Capt. Belain Posey in Charles County on 8 July 1776.7 According to Dixon, “not long after the close of the Revolutionary War,” Thomas Posey moved his family to Flat Shoals on the Broad River in Elbert County, Georgia, where he settled on “quite a large plantation” requiring many slaves, mules, and horses to cultivate.8 However, the obituary of Thomas’s daughter, and James Russell Winn’s mother, Lucretia Posey Winn, which appeared in the Methodist
Inscriptions Taken from Headstones (privately published, 1981), 8. The Bible register of Abner and Lucretia Winn provides the same dates. Lucretia’s obituary confirms these dates of birth and death. 5 Frances Fleming Dixon, handwritten booklets transcribed by Lucile Kiser Hollenbeck and published by Joseph Habersham Chapter, DAR, Atlanta, 1960, as Dixons, Flemings, Poseys, Ridgways, Stewarts and Other Allied Families of Georgia. 6 “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys,” 22, 62. Thomas Posey descends from Francis Posey, an English immigrant to Virginia and then Maryland, who served in the Maryland House of Burgesses from St. Mary County, Maryland, from 1640-1650. 7 Maryland Historical Society, Archives of Maryland, vol. 18: Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, 1775-1783 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1900), 32. Lloyd F. and Betty Drake Posey, The Posey Family in America (Hattiesburg, Mississippi: Meet Your Ancestors, 1971), identify this Thomas Posey as the man who married Mary Hodgkin (p. 84). 8 “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys,” 14, 64.
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journal The Southern Christian Advocate on 28 May 1857, states that the Posey family moved from Maryland to Virginia when Lucretia was about seven or eight years old, and from there to Abbeville District, South Carolina, when she was twelve.9 According to the obituary written by her grandson Chelsea Cook, Lucretia married Abner Winn in Abbeville District on 7 January 1790.10 If the obituary of Thomas’s daughter Lucretia provides correct information about the family’s move south, then Thomas and Mary Hodgkin Posey apparently returned to Charles County, Maryland, to sell their land in 1790, since two deeds there dated 25 October 1790 show the couple selling tracts called Lothberry, Allgate, and Nuddle's Branch on that date (Charles County Liber K, Book 4, pp. 162f and 164f). After this point, these Poseys disappear from Charles County records. Lucretia’s obituary is noteworthy for another reason: it provides a precise snapshot of the period at which this formerly Episcopalian family left the church of their forebears to join the Methodist church: “In 1787 she attended an appointment of Hope Hall's, and joined the M.E. Church, of which she was a pious and consistent member.” The obituary also notes the extent to which this commitment to Methodism influenced Lucretia throughout her life; it describes her as “endowed by nature with a vigorous intellect, which was highly cultivated by judicious reading, especially of the Bible, and other religious books,” and notes that she enjoyed engaging in “exemplary and godly conversations” based on her constant reading of the scriptures. The family’s transition from Episcopalianism to Methodism is confirmed by Dixon’s memoirs, which state that the Poseys were “good and acceptable members of the Episcopal church” until they moved to South Carolina and Georgia, where there was no easily reached Episcopal church and Methodist itinerant preachers would lodge with them.11 These Methodist circuit riders probably included the Rev. Hope “Hall” mentioned in Lucretia’s obituary: a Maryland native, Hope Hull was sent to the Pee Dee circuit in 1787, and from there to Georgia, where
9 The obituary states that Lucretia died at the home of her son-in-law Judge John McConnell in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, on 19 April 1857, aged 84 years, 3 months and 5 days, disagreeing with her tombstone by only two days. 10Marriage and Death Notices from the Southern Christian Advocate, 1837-1860 (Greenville, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1979), 458-9. 11 "Dixons, Flemings, Poseys," 22-23, 66; see also p. 12.
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he founded a Methodist academy in Wilkes County in 1795 and was at one time acting president of the University of Georgia.12 In fact, Hope Hull forms a link between James Russell Winn’s maternal Posey and paternal Winn family. Letitia Martin, the second wife of James Russell Winn’s grandfather Thomas Winn, had previously been married to Major James Carter, and by him had a son Farish Carter, a famous figure in Georgia history. Farish Carter was sent by Thomas and Letitia Winn to Hope Hull’s academy in the early 1800s.13 Dixon depicts the life of the Poseys (and the slaves who served them) on their Georgia plantation in those idealized, rosy-hued terms beloved by white Southerners of the postbellum generation. In a section of her memoir entitled “The Slaves That I Knew and Loved When a Timid Child,” she speaks of Rose, the “Mam” of the Posey children who was given by Thomas to his daughter Catherine as her personal maid.14 Later, Dixon notes that Thomas Posey’s will, which is not extant, left Catherine “two old negroes, Uncle Jack and Aunt Hennie the father and mother of Rose, and a woman of but little value, called African Poll. She had been brought over from Africa when young, never learned to speak English well and was disliked by the other negroes.”15 The information that Jack and Hennie were given by Thomas to his daughter Catherine is confirmed by a 2 July 1822 deed of gift in Elbert County, in which he deeded to Catherine Posey Ridgway of Clarke County, Georgia, for love and affection slaves Jack and Hen (Elbert County Deed Book T, p. 41). The inventory of Thomas Posey’s estate, which is recorded in the same deed book and on the same page as his deed of gift to Catherine, is dated 7 December 1822, so it is reasonable to assume that he knew he was approaching the end of his life as he made this and other deeds of gift in the spring of 1822. This supposition is reinforced by the fact that Thomas did not sign these deeds of gift (perhaps because of infirmity), whereas all documents he executed prior to this period were signed. On 14 May 1822, Thomas Posey deeded to granddaughter Elizabeth P. Christian for love and goodwill a slave named Biddy, and a week later, he gave to son John Brooke Posey of Wilkinson County,
12 William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier, vol. 4: The Methodists (New York: Cooper Square, 1964), 95, note 65. 13 Biography of Farish Carter prefacing the inventory of his papers held by the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina (online at www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/c/Carter,Farish.html; accessed 11 Feb. 2009). 14 “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys,” 22. 15 Ibid., 74.
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Mississippi, slaves George, Abram, and Ryner (Elbert County Deed Book U, p. 143 and Book T, p. 31). On 29 May, Thomas deeded to daughter Sarah Christian, with whom he and wife Mary lived at the end of their lives, all his livestock, and on 14 June, he sold to Sarah’s husband William B. Christian his 400-acre plantation on the Broad River (Elbert County Deed Book T, p. 32; both deeds are on the same page). I mention the preceding documents in some detail because they bear out Dixon’s portrait of this family as a slave-holding plantation family of some means—a point to be kept in mind as we examine the life of Thomas Posey’s grandson James Russell Winn. The role this family played in the slaveholding history of the South is further apparent in the life of Thomas Posey’s son, John Brooke Posey (1785-1838), who represented Elbert County in the Georgia legislature in 1807 after his graduation from Franklin College in Athens.16 After his move to Wilkinson County, Mississippi, in 1810, where he established a plantation known by the name of Follambray Forest, John Brooke Posey was appointed a federal judge by territorial governor David Holmes.17 Dixon notes that John Brooke Posey went to Mississippi with twenty “likely young negroes” given him by his father as he moved west.18 Before his move to Mississippi, John Brooke Posey married Elizabeth E. (1788-1848), daughter of John Screven and Mary Pendarvis of Beaufort District, South Carolina, on 20 April 1810—a descendant of a low country plantation family for whom Screven County, Georgia, was named.19 John Brooke Posey’s son Carnot followed his father in the legal profession and also carried on his father’s tradition of public service.
16 John H. McIntosh, The Official History of Elbert County, Georgia, 1790-1935 (Athens, Georgia: McGregor, 1940), 166; and “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys,” 13, 65. 17 David Holmes 3 July 1813 letter to Major Nathaniel A. Ware in Clarence Edwin Carter, “Executive Proceedings of the Mississippi Territory,” Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. 6: Territory of Mississippi (Washington, DC: U.S. Govt., 1938), 384. John Brooke Posey was admitted to the Georgia Bar 23 May 1808 by act of the Georgia Legislature: see Augustin Smith Clayton, A Compilation of the Laws of the State of Georgia, Passed by the Legislature Since the Political Year 1800 to the Year 1810, (Augusta: Adams & Duyckinck, 1813), 431, transcribing act. 320. Posey Family of America, 86. 18 “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys,” 73. 19 Ibid., 13, 65; Elizabeth Screven’s obituary, Woodville [Mississippi] Republican, 3 and 4 March 1848; Horace Edwin Hayden, Virginia Genealogies: A Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland and Virginia, etc. (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: E.B. Yordy, 1891), 204-212.
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After having graduated from the University of Virginia and been made Federal Attorney for southern Mississippi in November 1859, Carnot Posey organized a unit from Wilkinson County to serve in the Confederate army, which he commanded as a general. He died 13 November 1863 after being wounded in battle at Charlottesville, Virginia.20 Carnot Posey’s Greek revival house in Woodville, Mississippi, built about 1845 using materials from his Sligo Plantation near Ft. Adams, still stands.21 While CSA General Posey was battling to preserve the institution of slavery in the United States, his first cousin James Russell Winn was living on a plantation 160 miles northwest of Woodville in Union County, Arkansas, with a wife who was a free woman of color, and his three surviving children by that wife. One wonders if these two cousins ever met—if they ever discussed their views about race and slavery. This question grows even more acute when one examines the history of Carnot Posey’s sons John and Carnot. On Christmas day 1883, both men were killed in a racially charged altercation in Yazoo City, Mississippi, that apparently occurred at an African-American ball at which the two white men were competing for the attention of a woman of color with a black man. Accounts of this incident in Mississippi newspapers speak of it as a racially motivated assassination of two of the community’s “best citizens,” who “bore a name that had descended to them with honor.”22 Reports in the Canton newspaper American Citizen and the Greenville Times depict the murders as the consequence of unsolicited insults that the Posey men received from African-American men as they were walking the streets of the town. When John and Carnot Posey responded
20 Mr. and Mrs. Harold Fisher, “Brigadier-General Carnot Posey,” Journal of Wilkinson County History 4 (March 1999): 21-2. 21 Journal of Wilkinson County History 3 (November 1992): 88-9. See also Posey Family of America, 86. 22 In September 2002, a spouse of a descendant of this family wrote me about a scrapbook kept by the family from the time of these murders. This family member provided me with transcripts of material from the scrapbook, including an undated Yazoo Herald clipping from which the preceding quotations were taken. A report in Woodville Republican, 29 December 1883, citing information from the men’s uncle Judge Stanhope Posey, characterizes the murders as “nearly if not quite an assassination.”
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by gathering friends to support them, they were shot, according to these sources.23 According to the Yazoo Herald, the Posey brothers sought to intervene in an altercation between two black men at Burkhous’s saloon, and when they insisted on seeing the two men arrested, John was insulted by a black man, John James. The Poseys left, and on their return, found James with W. H. Foote, an African-American internal revenue collector of the Reconstruction government, who took James’s side. Foote and a number of black men then barred themselves inside the butcher shop in which James worked and opened fire, killing the Poseys and several other men.24 This source turns the murders of John and Carnot Posey into a martyrdom account, in which the two men died for the values of the beloved Confederacy in a battle against former slaves egged on to violence by Reconstruction agents:
Messrs. John T. and Carnot Posey were among our best citizens. May we never witness such another Christmas is the fervent prayer of all in our community. Both were men who stood high in our community. They were both born in Woodville and bore a name that had descended to them with honor. Their father, General Carnot Posey, won his title on the field of honor, being mortally wounded by Federal Troops. Their uncle (Stanhope Posey) was for some time Circuit Judge and stood as high as any Judicial Officer in the State. With this inheritance they endeavored to so live as to reflect no discredit on their distinguished ancestry, and that they succeeded is the verdict of all who knew them intimately. There is no one who does not feel for the afflicted family. John leaves a wife. Both was blessed with a pious, good mother and two sisters. They also leave three brothers to mourn their loss. Their funeral was one of the largest ever witnessed in Yazoo City, the whole community uniting in offering this last manifestation of respect.
However, a diametrically opposed account of the evening by an eyewitness who did not belong to the tight-knit community still licking
23 Both articles are in the 29 December 1883 editions of these newspapers. 24 Yazoo Herald, Yazoo City, Mississippi, 29 December 1883.
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its wounds from the recent war tells an entirely different story. This account appears in Albert Talmon Morgan’s Yazoo: or, On the Picket Line of Freedom in the South. A Personal Narrative.25 Morgan was the sheriff appointed by the Reconstruction government for Yazoo County. He fled the state when acts of violence such as those that ensued following the murder of the two Posey men made it impossible for those who had been part of Reconstruction to remain in the area. According to Morgan, this is what happened on Christmas night 1883: the Posey men went out on the town, seeking trouble. Their first stop was a “Negro ball” (apparently akin to the quadroon balls in New Orleans, at which white men were welcome, and at which they often chose women of color as mistresses). At this locale, John T. Posey had a dispute with John James regarding the attentions of one of the women of color. This escalated, and the Poseys left to arm themselves and gather support. The white owner of the butcher shop, Mr. Lynch, sought to intervene but was ignored because he was of a lower social class than the Posey group. Foote, the revenue collector, was apparently now the primary object of attention. He was despised because of his collaboration with the Reconstruction government, and because he had been given a position of authority as a black man over the white citizens of the community. In reading the local accounts of these murders and comparing them to the reconstructionist’s account, one cannot help wondering if this was an act of racial violence deliberately incited by white citizens eager to overthrow the final vestiges of Reconstruction rule in the community. This interpretation—which suggests that the account of Morgan is more reliable than that of the local media—appears warranted in light of the heinous violence that followed these murders. As a St. Louis Globe-Democrat article of 29 December 1883 incorporated into Morgan’s Yazoo text demonstrates, when the black men apprehended for this murder were jailed, a lynch mob of some 200 people gathered. The mob broke into the county jail and hauled out four of the men, lynching them on the spot. These included the despised Reconstruction revenue collector Foote. These lynchings effectively ended Reconstruction in that part of Mississippi.
25 The chronicle of the murders is on pp. 494-501. Yazoo was privately published in 1884. The Posey family scrapbook described in note 22 contains an excerpt from this book with the heading, “The Event as Described by a Carpetbagger.”
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Once again, this story provides an interesting counterpoint to the saga of the Posey men’s cousin James Russell Winn and his family, who lived a mere 133 miles west of Yazoo City. If it is true that John T. and Carnot Posey sought the attentions of women of color prior to their murder—and that detail of Morgan’s account of their murder seems plausible—then one wonders what their Arkansas cousin and his family thought of this murder; and whether anyone in the Winn family remembered these acts of violence in their family circle in Mississippi, when James Russell Winn’s son Powhatan was murdered less than sixteen years later in Union County, Arkansas.
B. The Winn Background
James Russell Winn’s paternal ancestry also connects him to influential slaveholding families with deep ties to the colonial South. This Winn line is thought by some researchers to descend from Robert Wynne, who came to Virginia in 1651 and was speaker of that state’s House of Burgesses, though this lineage has never been definitively proven, and may be impossible to prove, due to the loss of records in the tidewater counties of Virginia.26 James Russell Winn’s father Abner Winn was born 26 April 1769 in Lunenburg County, Virginia, and died 23 December 1836 at Northport in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.27 Abner was a son of Thomas Winn and wife Philadelphia Winn (said to have been his cousin) of Lunenburg County, Virginia, whose descendants have played a prominent role in both the history of Atlanta for many generations, and the history of the Methodist church in the Southeast.28 As with the Posey family, this staunch Methodist family made the transition from Episcopalianism to Methodism when it moved from Virginia to South Carolina following the Revolution. In Lunenburg County, Virginia, Thomas Winn’s father of
26 Charles Arthur Wynn, A Family History of the Wynns (Winn, Wynne) of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia (Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen, 1991), 1-12. 27 Albert Winn tombstone, Old Northport Cemetery, Northport, Alabama. I have seen and transcribed the stone, and have photos of it. Lockard and Sinclair, Bridging the Past of Tuscaloosa County, have a drawing of the stone, p. 65. See also Hendrix, Old Cemeteries Found in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama (privately published, 1981), 8. 28 George W. Clower, “Thomas Winn (c. 1741-1797) and His Remarkable Connection with Atlanta through his Descendants,” Atlanta Historical Bulletin 12, no. 4 (1967), 38- 46.
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the same name was an influential member of the vestry of Cumberland (Episcopal) Parish.29 The Methodist connection is important to note, because it may have given rise to a desire among some members of this influential family to mitigate or even abolish the slave system, even as most branches of the family held slaves. In 1813, ten years after Abner Winn moved his young family from Abbeville District, South Carolina, to Jackson County, Georgia, he deeded to a group of trustees including his brother Lemuel and Rev. Hosea Camp a tract of land in Jackson County on which the group erected the county’s first Methodist church (Jackson County Deed Book F, p. 129, 20 December 1813). An unpublished manuscript of Abner’s nephew Richard Dickson Winn (1816-1894), a judge in Lawrenceville, Georgia, notes the commitment of Abner Winn and his family to Methodism. Richard Dickson Winn writes,
Abner (1769-1836), the first son [of Thomas Winn], married Lucretia Posey. He lived some years in Jackson County, Georgia, and afterwards moved to Greene, now Hale County, Alabama, where he lived several years and finally to Tuscaloosa County, in that State, where he died as he had lived, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.30
Richard Dickson Winn notes that Abner’s son Genubath was a Methodist minister who married Margaret Jordan Camp, a daughter of Rev. Hosea Camp, and that Abner’s son James Russell Winn, through wife Samantha Mitchell, had a daughter who married Rev. Thomas P. Roberts of the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist church.31 He also notes that three sons of Abner’s brother Lemuel became “Methodist
29 Landon Covington Bell, Cumberland Parish, Lunenburg County, Virginia, 1746-1816: Vestry Book, 1746-1816 (Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1930). 30 Frederick Ware Huff, Four Families: Winn, Thomas, Ware, Garrett . . . (Kennesaw, Georgia: privately published, 1993), 153. Huff does not provide information about the whereabouts of the original of this manuscript. 31 On Genubath Winn, see Marion Elias Lazenby, History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida (Birmingham: North Alabama Methodist Conference, 1960), 210; Harold Lawrence, Methodist Preachers in Georgia 1783-1900 (Tignall, Georgia: Boyd, 1984), 611; George Magruder Battey, Jr., A History of Rome and Floyd County, Georgia (Atlanta: Webb & Vary, 1922), 299-300; and Robert Neville Mann and Catherine Cleek Mann, Camp-Kemp Family History, vol. 2 (Cedar Bluff, Alabama, 1969), 93.
