USA > Arkansas > Johnson County > Johnson County, Arkansas, the first hundred years > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
3 1833 02302 6948
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22.50
Mrs azer Burke Paris ark aug. 5.1931.
JOHNSON COUNTY ARKANSAS
THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS
ELLA MOLLOY LANGFORD
Published December, 1921 By ELLA MOLLOY LANGFORD Copyright Applied for.
Sallis, Threadgill & Sallis, Printers Clarksville, Arkansas
1164686
PREFACE
The realization of the need for a record, or history, of Johnson County was thrust upon me some half dozen years ago when I had been solicited by a collector of state history to furnish a brief from Johnson County. In my endeavor to comply with that request, I found that I had encountered a rather difficult task. Many persons knew much in a vague sort of fashion, but facts were few. And the old settlers, from whom one could have ob- tained them, were gone beyond recall.
I inquired and found no one inclined to undertake a similar work, therefore, I imposed the task upon myself. I was born in Johnson County, and I feel that its history belongs to me and my children.
Many worthy and highly esteemed persons have doubtless not been given a proper place in this book, but the facts have been gathered, a bit here and a bit there, covering a space of several years, and I assure you, any omission was from lack of knowledge.
Especially have I endeavored to deal with persons and events as much as possible up to the year 1880, and their relationship to the present. Biographies have been my principal stumbling block. Sometimes I almost weakened in that endeavor, lest they should not be accurate in every detail. Yet, to posterity, nothing in this little volume will be more interesting, nor of more value. I could only give these themes in part, nothing more was at hand. They were taken from old sketches given by the settlers themselves, to some publication, or from booster editions of newspapers, or from verbal speech from some mem- ber of the families.
From necessity, some facts herein have been taken from other volumes, but not without privilege first being obtained from those concerned.
I am indebted to many persons for their assistance in various ways. I must place extra stress upon the untiring patience of Mr. J. V. Hughes, Sr., for my consultation to his store of knowledge was indeed frequent. Also, Hons. Robert Gray, G. T. Cazort, E. T. McConnell, W. D. Allnutt, J. R. Cazort, V. Howell, J. M. Laster, T C. Jarnigan, Dr. John Lothers, Mrs. W. Dodge, Mrs. J. A. Carter, Mrs. J. H. Jamison and Miss Ethel Srygley. Also the following who have passed to the Great Beyond since my work was begun: Capt. W. H. McConnell, Hon. D. N. Clark, Mrs. Lucy M. Mears, Mrs. Rachel Butts and many others who have contributed, both living and dead. Thus I submit this volume to you, my friends-you of whom I would rather have written, because you are of my life, but that was not my object. That work must be left for someone in the future. And may you accept this in the same sincere spirit in which I present it to you.
Cordially your friend,
ELLA MOLLOY LANGFORD.
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JOHNSON COUNTY The Story of Its People
THE INDIANS
Many years ago, in this wild unsettled west,
Where grasses, seldom. trod, grew upon earth's breast, A rippling brook flowed swiftly down
Through the canebreak, cataract bound; The songbird twittered and werbled low; A rattlesnake glided and slided slow, Out from the rift of an old fallen tree;
The wild beast awoke and wandered the lea,
A spreading forest, a tangled way,
With smiling sunbeams there to play, Mid the jungle's rustle, where winds came to tease
The flowers and trees with a laughing breeze;
Blending blossoms faced the sun each day, Ungathered and unnoticed, save along the way Came an Indian maid, an Arkansa true,
Gathered and shook from the petals the dew.
Thus a scene in a forest far away-
The Caucasian knew not his possession one day.
Indian arrow-points once found by the hundreds but now seldom chanced upon, a few fast fading chiseled markings and a now limited number of grave mounds almost flattened by time and tide, are all the records left by a primitive people to the present inhabitants of this country. A few of the old settlers, for few are left, tell posterity that this or that is an Indian graveyard. A graveyard indeed-for buried underneath that soil, as also in the silent pages of a long forgotten past, is an unwritten history: A history of a life, with love and ties of human kindness; of wars and warriors, and struggles for existence; of sadness, and sorrow, and death, flits across the mind of civilization, as a myth and a dream: A dream that is romantic and beautiful because of the uncertainty of its outline, yet a dream of a past that is funda- mentally true.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
In the incipiency of a country it is noteworthy that every immigrant comes for a reason, primarily a material one-the seeking of a fortune or a home, or perchance, someone desirous of adventure. Nevertheless, whatever may be their interest, few persons ever knew of anyone immigrating to make history, yet they begin the making of it as soon as civilization learns of their movements.
