Benton County Arkansas - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

The Single Most Favorite Double in the World

1979 Doublemint twins ad from YouTube.

This week the theme is ‘multiples’. This theme was almost too broad for me to decide what to write about! After some debate I narrowed it down to two topics. After looking at the 2021 weekly topics list I felt the other story would fit into an October theme and this particular story for this week didn’t really fit anywhere else. So, this week we’re talking about multiple births. I’m going to look into something I’ve always wondered: how many sets of twins did my direct-line ancestors have? I’ll be going back as far as my 2nd great grandparents. I chose that as a stopping point so this blog doesn’t get too lengthy. Out of the 8 pairs of my 2nd great grandparents, 3 of the couples had twins.

Dad’s Family: Double Your Sentiment

90’s Doublemint twins ad.

In the 21st century the statistical probability of having twins is about 3%, or 3 in 100. That is a higher probability than previous generations. In my family (in that 2nd-great-grandparent generation) mixed sets of twins were more popular (mixed meaning a boy-girl set of twins versus same-sex twins). Out of my dad’s great grandmothers, he had one who had twins. Eliza Emoline BELL WILLIAMS (and her husband, Samuel Morris WILLIAMS) had a set of twins in 1900- two boys named Lorenzo Dall and William Sherman WILLIAMS. Neither baby survived. I’m guessing the babies are probably buried in Oakland Cemetery in Success, Texas County, Missouri since the family lived in that area and other family members are buried in that cemetery but I can’t say for certain where the babies were buried. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this family today because I’ve written about them quite a bit. You can find previous posts at:

Mom’s Family: Double Good

Early iteration of the Doublemint twins ads.

My 2nd great grandmother, Sarah C. DAVIS REITER, and her husband Nicholas Wilhelm REITER had a set of twins in 1864. My mom thinks Sarah’s twins were mixed – one boy and one girl. She can’t remember their names but is going to try to find that information for me. I’ve not found their names anywhere but if mom locates that information I’ll be sure to let you know. The babies did not survive. I don’t know where they’re buried but I’m sure it’s in Illinois, in the area of Perry, Pike County, Illinois since that’s where the family lived. This is another family I’ve written about quite a bit so I won’t spend a lot of time on them today. You can read more about Sarah and her family at:

My 2nd great grandmother, Druziller Mahala LATTY BULLOCK (and her husband James Mathaniel BULLOCK), also had a set of twins born in 1892. For this grandma though, both twins survived – one girl named Alice May and one boy named Oscar Morris.

1982 Wrigley’s Doublemint gum twins ad.

Alice May and Oscar Morris BULLOCK were born 17 April 1892 in Benton County, Arkansas. They remained in Benton County, Arkansas until after they married. Alice married Martin Rotramel when she was 17 years old. Together, Alice and Martin and had 8 children – and no twins. Here is Alice in her later years with her dog, Major. I love this photo.

Alice BULLOCK ROTRAMEL and her dog, Major.

Alice lived to be 92 years old! The last 52 years or so of her life she lived in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Alice passed away on 1 December 1984 in Jay, Delaware County, Oklahoma. She’s buried in Hillcrest Cemetery beside her husband in Gravette, Benton County, Arkansas where her parents are buried.

Oscar Morris BULLOCK grew up with his family in Benton County, Arkansas. He served as a Private in the U.S. Army as evidence by the Army transport document below.

I don’t fully understand that document. It looks like perhaps he was transported to a Veterinary Hospital. It would be interesting to know what he did in the Army. Oscar fought in World War I. I do know he arrived in New York in June of 1919 on his way to fight in France.

According to military records, Oscar was serving with Veterinary Hospital #16 MR. as a Private V.C.. Oscar served in France in 1919. During that time, the final US deaths of the war happened and the Treaty of Versailles was drawn up. The treaty was signed the day after Oscar arrived back on US soil. Oscar shipped out from Marseille, France on the ship Taormina and arrived home at New York, USA on 27 June 1919.

Some researchers say that at age 27 Oscar married Stella BROWN. He lived in California at the time but the marriage certificate was in Arkansas. I haven’t done extensive research on this line so I can’t say what really happened. I know that in his obituary no children or wife were listed. Oscar passed away at 80 years of age. He died on 17 February 1973 in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas. He was buried in the Fayetteville National Cemetery in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas.

Doing the Numbers

So, let’s bring this all together. I looked at all my direct line ancestors from my parents up through all of my 2nd great grandparents. The only generation that included twins were my 2nd great grandparents’. Out of 8 sets of 2nd great grandparents, only 3 couples (2 on my mother’s side and 1 on my father’s side) had twins. The paternal set of twins passed away or were stillborn; their names were Lorenzo and William. One set of maternal twins also passed away or were stillborn and included one girl and one boy; I don’t know their names but they were given names. The final set of maternal twins (Alice and Oscar) lived to adulthood and at least one of them had their own offspring but did not have their own set of twins.

According to official statistics:

The gender chances of a fraternal twin pregnancy are; 25% chance that a mother will have two boys, 25% chance that a mother will have two girls, and 50% chance that a mother will have a boy and a girl. On the other hand, identical twins are always the same gender.
https://healthresearchfunding.org/24-interesting-fraternal-twins-gender-statistics/, accessed 28 Feb 2021.

So, according to Health Research Funding, Alice and Oscar were fraternal twins as were the DAVIS twins. Only the paternal twins- Lorenzo and William WILLIAMS- had a chance at being identical twins. I found that very interesting.

I was wondering about what my chances of having twins might have been in my childbearing years. Since 3 out of 8 couples in my 2nd great grandparents’ generation had twins, I felt like statistically I stood a better chance of having twins in my child bearing years. MedlinePlus.gov confirms it as does Washington State Twin Registry. Turns out, fraternal twins- especially if they occur on the mother’s side- are associated with an increased likelihood of twins being hereditary in families. I searched some more and I hit some good information:

A family history of identical twins does not necessarily make it more likely you’ll have multiples, although the offspring of male identical twins may be more likely to have their own identical twins. However, if you have fraternal twins (non-identical) in your family, your chances of conceiving twins rise. If there are fraternal twins on both the mother and father’s side, your odds for twins goes up even higher.
Lazarov S, Lazarov L, Lazarov N. Multiple pregnancy and birth: Twins, triplets and high-order multiples. Overview. Trakia J Sci. 2016;1:103-107. doi:10.15547/tjs.2016.01.015

There are other factors that play a role as well. As it turns out, having children when you’re older increases your odds of having multiple births from one pregnancy. So I went back to my charts to check ages of the mothers. Eliza Emoline was 28 years old when she had Lorenzo and William. Sarah C. was 27 years old when she had her twins. Druziller Mahala was 34 years old when she had Alice and Oscar.