16 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
preachers of distinction, Thomas L. (1798-1830) being the father of Rev. Alex M. Winn, D.D. (1827-1906), of the South Georgia conference, Richard J., now of Texas, still in life and James (1815-1842), who like Thomas L., died young.”32 The “Alex M. Winn” to whom his cousin Richard’s notes refer is Alexander McFarlane Wynn, whom a biographer, George W. Clower, has called “among the most dedicated men in the work of the Methodist Church in the nineteenth century.”33 Clower notes that when Wesley Chapel, the first Methodist church in Atlanta, was built in 1848, Alexander M. Wynn was among two pastors appointed to it in its second year, following his graduation from Emory University. In a career of distinguished service to the Methodist church, Alexander M. Wynn organized Wesley Chapel in San Francisco, the first Methodist Episcopal Church South located west of Texas, serving at the same time as principal of Bascom Institute; established an orphans’ home in Macon; and planned and built Wesley Monumental church in Savannah. It is also worth noting that, when both of his parents died before he was three years old, Alexander M. Wynn was raised by Bishop J. O. Andrew, a Methodist bishop whose possession of slaves through his wife’s estate caused him to be censured by the Methodist General Conference in 1844, creating the split between northern and southern branches of the church.34 A number of indicators in various branches of the Winn family suggest that, even while holding slaves, members of this devoutly Methodist family with generations of ministers had reservations about slavery serious enough to warrant action on their part—either to ameliorate the situation of slaves or advocate for abolition. In addition to Genubath, another of James Russell Winn’s brothers was a Methodist minister who also appears to have sought to impose his ethical ideals on the slave system: this was Abner, Jr. (1812-1858), who served in the Alabama legislature in 1845 and was a Methodist minister in Northport, Alabama. Abner Winn, Jr., left a 31 October 1855 will in Tuscaloosa
32 Huff, Four Families. 33 George W. Clower, “Rev. Alexander McFarlane Wynn, D.D., 1827-1906: Pioneer in Atlanta Methodism,” Atlanta Historical Bulletin 11: 3 (1966), 46-50. 34 Lawrence, Methodist Preachers in Georgia, 610-11; also J.C. Simmons, The History of Southern Methodism on the Pacific Coast (Nashville: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1886), 14-21; “One of the Patriarchs of the Methodist Church in Georgia,” Atlanta Constitution, 14 January 1900, section 2, p. 3, col. 3-4; and A Family History of the Wynns, 38-53.
Brown or White Sugar 17
County making provisions for some of his slaves to buy their freedom so that they could emigrate to Liberia (Will Book 3, p. 35). The will was probated 20 January 1858. In it, Abner Winn specifies that “negro man Jemy to be pirmitted [sic] to buy himself at fifteen hundred dollars and to enable him to do so he shall not be required to pay more than one hundred and fifty dollars hire annually.” Abner Winn states, “I do this to enable him to get to Liberia and I do not wish him to be held in bondage by any man.” The will also notes that slaves Sella and her children Elizabeth and Martha were to be taken at their valuation price ($1200) by his widow Nancy, and that Charlotte and her children George, Newton, and Mary (valued at $1500) were not to be separated unless it were arranged for Jack Winn, “a colored man,” to take Newton with him to Liberia. In that event, Abner Winn valued the three at $1300 and Charlotte was to be allowed to select someone to buy her and her children “and in no event must they be exposed to public sale.” The will also bequeathed $1000 to the Methodist Episcopal Church South for whatever of its missions might be deemed appropriate.35 The Jack Winn mentioned in this will is an interesting figure. The 1860 census shows him living with wife Lucy and their family in Northport as a free man of color whose occupation was blacksmith, with a real worth of $1100 and personal worth of $1500.36 Alton Lambert’s history of Tuscaloosa County notes that a large African-American family by the name of Winn lived at Northport, descending from Jack Winn and wife Lucy.37 Abner Winn’s will implies that Jack Winn was a free man by the time the will was written in 1855. Since records of the estate of Abner’s father Abner, Sr., show that his son Abner bought Jack and Lucy in 1838, it appears that, after purchasing these slaves, Abner, Jr., manumitted them along with their family. One wonders whether Jack Winn was a blood relative of the white Winn family.
35 See Alton Lambert, History of Tuscaloosa County (Centre, Alabama: Stewart University Press, 1978), 18, for biographical information about Abner Winn. An obituary is in Nashville Christian Advocate, 21 January 1858. The reference to Liberia in Abner Winn’s will may indicate that he belonged to the American Colonization Society, which promoted the migration of freed slaves to Liberia: on this group and its activities in Mississippi, see Ellen Douglas, Truth: Four Stories I Am Finally Old Enough to Tell (Chapel Hill: Algonquin), 209. 36 Jack Winn household, 1860 federal census, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, town of Northport, p. 708, dwelling and family 865; National Archives [NA] microfilm M653, roll 25. 37 Lambert, History of Tuscaloosa County, 18.
18 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Abner Winn and his concern for slaves as a Methodist minister are the subject of a family story I heard often as a child. The story originated with my mother’s grandmother Samantha Jane Braselton Simpson (1847- 1912), whose mother Elizabeth Ann Winn Braselton (1819-1877) was a niece of Abner Winn. In my growing-up years, I heard often about a mysterious unnamed relative several generations back, who was a Methodist minister and who questioned slavery even while owning slaves. In a 21 May 1978 letter to me, a first cousin of my mother, Lula Mae Arendale Giersch, who had this story first-hand from her grandmother Simpson as Lula Mae grew up in Redfield, Jefferson County, Arkansas, tells it as follows:
Samantha Jane's maiden name was Braselton. I can recall hearing her tell of incidents when she was a young lady (pertaining to the Civil War). I remember her telling of some relative keeping slaves. He was a minister. I thought Methodist? He did not want slaves, but they always came to his place when they ran away from other masters. He felt sorry for them & bought them when he could afford it.
The struggle of some members of the devoutly Methodist Winn family to deal with the slave issue while owning slaves is also apparent in the life of James Russell Winn’s first cousin Richard Dickson Winn, whose family memoirs have previously been cited. Richard Dickson Winn was the son of James Russell Winn’s uncle Elisha Winn, a noted figure in north Georgia history. Gwinnett County was organized in 1818 at a house Elisha Winn built there for his family in 1812, which is still standing and has been preserved by the Gwinnett Historical Society.38 The first county elections were held at Elisha Winn’s house, as well as the first sessions of Inferior Court; Superior Court sessions were held in the plantation’s barn when the county was formed.39 Noting that Elisha Winn was among the first justices of the county’s Inferior Court, James C. Flanigan states, “He negotiated the purchase of the lot to locate the county site; he was among the first justices of the Inferior Court, and for many years was one of the most active public officials as well as
38 See Gwinnett Historical Society, Gwinnett County, It All Started Here (Dacula, Georgia: 1978), 1. 39 Gwinnett County, It All Started Here, 4.
Brown or White Sugar 19 influential citizens of the county.”40 Elisha Winn also served as a state senator from Gwinnett in 1826 and a state representative from the county in 1830, 1833, and 1837.41 Like many other members of his family, Elisha Winn was also a slaveholder who held fifty-three slaves in Gwinnett County in 1840,42 and a local Methodist leader—a point noted proudly on his tombstone in Old Lawrenceville Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Georgia, which reads,
In Memory of Elisha Winn, Esquire, [who was born] in the County of Lunenburg State of Virginia on the 25th day of June, 1777 and died suddenly in Jackson County on the 4th day of March 1842. He was a Sincere Christian A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church Thirty Three Years. An ardent defender of his Country's Rights both by word and deed, An unflinching friend and an honest man Without fear and without reproach.43
Elisha Winn’s son Richard Dickson Winn demonstrates the ambivalence of slaveholders whose religious convictions led them to question slavery, even as they held slaves. As I have previously noted, this first cousin of James Russell Winn was a judge in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Richard Dickson Winn was a justice of Gwinnett County’s Inferior Court from 1841 to 1853, and the county’s representative in the state legislature 1851-1852.44
40 James C. Flanigan, History of Gwinnett County, vol. 1 (Buford, Georgia: Moreno, 1975), 68; see also pp. 25-27. 41 Gwinnett County, It All Started Here, p. 1f; it also notes that Elisha Winn was a justice of Inferior Court in Jackson County, 1815-17, and in Gwinnett County, 1820-25. 42 Flanigan, History of Gwinnett County, vol. 1, p. 177. 43 The inscription was transcribed by George W. Clower and appears in a set of notes he sent to Frederick Huff of Kennesaw, Georgia, who kindly provided me with copies. For further information about Elisha Winn, see Clower, “Thomas Winn (c. 1741-1797),” 40- 41; Aldyne Maltbie, “Elisha Winn,” in Gwinnett County, Georgia Families 1818-1968, ed. Alice Smythe McCabe (Atlanta: Cherokee, 1980), 551-3; Frary Elrod, Historical Notes on Jackson County, Georgia (Jefferson, Georgia: Elrod, 1967), 46, 72-73; G.J.N. Wilson, The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: W.E. White, 1914), 299; Frederick Ware Huff, Four Families: Winn, Thomas, Ware, Garrett . . . (Kennesaw, Georgia, 1993), 130-131; and Charles Arthur Wynn, A Family History of the Wynns, 24-25. 44 Biographical information is in Clower, “Thomas Winn (c. 1741-1797),” 42; Flanigan, History of Gwinnett County, 179, 182, 186-189, 320; and Huff, Four Families, 114-118. As Flanigan notes (p. 320), starting in 1871, Richard Dickson Winn wrote sketches of
20 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Though, like other members of his family, Richard Dickson Winn was a devout Methodist who contributed largely to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, he was also a slaveholder with large landholdings and slaves. By 1860, he owned 672 acres in Gwinnett County and seventeen slaves.45 In November 1860, when Georgia convened its legislature to decide whether to secede from the union, Gwinnett County elected Richard Dickson Winn to this body. Along with the two other delegates from the county, Winn voted against secession. When the majority voted to secede, one of Winn’s Gwinnett County cohorts, James P. Simmons, offered a resolution stating that he would defend Georgia and the other Southern states that had seceded. Winn refused to sign the resolution.46 Following the war, Richard Dickson Winn was sent by the county to the Constitutional Convention, at which a new constitution was passed.47 Attempts to cope with the slave system within the context of their devout Methodist affiliation were not confined to the men of the Winn family. When James Russell Winn’s niece Mary Fletcher McConnell died unmarried at the young age of forty in 1864 in Tuscaloosa County, she left in her will a bequest paying the preacher in charge of New Lexington circuit through her father’s lifetime (Will Book 3, p. 148). The will was witnessed by her uncle John A. Winn, a leader of Campground Methodist church in this circuit, along with John A. Winn’s daughter Martha Antoinette and husband Evan S. Nicholson, minister of that church. Another niece also left records indicating that, even as a widow left by her husband’s early death to raise three children, she, too, struggled to assist those battling to preserve the union and abolish slavery. This is Elizabeth Ann Winn Braselton, who filed a claim on 19 January 1872 with the Southern Claims Commission for reimbursement for items taken from her farm by Union troops in Craxton’s raids in Tuscaloosa County during the war.48
many of the founding figures of the county, many of which Flanigan reproduces in his county history (p. 320f). Huff (pp. 133-136) transcribes an 1885 autobiography. 45 Flanigan, History of Gwinnett County, 182, 186. 46 Ibid., 188-189. 47 Huff, Four Families, 114. 48 File 6013, Southern Claims Commission; I have a copy of the original document. Elizabeth’s claim was allowed: see Statutes at Large and Proclamations of the United States of America . . . (Boston: Little Brown, 1873), 742.
Brown or White Sugar 21
Elizabeth’s application claims that she had supported the Union and disapproved of secession. Though she had a son and a brother in the Confederate army, she insists that both had remained out of the army as long as possible until they were forced into service by the Conscript Act in 1864. Her affidavit concludes, “I sympathized with the union cause all during the war, and thought the old government was the best. I always thought secession was [w]rong, and that the South was [w]rong in going into the war.” Elizabeth’s affidavit is supported by the testimony of her brother-in- law William T. Long (1834-1914), husband of her sister Louvenia Catherine Winn (1830-1896) and a man of some prominence in northwest Tuscaloosa County. He testified that everyone who knew Elizabeth A. Braselton considered her a Unionist, and that he and she had talked freely about their Union sympathies. Elizabeth’s sister Narcissa Jane Winn Andoe made a similar statement. This is the milieu in which James Russell Winn grew up—a world of plantations operated by slave labor and of sober Wesleyan religious dedication that questioned the right of one human being to claim ownership of another. James’s father Abner Winn was, along with other members of his family, a planter and slaveholder with a pronounced commitment to the Methodist church. The Dixon manuscript notes that, during its Georgia years, Abner Winn’s family “tented” each year at a Methodist campground on the edge of Jackson County, along with members of the Posey family.49 A tradition has passed down in the family of Abner Winn’s oldest daughter, Mary Hodgkin Winn (1791- 1860), who married John W. McConnell, that Abner Winn was, in fact, a Methodist circuit rider in Alabama, though I have not found records verifying that tradition.50 If he was a Methodist minister, his religious convictions did not cause Abner Winn to reject slavery, since the 1830 census shows him holding seventeen slaves six years before his death.51 Some of these, including the Jack and Lucy Winn mentioned previously, appear in his estate records. As I’ve noted, Abner Winn died in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, on 23 December 1836, without leaving a will. An inventory of
49 “Dixons, Flemings, Poseys,” 77. 50 See John McConnell Currie, “The John W. McConnell Family,” in Heritage of Fayette County, Alabama (Clanton, Alabama: Heritage Publishing County, 1999), 329. 51 Abner Winn household, 1830 census, Perry County, Alabama, p. 80, line 19; NA M19, roll 3.
22 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
the personal estate was compiled 5 January 1837 (Probate Book 4, Box 37, pp. 89-90). It lists slaves Davy, Rod, Jack and wife Lucy, Mary, and Manurvy/Minerva, valued together at $6700. A sale of slaves belonging to Abner Winn’s estate was held 7 January 1837 (Probate Book 4, box 37, pp. 91-2). As noted previously, Abner’s son Abner bought Jack and Lucy and their unnamed child. Abner’s son-in-law Greenberry W. Mitchell, husband of Abner’s daughter Cynthia Melinda, bought Rod. Abner’s widow Lucretia purchased Minerva, and Abner’s son John Alexander Winn bought Mary. The only slave sold outside the family, Dave, went to Curtis Ivy. It appears that other of the seventeen slaves enumerated on the 1830 census remained in the possession of widow Lucretia and were not put up for sale, since a 30 January sale bill for the rest of the estate’s personal property shows various neighbors hiring slaves belonging to the estate (Tuscaloosa County Inventory Book 1837, pp. 34-43). The milieu in which James Russell Winn came of age was not only one of slavery, plantation life, and Methodism. It was also a world of extensive and influential family connections to state senators and representatives, judges and ministers, to founders of colleges and orphanages, even, by marriage, to “the wealthiest of Georgia's antebellum land-owners,” Farish Carter (1780-1861), who owned slaves and thousands of acres in Georgia prior to the Civil War.52 As I’ve noted, Carter was a son of Abner Winn’s step-mother Letitia Martin (1740-1824), who, according to her descendants, danced with Washington at his inaugural ball, and passed down to her family the fan she used on this historic occasion.53 This was a world of power, influence, privilege, and of subjugation of one group of people to another, with invidious distinctions based on the color of people’s skin—a world of religious fervor that sometimes cast a cold eye on the way power, influence, and privilege operated in the milieu of slavery. It was this world that James Russell Winn carried on his back (as it were) to Union County, Arkansas, in the fall of 1842, as he moved his wife of color Margaret Shackelford and their young family, Orianah,
52 Lucien Knight Lamar, Georgia’s Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends, vol. 1 (Atlanta: Byrd, 1913), 286. Carter’s papers are held by the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, see above, note 12. 53 The fan was in possession of a descendant in Tulsa in the 1980s. It is she who told me the story.
Brown or White Sugar 23
John Milton, Harrison, and Mary, to begin a new life there. His was a life both within the slave system in which he had grown up, and at a sharp distance from it, as he claimed and acknowledged a family that crossed the color line so essential to that system’s maintenance.
Editor’s note: Part II of Brown or White Sugar, “James Russell Winn: Life and Legacy,” will be printed in the June issue of The Arkansas Family Historian.
Arkansas Genealogy Road Show
co-sponsored by Arkansas Genealogical Society and Grand Prairie Genealogical Society
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Phillips Community College 2807 Highway 165 South Stuttgart, Arkansas
FREE!
Get help with your research. Bring us your questions. Ask our experts. Visit our vendors. Share your family history and photographs.
24 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
THE LEE-CRAIG CONNECTION IN OAKWOOD CEMETERY AT PARIS, LOGAN COUNTY, ARKANSAS
Bill Hanks
Most of the Lee questions sent to me over the years have concerned the two Civil War Union soldiers of the name buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Paris in Logan County, Arkansas. The questions concerned to which Lee family they belonged and the identity of their Craig in- laws. Information has come to light which enables me now to answer these questions with some degree of confidence. Both J. C. Lee and S. H. Lee served in Company H, First Arkansas Infantry Volunteers, U. S. Army, during the Civil War.1 Their widows, who were sisters, received pensions based on their service. In both cases, the pension application provides an exceptional amount of family information, including marriage dates and children’s birth dates.2 Mr. Ken Sturdivant was kind enough to send me a copy of the Daniel R. and Susan A. (Redden) Lee family Bible record.3 I had surmised from studying the census records that the two soldiers were sons of this couple, and the Bible record confirms that they were. Mrs. Donna Berryhill sent me copies of a 1979 article about the Craig family from which the Lee brothers’ wives came.4 All of the Craig family information in this article comes from the 1979 article. Samuel H. Lee was born 19 June 1841,5 in Johnson County, Arkansas, and died 1 January 1888 near Paris, Arkansas, in Logan
1 J. C. Lee and S. H. Lee, privates, Co. H, 1st Arkansas Inf., Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas, First Infantry Hi-Le, National Archives [NA] microfilm M399, roll 47. 2 Samuel H. Lee (Pvt., Co. H, 1st Ark. Inf.), Widow’s Certificate 296,293, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications, 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files, Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group [RG] 15, National Archives [NA], Washington, D.C. John C. Lee (Pvt., Co. H, 1st Ark. Inf.), Invalid Claim for Pension, Certificate 444,052, Widow’s Certificate 289,277, Veterans Affairs, RG 15, NA. 3 Daniel R. Lee family Bible record, photocopy of original births page submitted by John Cotton, Wagon Wheels, Vol. 22, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2002, Logan County Historical Society, p. 45; see also full reconstruction of this family record in Wagon Wheels, Vol. 26, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2006, p. 32, by this author; original marriage and death pages, not found, data were reconstructed from other records. 4 William Bruce Craig, “Craig Family,” Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 22, No. 1 & 2, 1979, p. 12. 5 Daniel R. Lee family Bible record.