That the Arkansas tribes of Indians were scattered over this vast territory, west from the Mississippi River, is a fact stated by the general historians. When white men first began to pass up and down the main water course of the State, the Arkansas River, it is known that the Osages, a wild, wandering tribe, were in possession of the terra-incognito north of the river, while the more peaceable and constructive Quapaws were on the south. Therefore, white "squatters" and adventurers first began to come and to settle among the latter tribes.
That Spain claimed the country of the red-man or that in turn France called it her own, mattered not to the Indian. Not until a few generations had passed did this primitive people un- derstand or conceive the idea of the buying and selling of lands. When a tribe decided to locate in a country that was not held by the clans of another tribe, that territory was theirs undisputed, to hold as their own as long as they desired, or perchance, until another tribe drove them out in warfare.
Thus, not until the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory and the Cherokees were granted permission to occupy the country north of the "Upper Arkansas," from the east bound- ary of the present Pope county extending west to a line north and south in the vicinity of Van Buren in Crawford County, did the Osages relinquish their hold here and the more civilized and in- telligent Cherokees come. This grant, given by the United States Government in 1812, permitted this pre-eminent tribe of Indians to form a territory on the "Upper Arkansas", known as "The Arkansas Cherokees", or "The "Cherokee Nation West." Other tribes who held neighboring nations at that time were the Sac, Kickapoos and Fox Indians. Along with the Cherokees came a few white persons, and then, while much was not kept, the records began.
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THE INDIANS
Almost immediately after the settling of these Indians in their new homes, the Osages, who had been moved by the Government to the territory west of the Cherokee country, and who felt that the Cherokees had taken their hunting grounds, at once declared war on the latter tribe, a war which was carried on at intervals for many years, with the Osages always the aggressors and the Cherokees always eventually the victors.
In 1819, following the formation of the Arkansas Territory, this Nation of the Cherokees was declared a county, known as Crawford.
In 1820, almost simultaneously came Col. Matthew Lyon, the Government Indian Commissioner, who established his post on Spadra Bluff at the mouth of Spadra Creek, and Rev. Cephas Washburn, with a party of missionaries, who located five miles up stream from the Arkansas River on Illinois Bayou in Pope county, three miles east from the present boundary of Johnson. Col. Lyon, although seventy years of age, was an active and val- uable man to the service, a man eminently fitted for his work with
Foot Note-Matthew Lyon was born in Ireland, educated in Dublin and was also an apprentice to the trade of printer in that city. He came to America while he was yet in his teens, where he worked for several years as a day laborer, the first four of which he was bound out for his passage across the Atlantic, a method of transportation much practiced both in England and America at that time. As a reward for his labors, coupled with his dogmatic tenacity of purpose and his Godgiven superintelligence, he finally became one of the strongest men in America. In the Revolutionary War he rose from tlie rank of Lieutenant to the position of Colonel.
In the early days of Vermont he went into the woods of Rutland county and established a saw mill, grist mill, paper mill and forge, and a country store, and it was thus that Fairhaven, Vermont was begun. He later published a paper called "Fairhaven Gazette." From this 'press he issued several books, among them was "The Life of Franklin."
Fairhaven was represented by him in the Vermont Legislature for ten consecutive terms. He was the Judge of the Rutland County Court for some time and after Vermont was admitted to the Union as a state he was elected for several successive terms to the congress of the United States. His second wife was the daughter of a Governor of Vermont.
When Thomas Jefferson was running for President the first time, it is said that when a deciding vote was taken in Congress, Mr. Lyon cast the one needed to elect. A tie vote had previously been the' result of the general election. F .
In the vicissitudes of the years that followed, this man of strength and much success, was the victim of an opposition filled with unpleasantness and disappointments. Being still of a strong pioneering aptitude, he decided to again try a new country. Therefore in 1801, following his last term in Con- gress, he started with his family, and many 'other families of Fairhaven, in wagons, to seek a new home in another wilderness. When this party of im-
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
the Indians, as was fully realized by President Monroe, who made the appointment. A young man, Capt. J. S. Rogers, was sent with Col. Lyon as an interpreter.
