USA > Arkansas > Scott County > History of Scott County, Arkansas > Part 2
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CHAPTER V. New Statehood, 1836-1861
Before Congress had passed the customary en - abling act, authorizing preparations for statehood, the various counties elected delegates to a constitu- tional convention at Little Rock for the purpose of drafting a constitution for the state that was to be. Scott County elected Gilbert Marshall as its delegate. The convention proceeded to frame a constitution, which was duly ratified, and Arkansas was admitted to the Union on June 15, 1836. In the election that ensued thereunder, the following officials were elected:
County Judge
Gilbert Marshall
Clerk
Sheriff
Charles Humphrey
Treasurer Walter Cauthron
Coroner G. R. Walker
Surveyor
T. J. Garner
Representative James Logan
These men thus became the first elected officials of the county under the state government. They were all residents of that part of the county after- wards detached and added to Logan County. This shows how little influence the remainder of the county had in political affairs up to this time, which is attributable to the fact that most of the population
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was located around Booneville. But this condition was not long to remain so; for immigrants were coming in in large numbers. The census of 1840 showed a population of 1,694. Gilbert Marshall was the enumerator. The number of people had more than doubled in a period of ten years.
When the county began to be settled in the central, southern, and western parts, the location of the county seat at Booneville became inconvenient to the majority of the citizens, and in order that it might be more centrally located, it was moved to a new site on the old Glass farm about two miles northeast of where Waldron is now located. The new site was named Winfield, although the post office at that place, which had been established in 1840, was called Poteau Valley. This continued to be the seat of the county government until 1845. In that year, William G. Featherston, who was deal- ing in real estate, offered to donate ten acres for the permanent location of the county seat, on con- dition that it should be located on his farm. This was agreed to and the seat of justice was moved to its present site. The name of the town was changed to Waldron, and the name of the post office was changed to that, also. At this time, there was only one house in this vicinity, and this was the residence of William G. Featherston. It was a double log house, and stood somewhere close to where the railroad station is now located. When the post of- fice was established in 1840, Featherston became
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the first postmaster. In the same year, Parks post office was established with Felix G. Gaines as post- master. In 1845 an office was set up at Tomlinson- ville (now Boothe), with Joseph Tomlinson as postmaster. Thus the county had three post offices by 1845.
The first post road within the present limits of the county was laid out in the year 1838. It com- menced at Booneville and ran by the sites of Wal- dron, Parks, and Zebulon, Pike County, to Wash- ington in Hempstead County, a distance of 140 miles. Mail was carried on horseback, and the schedule provided that it should leave Washington each Wednesday at one o'clock in the afternoon and arrive at Booneville the following Saturday at eight o'clock in the afternoon. James F. Gaines was the first contractor for this service, and his salary was $1,250.00 per annum. Trips were to be made fort- nightly.
Another route was established in 1845 from Ft. Smith to Waldron by way of Chocoville (now Mans- field), with Elza Harlow as contractor. Mail ser- vice was authorized weekly. The salary was $249.00 per year.
In 1850 the route from Waldron to Mt. Ida in Montgomery County was put into operation. The distance was fifty-two miles, and William Gibson was the contractor, at an annual salary of $229.00 per year. Service was weekly.
The roads over which these post routes were
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1835 BOONVILLE
1940
PET.IN
CREEK
1845 4
LIM SONVILLE
TO
CREEK
OPOTEAU VALLEY
DUTCH
AL
R.
X
R
WALDRON 1845.
1840 PARKS
×
CLEAR
18 50
x
TO MT. IDA MONTGOMERY COUNTY
TO WASHINGTON
Post Offices and Post Roads in Scott County Before 1850.
30
HEMPSTEAD COUNTY
79
USAR EROVA
JEAN
authorized had been cut out a few years before by the settlers as they pushed farther into the wilder- ness. Even at this time the homes were very few and far between, as will be seen by naming the settlers along the road from the north part of the county to Waldron, about the year 1850. This was the most populous part of the county, too, at that time. This road came over Black Jack ridge about the old Watkins place. The first residence was the old Norris home. Two miles south was the Sparks farm, now owned by George Sorrels. Then came the farms of Thomas Glisson near Pleasant Grove church, and the Long place near the Narrows of Little Petit Jean. Immediately south of the Narrows, lived Andrew Tomlinson, and around Boothe was the large landed estate of Joseph Tom- linson. The Witt farm was between them. Then came the homes of the three Powels beyond the sec- ond ford of Petit Jean, now known as the Metcalf and Fuller farms. Five miles further south was the residence of Dotson Huie, and another mile brought one to where Daniel Boultinghouse lived. Three miles farther was the Turman place, then that of Reed, now the Leming farm, at Waldron.