Final Thoughts

One last statistic about twins from Health Research Funding.

A woman named Mary Jonas, who died in 1899 had 15 sets of fraternal twins.
24 Interesting Fraternal Twins Gender Statistics – HRF (healthresearchfunding.org)

I found that tidbit interesting since two sets of the twins I talked about today were born during the 1890’s. I will spare you one last Doublemint commercial. Hopefully the song is now stuck in your head so I don’t have to suffer that fate alone now.

If you’d like to learn more about the BULLOCK family, you can find more of my posts at:

If you’re looking for more blogs to read later in the week, you can go to:

If you’re interested in joining me on this family history writing adventure, well…the more the merrier! You can join at Amy Johnson Crow’s website. There’s a Facebook page that goes along with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The only rules are the rules you make up for yourself on this writing adventure. Anything you get down in writing is more than you had before so get writing! Don’t miss out on Amy’s blog and podcast either. Both are very good.

Enjoy your week and make the most of it!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives Genealogy blog

The Mitchell’s of Sugar Creek

This blog post is about Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON, sister/sister-in-law to my paternal 5th great grandparents, John MITCHELL and Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL. For reference, the line of ascent goes from my dad’s dad to his dad (Mark DRAKE) to Mark’s dad (Ervin DRAKE, also known as Poppy) to Ervin’s mom (Hester MITCHELL DRAKE) to Hester’s dad (Mordica MITCHELL) to Mordica’s dad and also my 5th great grandfather John and John’s sister Margaret Mary MITCHELL. I’ve talked about the MITCHELL and SULLINS families in the following blog posts:
Oh Children Let Us Think On Eternity! (This post talks about Winnie SULLINS MITCHELL’S brother and John MITCHELL’S sister who were married- Nathan SULLINS and Rebecca MITCHELL SULLINS. In this post we begin to get a view of just how spiritual the MITCHELL family was. We’ll be looking into that a little more today.)
Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword, Part 4- The Finale (In this blog post I mention that John MITCHELL is Scottish.)

A Little Drive Up to Sugar Creek

As I mentioned yesterday, my dad needed to get out of the house yesterday so I planned a little road trip that included family history. Up to this point in the trip, we’d only been to a location connected to my mom’s family. Now, it was time to continue on our journey. We traveled about 15 or 20 miles away to a location bordering the Pea Ridge National Military Park. What brought me to this place was an incredible cache of stories about the MITCHELL family that I found on Ancestry. The stories were contributed by Katherine Joyce Matlock. (By the way, you should really check out Katherine’s blog, Matlock Wigley Genealogy Online.) Through the stories Katherine contributed, I learned that Mitchell’s Camp Ground in Polk County, Missouri (our MITCHELL family members were early and influential settlers in that area) was named after our family. The MITCHELL family was a deeply devout Methodist family with several of the men becoming preachers. One of my favorite stories, and the one that inspired me to go to Sugar Creek, was about John and Margaret Mary’s mother, Elizabeth HOOSANG MITCHELL. I will quote it:

“Elizabeth Mitchell, consort of Morris Mitchell, died at age of 93, buried at Mitchell’s Camp Ground, September 4, 1858. There were 700 relatives at the funeral. Her body was carried by grandchildren and great grandchildren from the home to the churcb. As they crossed the creek, they began singing, ‘We are traveling to the grave, to lay this body down, etc.”. [The Arkansas Family Historian, Vol. 16, No. 1, Jan/Feb/Mar 1978.]

It is said that at the time of her death, Elizabeth HOOSANG MITCHELL had 720 living descendants. Elizabeth and husband, Morris, lived long enough to see 18 of their descendants become preachers. Adding to the story above, The Arkansas Family Historian article states:

“Our maternal grandmother, Rebecca Mitchell Anderson, told us of having attended this funeral in 1858 were hundreds of her relatives formed the funeral march here at this Mitchell Camp Ground. Can’t we see and hear the 700 and more relatives marching with the coffin of this Matriarch as they sung, ”We Are Going to the Grave to Lay This Body Down”?

So after reading this article, you can imagine I had high hopes for this song. I was up until almost midnight last night searching for this song. The closest thing I found last night exceeded all my hopes and expectations. Hear it below:
Long Time Traveller by The Wailin’ Jennys
I did a little more research today and learned that, sadly, this isn’t the song. I have yet to find an audio recording or tune to go with the actual song but here is what I did find (starting at the bottom of the page at song 295 and continuing through the top of the next page):

mitchell camp meeting funeral song p2 — The two preceding images were found at Hymnary.org.

The rest is up to your imagination!
So this was what drew me to the Sugar Creek/Pea Ridge, Arkansas area. I have not found any information that would lead me to a homesite so we just drove around the area and looked. It’s a beautiful area and I hope to get back there soon to tour the battlefield.

Margaret Mary MITCHELL WINTON

Margaret was the Mitchell family member living in the Sugar Creek area. She moved there sometime between 1860 and 1869. Her husband, William WINTON, died at Pea Ridge, Arkansas in 1869. All of their 10 children were born prior to their move to the Sugar Creek area so at this point, there is no way for me to know whether they were there during the Civil War or moved there after.
There is one Civil War era story that I wanted to share with you that relates to William and Mary MITCHELL WINTON. This is how it was related in The Arkansas Family Historian article:

“A decade after the death of Elizabeth Mitchell found mambers of their family embroiled in the bitternesses of the Civil War. As one writer said, “some of the sons went North and some South”. At least three of the family men were killed in Mississippi on the side of the Confederacy.

The most vivid Civil War incident involving the Mitchells was that of Reverend Anthony Bewley, son-in-law of William and Mary Mitchell Winton, and husband of their daughter, Jane. The Reverend Bewley took an abolishionist stand in an inflammed pro-slavery area of Texas. He was charged with inciting slaves to riot. Pursued from Texas to Missouri by bounty hunters, he was taken from his wife and returned to Ft. Worth where a lynch mob broke into the jail and hanged him. The evidence of his guilt was a letter he was alleged to have written. It was later proved to have been forged.”

Margaret died in 1881 and is buried in the Sugar Creek/Pea Ridge area. She outlived William by over a decade and she never remarried. Her daughter Jane did remarry about 3 years after the death of her husband, Anthony BEWLEY.