Col. Lyon had determined to make his home in Arkansas, and six months after his arrival at Spadra Bluff he declared him- self for Congress in opposition to Woodson Bates. The election was held on August 6, 1821, with Mr. Bates the victor. The num- ber of votes cast in the nine counties was 2101, with a majority vote of 61. Crawford County polled 87 votes, Mr. Bates receiving 53 and Col. Lyon 34. Col. Lyon contested the count and sent out a circular in which he set forth well-founded reasons for his ac- tion. The second decision again gave the majority to Mr. Bates. Being an undaunted and fearless fighter, Col. Lyon would undoubtedly have been heard from later, but he was taken ill soon after this, an illness from which he did not recover.
The Missionaries on Illinois Bayou came to their post in the Spring of 1820. They were under the patronage of the Presby- terian American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
The members of the party who entered the wilderness of Arkansas, and labored for months before the coming of others, were Rev. Cephas Washburn, wife and one child, Rev. Alfred
migrants reached the Ohio river at Pittsburg, they secured flat boats and floated down stream to the Cumberland and thence into the jungles of Kentucky. When they came to a beautiful place where there was a large spring they made anchor and disembarked. The little village of Eddyville was soon realized, following the usual initiativeness of Col. Lyon. His was the first printing press in that state. He went many terms to the Legislature of Kentucky and served both as President of the Senate and Speaker of House. Lyon County, Kentucky, was named in his honor. He spent six
the years in Congress again, this time representing the state of Kentucky. At the expiration of his last term there, he was appointed to his Post in the Arkansas Territory.
After having spent more than a year at Spadra Bluff, Col. Lyon made a trip by boat to New Orleans. He began the descent in February of 1822. He carried with him for market, hides of buffalos, deer and bears, furs, cotton, venison, hams, tallow, beeswax and honey. On the return trip he was loaded with a 1400 pound cotton gin and many necessities for barter, but when he reached White river he had to leave his load until a rise of the waters, there- fore, he took passage up the Mississippi and visited his family in Kentucky. When he returned to Spadra in June he was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Griffie, who were to look after his comforts, and "Aunt Lena", a negro cook. Col. Lyon became ill in July and died August 1, 1822. The Missionaries from Dwight hastened to his bedside, and also officiated at his funeral.
Col. Lyon felt that he could not recover, and knew that at some time his body would be exhumed and removed to Kentucky, therefore he requested
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THE INDIANS
Finney, wife and one child, and Miss Minerva Washburn, whe later married James Orr. Mrs. Finney and Miss Washburn were sisters of Rev. Washburn.
Rev. Washburn and party reached Little Rock on July 3rd, where Rev. Washburn preached the first sermon ever delivered at that place.
The unanimous consent of the Indian Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation gave the Missionaries permission to select their own lo- cation for the Mission, hence the place on the Bayou was chosen. The Mission was known as Dwight's Mission, named in honor of President Dwight of Yale. The Mission Board also appointed Jacob Hitchcock and James Orr, mechanics, to join this party. They came from New England to Pittsburg by wagon and then by flat boat up the Arkansas.
The following quotations are copied from the old diary of the Missionaries:
"The site selected was a wilderness. The first tree was felled on the 25th of August. Since that time we have cleared and enclosed with a sub- stantia fence about 20 acres, much of which is improved. We have also erected four cabins of hewn logs for dwelling houses; two of which are 20 feet square , with piazzas on two sides, and two are 18 by 22 with piazzas on one side. The school house, 24 by 36 ft., is neatly constructed on the Lancaster. ian plan, and designed to accommodate 100 children. A considerable part of the work is done for a dining hall and kitchen. Aside from what has been mentioned, we have built a corn crib and stable, and have cleared and fenced a garden, yard, etc. The property at present belonging to the establishment consists principally of stock and farming equipment-three horses, two yoke of oxen, ten cows and calves, between 30 and 40 head of swine, two wagons, one cart and plough."
..* * * Bro. Orr rode out for the purpose of purchasing oxen and trans- acting other business up Spadra Creek. * * *
* * * Bro. Orr returned; had a safe ride and successful journey. He had an interview with the U. S. factor, Col. M. Lyon, and with the interpreter, Capt. J. S. Rogers, and found them and others fortified and fortifying against attacks from the Osages. Our friends at the north have doubtless learned the fact, the Osages and Cherokees are at war with each other." *
that a coffin be made double ,of hardwood timber, one box containing the other with the vacuum between filled with lime. The inside box carefully
lined with beaten lead.