In going from where Mansfield now is to Hon through the Lookout Gap in the same year, one would first pass the residence of Mark Holbert. Two miles farther on was the Henley place. No other house would be passed until one reached the double log house of Jackson Hon on the other side of the
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mountain. The intervening distance was an un- broken wilderness.
Roads had been opened up down the Poteau by 1850 and also southwest to Blansett. Fourche val- ley had several roads by this time, one going to Danville in Yell County. But none of these were roads in the modern sense of the term. The road was like nature left it, except that the trees and logs were cut out of the way. Bridges were unknown.
In 1850 there were eight townships in the county as follows:
Hickman
Mountain
La Fayette
Tomlinson
Park
Boon
La Fave Washburn
The townships of Boon and Washburn have since been detached and added to Logan County. The pop- ulation according to the census of 1850, as enumerat- ed by E. H. Featherston, was 2,937. This of course included the people of Boon and Washburn town- ships. By the census of 1860, the population was given as about 4,500. John A. Fry was the enume- rator. These figures indicate that there was almost a hundred per centum increase in the population during each decennial period.
The schools and churches of the county had a similar growth. In 1840 there was not a single school within the present limits of the county. About 1847 the common school law was enacted.
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It provided that the sixteenth section of the public land should be applied to the support of the public schools. School districts were set apart, and in 1850 the county had six such schools. The following were the teachers:
James M. Vance Hickman Township
William W. Sorrels Hickman Township
Franklin Bates. Hickman Township
John H. McLeod Hickman Township
William H. Thornton Mountain Township
Luther F. Pollard Tomlinson Township
In 1860 there were ten public schools, presided over by the following teachers:
B. F. Scaggs Boon Township
C. M. Trammel Boon Township
T. F. Hitchcock Boon Township
Geo. W. Duncan Reveille Township
Mary Lewis Tomlinson Township
C. I. Stovall Tomlinson Township
Thos. I. Price Tomlinson Township
I. W. Colwell Hickman Township
John Barnett Hickman Township
R. B. L. Speaks Hickman Township
F. A. Taff Hickman Township
In the above list, it will be noted that the name of one woman, Mary Lewis, appears. She taught school at Lewis Prairie as early as 1855. In view of the modern feminist movement and the conse- quent increasingly large share that woman is play- ing in the public life of the country, the name of this
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woman teacher stands out prominent. Mary Lewis was the county's first public woman.
By 1860 churches had been established in nearly every community. The itinerant preacher had yield- ed to the circuit-riding pastor. The pastor usually held services once a month in every church in his circuit. The Methodists seem to have been first in the county. They established a church on Fourche as early as 1842. The other denominations soon followed. The services were usually held in the district school house, but afterwards log churches were erected.
The resident ministers of the gospel in 1850 were as follows:
Jno. S. Robertson Hickman Township
Washington Sorrels Hickman Township
J. W. Taylor Hickman Township
E. T. Walker Tomlinson Township
J. V. Whitford Boon Township
D. F. Anderson Reveille Township
In addition to these, other noted ministers preached occasionally in the county. Some of these names are:
Geo. W. Sorrels 1836
A. R. Winfield 1852
Elijah Smoot 1851
Jesse Griffin 1857
H. W. Balsh 1843
J. B. Sheffield 1850
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B. T. Benefield 1858 Jacob Whitesides 1840
The following lawyers practiced their profession in the county prior to 1860:
J. K. Raymond Hickman Township
J. H. Thompson Hickman Township
G. W. Featherston Hickman Township
I. C. Read Tomlinson Township
C. H. Hawthorne began the practice of law in Tomlinson Township a few years later.
The merchants of this period were:
G. W. Featherston Hickman Township
G. W. Bird Hickman Township
G. W. Gains Hickman Township
E. C. Moon Tomlinson Township
The Bates brothers entered the mercantile busi- ness at Waldron a few years later, and their enter- prise is still in operation. These early merchants did a general mercantile business. In addition to the usual stock in trade many of them sold liquor also. They "freighted" their goods from Ft. Smith or Ozark in wagons. It consisted mostly of flour, coffee, sugar, dry goods, ammunition and farming implements. Except for these necessaries, nearly every farm was economically self-sustaining.