Lee-Craig Connection 25
County. He married 21 January 1866 to Martha Ann Craig, near Paris.6 Samuel and Martha Ann Lee’s children were:
(1) Minnie Belle Lee born 14 November 1868; (2) Josephine Lee born 4 March 1870; (3) George D. Lee born 16 April 1872; (4) Edward Lafayette Lee born 6 June 1874; (5) Pearl May Lee born 11 September 1876; (6) Susan Jane Lee born 8 April 1878; (7) Hadaseth Myrtle Lee born 14 August 1881; (8) Samuel Floyd Lee born 8 December 1883; (9) Flossie Mattie Lee born 10 January 1886; (10) William Garfield Lee born 18 May 1888.7
Samuel’s wife Martha Ann was a daughter of George W. and Harriet Jane (Wolf) Craig, born 12 July 1848 in Arkansas County, Arkansas. She outlived her husband by many years, not dying until 6 January 1933, and was buried at Gore, Oklahoma.8 Samuel and three of their children share the same monument at Oakwood Cemetery, but Martha does not have a monument there. The three children, who died at young ages, were Hadaseth Myrtle Lee who died 9 September 1890; Josephine Lee who died 10 July 1895; and Edward Lafayette Lee who died 17 December 1901.9 Samuel’s brother, John C. Lee, was born 22 February 1846 in Johnson County, Arkansas, and died 29 December 1885 at Paris, Arkansas.10 He married Mary Jane Craig 21 January 1868 near Paris.11 John and Mary Jane’s children were:
(1) Henry Newton Lee born 7 July 1871; (2) Maude Milley Ann Lee born 28 December 1872; (3) Mathew F. Lee born 4 December 1874;
6 Franklin County Marriage Book A, Second Book of Marriage Records 1866-1870, p. 3, County Clerk’s Office, Ozark, Arkansas; Arkansas History Commission [AHC] MFILM County roll 001748; Family History Library [FHL] microfilm 1034243. 7 Samuel H. Lee, Widow’s Pension, Widow’s Certificate 296,293, NA RG 15. 8 William Bruce Craig, “Craig Family.” 9 AHC MFILM General 1014, Roll 19, Lafayette County-South Logan County, part, Oakwood Cemetery, p. 18. 10 John C. Lee, Widow’s Pension, Widow’s Certificate 289,277; NA, RG 15. 11 This marriage date is found nowhere but in his widow’s pension application.
26 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
(4) Maggy Bell Lee born 4 October 1876; (5) Susan Jane Lee born 4 August 1878; (6) Lottie Lee born 1 March 1881; (7) Arthur Lee born 8 January 1883; (8) John C. Lee, Jr., born 17 September 1886.12
John C. Lee’s wife Mary Jane was the sister of Samuel’s wife Martha Ann, and therefore also a daughter of George W. and Harriet Jane (Wolf) Craig, born 6 November 1850 in Arkansas County, Arkansas.13 She died 17 March 1934 at Paris, Arkansas, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Paris with her husband.14 George W. Craig, the father of the Craig sisters who married the Lee brothers, was born about 1819 or 1820 at Millsville (near present Orange), Oxford Township, Coshocton County, Ohio, the son of John and Hannah (McCune) Craig.15 He died 17 or 18 May 1864 at Dardanelle, Arkansas.16 He married Harriet Jane Wolf on 5 July 1848 in Arkansas County, Arkansas. Harriet was born 28 June 1829 in Arkansas County and died 4 July 1910, at Paris, Arkansas, where she is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Harriet may have been the daughter of Michael and Lucy Ann Manette Larose (Vessiere) Wolf. The children of George and Harriet Craig were:
(1) Martha Ann Craig born 12 July 1848 in Arkansas County, married Samuel H. Lee 21 January 1866, and died 6 January 1933 at Gore, Oklahoma; (2) Mary Jane Craig born 6 November 1850 in Arkansas County, married John C. Lee 21 January 1868, and died 17 March 1934 at Paris, Arkansas; (3) Georgia Ann Craig born 25 September 1852 probably Jefferson County, Arkansas, married Calvin Lafayette Freeman 26 June 1870, and died 18 July 1940 near Paris, Arkansas;
12 John C. Lee, Widow’s Pension, Widow’s Certificate 289,277, NA RG 15. 13 William Bruce Craig, “Craig Family.” 14 AHC MFILM General 1014, Roll 19, Lafayette County-South Logan County, part, Oakwood Cemetery, p. 18. 15 This and all of the Craig data that follows here are from William Bruce Craig’s article, “Craig Family.” 16 Administration papers of George’s estate give his death date as 18 May 1863. Franklin County Letters of Administration, Book A, p. 45; AHC MFILM County 1754, Franklin County roll 6, item 2, also FHL film 1027666.
Lee-Craig Connection 27
(4) Samuel Houston Craig born 12 October 1853 Jefferson County, Arkansas, married Sarah J. Sanders 15 November 1883, and died 31 January 1931 at Waco, Texas; (5) Thomas Newton Craig born 10 October 1855 Jefferson County, Arkansas, married Addie M. Alexander, and died 4 August 1924 at Pomona, California; (6) John Richard Craig born 5 September 1856 Jefferson County, Arkansas, married Malissa A. Cherry 22 December 1881, and died 25 May 1925 at Paris, Arkansas; (7) William Henry Craig born 29 January 1861 Yell County, Arkansas, married Anna R. Amis [the researcher William Bruce Craig's line], and died 28 July 1915 at Fort Smith, Arkansas.17
Few details of a personal nature were found about George W. Craig. He farmed in Arkansas County and Jefferson County as part of an extended family community including his brothers, sisters, mother, and older nephews and nieces18 until the late 1850s, when he moved his family to Yell County, Arkansas.19 The profitable sale of his Jefferson County, Arkansas, land should have given him a sound financial base for the move, but by 1860 he claimed $400 in real estate value and $500 in personal worth.20 The note he gave for purchases at his brother Daniel's estate auction for $700 was never recorded as satisfied.21 Franklin County, Arkansas, records in 1869 described the George W. Craig estate as “hopelessly insolvent.”22 William Bruce Craig mentioned documents submitted for pension purposes in 1905 by George’s widow and two daughters that stated that he died of measles at Dardanelle, Arkansas, the day the Confederate Army recaptured the town.23 He thought that
17 William Bruce Craig, “Craig Family.” 18 See 1850 census, Arkansas County, Arkansas, Douglas township, pp. 9A and 9B; NA M432, roll 25. 19 Geo. Craig household, 1860 U.S. census, Yell County, Arkansas, Galley Rock township, Dardanelle post office, p. 1042, dwelling and household 293; NA film M653, roll 52, accessed 10 January 2010 online at Ancestry.com. 20 Ibid. 21 Daniel Craig estate papers, Franklin County Loose Probate Packets, AHC MFILM County Roll 1791, FHL microfilm 2057679 22 George Craig estate papers are in Franklin County, Arkansas, Probate Court Records Book B, 1866-1870, pp. 59, 109, 203, 303-304; AHC MFILM 001755, FHL film 1027667. 23 William Bruce Craig, “Craig Family.” George Craig’s widow, Harriet Craig, married second George W. Hancock and applied for a Union pension based on his Union military
28 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
indicated the family had moved into the town for safety sometime during the war. The paternal grandfather of the Craig sisters was John Craig who was born between 1780 and 1790, probably in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and died between 1830 and 1838, probably along the Arkansas River between Arkansas Post and Pine Bluff. John married Hannah McCune on 2 March 1809 in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.24 She was born about 1792 in Washington County, Pennsylvania [although the 1860 census says North Carolina], and she died 1861 or 1862, in the area northwest of Paris in Franklin [now Logan] County, Arkansas. John and Hannah Craig’s children were:
(1) John McCune Craig, born 1810, died 22 November 1853, married Elizabeth Hartley 17 February 1831; (2) Mary Craig, born 1812-1813, died after 1872, married James McCune 29 April 1830; (3) Daniel Craig born 1816 to 1817, died June-July 1862 near Paris, Arkansas, never married; (4) George W. Craig born 1819 or 1820, died 17 or 18 May, 1864 at Dardanelle, Arkansas, married Harriet Jane Wolf 5 July 1848; (5) Jane Craig, born between 1821 and 1824, died between 1851 and 1853, married Stephen D. “Commodore” Tarleton ca. 1849; (6) Samuel Craig born 1824 or 1825, died between September and December 1862 near Paris, Arkansas, married Louisiana Jane Kepler 6 November 1849; (7) Martha Craig born about 1830, died between 1854 and 1859, married S. D. Staine 1854.
John and Hannah’s second son, Daniel Craig, did not marry, and he early on became the family leader because of his father’s early death and his older brother John having his own home and family to maintain. He continued in this role until his death. By age thirty he had bought six tracts of land, sold land at a profit four times, and in spite of his origins
service during the Civil War. See George W. Hancock, Widow’s Certificate 593,376, General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, NA T288. 24 Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Marriage Book 1, p. 1, record 5, John Craige married Hannah McCune, March 2, 1809, courtesy of Brian Tolka, Tuscarawas County Ohio US GenWeb page lookup volunteer.
Lee-Craig Connection 29
in Ohio, bought his first slave. He delighted in his 760-acre Short Mountain farm in Franklin (now Logan) County that he acquired after moving from Jefferson County in 1859. By the time of his death in 1862 his farm was a valuable piece of property. He was actively ambitious in comparison to his brothers who were more complacent and passive. Perhaps because of intellectual advantage, early family leadership responsibilities, or his mother's favoritism, Daniel achieved more in his forty-five years than did most of his kin. The other Logan County uncle of the Craig girls who married the Lee brothers was Samuel Craig. He was born about 1824 or 1825 in Coshocton County, Ohio, and was hanged in his barn by Bushwhackers sometime during the period of September through December of 1862, near Paris in Franklin (now Logan) County, Arkansas. On 6 November 1849 in Arkansas County, Arkansas, he married Louisiana Jane Kepler. The Keplers were of German origin and settled near Arkansas Post during Spanish rule. Samuel followed Daniel into the “overseeing” occupation, and he enjoyed the respect of the slaves because of his fair and sympathetic treatment. His tragic death near Short Mountain in 1862, followed by that of his wife in the same decade, left their five surviving children a helpless and sad group of orphans. The children of Samuel Craig and Louisiana Kepler were:
(1) James Lewis (Jim) Craig, born 22 July 1852 Arkansas County, Arkansas, died 1911 Caulksville, Arkansas, married first in 1874 Mary F. McVay, born in 1855, died in 1881, orphan daughter of George S. and Nicey (Leeton) McVay, from Alabama; married secondly 12 February 1882 Mary A. Sessions born 1859, died 1911; (2) John Daniel Craig born 23 December 1853 Arkansas County, Arkansas, died 1912 or 1913 Paris, Arkansas, married ca. 1876 Georgia Ann Burris, born 27 September 1860, died 27 May 1949; (3) Elizabeth H. Craig, born 16 May 1855 Jefferson County, Arkansas, died 19 May 1880 near Paris, Arkansas, married January 1874 James A. Goldsworthy who died 1921; she died in childbirth and he remarried; (4) Samuel Craig, Jr., born 10 November 1857 Jefferson County, Arkansas, died 29 January 1905 near Paris, Arkansas, married 4 December 1884 Mrs. Artie L. (Sessions) Parker;
30 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
(5) Mary Belle Craig, born 7 October 1858 Jefferson County, Arkansas, died before 1870; (6) Sarah Jane Craig, born 10 November 1862 near Paris, Franklin (now Logan) County, Arkansas, died 1897 at Paris, Arkansas, married 25 December 1879 William V. Barnes, a mill operator.
Daniel and John M. Craig appear in the 1840 Arkansas County tax records25 and in 1841 they bought government land at the Little Rock Land Office.26 John M. Craig stated he had moved onto the land 1 June 1836. The brothers built log homes, smoke houses, and corn cribs. Daniel stated he was twenty-four years old and was the head of a family consisting of his widowed mother (Hannah), two brothers (George W. and Samuel) and two sisters (Jane and Martha). About 1848 Daniel ventured over near Altheimer in Jefferson County, Arkansas, to become the overseer on a large plantation. The 1850 agricultural schedules reveal the Craigs were relatively well-off subsistence farmers.27 The 1850 census population schedules show the family headed by Daniel in 1840 had grown to four households in Douglas Township of Arkansas County. George W., Samuel, and Jane were married and had their own homes, and the widowed mother, Hannah, had a home with her youngest daughter, Martha.28 In the early 1850s the Craigs began to move from their land on the Arkansas River to the area of Jefferson County where Daniel had gone near Altheimer. By about 1857, Daniel, George W. and Samuel Craig were looking for new land. They chose to journey up the Arkansas River to the area of Dardanelle, Clarksville and Ozark where the land along the river was fertile.
25 Arkansas County, Arkansas, Tax Records 1837, 1840, 1849, unpaged, alphabetical listing; AHC MFILM 000065, Arkansas County roll 65, FHL film 978535. 26 State Land Office: Original Entry Records, roll 30, Book 94, T8S, R3W, Sections 6, 7, 8, and 19 on pages 85, 86, and 87, AHC MFILM 00001865, FHL film 1302831. 27 J. M. and George Craig, 1850 U.S. census, agricultural schedule, Arkansas County, Arkansas, Douglas township, lines 14 and 15; AHC MFILM, General, 00001856, Special Schedules: Production in Agriculture, Arkansas-Lafayette, 1850, roll 1. Daniel did not appear in the agricultural schedule of Jefferson County, but the 1850 population schedule shows him with $800 in real estate. 28 1850 U.S. census, Arkansas County, Arkansas, Douglas township, population schedule, p. 9A, J. M. Craig household, dwelling 22; George Craig household, dwelling 23; Hannah Craig household, dwelling 24; and on p. 9B, Samuel Craig household, dwelling 25 and S. D. Tarlton household, dwelling 26; NA microfilm M432, roll 25.
Lee-Craig Connection 31
George W. Craig made the journey with his wife and six children a year or two before his brothers. He was listed for the last time in Jefferson County in 1857. Probably traveling by steamboat, his family and a neighbor, Eli Sherrill, went upriver and about ten miles below Dardanelle established a small farm just west of Petit Jean Mountain and River in the Carden Bottom south of the Arkansas River at the east end of Yell County, Arkansas. Daniel Craig made a large profit when he sold his Jefferson County land in September 1858. In 1859, Daniel, Samuel and his family, and their mother, Hannah, along with their household goods and farm implements, boarded a steamboat near Pine Bluff for the trip to Roseville in Franklin (now Logan) County. This new country resembled eastern Ohio which they had left more than twenty years earlier. Within a year, Daniel Craig had acquired 700 acres of his Short Mountain farm, consisting of a wide strip of Arkansas River bottomland with a wide and swift stream, and 160 acres on the side of Short Mountain northwest of what is now Paris, Arkansas. A prominent rise on the north end of the mountain was an ideal location for the family home, with a good view of Magazine Mountain to the south and the Arkansas River to the north. The 1860 census agricultural schedules show Daniel Craig's total worth at $22,000, with land valued at $7,500, and 300 hogs and other livestock valued at $4,000. He produced corn, cotton, peas, potatoes, butter and honey; and had the only fruit orchard for miles around, yielding $300.29 He later added wheat and rye. Four adult slaves were a necessary part of the farm, as he was single and lived alone with his mother, Hannah. The 1860 slave schedules show ten slaves, five males and five females, living in four slave houses.30 Samuel Craig settled a short distance to the north and was a plantation overseer with $1,180 in personal property, livestock and produce.31 George W. Craig was on his land below Dardanelle and had an 1860 total worth of $900.32
29 Dan’l Craig, 1860 U.S. census, agricultural schedule, Franklin County, Arkansas, Short Mountain township, p. 35-36, line 30; AHC MFilm 1856, Special Schedules: Production in Agriculture, Columbia-Pike 1860. 30 Daniel Craig, 1860 U.S. census, slave schedule, Franklin County, Arkansas, Short Mountain township, p. 269, line 18, NA M653, roll 53. 31 Saml Craig household, 1860 U.S. census, Franklin County, Arkansas, Lower Township, p. 362, dwelling 875, family 834; NA M653, roll 41, accessed online at www.ancestry.com 14 January 2010, indexed with given name Jame. 32 George W. Craig household, 1860 U.S. census, Yell County, Arkansas, Galley Rock township, p. 1042, dwelling and family 293, NA microfilm M653, roll 53.
32 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
The Civil War, beginning in the spring of 1861, brought with it the end of life for Hannah, Daniel, George W. and Samuel Craig. The mother Hannah and her son Daniel apparently died of natural causes during the first year of the war. Daniel's estate was appraised at $7,300, and all of it was sold at auction on August 19, 1862, except the slaves. His brother Samuel Craig bought $1,100 of his property, but never had a chance to pay for it, since he was hanged in his barn shortly afterwards by bushwhackers trying to steal some of the valuables he had acquired, such as a $50 gold watch, a large Bible, a hymnal and a picture frame. The only other luxuries in the estate were a $50 clock and nine books. Daniel’s brother George W. Craig bought the livestock and farm implements, some furniture, a spinning wheel and an umbrella for $700, but he failed to pay for his purchases before he died of measles at Dardanelle on May 17 or 18, 1864. The remainder of Daniel Craig's estate was finally sold at auction in 1869 for $2,300. Thirty years after they moved to Arkansas from Ohio, most of the original John Craig family was gone. As with many other southern families following the Civil War, gone also was any hope of prosperity in years to come for the surviving Craigs. Pictures of the Lees and Craigs, or any additional information would be greatly appreciated by Bill Hanks, 1217 W. 3rd St., Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-1903.
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
will present
The Genealogist's Camera
with
Desmond Walls Allen
July 17, 2010
co-sponsored by Arkansas Genealogical Society
Irvin H. Couch 33
IRVIN H. COUCH OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, ARKANSAS
Rebecca V. Wilson
In October of 1943, Irvin H. Couch applied for an Arkansas birth certificate. He was eighty-one years old at the time and his 30 August 18621 birth date made him one of the oldest people to receive an Arkansas “Prior” birth certificate. He needed someone older who had knowledge of his birth to attest to the facts of his birth. Fortunately, he had T. A. Christie, a 93-year-old first cousin, who was living near him in the young town of Magnolia, Arkansas, at the time of his birth.2 Thomas Allen Christie was the son of Martha Ann (Griffith) Christie and Irvin Henry Couch was the son of Mary Jane (Griffith) Couch; Martha Ann and Mary Jane were sisters.3
1 Irvin H. Couch Prior Birth Certificate, filing year 1943, binder 3, volume 163, certificate 5370, Arkansas Department of Health, Division of Vital Records, Little Rock, Arkansas. 2 Gwinnett Couch household, 1860 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, population schedule, Magnolia, Magnolia township, p. 345, dwelling 902, family 920; and Joseph [sic] Christie household, p. 342, dwelling 884, family 802; National Archives [NA] microfilm M653, roll 39. 3 Couch and Christie researchers trace both Mary Jane Couch and Martha Ann Christie to their parents Henry and Nancy Maria (Williams) Griffith.