Finishing Thoughts

It was a nice relaxing drive in Northwest Arkansas on Friday. It’s always so interesting to see the places where past generations lived out their daily lives.
I hope you have a great week next week. Take some time for a relaxing drive for yourself. You deserve it! I’ll leave you with a couple of photographs I took in the Pea Ridge/Sugar Creek area.

Pea Ridge Battlefield Pea Ridge AR — Three cannons on the Pea Ridge battlefield.

Pea Ridge National Military Park Pea Ridge AR — Signage on the back side of Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Pea Ridge National Military Park 1 — Signage on the back side of Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Twelve Corners Road Old Sugar Creek Township — A storm was blowing in by the time we got to Twelve Corners Road but the sky was beautiful.

Wishing you much more justice than Anthony Bewley received,
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

The Latty’s of Cross Hollows

This blog post is about Matilda WALLS DUNHAM LATTY, sister/sister-in-law to my maternal 3rd great grandparents, Irena WALLS LATTY and Jefferson LATTY (and his brother Ellis LATTY). For reference, the line of ascent goes from my mom’s mom to her mom (Laura BULLOCK RITER) to Laura’s mom (Druziller LATTY BULLOCK) to Druziller’s mom (Irena WALLS LATTY) AND Irena’s sister, Matilda WALLS DUNHAM LATTY. I’ve talked about Irena and Jefferson in these blog posts over on the old section of the blog at Livejournal:
You Got a Document for That?
Speling- Hoo Neds It??

Matilda Latty of Cross Hollows

My Dad needed to get out of the house today so my husband and I planned a little road trip and picked up my parents after lunch. We took an hour drive over into Northeast Arkansas. Our first stop: Cross Hollows, Arkansas. This is a very interesting place and has so many layers of history to it. See the historical marker below:

Cross Hollow AR pic — Cross Hollows, Arkansas historical sign #1- Cherokee Trail of Tears, Civil War (Confederate & Union), Butterfield Stage Coach Route. It was also the Butterfield mail route although it isn’t listed on the sign here.

Here is another Cross Hollows sign sitting right next to the sign above:

Cross Hollow AR 2 — Second Cross Hollows sign.

For a more detailed history about Cross Hollows, I recommend going to The Civil War Muse. Although I love the history of Cross Hollows, I had a more personal reason for bringing my parents here. My maternal 4th great aunt, Matilda J. WALLS (DUNHAM)(LATTY), lived in Cross Hollows in 1870 when she filed a claim with the US Southern Claims Commission.

Latty US Souther Claims Commission file — Matilda Latty’s claim filed with the US Southern Claims Commission via Ancestry.

Matilda was the sister to my maternal 4th great grandmother, Irena WALLS (and sister-in-law to my 4th great grandfather and Irena’s husband, Jefferson LATTY). Not only that, but Matilda’s second husband was Jefferson’s brother, Ellis LATTY. Matilda appears at the Cross Hollows location in only two records that I’ve found. One is the 1870 census (Cross Hollows, White River Township, Benton County, Arkansas on 5 September 1870) where she appears with the LATTY name, LATTY children, and her mother (Delilah WALLS), but her husband (Ellis LATTY) is not listed in the household. She likely moved to Cross Hollows around 1862 as best I can tell based on dates from various records that also list locations.
The second document is her claim filed with the US Southern Claims Commission where she filed for $156 for corn and fodder taken by “Colonel Phillips Cherokee Regiment Indian Troops”, better known as the 3rd Regiment Indian Home Guards.

Colonel-Phillips — Colonel Phillips, 3rd Regiment Indian Home Guards. Photo found at Northeaster State University.

In compliance with the government procedure for filing claims, Matilda named witnesses. Her witnesses regarding the truthfulness of her claim included Charles T. DUNHAM (probably her son who would have been old enough to remember the incident), and Delily WOOLS (my best guess is this is actually Delilah WALLS- Matilda’s mother). Matilda also had to provide witnesses as to her loyalty to the US Government and those witnesses were Samuel RAMSEY (Matilda’s niece’s husband), Charles WALLS (most likely Matilda’s brother and the father of Martha who was the wife of Samuel RAMSEY), and John GORDON (most likely Matilda’s brother-in-law who was married to Matilda’s sister, Elizabeth). Matilda’s claim was ultimately denied, but I never found any explanation as to whether it was ‘barred’ or ‘disallowed’ nor the reason why. I’m guessing Matilda’s claim was barred rather than disallowed. I’m basing that on information I found at North Carolina GenWeb’s site which explains why claims might be barred versus disallowed. My best guess is they considered her a Confederate sympathizer since her brother-in-law, Jefferson LATTY, fought for the Confederacy. But again, that’s just a guess.
All of this information put together tells me that Matilda was in the bustling Cross Hollows area when Union troops were quartered there (and possibly early enough to have seen the end of Confederate troops quartered there as well). If she was present to witness the Butterfield Overland Mail service in Cross Hollows, she only witnessed the very end of it as the Butterfield Overland Mail service ended in 1861 (which is also when the Confederate troops moved out of Cross Hollows). Wikipedia has an image of the Butterfield Overland Mail service schedule:

1280px-John_Butterfield's_Overland_Mail_Company_time_schedule_dated_September_16,_1858 — By Overland Mail Company – California Department of Parks and Recreation. This time schedule, No. 1, Sep. 16th, 1858, can be downloaded by the public on the California Parks and Recreation internet site in the “Stagecoach History: Stage Lines to California,” by choosing at the bottom of their page “View and download Overland Mail Company timetable.” The link for this site is here.. Or you can do like I did and go to Wikipedia.

She would have witnessed the Butterfield Stage Line, though. It discontinued service during the war (1861-1865) but resumed service in 1865 and it followed the newly-created Old Wire Road. (Information from White River Valley Historical Quarterly). Wordpress blogger Myra H. Mcilvain has two photos worth looking at. One is of a beautifully restored Butterfield Stagecoach and the other (at the same link) is a map of the Butterfield Stage Line route.
Crossing the Hollows of History
It’s so hard to stand in 2019 Cross Hollows (a very peaceful, rural area) and envision 12,000+ Civil War soldiers quartered there for the winter or envision the Overland Mail or Butterfield Stagecoach barreling through the middle of it. It doesn’t seem to take long for nature to reclaim land once trampled barren by humans. I’m glad for that. It was a lovely drive today and this is only part one of the drive. Stay tuned for part two in which I discuss my dad’s MITCHELL line.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Ervin Alonzo Drake, 1940

This past Sunday (18 March) was Ervin Alonzo DRAKE’s birthday. He was better known as Poppy, or Lon.