The physicians of the county before 1860 were: E. H. Barnard Mountain Township
William Du Val Tomlinson Township
P. C. Bush Tomlinson Township
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O. C. Mitchell
Boon Township
Stephen H. Chism
Boon Township
W. E. Elkins
Boon Township
I. C. Field. Parks Township
G. R. Stanfield La Fave Township
W. A. Linthicum Boon Township
I. D. Carlton Reveille Township
E. H. Dunman Tomlinson Township
James H. Smith Hickman Township
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CHAPTER VI. Period of the Great Civil War 1860-1874
1. Secession
Slavery did not exist to any extent in Scott Coun- ty, and for this reason the national agitation of this question, which had been rocking the country for over a quarter of a century and threatening to dis- rupt the Union, was not of a personal character with the people of the county. They did not begin to think strongly on the subject until confronted with the reality of disunion and war. Their sym- pathies were for the union of the states, and when it came to electing delegates to the state convention to determine the attitude and policy of Arkansas in the matter, they elected a Union man, E. T. Walker, as the delegate from Scott County. This was early in 1861. The delegates from all the counties of the State met at Little Rock and, after deliberating for a short while, adjourned without action other than to authorize the president thereof to call the con- vention together again if conditions warranted. This was done and the convention met in second session about the first of May, 1861. The question of union or disunion was paramount. On May 6, an ordinance of secession was adopted. The county's delegate voted for secession, and his action in doing so under the circumstances met with the approval
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of the people. They naturally sympathized with the South, when the issue became sharply drawn.
2. Military Events
As soon as the call for volunteers had been issued, the people of the county turned to the grim duties of war. A company of seventy-five men was organ- ized in early summer. Its officers were G. W. Featherston, Captain; J. C. Gibson, First Lieutenant; W. F. Patterson, Second Lieutenant, and John Raw- lings, Third Lieutenant. This company took part in the battle of Oak Hill, after which it was dis- banded and its members united with other units. It was known as Company D, First Regiment, of Arkansas Volunteers.
Another company under Captain William Patter- son was organized in December, 1861, and a third under Captain G. W. Featherston in February, 1862. This latter was merged with the 19th Arkansas under Col. Dawson, and saw extensive service east of the Mississippi River.
Gangs of bushwhackers and marauding bands early began terrorizing the county. In September, 1863, the Federal forces, consisting of the 14th Kan- sas cavalry, arrived in the county and marched on Waldron. Major Featherston and Captain Isaac Bag- well were in command at that place with a small guard. In a surprise attack on September 11, the Federals captured the Confederate forces and held the town. The losses on the Union side were one
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BOONEVILLE O
CREEK
JADBOTT
MANSFIELDO
GIRALL
CRSEK
SUGE
OBLUE BALL
O HON
OCARDIFR
DUTCH
DATES
POTEAU
OWALDRON
BRAWLEYO
JONES
PARKS
1
BOLES
BLACK FORK o
CLEAR
RK.
MILL
GATEO
CR
HOWARD COUNTY BAKER SPRINGS
CA
INSETT
CEDARCREEKO
WINFIELD
HARVEY O
MT. IDA
Map Showing Federal Activities in Scott County, 1863-64.
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killed and two wounded. The Confederate losses are not known, although Major Featherston was seriously wounded. Scouting parties were then sent out by the Federals. The first of these went down Dutch Creek on December 9, and another went from Waldron to Dallas in Polk County on Dec. 11, 1863. Still another proceeded from Wal- dron to Baker Springs in Howard County through the celebrated Forem Gap in January, 1864. This last party lost one man killed and one man wounded on its journey. Another skirmish occurred at Wal- dron on February 1, in which one man was wound- ed. After this battle the Federals evacuated Wal- dron on Feb. 4, 1864. The Federal forces were com- manded by Lieut. Col. Owen A. Bassett, and later by Lieut. Col. Searl of Col. James Johnson's Regi- ment of First Arkansas Infantry, organized at Fay- etteville in March, 1863. Many citizens of the county enlisted with the Union forces after the Federals had taken possession of the country. Another battle took place at Waldron on Dec. 29, 1864, in which two men were killed and six wounded.
When the Union forces evacuated Waldron, they set fire to every house in town except those of Wil- liam G. Featherston and Elijah Leming. Feather- ston's residence had been the Union headquarters, and Leming was thought to be a Federal sympa- thizer. His residence was burned after the troops had departed, supposedly by Confederate agents.