34 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
His birth certificate names Irvin’s parents as Gwinnett Couch and Mary Jane Griffith. It was the second marriage for both Gwinnett and Mary Jane. Mary Jane had married Thomas W. Hines on 17 September 1846 in Upson County, Georgia, and Gwinnett had married Alice R. E. Crawford on 28 November 1850 also in Upson County.4 Both families moved to Arkansas soon afterwards. Gwinnett’s wife Alice had died on 25 May 1860 leaving him with three young children. Mary Jane had no known children from her first marriage. She and Gwinnett married on 15 December 1861 in Columbia County, Arkansas.5 When Irvin was barely a year old, Gwinnett enlisted in Company E, 10th Arkansas Cavalry (Crawford’s), CSA, which was formed in Columbia County on 19 September 1863.6 Gwinnett was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and lived to return from the war, but he had contracted typhoid fever and died on 4 March 1865, within two weeks of his return.7 He is buried with his first wife in the Magnolia City Cemetery.8 Gwinnett had been a prosperous farmer and had received patents on 240 acres east of Magnolia between 1856 and 1860 and owned 460 acres at his death. He had also served a term in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1858-59.9 He wrote a will a few days after joining the army naming his wife, Mary J. Couch, his brother, Quincy Couch, and his brother-in-law, Grantham Rose as executors. The will stated:
I wish my property kept together for the use & benefit of my family, in raising & educating my children subject to the following directions. I wish my wife & children to share & share alike except my daughter, Mary Alice Rebecca Couch above her equal share I bequeath to her a negro woman slave Amanda &
4 Jordan Dodd, “Georgia Marriages to 1850,” Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com accessed on 11 August 2008). 5 Columbia County, Arkansas, Marriage Book A, p. 256, Family History Library microfilm 988808. 6 Gwinnett Couch, compiled military record (2nd lieutenant, Crawford’s 10th Arkansas Cavalry, CSA), Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas; NA microfilm M376, roll 5, Arkansas History Commission [hereafter AHC], MFILM Military 37, roll 2. 7 Mrs. W. M. Jones, “The Couch Family,” in Old Calhoun: Brief History of One of Arkansas’ Oldest Communities, Fletcher Chenault, editor (1930), 17. 8 Marcia Chapman et al., Columbia County, Arkansas Cemeteries (Arkansas Genealogical Society, 2008), 143. 9 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, (Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890), 458.
Irvin H. Couch 35
her issue & if my said daughter should die under age or without lawful issue then the said woman shall revert back with her issue to the estate of my sons Sanford O. Couch & John P. Couch.
He directed that his children were to be given their share when they arrived at legal age and he wanted his children from his first marriage, Sanford O., John Peter and Mary Alice Rebecca Couch to stay with his wife.
I wish her to remain with them instruct & provide for their wants, morally intellectually & personally but should she marry, I wish my executor or successor to secure a sufficient bond for the property she may draw from my estate to revert back at the happening of her death to my estate, provided that my daughter Mary A R Couch shall not be taken from my sister Eliza Rose during her life10
Irvin was not named in the will and documents in his father’s probate packet show that he was almost left out in the distribution of the estate. There was another child born to Gwinnett and Mary Jane on 8 September 1865, six months after Gwinnett’s death; her name was Nettie Viola Couch. Some descendants appear to believe she lived until 1886, but a receipt in Gwinnett’s probate packet proves she died as an infant.11 The will was entered into probate in September 1865. Mary Jane petitioned the court for her dower portion of the land and to be appointed guardian of Irvin in January 1866.12 She received her share in October of that year.13 On 10 December 1867, Mary J. married another Magnolia farmer, Archibald Robert McKindley, whose wife had died 16 August 1865
10 Gwinnett Couch Will, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet, Columbia County Clerk's Office, Magnolia, Arkansas. 11 Receipt from Mary J. McKindley, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet: “Received of Grantham Rose and Quincy Couch as the executors of Gwinnett Couch deceased the sum of two hundred and forty two 76/100 dollars in gold, being the distributive share of Mary McKindley (late Couch) in her own right and in the right of her deceased infant child Nettie . . .” 12 Mary J. Couch petition for her dower, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet. 13 Authorization to set off dower for Mary J. Couch, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet, Columbia County Clerk's Office, Magnolia, Arkansas.
36 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
leaving six children. The next month Mary J. was removed as Irvin’s guardian and her new husband was appointed. For the next few years, Quincy Couch and Grantham Rose tried to keep the land together for their wards, Sanford O., John Peter, and Mary Couch. But by 1872 they found it difficult and petitioned the court for permission to sell the land:
The said lands are dead capital and an expense to said minors. A part of the fence has been destroyed by fire catching from the woods, and balance is rotten and decayed. The improvements are in such a dilapidated condition as to make the rental value of the cleared lands on said place little or nothing. In their present condition the taxes on said lands are gradually eating up their value and said minors are without the means of improving and repairing the fencing &c on said lands as to make them rent for a profit and even if they had the means the assessment, in the present condition of labor would be dangerous. Wherefore your petitioner submits to your Honor that it would be for the benefit of said wards to sell said lands. Your petitioner further states that Peter Couch one of said minors has become a cripple by having been thrown from a horse and will probable [sic] remain so all his life. There is little prospect that he will ever be able to support himself by farm labor. He ought to be educated sufficiently to enable him to subsist himself and become useful in some other business. He has not the means to accomplish this without using the proceeds of his share of the land. It is impossible to divide said lands in kind among said minors so as to do justice to all of them.14
The land was sold “on the 2nd day of December 1872 at the court house door. . . A R McKinley became the purchaser of the same for the sum of six hundred and fifty dollars being over two thirds of appraised value of said lands.”15 This is the same A. R. McKindley who had married Irvin’s mother. He paid part of the purchase price in cash and the rest as a mortgage and then must have realized that his ward, Irvin Couch, was entitled to a share of the proceeds of the sale of the land and that Grantham Rose didn’t intend to give him his share, so he evidently
14 Application to sell land, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet. 15 Report of land being sold, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet.
Irvin H. Couch 37
took Irvin’s share from the unpaid mortgage. Grantham Rose filed two petitions, which are part of the Gwinnett Couch probate packet, asking the court not to set aside the sale of the land and admitted that he had forgotten that Irvin should have had a share. During the year 1874, the ownership of Gwinnett’s land had not been settled and several things happened that affected the disposition of the land: Sanford O. Couch turned twenty-one, Mary Alice Rebecca Couch died 16 September 1874 at age fourteen, and Grantham Rose finally admitted that Irvin was a legal heir and was entitled to his share of the proceeds. A suit was filed on behalf of Grantham Rose against A. R. McKindley:
…at the time of said sale the said Irvin Couch was and now is one of the heirs at law of the said Gwinnett Couch deceased and as such was and is entitled to one fourth interest in said lands and that by some mistake or oversight he was not made a party to the proceedings instituted to procure said sale. And it is further consented and agreed by said parties hereto that since said sale the said Sandford O. Couch has become twenty one years of age and that said Mary Couch has departed this life without children and that said Peter Sandford O. and Irvin Couch are her heirs at law…16
A second suit filed February 1875 stated:
…Grantham Rose fully believed that his said wards Peter, Sanford O. and Mary A. Couch were the only persons interested in said lands. In this he was mistaken. His said wards inherited their interest in said lands from their deceased Father Gwinnett Couch. The said defendant Irvin Couch was then and is now also a legitimate child and heir of the said Gwinnett Couch Deceased and equally interested with the said Peter, Sanford O. and Mary A. in said lands. This fact at the time of applying for said order making said sale and charging himself with the proceeds as such Guardian had escaped the memory of the said Grantham Rose. Your petitioners fully admit the interest of the said Irvin in the proceeds of the sale of said land: And they here insist that said
16 Undated suit filed on behalf of Grantham Rose against A. R. McKindley, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet.
38 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
sale ought to stand and say that they believe that the lands brought a better price at said sale than they would bring at this time…17
It’s not clear from Gwinnett Couch’s probate packet just how the dispute was resolved but Grantham Rose died in 1877 and Quincy Couch had died in 1874. Irvin’s relationship with the Couch family doesn’t seem to have been affected by the disagreement between Grantham Rose and A. R. McKindley. In the 1870 census Irvin H. was listed as living with his mother in the A. R. McKindley household18 and in the 1880 census he was living with Quincy Couch’s widow, Frances (Rose) Couch and two of their children in Calhoun, Arkansas,19 which was the home of much of the Couch family. On 28 October 1885, Irvin married Taletha Ann Simmons,20 called Tallie. She was born 30 October 1863 and was the daughter of Peter Marshall Simmons and Martha Anne Jarrod.21 Irvin and Tallie lived in Magnolia the rest of their lives and raised a family of eight children. Irvin worked in the cotton industry; in the 1900 census his occupation was listed as “cotton weigher”22; in 1910 he was the manager of the compress23; and in 1920 he was a cotton buyer.24
17 Suit filed in the Columbia Probate Court February Term AD 1875 on behalf of Grantham Rose as Guardian of Peter Couch and Sanford O. Couch for himself against A. R. McKindley as Guardian of Irvin Couch, Gwinnett Couch loose probate packet. 18 Robert McKindley household, 1870 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, population schedule, Magnolia, Magnolia township, p. 429, dwelling 224, family 240; NA microfilm M593, roll 50. 19 Frances Couch household, 1880 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, population schedule, Calhoun township, enumeration district [hereafter ED] 39, p. 20, dwelling 174, family 178; NA microfilm T9, roll 41. 20 Marriage Book D-II, Columbia County, County Clerk’s Office, Magnolia, Arkansas, p. 103. 21 Peter M. Simmons household, 1870 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, population schedule, Magnolia, Magnolia township, p. 421, dwelling 114, family 121; NA microfilm M593, roll 50. 22 Irvin H. Couch household, 1900 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, Magnolia Town, ED 55, p. 7B, dwelling 127, family 128; NA microfilm M593, roll 50. 23 Irvin H. Couch household, 1910 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, Magnolia Town, Magnolia township, ED 70, p. 10B, dwelling 213, family 216; NA microfilm T624, roll 46. 24 Irvin C. Couch household, 1920 U.S. census, Columbia County, Arkansas, Magnolia City, Magnolia township, ED 85, p. 9B, dwelling 203, family 209; NA microfilm T625, roll 59.
Irvin H. Couch 39
The children of Irvin and Tallie Couch were:
Lillian Pierce Couch (15 September 1886-15 January 1923), married Clifton Baird Dudney
Myrtie Clayton Couch (16 May 1888-3 December 1975), married Miles Drayton Prator
Gwinnett Marshall Couch (28 November 1889-13 November 1946), married Lima Horton
Carrie Couch (5 December 1892-5 August 1896)
Elton Irvin Couch (30 March 1895-5 August 1904)
Irene Hazel Couch (5 September 1897-7 August 1972), married Earnest A. Ray
Inez Alice Couch (14 February 1900-14 October 1973), never married
Winston Sanford Couch (13 October 1903-1 July 1977), married Sara Carolyn Crumpler
Irvin died on 19 April 1947 and Taletha died on 1 March 1950. They and all their children, except Irene, and both of Irvin’s parents are buried in the Magnolia City Cemetery. A transcription of Irvin’s obituary from The Daily Banner-News of 27 April 1947 appears below.
I. H. Couch Funeral Held Here Sunday
Funeral services for I. H. Couch, 85, were held Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the First Methodist Church by the Rev. John M. McCormack and the Rev. J. A. Wade.
40 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Couch died in a local hospital Saturday. He was justice of the peace for Magnolia township, and was an uncle of the late Harvey C. Couch, Arkansas public utilities executive who was a native of Columbia County. Active pall bearers were Harry Crumpler, W. C. Blewster, V. S. Parham, Clive Buck, Dick Dickson, Kelso Couch, Otto Stuart, Clarence Crumpler, Roy Couch and Archie Monroe. Surviving are his wife; one son, Dr. Winston Couch of Magnolia; three daughters, Miss Inez Couch of the A. and M. College faculty; Mrs. Irene Ray of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Mrs. Miles Prator of Texarkana. Among those from out of town attending the funeral were Mr. and Mrs. Miles Prator and Charles Clark of Texarkana, Mrs. Lucy Couch and daughters, Mrs. Ruth McIntyre and Miss Sybil Couch, of Pine Bluff, Mr. and Mrs. Dick Couch of Texarkana and Mr. and Mrs. Leo Graves and daughter of Shreveport.
TALETHA SIMMONS COUCH
IRVIN H. COUCH
Photographs and other family information courtesy of James L. Kendrick III of Buford, Georgia, great-grandson of Irvin and Talethia Couch.
John McLean Estate Accounts Due 41
JOHN MCLEAN ESTATE ACCOUNTS DUE, BRADLEY COUNTY, ARKANSAS
Louise Mitchell
John McLean was born in Scotland about 1820, and in 1849 began operating Merriwether Ferry across the Saline River at Mt. Elba in what is now Cleveland County, Arkansas. By 1860 he was married to Mary J. and operating a store in the Mt. Elba area. When he died in 1867, accounts due him were recorded in the Bradley County, Arkansas, Administrators Book on pages 457-459. The book has no identifying marks except the word "Administrators" on the spine and a quick examination of it will confirm that it is the earliest such book in the County Clerk’s office at Warren, Arkansas. Earlier pages of McLean’s inventory listed his private property and the store’s inventory.
“An Inventory of the Notes and accounts of John McLean Deceased as the same hath come to the hands of Mary J. McLean and P.T. Culpepper, Administrators of all and Singular the goods and chattels Rights and credits of Said John McLean Deceased July 17th 1867.”