Thus this man of energy and ability-gentle and sympathetic by nature -positive, yet refractory in character-sometimes down but never out-and always ready to forgive and forget, was laid to sleep on the bluff by the river at Spadra.
In 1830 his body was taken back and placed in the family vault at Eddy-
ville. Four thousand people attended this funeral, at which Rev. Johnson, a Methodist minister of Nashville, Tennessee, officiated. The Masonic Lodge of Eddyville, in full regalia, conferred upon his burial all the honor
of their
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
The Missionaries had public worship for the first time on Sunday, May 13, 1821. Four or five Cherokees were present, but they could not understand, as they had no interpreter. There were also a goodly number of white persons and some negroes from the settlements on the south of the river.
On December 22, 1821, other persons arrived to labor in this field and to make up the final number at the Mission. They 'were Ara Hitchcock, Misses Ellen Stetson and Nancy Brown. Daniel Hitchcock, a fourth member of the party, was left by the 'wayside quite ill, where later he died.
While this little band was enroute, they came to a swollen stream and were forced to camp for five days without food. Finally when they could ford the stream, an Indian Squaw took them into her hut and, in the manner of her Indian kowledge, began to resuscitate them. First, she gave each of them a small portion of dry bear meat every hour for twelve hours. At the expiration of this time she had prepared a sumptuous meal. She had removed the rind from a large pumpkin, which she placed on the hard earth floor, so that the peeled part took up the
dirt. She then took beans with which there were sticks and other trash, and eight pounds of fat bear meat, five inches thick, and put the whole into an earthen pot and boiled it for two hours. This concoction was then poured into a wooden bowl and her visitors were invited to eat. All objectionable ingredi- ents were forgotten as full justice was executed upon the viands. The Indians used wooden or horn spoons, usually those made from buffalo horns. A squaw possessed but one knife, the one for carving, and no forks at all.
The school opened January 1, 1822. Eighteen Cherokee children represented the beginning of this Old Dwight Mission,
ceremony. £ Before the deposit into the valut was made, the family and many friends were so placed that immediately when the coffin lid was lifted his face could be seen. It was for this he had planned his casket of lime and lead. For a brief minute his features were natural as life-then before their very eyes, as Lot's wife turned to salt, he crumbled to dust.
For long years the sunken spot where they laid him at Spadra Bluff was pointed out, but now a century has passed and the changes of time have felled the forest trees and leveled the grave mounds of that old burying ground, and the populace of today sees nothing there but a cultivated field. But by a vault in Eddyville, Kentucky, a citizenship will sometimes stop and recount, at least some event in the part Matthew Lyon played in the pioneering days of his adopted country.
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THE INDIANS
which was moved when the Cherokees again went west, and to- day stands on an incline twelve miles from the Arkansas river on the west bank of Sallisaw Creek, and represents one of Oklaho- ma's oldest institutions which has harbored and educated thous- ands of boys and girls during the past century.
In Mr. Washburn's "Reminiscences of the Indians" we find the names of the following Cherokee Chiefs on the Arkansas: Ta-kah-to-kuh, the high chief of the nation; Blackcoat, John Jolly, Major Maw, George Morris, John Rogers, James Rogers, Black Fox, Dick Flokers and Gorge Gues.
The High Priest of the Cherokees was Dik-Keh. The Indians called him Dik-Kch, the Just, and the white settlers, "Dick Justice". The next in priesthood in the veneration of the people was Ta-ka-e-tuh.
These Indians believed in one God and many ghosts. Mr. Washburn said that their system differed only circumstantially from that of the Bible, and that their belief in demons was con- sistent with Monotheism. Their eternal punishment was planned to be a series of extremes. The condemned would find his suf- ferings, first from the cold of biting frost and again from the torrid heat of a summer sun without shelter. Sometimes a plunge into cold water, then again in scalding water. And when he asked for drink, molten lead would be given to him. If he lay down, serpents would bite him; if he walked, 'twas on red- hot iron. "No friendship, no pity, hatred eternal.".