On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered, and the war
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was soon over. The men of local companies were disbanded, and those who had been in service in the east at length returned to their homes. Peace, with its healing processes, was at hand, when the blight- ing curse of the war's aftermath, reconstruction, fell upon the people. It was worse for them than the war, terrible as that had been.
3. Women of the War Period
Most all of the able-bodied men of the county were away from their homes during the years of the war, in the military service. The only people left were the women, children and old men. It therefore devolved almost entirely upon the women to provide for their family needs, and to keep the homes together. This they undertook manfully to do. They planted the crops, cultivated them and harvested them. They had to go to Ozark or Ft. Smith to have the corn or wheat ground into meal or flour. They would go in crowds on these duties. As many as eleven of these women from Scott alone formed one train to Ozark, in the closing days of the war. Wagon trains of fewer members were more frequent. The women harnessed the teams, drove the wagons, and attended to the business of the journeys. Added to these hard duties, was the larger one of caring for perhaps three of four small children.
These women frequently came together and lived in the house of one of their number for the better
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protection of all concerned. The bushwhackers made them no end of trouble. They murdered and plundered voraciously and indiscriminately. They killed old men of seventy who were therefore utter- ly harmless from a military point of view. Their conduct was of the most ruthless and cruel sort; as for instance, at a home in the north part of the county, they called out a young husband and uncere- moniously shot him. Then they compelled his young wife to cook breakfast for them, with his dead body lying at the root of a tree close by. It then devolved upon the women of the neighbor- hood to bury him.
These maurauders, discountenanced alike by both belligerents, also, plundered the homes of the de- fenseless women and took their bread. And there was no authority to punish the perpetrators of these foul deeds. Two of the most noted of these heroic women-mothers of heroic sons away in battle- were Mrs. Ann Anthony and Mrs. Polly Graves. The former lived in the Poteau valley, while Mrs. Graves lived on Lewis Prairie in the north part of the county. They both labored unceasingly in the war services of their communities.
4. New Constotutions
When the Federal forces had wrested the north- ern half of the State from the Confederacy, a pro- visional government loyal to the Union was estab- lished by groups of the citizens, and was recognized
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by President Lincoln. A new constitution was adopted in 1864, recognizing the abolition of slavery. Scott County's delegate to this convention was Elijah Leming. This reinstatement of the State to its for- mer status in the Union is known as presidential re- construction.
The mild policies of Lincoln were not to prevail, however. After his death in 1865, the radicals in Congress obtained the upper hand, and a new re- construction of the State was ordered. A new con- stitution was adopted in 1868. Charles H. Oliver was the delegate from Scott County.
About 1872 the Federal soldiers who had formed the main support of the carpet bag government in the State after the war were withdrawn and self- government restored to the peoplie. Accordingly, a new constitution, based upon this wider freedom was adopted in 1874. J. W. Sorrels represented the county in this convention. This constitution is the organic law of the State today. A new one was formed in 1918, but failed of ratification by the peo- ple. The delegate to this last convention was W. A. Bates.
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CHAPTER VII. The Scott County War, 1874-1879
The people were forgetting the horrors of the great war with its train of evils and were settling back into their peaceful occupations, when the coun- ty began to take on the appearance of a lawless com- munity. For a period of about five years, commenc- ing in 1874, a condition of affairs bordering on an- archy prevailed. Murders were frequent, and the perpetrators went unpunished; property was in- secure, and there was no relief; and the citizens were for a time helpless before the lawless elements.
The first instance of this state of affairs was the killing of a negro on Lewis Prairie in 1874. Sus- picion attached itself to certain persons of the neigh- borhood, but they were never apprehended. In May, 1874, Jacob Jones was killed at Waldron. During the winter of 1874-75, C. Malone was clandestinely shot, and former sheriff, Nathan A. Floyd, was charged with being the guilty party. He was in- dicted, tried and acquitted. Malone had formerly acted with Floyd as a Republican, but now a rift had appeared between them. On March 11, 1875, J. H. Nichols, a negro who resided near Waldron, was killed in the road about a half mile south of that town. Two other negroes, David and Henry
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Carroll were arrested, charged with this crime. They were tried and acquitted.