Note on R.H. Corker dated Dec 27th 1867 due ten months after date interest at ten percent for $48.75 Note on Samuel Minor due Jan 24th 1867 for $27.41 Note on Wm. Coats dated Dec 12th 1866 due ten months after date for $38.42 Note on T.M. Bery and J.A. Berry due Nov 1st 1867 for $75.00 Notes on J.R. Reed one for $6.65 one for $5.00 balance due $11.80 Note on E.H. Reed for $17.40 Note on J.M. Brown Orin Reed and A.S. Brown for $23.85 Note on J.T. Brown and T.M. Berry due Sept 1868 for $11.85 Note on M.C. Harrison due Aug 4th 1866 for $3.75 Note on C.A. Stanfield due Nov 1st 1867 for $25.00 Note on T.S. Clark dated March 7th 1862 for $23.54 Note on Thos. J. Renfro due March 3rd 1862 for $6.85 Note on John M. Hamilton and Priscilla Hamilton due Dec 1st 1860 for $59.60 Note on B.W. Cook due Jan 22nd 1862 for $6.00 Note on Harvey West due Feby 28th 1860 for $12.64
42 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Note on O.T. Scaeder and S. Briggs due Jan 1st 1865 for $45.50 Note on O.T. Scaeder dated Dec 4th 1860 due one day after that date $6.00 Note on S.W. Grace due Feby 18th 1861 for $27.89 Note on E.A. Foster March 13th 1860 due one day after that date $23.52 Note on Moses Terry due March 4th 1861 for $20.22 Note on Wm. Burns due one day after Jan 28th 1861 with credit of $8.00 balance $13.00 Note on Isaac Browning dated Jan 19th 1858 due one day after that date for $20.21 Note on Thomas Browning due May 16th 1858 with credit of $10 balance $20.51 Note on Nathan Gunn due March 28th 1861 for $6.00 Note on J.D. Henderson due April 17th 1862 for $22.10 Note on J.W. Puckett due Sept 22nd 1860 with a credit of $11.50 balance $22.19 Note on E.C. Dyke due Jan 20th 1862 for $5.00 Note on John M. Gray due on May 7th 1862 for $16.65 Note on J.M. Aydsott due May 24th 1862 for $31.00 Note on W.A. Rutledge due on Jan 30th 1861 for $16.94 Note on David May due on Jan 1st 1861 for $7.47 Note to Powell England due on Jan 1st 1861 for $47.32 Note to W.J. Riggins due on Jan 1st 1861 for $9.58 Note of B.F. Ratliff due on March 5th 1860 credit $20 balance $40.50 Note on J.C. Barnes payable to J.R. Hobdy or bearer due Dec 25th 1861 for $10 Note on W.L. Stovall and A.J. Bolin due Jan 21st 1861 for $29.99 Note on W.L. Stovall and A.J. Bolin due Jan 1st 1861 credit of $2.50 balance $6.85 Note on A. Bridges due Jan 1st 1861 for $12.45 Note on W.D. West due Jan 1st 1861 credit of $5.81 balance $24.68 Note on Jas. H. Clark due July 29th 1861 for $10.00 Note on J.H.F. Tucker due May 5th 1861 for $8.97 Note on Mrs. Rainey due Feb 17th 1860 and credit of $5.00 balance $8.31 Note on J.W. Barrow due Nov 6th 1862 for $59.71 Note on J.R. Reed due March 15th 1862 for $42.50 Note on J.M. Neeley due March 15th 1862 for $71.84 Note on James T. Rotton note due Jan 1st 1858 credit of $6.10 on March 20th 1860 balance $14.00
John McLean Estate Accounts Due 43
Note on M.A. Beard due Jan 1st 1861 for $47.58 Note on Silas Wooley due on Feb 11th 1861 for $50.31 Note on G.J. Box due Jan 1st 1862 for $76.47 Note on Joel Favor for $35.44 with credit for $30.00 due $3.44 Note on J.C. Barnes due Feby 26th 1862 for $5.25 Note on O.P. Scuder due Sept 24th 1862 for $27.47 Note on Joseph Williams due Jan 1st 1867 for $50.00 Note on T.N. Allen for $57.47 credit $22.50 paid due Feb 2nd 1857 balance $35.47 Note on S.C. Trotter due March 28th 1861 for $40.00 Note on D.J. Williams due Jan 1st 1861 for $100.00 Note on McW McLendon for $30.52 with a credit of $20.00 balance of $10.32 and one for $30.66 due Jan 17th 1861 and one for $62.50 due Jan 1st 1861 for total $105.48 Note on John H. Fox and M.W. McNeeley due Jan 1st 1861 for $64.00 Note on Jas. G. Moon due April 13th 1862 for $8.51 Note on J.J. Smith due Sept 22nd 1861 for $10.00 Note on E. Haussmett? due March 16th 1862 for $26.50 Note on Berry Holifield due March 19th 1860 for $3.78 Note on J.M. Chambers for $37.42 with a credit of $36.45 for a total due of $0.97 Note on E.H. Green due on Jan 1st 1861 for $23.86 Note on C.H. Spears due on Jan 15th 1857 with a credit of $1.50 for a total due of $1.25 Note on John Varnell due Feb 8th 1858 for $12.70 Note on E. Morton for $15.51 Note on E.Y. Thomas for $51.33 with a credit to the amount of $38.00 balance $13.33 Due Bill on David Cameron due Jan 1st 1861 for $19.41 Note on J.W. Wooley payable to T.M. Wooley or bearer due Dec 25th 1861 for $5.85 Note on James Calvert due Jan 1st 1861 for $24.70 Note on John Wooley due May 30th 1862 for $5.95 Due Bill on A.P. Lindsey on Jan 1st 1863 for $10.00 Note on David Cameron for $147.31 with credit for $113.38 balance due April 1st 1860 $33.93 Note on L.H. Burgoin to W—? or bearer due Nov 1st 1860 for $4.00 Note on J.C. Anderson due Jan 28th 1861 for $25.59 Note on William Calvert Jr. due March 28th 1862 for $19.02
44 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Note on J.B. Kesterson due May 25th 1861 for $28.58 Note on Henry C. Gilbert Jr. due June 10th 1862 for $2.57 Note on A? T? Cop? due $190.99
A List of Accounts 1860 & 61 Note on T.M. Adair due in 1861 for $13.67 Note on G.J. Box due in 1861 for $3.38 Note on Thos. Berry credit in 1866 of $1.00 balance $11.38 Note on W.C. Adams due in 1861 for $6.07 Note on Mrs. S. Burgoin due in 1861 for $9.65 Note on H. Beckwith due in 1860 for $25.84 Note on H. Burgoin & Cameron due in 1861 for $35.97 Note on J.D. Brown due in 1861 for $76.48 Note on W.S. Alen due in 1861 for $8.49 Note on T.F. Blackwell due in 1861 for $5.21 Note on P.T. Culpepper due in 1861 for $11.96 Note on John Chambers due in 1861 for $9.62 Note on William Case due in 1861 for $39.69 Note on Frank Corker due in 1861 for $13.71 Note on J.H. Clark due in 1861 for $11.65 Note on L. Furgerson due in 1861 for $0.65 Note on W.P. Johns due in 1861 for $48.78 Note on Washington Baggot due in 1860 for $1.80 Note on R.C. Foster due in 1861 for $31.63 Note on Powell England due in 1861 for $62.34 Note on Hamilton Ford due in 1861 for $6.52 Note on W.T. Burner due in 1862 for $9.90 Note on Wm. Favor due in 1861 for $16.72 Note on Mrs. Sarah Gillaspie due in 1861 for $26.36 Note on G.W.P. Green due in 1861 & 62 for $15.57 Note on N. Grisns? due in 1861 for $5.16 Note on A.H. Halley due in 1861 for $1.90 Note on E.H. Green due in 1861 for $194.36 Note on Mrs. Fannie Griffin due in 1861 for $1.92 Note on D. Harrison due in 1860 for $1.94 Note on Wm. Gogins due in 1861 for $25.39 Note on Franklin Harrison due in 1861 for $7.25 Note on Elisha Gunn due in 1861 for $60.88 Note on A.H. Sadler due in 1861 for $60.13
John McLean Estate Accounts Due 45
Note on John Hammet due in 1861 for $1.28 Note on Mrs. M. Harrison due in 1861 for $1.64 Note on Mrs. Nancy Martin due in 1861 for $81.37 Note on E.H. Reed due in 1861 for $26.89 Note on Levi Simpson due in 1860 for $5.27 Note on J.W. Simpson due in 1860 for $21.00 Note on G.W. Reed due in 1861 for $13.67 and in 1866 for $5.00 with credit of $10.00 balance $8.67 Note on Wm. Ross due in 1861 for $36.81 Note on John Simpson due in 1861 for $8.93 Note on B.F. Ratliff due in 1861 for $16.92 Note on W.P. Reed due in 1861 for $12.33 Note on J.W. Rains due in 1860 for $10.25 and in 1861 for $2.72 Note on C.A. Stanfield due in 1861 for $5.88 Note on Wm. Riggins due in 1861 for $5.85 Note on John J. Smith due in 1861 for $0.32 Note on John R. Reed due in 1861 for $38.82 Note on Wm. Rutledge due in 1861 for $1.83 Note on Mrs. M Tucker due in 1861 for $6.51 Note on S.E. Trotter due in 1860 and 1861 for $97.75 Note on J.H. Tucker due in 1861 for $1.20 Note on B.F. Trucks due in 1861 for $2.20 Note on Moses Terry due in 1861 for $21.41 Note on Pinkney Tolson due in 1861 for $4.10 Note on Mrs. M. Lewis due in 1861 for $15.33 Note on John Trucks due in 1861 for $3.25 Note on Wade Threadgille due in 1861 for $6.56 Note on Noel (or Noll) Kelley due in 1861 for $5.15 Note on J.N. Talleaferro due in 1861 and 1862 for $8.70 Note on Charles Lewis due in 1861 for $1.65 Note on J.H. Terril due in 1861 for $20.11 Note on T.B. Little due in 1861 for $1.25 Note on J.D. Teague due in 1861 for $15.77 Note on Wm. Mackey due in 1861 for $37.83 Note on Mrs. E. Powers due in 1861 for $23.17 Note on Mrs. N.H. Polk due in 1861 for $6.85 Note on Silas Wooley due in 1861 for $3.40 Note on L. Rowbuge?? due in 1861 for $25.21 Note on D.J. Williams due in 1861 for $28.01
46 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Note on John W. Puckett due in 1861 for $6.65 Note on L. Pawly due in 1861 for $25.21 Note on Wm. Varnell due in 1861 for $15.25 Note on Mrs. E. Puckett due in 1861 for $49.94 Note on C. Varnell due in 1861 for $11.84 Note on Daniel Puckett due in 1861 for $21.37 Note on R.G. Mann due in 1861 for $9.43 Note on C.G. Mathews due in 1861 for $19.49 Note on T.M. Meder due in 1861 for $1.18 Note on J.J. Mathews due in 1861 for $2.99 Note on J.C. Ward due in 1861 for $8.00 Note on Mrs. T. Milton due in 1860 for $1.00 Note on W.D. West due in 1861 for $63.87 Note on Eliza White due in 1861 for $8.19 Note on H.T. Williams due in 1861 for $33.91 Note on J.M. White due 1861 for $14.46 Note on John Oldner due in 1861 for $5.20 Note on E.M. Orton due in 1861 for $98.21 Note on A. Dorman & John Wooly in 1860 for $7.25 Note on W.S. McCaskill due in 1858 for $4.00 Note on J.N. Marks due in 1858 for $2.00 Note on Evan Marks due in 1858 for $7.16 Note on H.C. Gilbert, Sr. due in 1862 for $129.92 Note on Wm. Greenlee due in 1862 & 64 for $117.44 Note on George Thomas due in 1860 for $17.43 Note on E.Y. Thomas due in 1860 for $12.87 Note on B.B. Talleaferro due in 1860 for $58.56 Note on J.C. Anderson due in 1861 for $47.15 Note on Colvert and Flinn due in 1861 for $15.75 Note on Samuel Works due in 1861 for $20.11 Note on Wm. Colvert due in 1861 for $34.60 Note on Wm. Colvert, Jr. due in 1861 for $2.25 Note on Martin Flynn due in 1861 for $3.00 Note on James Colvert due in 1861 for $14.28 Note on W.I. Teague due in 1861 for $50.20 Note on Berry Holifield due in 1861 for $3.70
Historical Sketch of Fordyce 47
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FORDYCE, ARKANSAS
Transcribed by William T. Carter
Historical Sketch of Fordyce; a New, Interesting Feature
Second Installment1
We told you in our first installment that the Cotton Belt railroad was built in 1882 and the depot located at its present site. A town was laid out and named Fordyce in honor of Col. S. W. Fordyce, an officer of the St. L. SW. Ry. Co. Dr. A. S. Holderness, who had long been a prominent physician in the surrounding country, and who was located at Chambersville, a town at that time consisting of about 3 or 4 stores, two churches, a school, a woolen mill and gin, a blacksmith shop, early became interested in the new town on the railroad, moved to Fordyce and built a sawmill, opened a commissary and became the town’s first doctor, and when the town was incorporated became its first mayor. Soon after or about the time Dr. Holderness built his mill, Mr. G. W. Stevenson came to this place from Hot Springs [sic] County and engaged in the mercantile business, and was appointed post master. He served the public in these capacities for a number of years. It has been said that Mr. Stevenson’s oldest daughter was the first child born in the new town. A saloon was opened on the Front street very early in the history of the town but after being conducted for a few months it was learned that an act had previously been passed by the legislature of the state forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors within one mile of Shady Grove Baptist Church and the business was suspended. Since that time no open saloon has been conducted within the corporate limits of the town. Others who early engaged in the mercantile business here were: Rowland and Chandler, Amis and Wilkins, B. and H. Berger, Smith and brothers, Nutt and Barness and E. A. Acruman, J. E. and G. M. Hampton,
1 Tri-County Advocate, Fordyce, Arkansas, 10 December 1925, page 20, columns 1 and 2. This newspaper is on Arkansas History Commission MFILM NEWS 000179, roll 1. The issue containing the First Installment is missing.
48 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
general merchants, and E. P. Chandler and Dr. J. A. Waters, druggists. T. J. Fortune conducted the first hotel here, located on the lot now occupied by the Hammett grocery company. Captain J. W. Smith later purchased the hotel and conducted the same for many years under the name of Hampton house. A history of the town would probably not be complete without the mention of some of the citizens of the surrounding country who had long lived in this community and who became the first customers of the merchants and patrons of the professional men. As stated in the first installment of these sketches, Uncle Jake Stover, E. H. Stover, Edward Atkinson, Jesse Lynn and W. T. Richardson resided in the territory now embraced in the city of Fordyce, east and south and within a few miles of the new town lived B. T. Nutt, John Nutt, J. C. McGuire, W. J. Hampton, W. J. Hornaday, J. B. Gresham, Thomas Chinneworth, G. G. Richardson, J. M. Wright, Jack Stover, J. A. Grubbs, J. M. Gray, E. L. Bryant, J. A. Hornaday, and to the north and west lived Reg Fielder, Mrs. M. M. Gresham, J. H. Mosley, Frank Barnes, W. D. Stell, Bailey Green, C. S. McMurry, J. A. Bryant, and some others. These may not be all the men who lived in this immediate vicinity at the time the town was established but are those whose names are recalled by the writer as he pens these lines. Those who were acquainted with the men whose names are mentioned above recognize that a majority of them are not living today. But the town was not dependent alone on those who lived near its borders for patronage. People came from miles around to trade—from Carthage or from where Carthage is now located, from the Summersville and Harrell neighborhoods and from other sections of the country. In the fall farmers living from 25 to 30 miles away brought in their produce— chiefly cotton—to town, often camping in a wagon yard and were to be seen on the streets early in the morning ready to sell their produce, load their wagons with merchandise and return home.
Historical Sketch of Fordyce; A New, Interesting Feature
Third Installment2
Of those who lived within the present corporate limits of the city of Fordyce when the town was laid out in 1882, there remains so far as the
2 Tri-County Advocate, Fordyce, Arkansas, 24 December 1925, page 8, columns 1 and 2.
Historical Sketch of Fordyce 49 author of these sketches knows or has been able to ascertain only Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Stover, Walter Bryant, Mrs. William Womble, formerly Miss Dora Bryant, and Dr. H. H. Atkinson. Of these we think the town might well be proud. M. H. Stover laid out Stover’s addition to the town of Fordyce on which many of the homes of the city have been built and which has been a factor in helping to make the town what it is today. Mrs. Womble has been a good and useful woman in the community, known for her deeds of kindness and for her hospitality and what greater things could be said of her; her daughter Miss Mary, now Mrs. Bruce Welch, is a talented pianist and before her marriage and departure from the state was the efficient pianist at the Methodist church. We think no one who knows Walter Bryant would say that he has not been a good citizen. He has reared and is rearing in our midst a family of good children; his oldest child, a son, is a successful electrical engineer, his eldest daughter, Miss Lillian, is an efficient employee of the Home Life Insurance Co. and Miss Lenora is making a good record as a teacher in the Fordyce Grammar school. Dr. H. H. Atkinson was a small boy, scarcely three years old when he heard the first whistle of the Cotton Belt locomotive; he grew up with the town, played his boyish pranks, attended school, went away to medical College, received his diploma and is now a prominent practicing physician in our midst. Among those who came to the town in the earliest years of its history and who still remain are Mrs. A. S. Holderness, and Miss Minnie, her daughter who for a number of years has been an efficient member of the faculty of the Fordyce Public schools and who holds the record for the longest tenure of teachership of any member of the faculty; Mrs. G. W. Stevenson, whose home is west of the city limits, Mr. James Kilpatrick and Mr. C. H. Flower who have been long and faithful employees of the Fordyce Lumber Company. The people of the town early took an interest in schools and churches. At first the public schools, with probably an occasional private school were the only institutions of learning, and in these only the common school branches were taught. About the year 1888 the Little Rock Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church established the Little Rock Conference Training school here, and employed Mr. Garner as principal of the school; he served in that capacity for a year or two and was succeeded by Mr. J. D. Clary, then a young Tennesseean. The school’s curriculum was higher than that
50 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
found in the public schools, and because it was the purpose of the school to prepare its pupils for college, it was called The Training School. The school was patronized not only by the people of the town, many boys and girls from other towns of the state and some from beyond the borders of Arkansas came here for instruction and training. The school was noted for its thoroughness in instruction and training for character building, and its products may be found in many of the business and professional men and women of today. Mr. Clary not only taught the boys and girls the necessity of learning the things found in the books but he advocated a higher standard of moral and Christian conduct and tried to instill those principles into the minds of his pupils. While Mr. Clary was principal of the school most of the time, yet in addition to Prof. Garner and Prof. Goodloe, Mr. Marvin Holderness, Mr. Tucker, Mr. J. H. Thack and Mr. McCain served in like capacity. The Training School was a greatly appreciated and useful institution in this community for more than a quarter of a century. Ultimately however, the standards of the Fordyce Public schools were raised so far as to include a regular four year course of school work, better buildings were erected, more and better equipment was furnished, a stronger faculty employed, and the demand for the training school did not exist so strongly as it had in former years; and the school was therefore discontinued. The Baptists of Judson Association established a school here, called Judson Academy which was conducted for a few years, but as has been said of the Training School, on account of the increased efficiency of the public schools the demand for the Institution did not seem to exist and the school ceased to operate just a short time before the Training school was discontinued. With what has already been said it appears that a separate paragraph in regard to the public schools is hardly necessary, but the people of Fordyce should be pleased that we have a splendid school building, a strong faculty, a regular standard high school in the A class, and fully accredited by all of the colleges and the University of the State. There are five white churches here—Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Christian and Episcopal where services are held at regular intervals. Several members of the Catholic church live here and services are held occasionally, but there is no regularly organized church of that faith at this place.
Historical Sketch of Fordyce 51
As has been previously stated in these sketches, the Baptist church had been established for probably about twenty five or thirty years at the time the town was established. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches were organized early in the history of the town and the Christian church has maintained an organization for several years; a good part of the time having had a resident pastor, but it was not until a few years ago the Episcopal church was organized here. These churches have been a great blessing to the town and a great factor in making this a good place in which to live, and it is to be hoped that they will continue to grow and prosper and will remain a beacon light to guide many generations yet to come to the nobler, higher and better things.
Arkansas Genealogical Society
Fall Seminar and Book Fair
November 5 & 6, 2010 Holiday Inn Airport, I 440, Little Rock
Desmond Walls Allen will speak on Friday evening
Paula Stuart-Warren will be the guest speaker on Saturday
52 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
THE ARKANSAS PRIOR BIRTH CERTIFICATE OF MARY MISSOURI ROY
Susan G. Boyle
When Mary Missouri Roy was born in 1909, no birth record was filed with the state, because the state of Arkansas did not start registering births until 1 February 1914. In 1945 Mary needed a birth certificate for some reason and she applied for a delayed certificate to record the details of her birth. Her father was still living at the time, and he signed the certificate, swearing under oath before a notary that the information provided on it was correct. It is clear that the father, Jesse Lyman Roy, filled out the certificate, because he also wrote a note on the back of the certificate and initialed it JLR. The handwriting on the front and back of the certificate is the same. Apparently, Mr. Roy was certain that an earlier birth certificate had been filed, and he may have been right. The birth occurred in the city of Little Rock which did record birth and death records in the decade or so before state registration began. It is possible that a record of Mary’s birth was filed with the city of Little Rock at the time it occurred. On the other hand, delayed certificates for births occurring before 1914 but filed before 1941 were reportedly filed with the regular certificates of the year in which the delayed certificate was filed. So a man born in 1912 who went to work for a defense plant in 1938 might have filed a delayed certificate that was filed with the 1938 certificates for newborn babies. The Priors were first filed in 1941 as the identification requirements of military service, defense work, and Social Security enrollment increased. Mary’s certificate filed with the state in 1945, like all other delayed certificates recording births that occurred before 1 February 1914 and filed after 1941, was designated as a Prior Birth Certificate by the then Arkansas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. The “Prior” certificates filed each year were organized alphabetically into volumes of two hundred certificates and placed in binders. Filing of such certificates continued through 1982. Eventually the certificates were filmed. A certificate is identified as a Prior, then by its year of filing, binder number, volume number, and certificate number. Mary’s certificate is Priors 1945, Binder 2, Vol. 67, Certificate 6562. For many years the Bureau, now Division, of Vital Records was unable to locate a specific certificate, because it lacked a complete and
Mary Missouri Roy Birth Certificate 53 accurate index. In 1999, the director of Vital Records and officers of the Arkansas Genealogical Society reached an agreement by which volunteers provided by AGS would index the original certificates in a database on computers provided by the Health Department during regular state office hours. AGS would be allowed to publish the index of one hundred year old births, so as each year passes another year of the indexed births can be released to the public in book form. For instance, 1910 births will be publishable in 2011. Staff at Vital Records has the benefit of using the published books and the database created by the volunteers to find certificates that have already been indexed when the public requests them. In the last nine years, seven very large volumes of Prior Births Index have been published by the Arkansas Genealogical Society. Each volume contains all new births newly indexed or newly publishable. In addition, a CD holding a compilation of all the data in all the books published to that time has been issued each year as well.