Above is a photo of Poppy and Annie with three of their children.
It seems Poppy was named after his grandfather, Ervin Alonzo DRAKE. I used to think Poppy’s name was Alonzo Ervin since he was sometimes called Poppy Lon but I’ve since come to think his name really is Ervin Alonzo and he was, perhaps, called Poppy or Lon to distinguish him from his grandfather. Poppy Lon was born in 1875 in McDonald County, Missouri, to William and Hester Ann Eglentine (MITCHELL) DRAKE. He was the first of 10 siblings. It was a known fact that back in the day the DRAKE’s liked to drink and fight. If you want to know just how rough some of them were, take a look at my series about his brother, “Red”, starting with part one. It’s quite a story!
I’ve written about Ervin, or Poppy Lon, here:
Poppy Makes a Comeback and mentioned him here Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword, Part 4- The Finale.
Today I’m going to highlight the most recent released census that includes Poppy.

Screenshot from Ancestry.
The year was 1940. Poppy was living in Beaty Township in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Beaty Township includes the area of Delaware County East of Jay, Southeast of Grove, West of South West City, McDonald County, Missouri, and Northwest of Maysville, Benton County, Arkansas – exactly the area I would expect him to live at. It’s a rural area with no present-day towns. You can find it on this map.

The original of the above map was found at OKGenWeb.
I’ve circled the name Beaty in red to make it easier to find. Also notice in the upper left corner of the map I’ve circled (in green) the town of Echo in Bernice Township. This is where Poppy Lon’s grandfather, Ervin Alonzo, lived before that area was flooded to make Grand Lake. I’ve written a little about that in this blog post. (This was one of my earliest blog posts about my family so it will be a little different than what you might read from me currently.)
In 1940, Poppy Lon was listed as the head of household. He is listed as Ervin L. Drake. Living with him were his wife, Annie (Mary Anne BAKER), his married son Roscoe, and Poppy’s grandchildren (Roscoe’s children) – Lulla Bell (age 14) and James E. (age 12). (Note: Even though he is listed as “married son”, the same entry says he is a widower.) I’m not sure where Roscoe’s wife was at the time. Just a quick glance at records looks like possibly the wife left Roscoe and the children and moved to California and remarried but I’m not certain and I haven’t asked. Interestingly, Nancy wasn’t living with Roscoe in the 1930 census either.
I did find this photo (sorry for the quality) of Nancy and hers and Roscoe’s children. Lulla Bell and James Ervin William are both in the photo. James is on the back row and Lulla Bell is the girl with the darker hair and white blouse on the far right next to her mother. The other girl in the photo is identified as Jolene Lavinia DRAKE (her middle name probably being given in honor of Poppy Lon’s grandmother, Lavina (PILGRIM) DRAKE) and the young boy is James Woodrow LANG and he looks to be from mom Nancy’s second marriage (after Roscoe). Additionally, Lulla Bell’s name is spelled “Lulu Belle”, contrary to the 1940 census.

This photo was shared publicly on Ancestry by Tori Hobbs. I have tried over the years to get in touch with Tori without success.
This is what the 1940 census tells us about Poppy Lon. He was the 79th (and last) family to be censused on 15 April 1940 by enumerator Ben F. Ryburn. Poppy Lon owned his home. When asked the value of the home, the response recorded was “3.50”. I don’t think that meant $3.50- possibly $3500 instead? I’m not sure. Poppy Lon’s place was a farm. His race was listed as “White” and he was 65 years old at the time of this census. He was born in Missouri. He completed 4th grade in school. He was farming that year as his employment and was working 40 hours a week on the farm. He worked 45 weeks out of the year. He earned more than $50 but an amount was not specified. He is person #68 on the farm schedule. Unfortunately, I have not located the farm schedule and it may not exist anymore. In 1940, Roscoe was a laborer with WPA. About this time last year I wrote for WPA records for my grandpa, Troy BATES, and their response was that there was no employment record for Troy even though I know he was hired by WPA. I may decide to write for Roscoe’s employment records to see what type of work he did but I haven’t done that yet. Roscoe was unemployed 20 weeks in the year preceding the census before he gained employment with WPA. That’s almost half the year so I’m sure he was very happy to get a job with WPA given he had a couple of children to support and was living with his parents.
A final note about the 1940 census. Living near Poppy Lon was Raymond Hubbard. Raymond was the brother of Edith (HUBBARD) DRAKE. Edith was married to Mark DRAKE- Poppy Lon’s son and my great-grandfather. So while Raymond wasn’t technically a relative, I’m sure Poppy and Raymond knew each other and had visited each other at Edith’s and Mark’s home. Living next door to Poppy Lon was Poppy’s brother, Henry Arthur (who went by “Ned”) and Henry’s family. You can find a photo of Ned in one of my blog posts here.
I’m going to leave Poppy Lon right here in 1940, farming and taking care of his family. He has another 24 years of life ahead of him. I think that’s a good spot to leave him in.
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Quincy Bell, Civil War Hero or Political Thug?, Part 1

We can all be different people at different times. No one is static. So can someone be both a hero and a thug in different circumstances? I’m going to explore that question today in the life of my paternal 3rd great-grandfather, Quincy Adam BELL. He was married to Elizabeth Emoline STEPHENSON (possibly spelled STEVESON, STEPHESON or STEVENSON). The line of descent is from Quincy through his daughter Eliza, and Eliza’s daughter Bess WILLIAMS who was my great grandmother. Quincy was born on this date (13 March) in 1825. I have not written about Quincy before. Normally I would take the time to introduce him to you but today I have a story to tell you that my sister-in-law has been asking me to tell for over a year. (By the way, you should visit her blog over at Down in the Root Cellar.) I will give you an abbreviated introduction but mostly I want to get right into his story.

Quincy was born in Tennessee but he lived the majority of his life in Missouri. He came to Missouri with his parents and siblings sometime around 1836. I want to skip ahead, though, to Quincy at age 36. The year was 1861 and America was barreling toward a civil war. Quincy volunteered to serve for the Union. On 28 August 1861, Quincy enrolled as a Private in Captain Coleman’s Company, Missouri Infantry for a period of 6 months. One of his fellow Privates was John Smith PHELPS who had served both in the Missouri House of Representatives and in Congress (including serving on the House Ways and Means Committee) since 1840. (I think it was this connection with PHELPS that caused Quincy to end up in a situation that got him in trouble later in his life.) They fought in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek after which the company retreated to Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri (which was named after John Smith Phelps when it was created).