The series of murders and defeated justice aroused the county, and public sentiment demanded that this lawlessness be brought to an end. Instead of this, later in March of the same year another negro was shot and no arrests made. The sheriff, F. C. ("Buck") Gaines, seemed to be unable to cope with the situation.
The whole trouble apparently had its base in a feud between two factions, viz: the Gilbreaths, Bates and Malones on one side and N. A. Floyd and his followers on the other. In the spring of 1875, Peter K. Beam, a friend of the former faction, noti- fied Floyd that he (Floyd) was to be assassinated and claimed that he had been offered a large sum of money to kill him but had refused. He was then requested to testify as to this matter before the grand jury, but refused on the ground that he would be killed if he did so. He was killed in his field soon thereafter.
Floyd's life was again threatened, as was also that of McClure, his partner. Soon after a man named Russell was killed. A short time before, he had stated that an effort had been made to induce him to kill Floyd. A few days after this statement had been made, a man approached him on the street near the courthouse and invited him to go into the courthouse to play a game of cards. He accepted and when he entered the building, he was
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incontinently shot. There were several persons present at the time, but no evidence could be ob- tained to fix the guilt of the crime. The citizens were either aligned with one or the other of the factions, or were else afraid to reveal a knowledge of the facts. Floyd then left the county, going to Mis- souri. He had been engaged in the mercantile business since retiring from political office, and after leaving, he hired two men named Martin and Hill to prepare his effects for shipment. While engaged in this duty, they were both shot. Mean- while court convened, and Judge Joyner held the session surrounded by an armed mob.
The citizenry demanded that steps be taken to re- store law and order in the county. The sheriff appealed to the governor for aid, and the adjutant general of the State, Gen. Carroll D. Wood, was sent to the county. Order was apparently restored and the trouble settled.
The disorder again broke out in June, 1867, when the residence of Judge Frank Fuller was shot into by two men, and Judge Fuller wounded. In Au- gust, two men on the Floyd side were murdered. The sheriff again asked the governor for aid, and Gen. Robert C. Newton was dispatched to Waldron. He set about organizing the militia, and by the last of August, 1876, he placed a company of fifty men under Col. Hooper on duty, and the reign of terror ceased temporarily.
Early in the summer of 1877, J. L. ("Shabe")
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Davenport shot at Judge Fuller, but a bystander knocked the pistol upward and no one was killed. The August term of court was approaching, and Judge John H. Rodgers was warned not to attempt to convene court. But he persisted and held the session. J. D. McCabe was the prosecuting attorney at the time. Great excitement prevailed all over the county. The sheriff was panicky, and begged the governor to send state troops to his aid. Drs. Caruthers and Bell, T. G. Bates and the sheriff fled the county for safety. The sheriff continued his weak and persistent pleas to the governor for help. He finally came back to Parks where he established his headquarters. Meanwhile, the county had been divided into two militia districts, known as the northern district and the southern district. The militia of the north had been organized into a com- pany of one hundred men under Col. J. W. Sor- rels. His assistants were Capt. H. W. Dixon and Capt. J. M. Williams. These companies were ready for duty in August, 1877.
The southern militia was organized under Col. Joshua M. Smith. His assistants were Captains A. Lunsford, William Mankin and W. R. Cox. The company consisted of seventy-five men, raised in Mountain Township and vicinity. At this juncture General Pomeroy, new State adjutant general, took up his residence at Waldron. He ordered the militia under Col. Smith to Waldron to protect the spring session of circuit court (1878). This term of court
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adjourned without accomplishing much toward re- establishing peace and quiet in the county.
The already tense excitement of the people was further intensified by the murder, on Feb. 6, 1878, of J. L. Davenport, better known as "Shabe" Daven- port. He was shot at Waldron, apparently from an upstairs window. He and his family were well known and prominent in the north part of the county, and his murder caused a frenzy of anger to sweep over this part of the county. The citizens resolved to take affairs into their own hands. They had waited vainly for an orderly process of the courts to establish peace and quiet, but had been disappointed. About a hundred of them formed a mob to go to Waldron to set the affairs of the county in order. They met at Lookout Gap, north of Hon, and from this rendezvous they started for Waldron, but found the Poteau River unfavorable and were forced to turn back to their homes. This was a fortunate occurrance for all concerned, for the citi- zens of Waldron had been informed of the intended attack and had fortified the town strongly in a man- ner to make it impregnable. The sheriff also em- ployed the militia at that place to this end. Much bloodshed would inevitably have resulted had the march of the citizen mob not been halted.
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