54 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Mary’s delayed certificate contained detailed information, including the fact that she was born at 919 Rock Street in Little Rock, the residence of her parents. She was born 28 April 1909, was a white female, and her parents were married. Oddly, the abbreviation Jr. was placed after her name, perhaps indicating she was named after someone else. Her father Jesse Lyman Roy was twenty-six years old and had been born in Grand Chain, Pulaski County, Illinois. Her mother was Mayme Lee Holloway, age 21, and born in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. The father signed as Jesse L. Roy, age 62, in Cook County, Illinois, on 16 June 1945. Only the front sides of the certificates were filmed, so in the case of Mary Missouri Roy, the note on the back of her certificate was not filmed and would not have seen the light of day if the volunteers had been using the film to create the index. The fact that the original certificates are used to create the index has led to the discovery of numerous letters, notes, and extra bits of information on the backs of certificates. The additional information provided by J. L. Roy in a note he wrote on the back of Mary’s certificate is the following:
Marriage of J L Roy & Mayme Holloway was in Little Rock Ark on May 20 1908 and is recorded there also. Am not so sure now as to place of Mayme [sic] birth. It may have been Manhattan Kans. Whatever is on marriage record is no doubt correct. Mary’s mother is dead & has been for some time. We lost her mother when baby was 14 months old & I raised her myself; Mrs Pauline Baer, who was wife of Grocer about 11th & Rock & I understand still is near there in little Rock Ark knows me & can verify quite amount of what I would say. This form VS-B-80 is unnecessary as there is a record of this Birth at Little Rock Ark or was in 1927. Of that I am positive. Your search must not be complete as it should be. This should cover at least 10 days records beginning 4/28/09 to 5/7/09 inclusive. Either City, County or State Records. It was of record there. J. L. Roy
Perhaps in 1927, when Mary turned 18, she or her father applied for a delayed birth certificate which was issued and then filed by the state agency with the regular 1927 birth certificates.
Early Russellville Weddings 55
TWO EARLY WEDDINGS AT THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF RUSSELLVILLE, ARKANSAS, 1886
Robert R. Edwards
Two of the first weddings conducted at the Christian Church of Russellville, Arkansas, were reported by the weekly Russellville Democrat in 1886. The newspaper articles include listings of the wedding gifts and their donors. The four-year-old Christian Church congregation had completed construction of its church building earlier in the year.1
Wednesday, 6 October 1886, p. 3, col. 4. “Married”.
MOORE—SMITH—In this city, Wednesday evening, Sept. 29, 1886, by Eld. G. W. Harkey, Mr. Dallas S. Moore and Miss Lula W. Smith, all of Russellville. The above interesting matrimonial event was witnessed by a large concourse of friends at the Christian church. The altar was handsomely decorated with a profusion of flowers and ingeniously interwoven was a mononogram [sic] M. and S. After service by Rev. Dr. Lucas, the high contracting parties entered, accompanied by relatives. Taking their positions facing the audience, Dr. Harkey in a brief and impressive manner spoke the words which wedded the handsome young couple for life. They then marched out to the inspiriting strains of sweet music discoursed by the Russellville K. of H. band and entering a carriage were driven to the residence of the bride where a reception was held. The newly married couple were the recipients of numerous, handsome, and appropriate presents, as follows: Mrs. G. A. Brooks, trunk and lamp; Mrs. Maxie Williams, 1 set china plates; Robt. L. Harkey, 1 china dinner set; Mrs. L. M. Smith, 1 bed spread; Miss Katie Smith, scissors and lamp mat; Miss B. Sykes, 1 set silver spoons; Bob Smith, broom; Miss Libbie Granger, butter dish.
1 One Hundred Years of Service, 1882-1982. First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Russellville, Arkansas, 1982, 7.
56 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
May Heaven and earth unite in bestowing their choicest blessings upon this well-mated couple as they journey hand in hand through life.
Wednesday, 24 November 1886, p. 3, col. 3. “Orange Blossoms”.
Wednesday night last, witnessed one of those happy incidents which comes only with the nuptial joys of a handsome young couple standing at the hymenial [sic] altar to plight faith for the future of life. The incident occurred at the Christian church and made one of Mr. J. L. Tucker and Miss Lucy Harkey, the ceremony being performed by Rev. S. S. Key. There was a large crowd assembled at the church, friends of the popular young groom and his handsome bride, to witness the happy consumation [sic] of loves idylic [sic] dream. It was 7 o’clock when the young couple entered the church and gracefully stepped to the altar where the authoritative word was spoken that made them man and wife. The ceremony was brief and well performed by the officiating minister, and at its conclusion the young couple, as the organ, under the skillful touches of Miss Emma Howell breathed the notes harmonious with the occasion, marched out followed by a troop of friends who repaired with them to the residence of the bride’s father where a pleasant time of social intercourse awaited them. The reception at Dr. G. W. Harkey’s was a most enjoyable affair consisting of presentation of gifts, congratulations, music and social converse. The list of presents are as follows:
LIST OF PRESENTS
J. L. Tucker, to his bride, one beautiful stiff bit ribbon bridle artistically arranged by the skillful hands of Miss B. Sykes, and elegant parlor hanging lamp, with ruby shade and bowl with glass bangles and brilliant ornaments. J. W. Tucker, ivory handle carving set. Mrs. J. W. Tucker, pair silver napkin rings. Mrs. W. C. Hall, silver pickle castor. Robert L. Harkey, elegant flowered china chamber set. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Erwin, beautiful silver cake stand.
Early Russellville Weddings 57
Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Wells, Mrs. Pauline Wells and Miss Mattie Williams, pair very handsome crescent shaped self supporting photograph frames. Henry Carden and Miss B. Sykes, handsome silver and glass fruit basket. Dr. and Mrs. J. W. Pruitt, set of fine table linen. Miss Kate Smith, green glass fruit stand. Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Shinn, set ivory handle knives and forks. Mrs. M. E. Weathers, beautiful bridal pin cushion, decorated with white pond lilies. Mr. and Mrs. M. Jacobson, beautiful lace bed set. Mr. and Mrs. H. Cohen, elegantly embroidered table scarf. Mr. and Mrs. J. Lem Gray, silver pickle castor and tongs. Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Church, beautiful bronze glass set. Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Shinn, beautiful blue glass cake plate and set tumblers. Dr. L. E. Cook, set glass individual butters and three side dishes. Miss Lena Kincheloe, glass fish shapped [sic] butter dish. Miss Effie Haney, set fine white linen napkins. Mrs. T. M. Wyatt, beautiful blue leaf-shaped glass dish. Miss Watie Bent, pair fine linen towels and set red bordered linen napkins. Miss Corinna Parker, glass preserve dish. Mrs. S. M. Perry, beautiful pin cushion embroidered with ribbons. Mrs. W. A. Lyon, hanging glass soap dish. Miss Rose Patterson, fine white linen towel. Messrs. Weimer and Robinson, bronze glass waiter and water set. Mrs. J. L. Shinn, glass pickle dish. Mrs. Janie Thach, glass shoe tooth brush holder. Mrs. Ada Potts, silver pepper castor. Mrs. J. F. Munday, blue glass butter dish. T. H. Elgin, marble dough board, 18x20 inches, with inscription “Compliments of T. H. Elgin to Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Tucker, Nov. 17, 1886”. Miss Ola Harkey, of Ola, Ark., beautiful embroidered table cover and blue flowered towel. Master Eddie Harkey, silver napkin ring. Misses Margaret and Minnie Bradley, set china tea cups and saucers. Frank Bell, tin pepper box. Miss Emma Howell, fine white towel.
58 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Walter Harkey, silver napkin ring. Robert Smith, silver pepper castor. Johnnie Harkey, silver napkin ring. Messrs. W. B. McDonald, James Oates, Lewis Smith, J. Miller, W. F. Bell, J. F. Leonard, F. R. Roys and D. F. Hughey, elegand [sic] set cane bottom parlor chairs and spring rocker.
The DEMOCRAT joins their many friends in wishing this excellent young couple long life and great prosperity.
Bakersfield California Deaths 59
2009 DEATH NOTICES OF ARKANSAS NATIVES FROM THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN
Contributed by Mildred Tatum [email protected]
AGS member and California resident Mildred Tatum abstracts obituaries of deceased Arkansas natives that appear in her local newspaper, the Bakersfield Californian, and posts them to the AGS List at [email protected]. She has given us permission to reprint her abstracts in The Arkansas Family Historian. Some of the abstracts that appear here are followed by the date of the newspaper in which they appear.
Corinne Varner Evans was born 9 September 1914 in Green Forest, Arkansas, to William and Bessie Varner. She died 2 February 2009, preceded by her husband Herb Evans. Burial was in Taft Cemetery. Obit 2-4-09.
Clarice Marjorie Eyraud was born 14 December 1916 in Faulkner County, Arkansas, to John and Jeffie Shaw James. Her first husband Vel Grisham died in Arkansas, after which she and her son moved to California. In 1942 she married Henry Eyraud who preceded her in death. She died 5 February 2009. Obit 2-8-09.
Bradford S. Garner, born 18 November 1927 in Arkansas to Ted and Ethel Garner, came to California as a young boy. He married to Hettie Rippy who preceded him in death. He died 10 February 2009. Obit 2-10- 09.
Vernie “Juanita” Watson was born 5 August 1923 in Marmaduke, Arkansas, to William “Cullie” and Lilly “Belle” Jenkins. She met her husband Doc in Arkansas before she moved to California, but he went to California later and they married in 1947. They were married 61 years before he died. She passed away 9 February 2009. Obit 2-14-09.
Eddie Lee Carter, Sr., born 6 September 1919 in Forrest City, Arkansas, was the son of George W. and Millie Carter. He died 14 February 2009, preceded by his wife Claria Mae. Obit 2-20-09.
60 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Cleon Lavally Shockley was born 21 December 1933 in Ola, Arkansas, to Gordon and Lula Shockley. He was the Rainbow bread man in Kern County for thirty-five years. He died 17 February 2009, survived by Patsy, his wife of fifty-six years. Obit 2-21-09.
Verna G. Hildebrand, born 2 April 1938 in Little Rock, Arkansas, was the daughter of Oliver and Elsie Claborn. Jerry, her husband of twenty- six years, preceded her in death. She died 21 February 2009 and was buried in Arvin Cemetery. Obit 2-24-09.
Rev. Billy J. Wilkins was born 12 June 1936 in Prescott, Arkansas, the only surviving quadruplet of Wilbur and Annie Wilkins. He was raised in Arizona and served as a minister in many states for the United Pentecostal Church. He died 16 March 2009, survived by Mary, his wife of fifty-two years. Obit 3-22-09.
Ernest Parnell Luker, Sr., was born 27 October 1934 in Colt, Arkansas, and died 13 March 2009. He served in the U. S. Navy from 1951-1955 during the Korean War and married his wife Christine in 1954. They raised seven children before she preceded him in death. Obit 3-17-09.
Joyce Charlene Lighthill was born 6 December 1932 in Lonoke, Arkansas, to Charles and Lillie McNew, and the family moved to California in 1937. Her husband Joseph preceded her in death. She died 19 March 2009. Obit 3-24-09.
Gladys Marie Moore was born 16 January 1916 in Hector, Arkansas, to John and Agnes Voss. Her family moved later to Oklahoma and she grew up in Checotah. She died 30 March 2009. Obit 4-6-09.
Ethel Lucille Fleming was born 25 November 1920 in Camden, Arkansas, to Hap and Hattie Bagsby. She died 31 March 2009, preceded in death by her husband Benjamin Fleming. Obit 4-7-09.
Bonnie Dale Johnson Crow was born 10 September 1935 in Nashville, Arkansas, to Herbert and Eldora Johnson. She died 6 April 2009, survived by children and family. Obit 4-9-09.
Harold Lynch, born 31 October 1931 in Alma, Arkansas, attended Shafter High School and Bakersfield College and served in the Army. He
Bakersfield California Deaths 61
died 17 March 2009 survived by his wife Doris and other family. Obit 4- 12-09.
James Odell Lewis, born 15 January 1922 in Mulberry, Arkansas, to James L. and Alice Arington Lewis , served in the U.S. Marines during WW II. He died 20 April 2009, survived by Eva, his wife of sixty-three years, their children and grandchildren. Obit 4-24-09.
Omer “Dewey” Dunlap was born 10 June 1933 in Arkansas to Omer and Bertha Dunlap, before they moved to California. He served in the U.S. Air Force. He died 25 May 2009, survived by his wife Gladys, who he married in 1954, and their children and grandchildren. Obit 5-28-09.
John C. Martin, born 20 June 1942 in Batesville, Arkansas, to John and Edith Johnson Martin, was married to Mary Baker in 1959 in Bakersfield, California. He died 28 May 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri, and was buried in Floral, Arkansas. Obit 6-5-09.
Roger Lewis Colbert, born 8 November 1938 in McClellen, Arkansas, to Larrie M. and Letton Ridgeway Colbert, died 1 June 2009. He married his wife Sandra in 1957 in Oklahoma and served in the U.S. Navy. Obit 6-4-09 and 6-5-09.
Retha “Kay” Kirkendall was born in Kibler, Arkansas, to Robert C. and Molly O’Dell Burrow and moved to California when she was young. Her husband Willard Kirkendall died in 1999. Services were held 2 July 2009. Obit 6-30-09.
Marjorie Stedman was born 23 January 1922 in Foreman, Arkansas, to Ed and Ethel Price. She married Troy Stedman in 1963 and died 28 June 2009. Obit 7-1-09.
Janie Irene Link, born 28 March 1933 in Luxora, Arkansas, to Charlie and Iva Carson Armstrong, died 6 July 2009. She was married for fifty years to Loyd E. Link who survives her. She was buried at Shafter Cemetery. Obit 7-12-09.
Thelma Loretta Kimes was born 17 May 1936 in Van Buren, Arkansas, to John and Thelma Payton. She died 16 May 2005, survived by her children. As a veteran of the U.S. military, she was buried at Bakersfield
62 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
National Cemetery, where graveside services were held 17 July 2009. Obit 7-14-09.
Kenneth Marvin O’Neal was born 28 May 1928 in Charleston, Arkansas, and came to California when he was eighteen. He died 22 July 2009 survived by Norma, his wife of sixty-one years. Obit 7-30-09.
Bobby Phil Claborn was born 7 October 1941 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and died 31 July 2009. He was an oilfield worker for thirty years. He is survived by his wife Cherly and their family. Obit 8-4-2009.
Verona Mae Broyles was born 25 October 1917 in Alma, Arkansas, to Jesse and Mary Bates Young. She was married to Ellis Broyles for more than sixty years, before he died in 1995. Services were held 18 August 2009. Obit 8-18-09.
Jonathan Eric Perkins was born 22 June 1964 in Helena, Arkansas, to David and Barbara Lewis Perkins. Services were held 22 August 2009. Obit 8-19-09.
Lucy “Maurine” Gorsching was born 21 August 1925 in Alexander, Arkansas, to Houston L. and Mattie Dodgen Green. She was married to Allen Gorsching for forty-eight years before his death in 1990. Services were held 19 August 2009. Obit 8-18-09.
Loweta Williams was born 15 February 1922 in Alma, Arkansas, to Newt and Bessie Baker Harrison and died 3 September 2009. She was preceded in death by her husband Chester. Obit 9-6-09.
Elizabeth G. Watkins was born 21 December 1920 near Russellville, Arkansas, to Thomas N. and Margret Hinson Nutt. She married Lawrence Blackwell and they moved to California where they raised their family. She later married Everett Wilson and Virgil Watkins. All three preceded her in death. She died 24 September 2009 and was buried in Arvin Cemetery. Obit 9-29-09.
Eunice Ann Armstrong was born 24 November 1926 in Calico Rock, Arkansas, to Eldorado and Myrtle Stroud. She was preceded in death by her husband Edward Armstrong. She died 3 October 2009 and was buried in Shafter Cemetery. Obit 10-8-09.
Bakersfield California Deaths 63
Robert Chandler Hubbard was born 27 November 1943 in Gould, Arkansas, to Robert, Sr., and Louise Hubbard. He served in the military during the Vietnam War and was preceded in death by his wife Ruby Jean. Services were held 10 October 2009. Obit 10-8-09.
Jack Woodrow Colvard was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Olen and Maude Reed Colvard. His first wife Anna Henderson died in 1992. He died 7 Oct 2009 survived by his wife Linda Schaefer. He was buried at Schafter Cemetery. Obit 10-9-09.
Norma June Leedy, born 2 December 1934 in Paragould, Arkansas, to Norman and Inez Harrison, died 9 October 2009, survived by her husband Victor. Burial was in Santa Maria, California. Obit 10-13-09.
Linal Wood, born 23 March 1945 in Lavaca, Arkansas, was one of nineteen children. He was working in shipyards in California when he was drafted in 1945. He died 3 October 2009, preceded by his wife Lenora. Obit 10-14-09.
Lionel Hogan Roberts, born July 1913 in Russellville, Arkansas, to John D. and Minnie Roberts, married his wife Nadine in 1933 in Arkansas. She preceded him in death. He died 26 October 2009 in San Luis Obispo, California. Obit 10-29-09.
Deloyce Rae Davis was born 9 June 1936 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Her family moved to Houston, Texas, and later to Bakersfield. She worked at a law firm as a secretary and married Gerald Davis, a lawyer. She died 24 October 2009, survived by children and grandchildren. Obit 10-29-09.
Lonnie “Lynn” Woolfolk was born 15 March 1931 in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, to Melvin and Ethel Thomas. She died 29 October 2009, preceded by her husband Eddie and survived by her children and their families. Obit 11-3-09.
James Waldon Lasater, born 3 September 1922 in New Blaine, Arkansas, to Freeborn and Hattie Lasater, was a military veteran. He died 31 October 2009 survived by his companion June, his children and grandchildren. Obit 11-5-09.
64 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Naomi Tinnin, born 27 February 1947 in Mulberry, Arkansas, to Cyrus and Oma Campbill, died 14 November 2009. She was survived by her husband Don Tinnin. Obit 11-18-09.
Ona Holler Rimola was born 24 April 1919 in Logan County, Arkansas, to Calvin and Julia Mitchell. She died 17 November 2009, preceded by her husbands Joe Howard, Charles Holler, and Paul Rimola. Obit 11-21- 09.
Ann Grace was born in 1935 in Cove, Arkansas. Her parents were Tom and Dottie Grace. She was married to Al Beckendorf until they divorced. She died 21 Nov 2009, survived by her loving family. Obit 11-24-09.
Dalcie Payne Stubblefield was born 21 October 1908 in Henderson, Arkansas, to Will and Ida Payne. In her early years she worked on the family farm. She was married to Joseph Ralph Stubblefield who preceded her in death. Her sense of humor served her well, and she lived to be 101 years old. She died 26 November 2009. Obit 12-6-09.
Bert Victor Brewer was born 1 October 1916 in Hartford, Arkansas, to Hewitt and Ida Brewer. He married Osia Mae Moffatt and they moved to California. She preceded him in death several years ago. He died 4 December 2009, survived by his wife Wanda and his children. Obit 12-8- 09.