An Indian whose name was Blanket and who was a brother of Ta-ka-e-tuh, told Mr. Washburn that the first man was red, having been made from red soil. He said after he was finished the Great Spirit discovered that he talked too much and thought too little, therefore he cut out a part of his tongue and from that part mad a woman. After this was done, the man thought more and said less, in accord with the desire of the Great Spirit, but the woman he had made from that piece of a tongue, chat- tored all the time. And for that reason, he said, woman was given all the drudgery and work to do, so that she would be too tired to gad about and gossip. Ta-ka-e-tuh said that they de- scend:d from Abraham and that they worshiped one God, sub- mitted to him, trusted, feared, and prayed. He said that Idol worshipers were fools.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
The marriage ceremony was quite unique. Mr. Washburn said that after the spot for the occasion was selected and the hour for the ceremony arrived, the mother of the groom came and brought a blanket and a leg of venison, and the mother of the bride, a blanket and an ear of corn. The contracting couple were made to stand any distance from thirty to sixty feet apart, from which they advanced to a common center, where the blankets lay with the gifts on them. The brave and his squaw then went away, each holding an end of the blankets. The ceremony meant, "He, meat: she, bread: same bed." Thus came the aphorism "The dividing of the blankets."
Shee-leh was an Indian word for witchcraft. Mr. Wash- burn said that "superstition through these malignant beings was the prolific parent of much cruelty and crime." Anyone who chose could be a witch. The offense of witchcraft was consid- ered a capital crime, therefore no trial was necessary. When an Indian wished to be rid of his wife, he said she was a witch and killed her. Finally, merging slowly into the divine scheme of justice, they decided that to take life for accused witchcraft was murder, and a law was passed to administer one hundred lashes on the bare back for such a nefarious act. Therefore the practice was soon suppressed.
Considering the Indian Medicine Men, Mr. Washburn said: "No people suffered more from materia medica, as well as charact ristics of disease, than the Indians. They who followed the healing art,, or in their own parlance were 'big medicines', were mere conjurers. A more worthless, lazy, rascally set of ig- norant deceivers never practiced upon the gullibility of poor humans." Yet the closeness of the Indians to nature and neces- sary self-reliance had taught them much as a whole. In a few practices they were somewhat proficient.
Again, to quote Mr. Washburn, "The Indians had patience, fortitude and courage, with respect for old age, and affection be- tween members of their family." To be black was considered by them a stigma caused by lying, cowardice or murder. Nevertheless, one of their most influential chiefs, Ta-kah-to-kuh, had a black face, but of a Grecian model, and he was said to be of super-intelligence. "When interested, his eyes sent forth scintillations of most magnificent thought." He scored a lie,
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THE INDIANS
and was faithful to the religious ceremony of his tribe. He called the Missionaries, "breeches" or "pantaloon party." It was with Ta-kah-to-kuh that Mr. Washburn smoked the pipe of peace. This chief had always avoided the tan-tah-ous-keh, Cherokee for Missionaries, but when one day he was in Wat Weber's cabin and Mr. Washburn entered the door instead of endeavoring to escape, he took up his pipe and filled it with ta-lo-neh (dried leaves of the sumach of tobacco) and puffed a bit himself, then passed it to the interpreter and then to Mr. Washburn, after which he clasped Mr. Washburn's hand and said "We are friends forever." He often visited the mission after that, but ridiculed many of their methods. He became in- terested in astronomy and many of their teachings, but refused to accept their religion, saying, "Like the sun down there above the horizon, I shall go down to night and death-it is too late." It was Chief Ta-kah-to-kuh who refused to make peace with the Osages, and for that reason the war with them went on for a long time. The Cherokees, he said, had listened to their pleas several times and had signed as many treaties. But on each occasion the Osages had broken faith by beginning war again. Once when the Cherokee Chiefs were returning from such a meeting they were waylaid by the Osages and some of them murdered, therefore Chief Ta-kah-to-kuh said that they were liars and there should be no peace.
At this continual warfare, the government became much concerned. But this old Chief turned a deaf ear to the pleadings, not only of the Osages, but the Cherokees and the government agents as well. Finaly an Indian, persuasive and conciliatory of voice, whose name was Chih-kil-lehs, was employed to speak at a gathering, which was not supposed to be in any way bearing on the war, therefore Chief Ta-kah-to-kuh attended. With the deftness of an artist his discourse drifted to the subject of the war, and with pathos of eloquence he depicted the suffering and death therefrom. It touched the heart of Chief Ta-kah-to-kuh, and he signed the treaty. The next day he told Mr. Washburn that he should not have done so, saying that it was the act of a woman.
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