It was during this time that, in a special arrangement with President Abraham LINCOLN, John Smith PHELPS organized an infantry regiment – Phelps’ Infantry Regiment. By November of 1861, Quincy had enrolled as a Private in Company A, Phelps’ Infantry Regiment in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri. They spent most of the winter of 1861-1862 at Fort Wyman in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri. In March of 1862, the Company fought a fierce battle at Pea Ridge, Benton County, Arkansas. The battle lasted two days.

Pea Ridge Battlefield maps found on Wikipedia.

Sketch of the Last Hour of the Battle of Pea Ridge found on Wikipedia.

Quincy’s muster-out date from Company A, Phelps’ Infantry was 11 April 1862. He mustered out in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri and was given $26.62 for “clothing in kind or money advanced”. He was marked as Present. I don’t know the succession of events but I have found an index card showing that Quincy mustered in to Company M of the 16th Missouri Cavalry as a Private and before he mustered out he had been promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant. A Quartermaster Sergeant is in charge of supplies, as I understand it. I know that he was in this company in 1863 but that’s as close as I’ve gotten so far.

You can read a short couple of paragraphs about the 16th Missouri at NPS.gov. One thing I know this company was doing in 1863 other than fighting in skirmishes was fighting Confederate Guerillas in the Springfield, Greene County, Missouri area. You can read a short snippet about Phelps’ Regiment also at NPS.gov.

Other researchers have listed him as being in Berry’s Battalion Cavalry, Cass County Home Guards Cavalry, Stewart’s Battalion Cavalry, and Van Horn’s Battalion Cavalry during 1863. I have not found documentation to support these claims yet.

Now, I want to skip ahead a little. The year is 1870 and very politically charged- much like the current political climate. It’s 11 August in Missouri- hot, humid, nearly unbearable. Quincy is 45 years old. I’m going to leave you right here for the night and finish the story tomorrow. Be sure you come back because this is where he runs into trouble!

Update:

You can find part 2 by clicking here.

Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resources

NPS.gov; Wikipedia; Fold3; Ancestry; https://www.civilwar.org/learn/civil-war/battles/pea-ridge (I like CivilWar.org’s battlefield photos better). I encourage you to explore CivilWarTalk.com’s website as well.

Albert Bates: Fiddle Player, Photographer, and Farmer

Albert BATES was my maternal great grandfather. I’ve written about him several times. You can find those posts here:
Looking for Land in All the Wrong Places
I Know What You Did That Day
Dettie Louisa GIBSON BATES and the Sibling Melting Pot (Although this one is about Dettie, you will find a photograph of a young Albert BATES included in the post.)
Not Breaking, But Succeeding- Lum’s Apple Orchard (You can find a photo of Albert as a child here.)
Albert was born 1 February 1881 in Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas to George and Mary (SEELY) BATES. He was the first of four children- 3 boys and a girl. When Albert was born, the family lived in Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas. He was 6 years old before his little brother Charlie came into the world. He was 10 when his brother Herman was born and 13 when his sister Vesta was born. As far as I know, Albert lived in the same area for these first 13 years. Because the 1890 census was destroyed, the first record I’ve found for Albert is the 1900 census. The census enumerator came by the BATES’ home on 5 June 1900. Albert was 19 years old and single. He was living at home with his parents and siblings. He was working as a photographer. This information about his job supports family stories that he worked as an itinerant photographer when he was young. I would absolutely love to have a photograph he took although I’m not sure how I would identify his photographs.
Family stories say that he would travel around, take photographs and play his fiddle at barn dances. It was on one of these “fiddle and photograph” trips that he met his future wife, Dettie Louisa GIBSON. Dettie was living in Dickson Township, Benton County, Arkansas in 1900 so maybe Albert didn’t venture out too far to do his job. My mom and granny used to tell me that after Albert and Dettie met they wrote letters back and forth to each other until they married.
By 1900, photography had been in existence for about 60-70 years or so. Even so, in the early 1900’s photographers were still trying to legitimize photography as an art form. Also in 1900, the Kodak Brownie camera was finally reaching the middle class in America. Kodak had been a brand name for 13 years and the x-ray was only 5 years old. Tintypes were still prevalent in those days and along with developing tintypes came the use of extremely hazardous chemicals like mercury chloride. I don’t know what types of photos Albert took nor do I know if he would have had to use mercury chloride but the possibility was there.

ca. 1900 photographer (not Albert) with a folding plate camera; photo found at Antiquecameras.net.
Now back to that fiddle…I wish I had a picture of it. Sadly, I don’t. Like I said before, Albert played at barn dances. The purpose of a barn dance was to get people together and have fun dancing, of course! It was a social gathering for people in the community. A way to spend the evening with friends and meet new people. Just like dances of today. The Library of Congress website has a great page where you can listen to old fiddle songs being played. Here is one from their page:
Arkansas Traveler
I definitely recommend you take some time and visit their site and listen to a few of the songs. Close your eyes and imagine them there- Albert playing, Dettie dancing. And then, maybe, let someone else take over the fiddle playing and imagine them dancing together. Two people, falling in love, before you were ever even a thought in someone’s mind. I think that’s where I want to leave my great grandparents today. Dancing the night away in someone’s Arkansas barn, just happy to spend a little time together, long before I was ever a thought in their minds.
Love,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Sources:
Britannica.com
Khanacademy.org
Softschools.com
Edinphoto.org.uk

Happy Anniversary, Lum and Mary

Today’s blog post is about George Columbus BATES and Mary Ann SEELY, my maternal 2nd great grandparents. They were married on this date (13 January) in 1880. If you’d like to review what I’ve already written about George, you can find posts about George’s apple orchard here and I mentioned George in this post, too.