Nellie Leah Henley was born 5 March 1917 in Arkansas and died 6 December 2009. She spent many years in the military, having joined the U.S. Army during World War II. She also served during the Korean and Vietnam wars, receiving the rank of colonel and retiring after thirty years. She is survived by a sister and nieces and nephews. Obit 12-9-09.
John Calvin Lackie was born 1 February 1933 in Conway, Arkansas, to Maurice and Ina Lackie and died 4 December 2009. He served in the U.S. Army and came to California where he met his wife Sharon. She survives him after fifty-two years of marriage. His graveside service was held 11 Dec 2009 at Bakersfield National Cemetery. Obit 12-10-09.
Arkansas Ancestry Certificates 65
Arkansas Ancestry Certificates
Arkansas Nineteenth-Century Ancestry Certificate, for Jerrie Jones Townsend
Submitted by Jerrie Jones Townsend 307 Lee Place Stuttgart, AR 72160-2606 870-673-4626 [email protected]
Jerrie Jones Townsend received two Certificates of Arkansas Ancestry for the nineteenth-century period based on documentation submitted for the following lineage. The nineteenth-century ancestors were Oscar Theodore Jones and his wife Vernia Mayhue Jones. Oscar was born in Independence County, Arkansas, on 1 December 1887 and Vernia was born in Independence County, Arkansas, on 3 March 1898.
66 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Arkansas Queries
Members may submit as many queries as they wish at any time. E-mail to [email protected] or post to AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374.
BRINGLE – Information needed on Matt Bringle. The following information is from his death certificate: born Arkansas Post, AR; died at Dewitt, Arkansas Co, Lagrue Township. No date of birth, but he was 70 when he died. The certificate said that he was buried on 27 Dec 1924 in Dewitt Cemetery, but his death date was given as 30 Dec 1925, so there is a mistake in one of the dates. His cause of death was cancer. I found two sentences about him in an article. He was supposedly a mail carrier who had lost his right leg and his left hand. The article said his name was Matt Pringle. His daughter, Minnie Bringle, was our grandmother. Ellen Bonham, 447 Leona Dr, Denver, CO 80221-4406.
DEVER – WHITE – Researching my father’s great aunt Angie Dever who married an Arkansas native, Dr. David N. White. Angie and David lived in a township called Badgett, outside of Little Rock in the 1930s when my dad visited them as a boy. They are both buried in Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock. They had no children, but there were many nieces and nephews on both sides and I am hoping to find family stories, photographs, and perhaps people who may have known them. Angie Dever was born 10 Aug 1876 in Alabama and died Feb 1956 in Little Rock. David White was born 27 Dec 1863 in Mine Creek, Hempstead, AR and died Dec 1935 in Little Rock. His parents were Benjamin White and Susan Start. This is my first effort at researching my family’s history in Arkansas and I will be grateful for any help. Cheryl Woodard, 5013 N. Lookout St, Little Rock, AR 72205, [email protected]
FREEMAN – WATTS – Looking for descendants of James Freeman and Sarah Watts. Found on 1850 census in Searcy Co AR; 1860 in Van Buren Co AR. James was reportedly killed at Battle of Pea Ridge. Sarah and her six children disappear; no trace of them after 1860. Children: John M., Mary Ann, Elizabeth J., Dicy C., Nancy K., & Sarah J. An estate record in 1908 states heirs of Sarah Freeman as heirs of John J.
Arkansas Queries 67
Watts, heirs not listed by name. Kathryn L. Garcia, 5111 Tiffany Circle, Killeen, TX 76549, [email protected]
GALLAWAY – I would like to know the birth parents of my great- grandmother so that I may continue researching that line, but I am not sure where else to look or what to do. My great-grandmother’s birth name is Lotis Hattie Gallaway born 20 Sep 1882 in AR. According to my grandmother, Lotis was adopted from a Little Rock orphanage by the Ballew family at the age of 7. The family lived at Hickory Plains, AR and later moved to Newport, AR where she married James S. Duffer. I have her marriage license which has her real name. Lotis died on 10 Oct 1952 in Little Rock, Pulaski Co AR. Her death certificate lists her adoptive parents as her parents. There was a rumor that Lotis was adopted out of the Elizabeth Mitchell home in Little Rock. I contacted the Arkansas Studies Institute, which has the Elizabeth Mitchell records and they said there is no mention of Lotis. Since she was born after the 1880 census I know the census record is a dead end for her parents. The Ballew family that she was adopted into was listed in the 1880 census, Prairie Co AR page 27 on 23 Jun 1880 – Milton Ballew (53 m) and Martha (47 f). I hope there is a court record or newspaper article or adoption record that might hold the piece of the puzzle. Kathleen Cogbill Warr, 1200 N. Herdon St #906, Arlington, VA 22201, [email protected]
HARRELL – Andrew Jackson Harrell (1834-1888) is listed in the 1870 Cross Co census along with his wife Margaret (Tyler) and children: Mary Jane (14), Margaret Elizabeth (12) and Josiah J. (1) in the town of Wittsburg. I want to find them in the 1860 census as well; Wittsburg was in St. Francis Co in 1860 until Cross Co was formed in 1862 from parts of Crittenden, Poinsett and St. Francis. Can anyone help me? Norman Harrell, 1121 S.W. Hillside Dr, Burleson, TX 76028, [email protected]
JONES – WILKERSON – Searching for descendants of David W. Jones b 1882 and Gladys (Wilkerson) Jones b 1891 of Eureka Springs, AR. Their children were Royal Eugene, Iola, Della May, Delbert, and Joseph David Jones. Have family photos. Karen Steely, 11500 NE 76th St Ste A3, PMB #144, Vancouver, WA 98662-3901, [email protected]
68 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
MOBLEY – CRYER – LAMB – Any info on David Mobley (1795- 1859) and his wife Barbara Cryer who were married in Clark Co AR 1817 and died there. Barbara Cryer was dau of Morgan Cryer who fought in the Revolutionary War 1776 to 1778 b SC and d 1833 AR. They were also married into the Lamb family. Benny Gene Mobley, 912 Parker St, Azle, TX 76020, 817-999-0971
PISTOLE – PISTOL – Seeking information on the Pistole/Pistol family located in or near Clinton AR. My ggg-grandmother Susan Pistole is buried there. Norma Addison, 870-239-9897, [email protected]
REGAN – I am trying to prove that James Regan and Joseph Daniel Regan, both of Nevada Co AR, were brothers. Both were born in Pulaski Co GA. Based on “family lore,” they moved with their father, Elias Daniel Regan, to Louisiana and were orphaned as minors along with a sister, Sarah. All three married and eventually left Louisiana and settled in Nevada Co AR. I can prove through guardianship records that Joseph is the son of Elias, but no other records list the other minor children by name. James also served as the administrator of Joseph’s estate and the guardian of his widow and minor children, but again, no relationship is mentioned. I’ve hit the proverbial brick wall. Anyone have any primary documents that would help me prove this relationship? James W. Regan b 27 Nov 1819 Pulaski Co GA, married 19 Dec 1850 Mary Catherine Ferrand in Catahoula Parish LA, moved to Nevada Co AR after Apr 1870 to join younger brother Joseph, listed on 1880 census in Nevada Co AR, d 7 Feb 1881, buried Beard’s Chapel, Hempstead Co AR. Mary Anne Berry, 1409 Willard, Canadian, TX 79014, [email protected]
ROOKS – McGUIRE – Information wanted on Wm H “Billy” Rooks and wife Mary Josephine Jetta McGuire buried in Woodruff Co AR. According to census, Billy b TN and Josie b AR. Josie might have been Native American. They married 1873 in Cross Co AR. Arnold & Jo Ann Cooper, 16 Algonquin Ct., Cabot, AR 72023, [email protected]
Arkansas Queries 69
RUSSELL – Would appreciate any data concerning Jesse Russell, former Lt., Tenn. Volunteers, under Gen. Andrew Jackson at Battle of New Orleans, Dec 1814-Jan 1815; later resided in Arkadelphia AR; father of Mary Ann Russell Gray, wife of Joseph Gray, member of AR Legislature in the 1840s; first mayor of Princeton, AR. Col. William H. Tomlinson, USA(Ret), 1890 Shadowlawn St, Jacksonville, FL 32205- 9430, [email protected]
SCOTT – WAIT – WAITE – Looking for family of John Calvin Scott b 1864 MS. Moved to Yell Co AR about 1905. Children: Ada (Morris), Jesse Jennings, Harrison, Glen, Ester, and Daisy. Parents: John Scott (b 1824 AL-d abt 1864 Civil War), and Virginia Wait/Waite (b abt 1830- 1836 SC-d unknown). They were in Pontotoc Co MS 1860; Lafayette Co MS 1870-1880; other MS counties later. John Scott moved to MS from Fayette, TN abt 1853. Iris A. Horne, PO Box 935, Waxahachie, TX 75168, [email protected]
SHEPPARD – McVEY – Great-grandpa Jeremiah “Jerry Miah” Sheppard/Shepard (b 9 Feb 1851 Sevier Co AR-d 21 Mar 1924 Yell Co AR) married Oct 1877 in Indian Territory to Mary “Molly” McVey (b 18 Mar 1861-d 21 Dec 1971 Yell Co AR). Jeremiah’s family: father, Edward N. (b abt 1815 AL-d abt 1870 IT); mother, Sarah Jane Johnson (b abt 1832 IL-d 1903 IT); brothers, John Benjamin, Henry Edward, William S., and sister, Mary J. moved to IT around Tishomingo between 1860 and 1870. In 1889, Jeremiah bought a farm in Logan Co AR and his name on the deed was Jerry Miah. Children of Jeremiah and Molly were: Joseph Benjamin “Ben” (1878-1940), Jesse Lee “Pete” (1884- 1964), Omer T. “Bone” (1887-1949), William Riley “Todd” (1890- 1965), John Henry (1896-1976), Jerry Roberts Jr (1900-1949), Lola (1887-1887-twin of Omer), Minnie (1894-1981), Mittie Lee (1898- 1967), and Molly J. (1902-1979). The Mary “Molly” birth date is from her headstone but on the 1900 US census her birth date is given as 1862 and her parents as being born in MS. Jeremiah had two brothers born in IT. Am looking for anyone who would like to exchange information. Samuel Weldon, 9344 Lait Dr, El Paso, TX 79925-6639, 915-592-6935, [email protected]
70 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES, 2009
INCOME EXPENSES Arkansas Humanities 2009 FGS Council grant ...... 1,350.00 conference ...... -2,891.44 Books, documents ..... 13,510.00 Bank charge ...... 4.00 Donations...... 25.00 Conference fees ...... 50.00 Dues ...... 9,100.00 Copyright registration ...... 70.00 FGS conference Dues paid ...... 50.00 donation ...... 1,000.00 FGS conference donation Interest income ...... 232.09 expenditures ...... 550.00 Merchandise sales ...... 55.00 Humanities Council Other income ...... 11.15 grant expenditures ..... 1,328.61 Sales tax and Miscellaneous ...... 273.03 shipping ...... 1,724.12 Postage ...... 1,806.23 Salt Lake City Postal permit...... 185.00 trip income ...... 6,750.00 Printing ...... 14,825.04 Rent ...... 865.35 Sales tax out ...... 1,163.42 Salt Lake City Total Income ...... $33,757.36 trip expenses ...... 4,510.64 Seminar expenses ...... 210.00 Supplies ...... 538.17 Web site maintenance and internet acct ...... 619.45 Writing Contest Prize ...... 150.00
Total Expenses ...... $24,307.50
OVERALL TOTAL ...... $9,449.86
FUND BALANCES AS OF 12/31/09
Checking Account ...... $27,661.35 CDs ...... $10,000.00 TOTAL ...... $37,661.35
Index 71
Index
Amis, 47 William V., 30 Anna R., 27 Barness, 47 Slaves Anderson Barrow J. C., 43, 46 J. W., 42 Abram, 10 Andoe Bates African Poll, 9 Narcissa Jane, 21 Mary, 62 Amanda, 34 Andrew Beard Biddy, 9 J. O., 16 M. A., 43 Charlotte, 17 Arendale Beckendorf Davy, 22 Lula Mae, 18 Al, 64 Elizabeth, 17 Arington Beckwith George, 10, 17 Alice, 61 H., 44 Hennie, 9 Armstrong Bell Jack, 9, 22 Charlie, 61 Frank, 57 Jemy, 17 Edward, 62 W. F., 58 Lucy, 22 Eunice Ann, 62 Bent Martha, 17 Iva, 61 Watie, 57 Mary, 17, 22 Atkinson Berger Minerva, 22 Edward, 48 B., 47 Newton, 17 H. H., 49 H., 47 Rod, 22 Aydsott Berry Rose, 9 J. M., 42 J. A., 41 Ryner, 10 Mary Anne, 68 Sella, 17 T. M., 41 B Thos., 44 Baer Berryhill A Pauline, 54 Donna, 24 Acruman Baggot Bery E. A., 47 Washington, 44 T. M., 41 Adair Bagsby Blackwell T. M., 44 Hap, 60 Lawrence, 62 Adams Hattie, 60 T. F., 44 W. C., 44 Baker Blewster Addison Bessie, 62 W. C., 40 Norma, 68 Mary, 61 Bolin Alen Ballew A. J., 42 W. S., 44 Martha, 67 Bonham Alexander Milton, 67 Ellen, 66 Addie M., 27 Barnes Box Allen Frank, 48 G. J., 43, 44 T. N., 43 J. C., 42, 43 Boyle
72 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Susan Gardner, 3, Mrs. S., 44 Elizabeth P., 9 52 Burner Sarah, 10 Bradley W. T., 44 William B., 10 Margaret, 57 Burns Christie Minnie, 57 Wm., 42 Martha Ann, 33 Braselton Burris Thomas Allen, 33 Elizabeth Ann, 18, Georgia Ann, 29 Church 20 Burrow J. S., 57 Samantha Jane, 18 Molly, 61 Claborn Brewer Robert C., 61 Bobby Phil, 62 Bert Victor, 64 Cherly, 62 Hewitt, 64 Elsie, 60 Ida, 64 C Oliver, 60 Wanda, 64 Calvert Clark Bridges James, 43 Charles, 40 A., 42 William, Jr., 43 Jas. H., 42 Briggs Cameron T. S., 41 S., 42 David, 43 Clary Bringle Camp J. D., 49 Matt, 66 Hosea, 15 Clower Minnie, 66 Margaret Jordan, 15 George W., 16 Brooks Campbill Coats Mrs. G. A., 55 Cyrus, 64 Wm., 41 Brown Oma, 64 Cohen A. S., 41 Carden H., 57 J. D., 44 Henry, 57 Colbert J. M., 41 Carson Larrie M., 61 J. T., 41 Iva, 61 Letton, 61 Browning Carter Roger Lewis, 61 Isaac, 42 Claria Mae, 59 Sandra, 61 Thomas, 42 Eddie Lee, Sr., 59 Colvard Broyles Farish, 9, 22 Jack Woodrow, 63 Ellis, 62 George W., 59 Maude, 63 Verona Mae, 62 James, 9 Olen, 63 Bruce Millie, 59 Colvert William, 27 Tommy, 47 James, 46 Bryant Case Wm., 46 Dora, 49 William, 44 Wm., Jr., 46 E. L., 48 Chambers Colvert and Flinn, 46 J. A., 48 J. M., 43 Cook Lenora, 49 John, 44 B. W., 41 Lillian, 49 Chandler, 47 Chelsea, 8 Walter, 49 E. P., 48 L. E., 57 Buck Cherry Cooper Clive, 40 Malissa A., 27 Arnold, 68 Burgoin Chinneworth Jo Ann, 68 H., 44 Thomas, 48 Cop L. H., 43 Christian A. T., 44
Index 73
Corker John Richard, 27 Clifton Baird, 39 Frank, 44 Martha, 28 Duffer Couch Martha Ann, 25, 26 James S., 67 Carrie, 39 Mary, 28 Dunlap Dick, 40 Mary Belle, 30 Bertha, 61 Elton Irvin, 39 Mary Jane, 25, 26 Gladys, 61 Frances, 38 Samuel, 28, 29, 30, Omer, 61 Gwinnett, 34, 35, 31 Omer Dewey, 61 37, 38 Samuel Houston, Dyke Gwinnett Marshall, 27 E. C., 42 39 Sarah Jane, 30 Harvey C., 40 Thomas Newton, Inez Alice, 39, 40 27 E Irene Hazel, 39 William Bruce, 27 Edwards Irvin Henry, 33, 36, William Henry, 27 Robert R., 55 37 Crawford Elgin John Peter, 35, 36 Alice R. E., 34 T. H., 57 Kelso, 40 Craxton, 20 England Lillian Pierce, 39 Crow Powell, 42, 44 Lucy, 40 Bonnie Dale, 60 Erwin Mary Alice Crumpler Arthur, 56 Rebecca, 34, 36, Clarence, 40 Evans 37 Harry, 40 Corinne, 59 Mary Jane, 33, 35 Sara Carolyn, 39 Herb, 59 Myrtie Clayton, 39 Cryer Eyraud Nettie Viola, 35 Barbara, 68 Clarice Marjorie, Quincy, 34, 36, 38 Morgan, 68 59 Roy, 40 Cullie Henry, 59 Sanford O., 35, 36, William, 59 37 Culpepper Sybil, 40 P. T., 41, 44 F Winston Sanford, Favor 39, 40 D Joel, 43 Craig Wm., 44 Daniel, 27, 28, 30, Davis Ferrand 31 Deloyce Rae, 63 Mary Catherine, 68 Elizabeth H., 29 Gerald, 63 Fielder George W., 25, 26, Dever Reg, 48 27, 28, 30, 31 Angie, 66 Flanigan Georgia Ann, 26 Dickson James C., 18 Hannah, 26, 31 Dick, 40 Fleming Harriet Jane, 25, 26 Dixon Benjamin, 60 James Lewis, 29 Frances Fleming, 7 Ethel Lucille, 60 Jane, 28 Dodgen Flower John, 26, 28 Mattie, 62 C. H., 49 John Daniel, 29 Dorman Flynn John M., 30 A., 46 Martin, 46 John McCune, 28 Dudney Foote
74 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