1860-1869

George Columbus BATES was born in December of 1856 in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia, to John C. and Mary Jane (MOBLEY) BATES. George went by a shortened form of his middle name- Lum – and that’s how I’ll be referring to him here in this blog post. By 1860 (4 years after Lum’s birth) he was living with his family in Fancy Hill, 1013th Georgia Militia District in Murray County, Georgia. Hiram GARRETT (possibly SARRETT) was the census enumerator that year and he came by the family home on a Wednesday- 1 August 1860. Lum would have still been a few months shy of his 4th birthday at that time but he is enumerated as 4 years old in the census. His father, John, was a farmer. John valued his real estate at $800 and his personal estate at $1000. These amounts were about “middle of the pack” in comparison the other families censused on the same page.
In 1860, Lum’s older brother, Greenberry BATES was living with the family. Green was 18 years old and was a farm laborer. Just a few years later Green would be serving in the Civil War for the Confederacy.
Mary was born on Sunday, 6 June 1858 in Lawrence County, Missouri, to Charles and Synthia (FOSTER) SEELY. In 1860 Mary and her family were living in Mount Pleasant, Mount Pleasant Township, Lawrence County, Missouri. Their census enumerator that year was John W. PAYNE who came to enumerate the family on Saturday, 16 June 1860. Mary was 2 years old at the time. Living in the home were Mary’s parents plus four of her older siblings including Elijah, William, James, and John. In addition to these older siblings, she had an older brother who died as an infant. His name was George. In the years to come, Mary would help welcome two younger siblings- Elzora Josephine and Charles Harvey. Mary was living right next door to her maternal grandparents, Frederick and Mary (BURNETT) FOSTER. Mary’s dad was a farmer. Charles valued his real estate at $400 and his personal estate at $700. These values were toward the lower end of the spectrum in comparison to the families censused on the same page as Charles.

1863: A Difficult Year

In July of 1863, Lum was 6 years old. That year both his dad and his older brother were fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. John (his dad) was fighting at Tullahoma, Tennessee when he was taken prisoner and transported to Rock Island. Rock Island was the Yankee version of Andersonville Prison. It wasn’t a place you wanted to go. In July of 1863 John died. I blogged a little about John’s military service and death here and my cousin did a guest blog post for us here.
Lum’s brother, Green, was taken as a prisoner of war at Missionary Ridge in November of 1863. He was initially sent to Rock Island but was transferred to a different military prison a couple of weeks after his capture. Green survived the war. I’m sure it was a pretty rough year for the whole family. If you want to read more about Rock Island and our part in the Civil War you can follow the links above that discuss John’s service. You can view the Missionary Ridge battlefield here. You can view a dramatic skit that explains the Tullahoma Campaign here. I also recommend Wikipedia for a brief, to-the-point overview of any topic.
Other known siblings of Lum’s were an older sister Martha, an older brother Washington who I think died in 1860, and a younger brother Henry Franklin who wasn’t yet born in 1860. In 1868, Lum’s mom got married again. This time she married Paul E. BRINEGAR.
Side note:
The best I could tell, this was the location of John and Mary (MOBLEY) BATES’ homestead in Georgia. They had a nice view of the mountain.

1870-1879

On Tuesday, 26 July 1870, census enumerator Robert M. ROMBERT visited the BATES family. By this time Lum’s dad, John, had died as a prisoner of war at Rock Island prison and Lum’s mom had remarried to Paul E. BRINEGAR. The family consisted of stepdad Paul E. BRINEGAR, mom Mary J. (MOBLEY) BRINEGAR, younger half brother Franklin (later enumerated as ‘Henry’). In 1870, Paul was farming and he valued his real estate at $850 and his personal estate at $200. If I were to judge based on the information given by other respondents on the page, Paul was in the middle of the pack as far as money and possessions owned by the people in his area. Mary Jane was “keeping house” as were the majority of women that I’ve encountered on older census records. Lum was a farm laborer. Franklin was only 2 years old. He was not working or in school.
On Thursday, 23 June 1870 enumerator John H. STROUD visited the SEELY family. Parents Charles and Sinthia were living in Bentonville, Osage Township, Benton County, Arkansas with their children, James, John, Mary, Elzora, and Charles. The elder Charles was a farmer and valued his real estate at $500 and his personal estate at $250. If I were to judge based on the information given by other respondents on the same page, Charles more well off than most of the people around him. Sinthia was keeping house. Despite their ages, the older children (ages 20 and 17) were not working – or at least no occupation was listed by the census enumerator.

1880

Sometime between 26 July 1870 and 28 June 1880, Lum and Mary met each other and fell in love. I wish I had stories to tell you either from records or family stories passed down through the years. Sadly I don’t, so we’ll skip right to the month of the wedding.
On Wednesday, 7 January 1880 it was warmer than usual in Benton County, Arkansas. The weather was described as “too warm for overcoats and fires”. (Arkansas Democrat, 7 Jan 1880) That was the day that the license was issued for George Columbus BATES and Mary Ann SEELY to marry. The wedding didn’t happen until Tuesday, 13 January 1880. By then, it was “decidedly cooler”. (Arkansas Democrat, 14 Jan 1880) Lum (George) was 21 years old according to the marriage license although other official documents have put him at age 24 at the time of his marriage. (My personal belief is 24 years old.) Mary was 20 years old according to the marriage license.
The first record I have that was dated after the wedding is the 1880 Federal Census. On the Monday, 28 June or Tuesday, 29 June 1880, census enumerator John M. CLAYTON arrived at the newly-married couple’s home. They were living in Dickson Township, Benton County, Arkansas. He was listed as being 23 years old and she as being 22. They lived next door to Lum’s now-widowed mother, Mary and Lum’s half brother who is now listed as Henry. Living on the other side of Mary was her older son Berry, now married and with his own large family. Lum was farming and Mary was keeping house.

A Good Stopping Point

If you work on your own family history then you know that most of the 1890 census was destroyed. So, unfortunately it’s hard to know what Lum and Mary did in the 20 years between the 1880 and 1900 censuses. One thing I do know they did was have babies. Starting with Albert (my great-grandfather) in 1881 and continuing with Charles in 1887, Herman in 1891, and Vesta in 1894.
It is at this point that I’m going to stop their story. I’ll finish it during the year in other blog posts about Lum and Mary as I celebrate their births and write about their deaths.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Laura Bullock Riter: A Woman at Work

The Woman and Her Tool

I started this post a couple of years ago but never found the time to finish it. Laura’s birthday is today. She was born in 1887. I thought this might be the perfect time to go ahead and publish this part of her story. Laura is my maternal great grandmother- my granny Bates’ mom. I’ve written about her before on my blog at https://honeysuckle-farm.com/laura-ann-bullock-riter-the-consummate-mom-and-grandma/.

Sometime around the 1930’s-1940’s Laura worked in Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas at a canning factory. She hulled strawberries and got them ready to process. She used this tool to do her job:
Laura Riter strawberry huller
The engraving on the metal says, “Indepent/Marion, Ind./Supply Co.”.
That huller is still in the family and it’s a very unique kitchen tool. I’ve tried looking it up online and have never found an image of one like it. This tool was used to seed and cap the strawberries.