W. H., 12 Allen, 62 Hamilton Ford Lucy Maurine, 62 John M., 41 Hamilton, 44 Grace Priscilla, 41 Fordyce Ann, 64 Hammet S. W., 47 Dottie, 64 John, 45 Foster S. W., 42 Hammett, 48 E. A., 42 Tom, 64 Hampton R. C., 44 Granger G. M., 47 Fox Libbie, 55 J. E., 47 John H., 43 Graves W. J., 48 Freeman Leo, 40 Haney Calvin Lafayette, Gray Effie, 57 26 J. Lem, 57 Hanks Dicy C., 66 J. M., 48 Bill, 24 Elizabeth J., 66 John M., 42 Harkey James, 66 Joseph, 69 Dr., 55 John M., 66 Green Dr. G. W., 56 Mary Ann, 66 Bailey, 48 Eddie, 57 Nancy K., 66 E. H., 43, 44 G. W., 55 Sarah J., 66 G. W. P., 44 Johnnie, 58 Furgerson Houston L., 62 Lucy, 56 L., 44 Mattie, 62 Ola, 57 Greenlee Robert L., 56 Wm., 46 Robt. L., 55 G Gresham Walter, 58 Gallaway J. B., 48 Harrell Lotis Hattie, 67 Mrs. M. M., 48 Andrew Jackson, Garcia Griffin 67 Kathryn L., 67 Mrs. Fannie, 44 Josiah J., 67 Garner Griffith Margaret Elizabeth, Bradford, 59 Martha Ann, 33 67 Ethel, 59 Mary Jane, 33, 34 Mary Jane, 67 Mr., 49 Grisham Norman, 67 Ted, 59 Vel, 59 Harrison Giersch Grisns Bessie, 62 Lula Mae, 18 N., 44 D., 44 Gilbert Grubbs Franklin, 44 H. C., Sr., 46 J. A., 48 Inez, 63 Henry C., Jr., 44 Gunn M. C., 41 Gillaspie Elisha, 44 Mrs. M., 45 Mrs. Sarah, 44 Nathan, 42 Newt, 62 Gogins Norman, 63 Wm., 44 H Hartley Goldsworthy Elizabeth, 28 James A., 29 Hall Haussmett Goodloe Mrs. W. C., 56 E., 43 Prof., 50 Halley Henderson Gorsching A. H., 44 Anna, 63
Index 75
J. D., 42 I Kilpatrick Henley James, 49 Nellie Leah, 64 Ivy Kimes Hildebrand Curtis, 22 Thelma Loretta, 61 Jerry, 60 Kincheloe Verna G., 60 Lena, 57 Hines J Kirkendall Thomas W., 34 Jacobson Retha Kay, 61 Hinson M., 57 Willard, 61 Margaret, 62 James Hobdy Jeffie, 59 L J. R., 42 John, 12, 13, 59 Hodgkin Jarrod Lackie Mary, 6, 8 Martha Anne, 38 Ina, 64 Holderness Jenkins John Calvin, 64 A. S., 47 Lilly Belle, 59 Maurice, 64 Marvin, 50 Johns Sharon, 64 Minnie, 49 W. P., 44 Lamb, 68 Mrs. A. S., 49 Johnson Lambert Holifield Bonnie Dale, 60 Alton, 17 Berry, 43, 46 Edith, 61 Lasater Holler Eldora, 60 Freeborn, 63 Charles, 64 Herbert, 60 Hattie, 63 Holloway Sarah Jane, 69 James Waldon, 63 Mayme Lee, 54 Jones Lee Holmes Charles Ray, 65 Arthur, 26 David, 10 David W., 67 Daniel R., 24 Hornaday Delbert, 67 Edward Lafayette, J. A., 48 Della May, 67 25 W. J., 48 Iola, 67 Flossie Mattie, 25 Horne Jerrie Lynne, 65 George D., 25 Iris A., 69 Joseph David, 67 Hadaseth Myrtle, Horton Oscar Theodore, 65 25 Lima, 39 Royal Eugene, 67 Henry Newton, 25 Howard John C., 24, 25, 26 Joe, 64 Josephine, 25 Howell K Lottie, 26 Emma, 56, 57 Kelley Maggy Bell, 26 Hubbard Noel, 45 Mathew F., 25 Louise, 63 Kendrick Maude Milley Ann, Robert Chandler, James L., III, 40 25 63 Kepler Minnie Belle, 25 Robert, Sr., 63 Louisiana Jane, 28, Pearl May, 25 Ruby Jean, 63 29 Samuel Floyd, 25 Hughey Kesterson Samuel H., 24, 26 D. F., 58 J. B., 44 Susan A., 24 Hull Key Susan Jane, 25, 26 Hope, 8 Rev. S. S., 56
76 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
William Garfield, R. G., 46 McNew 25 Marks Charles, 60 Leedy Evan, 46 Lillie, 60 Norma June, 63 J. N., 46 McVay Victor, 63 Martin George S., 29 Leeton Edith, 61 Mary F., 29 Nicey, 29 John, 61 Nicey, 29 Leonard John C., 61 McVey J. F., 58 Letitia, 9, 22 Mary, 69 Lewis Nancy, Mrs., 45 Meder Alice, 61 Mathews T. M., 46 Barbara, 62 C. G., 46 Miller Charles, 45 J. J., 46 J., 58 James L., 61 May Milton James Odell, 61 David, 42 Mrs. T., 46 Mrs. M., 45 Mayhue Minor Lighthill Vernia, 65 Samuel, 41 Joseph, 60 McCain Mitchell Joyce Charlene, 60 Mr., 50 Calvin, 64 Lindsey McCaskill Greenberry W., 22 A. P., 43 W. S., 46 Julia, 64 William D., 5 McConnell Samantha, 15 Link John W., 21 Mobley Janie Irene, 61 McCormack Benny Gene, 68 Loyd E., 62 John M., 39 David, 68 Little McCune Moffatt T. B., 45 Hannah, 26, 28 Osia Mae, 64 Long James, 28 Monroe William T., 21 McDonald Archie, 40 Lucas W. B., 58 Moon Rev. Dr., 55 McGuire Jas. G., 43 Luker J. C., 48 Moore Christine, 60 Mary Josephine Dallas S., 55 Ernest Parnell, Sr., Jetta, 68 Gladys Marie, 60 60 McIntyre Morgan Lynch, 13 Ruth, 40 Albert Talmon, 13 Doris, 60 McKindley Olive Billie Jean, Harold, 60 Archibald Robert, 65 Lynn 35, 36, 38 Morton Jesse, 48 McLean E., 43 Lyon John, 41 Mosley Mrs. W. A., 57 Mary J., 41 J. H., 48 McLendon Munday McW., 43 Mrs. J. F., 57 M McMurry Mackey C. S., 48 N Wm., 45 McNeeley Mann M. W., 43 Neeley
Index 77
J. M., 42 Mrs. N. H., 45 Maude, 63 Nutt, 47 Posey Orin, 41 B. T., 48 Belain, 7 W. P., 45 John, 48 Carnot, 10, 11, 12, Regan Margaret, 62 14 Elias Daniel, 68 Thomas N., 62 Catherine, 7, 9 James W., 68 John, 11, 12, 13, 14 Joseph Daniel, 68 John Brooke, 9, 10 Sarah, 68 O Lucretia, 6, 7, 15 Renfro O’Dell Mary, 7, 8, 10 Thos. J., 41 Molly, 61 Stanhope, 12 Richardson O’Neal Thomas, 6, 7, 8, 9, G. G., 48 Kenneth Marvin, 62 10 W. T., 48 Norma, 62 Potts Ridgeway Oates Ada, 57 Letton, 61 James, 58 Powers Ridgway Oldner Mrs. E., 45 Catherine, 9 John, 46 Prator Riggins Orton Miles Drayton, 39 W. J., 42 E. M., 46 Mrs. Miles, 40 Wm., 45 Price Rimola Ed, 61 Ona Holler, 64 P Ethel, 61 Paul, 64 Parham Pruitt Rippy V. S., 40 J. W., 57 Hettie, 59 Parker Puckett Roberts Corinna, 57 Daniel, 46 John D., 63 Patterson J. W., 42 Lionel Hogan, 63 Rose, 57 John W., 46 Minnie, 63 Pawly Mrs. E., 46 Nadine, 63 L., 46 Thomas P., 15 Payne R Robinson Ida, 64 Mr., 57 Will, 64 Rainey Rooks Payton Mrs., 42 Wm. H., 68 John, 61 Rains Rose Thelma, 61 J. W., 45 Grantham, 34, 36, Pendarvis Ratliff 37, 38 Mary, 10 B. F., 42, 45 Ross Perkins Ray Wm., 45 Barbara, 62 Earnest A., 39 Rotton David, 62 Irene, 40 James T., 42 Jonathan Eric, 62 Redden Rowbuge Perry Susan A., 24 L., 45 Mrs. S. M., 57 Reed Rowland, 47 Pistole E. H., 41, 45 Roy Susan, 68 J. R., 41, 42 J. L., 54 Polk John R., 45 Jesse L., 54
78 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Jesse Lyman, 52, Jesse Lee, 69 Stanfield 54 John Benjamin, 69 C. A., 41, 45 Mary Missouri, 52, John Henry, 69 Start 54 Joseph Benjamin, Susan, 66 Roys 69 Stedman F. R., 58 Lola, 69 Marjorie, 61 Russell Mary J., 69 Troy, 61 Jesse, 69 Minnie, 69 Steely Mary Ann, 69 Mittie Lee, 69 Karen, 67 Rutledge Molly J., 69 Stell W. A., 42 Omer T., 69 W. D., 48 Wm., 45 William Riley, 69 Stevenson William S., 69 G. W., 47 Sherrill Mrs. G. W., 49 S Eli, 31 Stovall Sadler Shinn W. L., 42 A. H., 44 Chas., 57 Stover Sanders J. H., 57 E. H., 48, 49 Sarah J., 27 Mrs. J. L., 57 Jack, 48 Scaeder Shockley Jake, 48 O. T., 42 Cleon Lavally, 60 M. H., 49 Schaefer Gordon, 60 Stroud Linda, 63 Lula, 60 Eldorado, 62 Scott Patsy, 60 Myrtle, 62 Ada, 69 Simmons Stuart Daisy, 69 James P., 20 Otto, 40 Ester, 69 Peter Marshall, 38 Stubblefield Glen, 69 Taletha Ann, 38 Dalcie Payne, 64 Harrison, 69 Simpson Joseph Ralph, 64 Jesse Jennings, 69 J. W., 45 Sturdivant John Calvin, 69 John, 45 Ken, 24 Screven Levi, 45 Sykes Elizabeth E., 10 Samantha Jane, 18 Miss B., 55, 57 John, 10 Smith, 47 Scuder Bob, 55 T O. P., 43 J. J., 43 Sessions J. W., 48 Talleaferro Artie L., 29 John J., 45 B. B., 46 Mary A., 29 Kate, 57 J. N., 45 Shackelford Katie, 55 Tarleton Margaret, 22 Lewis, 58 Stephen D., 28 Shaw Lula W., 55 Tatum Jeffie, 59 Mrs. L. M., 55 Mildred, 59 Sheppard Robert, 58 Teague Edward N., 69 Spears J. D., 45 Henry Edward, 69 C. H., 43 W. I., 46 Jeremiah, 69 Staine Terril Jerry Roberts, 69 S. D., 28 J. H., 45
Index 79
Terry Corinne, 59 J. M., 46 Moses, 42, 45 Herb, 59 Wilkerson Thach Vessiere Gladys, 67 Janie, 57 Lucy Ann Manette Wilkins, 47 Thack Larose, 26 Annie, 60 J. H., 50 Voss Billy J., 60 Thomas Agnes, 60 Mary, 60 E. Y., 43, 46 John, 60 Wilbur, 60 Ethel, 63 Williams George, 46 D. J., 43 Melvin, 63 W D. L., 45 Threadgille Wade H. T., 46 Wade, 45 J. A., 39 Joseph, 43 Tinnin Wait Loweta, 62 Don, 64 Virginia, 69 Mattie, 57 Naomi, 64 Ward Mrs. Maxie, 55 Tolson J. C., 46 Wilson Pinkney, 45 Warr Everett, 62 Tomlinson Kathleen Cogbill, Rebecca V., 33 William H., 69 67 Winn Townsend Waters Abner, 6, 8, 14, 15, Dennis Ewell, 65 J. A., 48 16, 17, 18, 21, Jerrie Jones, 65 Watkins 22 Trotter Elizabeth G., 62 Alex M., 16 S. C., 43 Virgil, 62 Cynthia Melinda, S. E., 45 Watson 22 Trucks Vernie Juanita, 59 Elisha, 18, 19 B. F., 45 Watts Elizabeth Ann, 18, John, 45 John J., 67 20 Tucker Sarah, 66 Genubath, 15, 16 J. H., 45 Weathers Harrison, 23 J. H. F., 42 Mrs. M. E., 57 Jack, 17, 21 J. L., 56, 57 Weimer James, 16 J. W., 56 Mr., 57 James Russell, 5, 6, Mr., 50 Welch 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, Mrs. J. W., 56 Bruce, 49 15, 18, 19, 21, Mrs. M., 45 Weldon 22 Tyler Samuel, 69 John Alexander, 22 Margaret, 67 Wells John Milton, 23 J. W., 57 Lemuel, 15 V Pauline, 57 Letitia, 9 West Louvenia Varnell Harvey, 41 Catherine, 21 C., 46 W. D., 42, 46 Lucretia, 7, 22 John, 43 White Lucy, 17, 21 Wm., 46 Benjamin, 66 Mary, 23 Varner David N., 66 Mary Hodgkin, 21 Bessie, 59 Eliza, 46 Nancy, 17
80 The Arkansas Family Historian, Volume 48, Number 1 – March 2010
Narcissa Jane, 21 Mary, 49 Works Orianah, 22 Mrs. William, 49 Samuel, 46 Philadelphia, 14 Wood Wright Powhatan, 14 Lenora, 63 J. M., 48 Richard Dickson, Linal, 63 Wyatt 15, 18, 19, 20 Woodard Mrs. T. M., 57 Richard J., 16 Cheryl, 66 Wynn Thomas, 9, 14, 15 Wooley Alex McFarlane, 16 Thomas L., 16 J. W., 43 Wynne Wolf John, 43 Robert, 14 Harriet Jane, 25, 26, Silas, 43, 45 28 T. M., 43 Lucy Ann Manette Woolfolk Y Larose, 26 Eddie, 63 Young Michael, 26 Lonnie Lynn, 63 Jesse, 62 Womble Wooly Mary, 62 Dora Bryant, 49 John, 46
Certificate of Arkansas Ancestry Or Arkansas Civil War Ancestry
From the Arkansas Genealogical Society
Do you have ancestors who resided in Arkansas or had Arkansas Civil War service or pension? AGS offers certificates in five different categories of residency. In which category does your ancestor belong? A little research will qualify you for a certificate giving recognition to your family’s pioneers and settlers of Arkansas. The categories are:
Colonial This certificate is for an ancestor who resided in Arkansas prior to January 1, 1804.
Territorial This certificate is for an ancestor who resided in Arkansas prior to June 15, 1836.
Antebellum This certificate is for an ancestor who resided in Arkansas prior to May 6, 1861.
Nineteenth Century This certificate is for an ancestor who resided in Arkansas prior to December 31, 1900.
Civil War Ancestry This certificate is for an ancestor who served in a Union or Confederate Arkansas unit between 1861 and 1865, or applied for an Arkansas Confederate pension, or whose widow applied for such pension, or a Union soldier or soldier’s widow who applied for a U.S. pension while living in Arkansas.
To prove ancestry in Arkansas, a lineage of the direct ancestor must be submitted to AGS, along with source documents to prove these facts. A family group sheet of the ancestor who resided in Arkansas must be completed with primary sources as proof. All sources must be cited, photocopied and submitted with the application. Examples of acceptable documents include: census records, church or Bible records, tax lists, court records, military records, land patents, deeds, newspaper items, Civil War service record, or Arkansas Confederate or U.S. pension record. Applications will be filmed by the Arkansas History Commission. Print the application from the AGS website at www.agsgenealogy.org or write to Tommy Carter, 10106 Sulphur Springs Rd., Pine Bluff, AR 71603 and send your address with $1.00 for postage. Complete the application form and return it with $10.00.
Arkansas Genealogical Society Membership Application or Renewal Form
Benefits of membership: ∙ Quarterly issues of The Arkansas Family Historian ∙ Priority registration for AGS Sponsored Research Trips ∙ Queries published in The Arkansas Family Historian ∙ Members Only Page on AGS website
Membership dues are payable annually and entitle members to a year’s subscription to the Society’s periodical. New memberships may be submitted at any time of the year.
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Query for The Arkansas Family Historian
Members may submit queries that pertain to Arkansas families. Please try to mention the county or region of Arkansas involved and a full name and date, if possible. Queries are printed in the order received. They may be sent at any time to [email protected].
Send this form and a check payable to Arkansas Genealogical Society to:
Arkansas Genealogical Society P.O. Box 26374 Little Rock, AR 72221-6374
Arkansas Genealogical Society
A member of the National Genealogical Society and the Federation of Genealogical Societies
The Arkansas Genealogical Society began in 1962 and is incorporated as a non-profit organization. The purpose of this society is to promote and educate its members in genealogy, to publish articles pertaining to Arkansas ancestors, and to locate and preserve genealogical, historical, and biographical information determined worthy of publication. Membership Any person interested in genealogy is encouraged to become a member by payment of dues in advance for one year. Annual dues are $25.00 for individual, $35.00 for family (only one publication per family), $50.00 for residents outside the USA. This includes a year’s subscription to the society’s periodical. Make your check or money order payable to: AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374. Back Issues Back issues of The Arkansas Family Historian are available on the AGS web site, www.agsgenealogy.org, for members only. Non-members may purchase electronic copies for $5.00 each mailed to AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374. Research Policy The society regrets that we do not provide research for members. We do suggest that anyone wanting fee-based research refer to the Association of Professional Genealogists website for a list at www.apgen.org. Book Reviews Authors and publishers may submit books for review in The Arkansas Family Historian. Books for review should be sent to AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374. All materials become the property of AGS to be distributed to repositories as the society deems appropriate or the submitter requests. Queries Members may submit queries related to Arkansas ancestors to be published in The Arkansas Family Historian. Send queries by e-mail to [email protected] or mail them to AGS Queries, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374. Be sure to include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number. Submissions Please submit articles to be considered for publication. Photographs and materials will not be returned. Sources should be cited as footnotes or endnotes. Materials may be submitted by e-mail to [email protected] or on disk or paper to AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374. The right to edit all material submitted is reserved by the Editorial Board. The submitter must include name, address, phone number and e-mail address with the material. Proof copies will be sent prior to printing if requested. Contributions AGS qualifies as a tax-exempt organization as stated in Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Any donation of books, funds and other property to the society are deductible contributions by an individual or corporation. Change of Address Please notify AGS when there is a change of address or mistake in address as soon as possible. Contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or AGS, PO Box 26374, Little Rock, AR 72221-6374.
Arkansas Genealogical Society Non-Profit P.O. Box 26374 Organization Little Rock, AR 72221-6374 U.S. Postage PAID Address Service Requested Little Rock, AR Permit No. 30
ISSN 0571-0472