The Law and the Era

Shortly after the first known cannery was opened in Hiwasse in 1920, new legislation (Act #140) was enacted allowing canning factories to hire women and work them for more than 9 hours a day. The change in the law also provided for women to receive time and a half overtime and made provisions for fair pay and for redress for women who were doing “piece work”. Working the strawberries for the canning factory was considered piece work since the women were paid by the bucket for the work they did. (Fayetteville Daily Democrat, 13 June 1921). Within a year, newspapers were making a big deal about hiring women to work in the canning factories. There was such a shortage of workers for the canneries that they were eager to dip into their new supply of female workers. One newspaper article entitled, “Big Demand for Women at Canning Factories” stated, “men will not peel apples” and, “women are faster”. (Fayetteville Daily Democrat, 26 Aug 1922)
laura bullock riter women in canning factories
Newspapers.com clipping.

In the early 1920’s Laura was in her 30’s. In 1928 she lost her husband and had a house full of children to care for. She chose to work rather than marry again. It was in this climate, with the first world war safely behind us, laws having been changed to assist factories, and in the beginning years of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl Era, that Laura went to work.

The Canneries: Her Potential Employers

I always thought (and was always told) that Laura worked for Allen Canning Company. Once I started researching, I began to question which company she worked for or whether she might have worked for multiple companies with Allen’s being the last she worked for. There were several canneries that operated in Hiwasse in the 1920’s through 1940’s: Gentry Marketing Association’s cannery which was later sold to Allen Canning and then later sold again and known as Hiwasse Canning, a different company operating as Hiwasse Canning (two separate canneries operated under the name Hiwasse Canning), and Appleby Brothers cannery.

Fayetteville Canning Company

In a 1919 edition of the Texas Trade Review and Industrial Record, I found one sentence stating that Fayetteville Canning Company had plans to establish a canning factory in Hiwasse, Arkansas. I was never able to establish whether they did, in fact, build a canning factory there. I’ve never seen any other mention of this anywhere so possibly this canning factory is the one mentioned in the next section or possibly it never came to fruition.

W. E. Cherry and Hiwasse Canning Factory

W. E. Cherry seems to have been the first known canner in Hiwasse. He started his factory about 1920 in Hiwasse. In addition to owning the canning factory, he was also the first (although temporary) Chairman of the Hiwasse Berry Growers’ Association, an organization which he helped organize. This fact leads me to believe that Mr. Cherry’s cannery probably canned strawberries, although I have no proof either way. Here is a 1921 article about the Hiwasse Canning factory owned by W. E. Cherry:
w e cherry canning factory hiwasse
Newspapers.com clipping

I have never been able to find much about the Hiwasse canneries online. While researching, I discovered that Shiloh Museum in Springdale, Arkansas has an amazing online exhibit about the Benton County canneries. I highly recommend visiting their website. You can find a history of the local canning industry here. You can find images of the different cannery labels here, a photo gallery of local canneries here, and audio clips of people who were involved in the local canning industry talking about the canneries and cannery work here. There are a couple of other links in the online exhibit that I did not include. Please take some time to check out Shiloh Museum’s digital exhibit.

Since I couldn’t find much online, I decided to call Shiloh Museum and ask if there was anything they had that wasn’t included in the online exhibit that might be relevant to my blog post. I spoke with Ms. Rachel Whitaker, a Research Specialist at Shiloh Museum. She was so kind as to search their holdings and get back with me (the same day!). Ms. Whitaker found a listing for W. E. Cherry’s cannery in Hiwasse in The Hiwasse History Book. This book includes an ad showing that Mr. Cherry’s cannery handled blackberries, tomatoes, and green beans.

Appleby Brothers’ Canning

The Appleby Brothers had a cannery in Hiwasse also. (Fayetteville Daily Democrat, 10 Apr 1923). You can see an image of Appleby Brothers’ canning label at the Shiloh Museum website’s online exhibit in the “Canning Label Gallery” linked above.
I know for certain that Appleby canned strawberries because there is an ad in the 6 Apr 1940 edition of The Northwest Arkansas Times advertising for 300 people to cap strawberries. Strawberry canning season typically lasted from April to early June. In Brooks Blevins’ book Hill Folks, Mr. Blevins noted that the Appleby Brothers- George and Charles- also organized a “strawberry growers’ association” in the area. Although I found the 1940 ad for Appleby Brothers, in Rachel’s research, she found that Appleby Brothers’ properties were auctioned off as noted in the 10 August 1939 edition of the Northwest Arkansas Times newspaper.
In addition to the information listed above, Rachel also found that Appleby’s cannery in both the 1921 edition of the Marketing and Industrial Guide: Directory of Manufactures and the 1922 edition of the Canner’s Directory. Appleby’s was also mentioned in Brooks Blevins’ book Hill Folks.

Gentry Marketing Association’s Cannery

Gentry Marketing Association was created by and for the local farmers who supplied produce to the canneries. It was a surprisingly strong and united group. The farmers took care of one another, advocated for fair prices for produce, staved off outside big businesses who were coming in and trying to take away profits and produce from the farmers and canneries, and successfully marketed the produce and products of Benton County, Arkansas.
The association owned its own canneries and one of those canneries was in Hiwasse. If the cannery had a name, I’ve never found it. This plant was sold off a couple of times in the latter half of the 1940’s. In 1946 it was sold by the Gentry Marketing Association presumably to Allen Canning (then called Allen & Son of Siloam Springs).

Allen Canning

Earl Allen founded Allen Canning in 1926. Mr. Allen “established a solid reputation for his honesty in dealing with growers, forging relationships that would benefit the company for years to come”. (http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/5/Allen-Canning-Company.html) Mr. Allen apparently only owned the Hiwasse factory for a couple of years from 1946-1948.

When Allen Canning was still in business in Siloam Springs, Arkansas they had a large Popeye statue that stood outside their office. Here is my brother standing with the Popeye statue:
Jared and Popeye statue

In 1948 Allen Canning sold the plant to Frank Brandhuber and Hill Diven and it was called Hiwasse Canning. My mom says that my grandparents (her parents- the BATES’) and great-grandmother (her maternal grandmother- Laura BULLOCK RITER) always referred to working for Allen Canning. A few years ago before Allen Canning sold out to Sager Creek (who then sold out to Del Monte), my mom called them and asked if they had any photos or historical materials pertaining to the canning factory in Hiwasse and the people who worked there. They did not have anything. She says they referred to the Hiwasse factory by name and she thought they said they bought the canning factory from Appleby Brothers. So perhaps Allen Canning had two different stints in Hiwasse. I’m not sure. I could go to Benton County Courthouse and try to look up deeds but that would delay publishing this blog post and who knows when I’ll get a chance to go there. I’ll leave that task for another day and another blog post. For now, I’m going to publish what I have. Perhaps it is meant for someone else to find those records.

Hiwasse Canning

It isn’t surprising that a member of the Diven family purchased the factory from Allen Canning. Members of the Diven family were heavily involved in various canning companies in Benton County, Arkansas during this time period. (Joplin Globe, 28 July 1929) They even took their business into Texas and had canning factories there. Unfortunately, not much is known about Brandhuber and Diven’s Hiwasse Canning company- or at least not that I could find in my research. Ms. Whitaker at Shiloh Museum was unable to find any information about Hiwasse Canning either. I can only assume that since Brandhuber and Diven called their factory Hiwasse Canning that by this time, Mr. Cherry’s Hiwasse Canning factory had already closed.

Working Conditions

I want to be sure you understand what kind of conditions Laura worked in at the canning factories. Here is a link to an audio clip from Shiloh Museum’s online exhibit talking about the oppressive heat and how you couldn’t get away from it when working in the cannery. There was no air condition.
https://web.archive.org/web/20151218192523/https://shilohmuseum.org/podcasts/004bowmn.mp3
Whenever you think you have it bad at work, just think about Laura in the heat and humidity of an Ozark summer working in a canning factory that produced more heat on top of the already oppressive heat and humidity outside. I really encourage you to listen to some of the audio clips the museum has online to get a feel for the conditions Laura worked in. Just as a reminder, you can find those audio clips here https://web.archive.org/web/20150926002836/https://shilohmuseum.org/exhibits/canning-listen.php.

Miscellaneous Information

There were other mentions of Hiwasse-based canning factories in newspapers of the 1920’s to 1940’s era but most of the time the Hiwasse plants were not named or identified in any way so it’s hard to say if there were more than the factories mentioned above in Hiwasse.

I made a trip to Hiwasse with my mom on June 23^rd– just this week- in search of the location of the old canning factories. Mom suspected they were on Main Street. At the intersection of Old Main and Highway 72 were two very old buildings. One was a former gas station. The other building turned out to be the old Banks grocery store.

banks grocery ad
Virgil Banks Store ad for 1947 canning season. Newspapers.com clipping from The Journal-Advance newspaper out of Gentry, Arkansas, 20 February 1947.

The old Virgil Banks grocery store on 23 June 2017 in Hiwasse, Arkansas.

I began at the Hiwasse post office and asked if the woman working the counter knew where the canning factories had been located when they were still standing. She said she wasn’t from the area and couldn’t help me but she directed me to the Holloway family at the corner convenience store in town. Mom and I (and two of my grandsons who were with me that day) headed down the highway to the Hiwasse convenience store. The owner was very busy taking lunch orders so the girl at the counter directed me to an elderly gentleman sitting at one of the tables. I introduced myself to him and told him what I was looking for. He said his name (I think- it was loud and hard to hear) was James Adams. He said he’d only been in Hiwasse for about 15 years and couldn’t really help me but said I should go back down the street to the lawnmower shop and ask the people there. They would know, he said. I thanked him and left. We headed West again on Highway 72 back to the small engine shop in town. There, the lady at the counter directed me to a small office to talk to Jan. Jan was wonderful. She loves history and was more than happy to share with me what she knew. She said she moved to the Hiwasse area from South Dakota about 40 years ago. This is home for her now and she would never leave. She loves it here. She said there used to be a lot of old-timers here who told her all the history of the place but they were all gone now. She said when she first moved here, the canning factory buildings- there were 2- were still standing but they’re gone now. She gave me specific directions and told me what to look for to know I was in the right spot. Mom and I headed West again on Highway 72- maybe a block or so and turned South onto Sandusky Road- a little dirt lane that was barely noticeable.

Sandusky Rd Hiwasse AR sign

As we were leaving the canning factory site I took a photo of the Sandusky Road sign. From the highway heading West it was completely covered by the tree. We guessed at where the canning factories had stood. As we were making a second pass down the dirt lane I noticed an older man sitting in his truck in front of a mobile home. Being from the country, I knew better than to pass him by. He’d be wanting to know what we were doing and what we were looking for. Things would go better if I stopped and introduced myself. Besides, I might get more information. So I stopped and introduced myself and told the gentleman what we were looking for. His name was Mr. Gallion and as it turns out, he is only a few years older than my mom. He knew of my mom’s family- the BATES’- and she was familiar with his family name as well. We talked for a while. He told me all that was left of the canning factories was one cement pad and the well house. These two things stand behind the yellow house about the distance of 1 and ½ city blocks south of Highway 72, on the West side of the road just past the big storage buildings (the storage buildings are on the East side of the road). I didn’t get a photo because there isn’t anything you could see except the yellow house and I didn’t want to take a photo of someone’s home and put it up on the blog. He told me that the Easley sisters- two elderly, unmarried women had lived in the mobile home we were all sitting in front of. Hattie Easley had been the Postmaster of Hiwasse back in the day and her sister Esther (?) Easley had been the teacher at the one-room school- Banks School House.

Thank-You’s and Closing Thoughts

Before I close, I want to thank my mom who almost always gives me the basics of the stories I tell about her family. Thanks to Rachel Whitaker at Shiloh Museum for assisting me with research in Shiloh’s collection. Thanks to Hiwasse residents who either helped me or referred me on to someone else who could help me: the lady at the Hiwasse Post Office whose name I did not get, James (?) Adams whom I spoke with at the Hiwasse convenience store while he was having coffee. The lady at the small engine repair shop who led me to Jan- another lady at the small engine shop who knew how to find the old canning factory sites and who shares a love of local history with me. And lastly, thank you to Mr. Gallion who took time out from eating his lunch to chat with us about the canning factories and the old families and places of Hiwasse.

Mr. Gallion talked of the old hotel that has since been torn down and of many of the other wonderful things about Hiwasse that are gone now. He lamented that newcomers just consider themselves part of the town of Gravette now. Only the old-timers still call this place Hiwasse. I guess that makes me an old-timer. My Papa BATES was born in Hiwasse so I grew up hearing stories about this place. To me, this will always be Hiwasse. I commented to mom that the day is coming when I’ll go to a place and ask about the old places, old families, and old times and no one will remember. That’s one thing that keeps me writing about these old places and people from times gone by. They’ll live on as long as someone remembers.
So always remember- and always tell your stories…even if you think no one is listening.

Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

P. S.- There is still work to be done in regard to this topic if anyone is interested in taking up the research. University of Arkansas Library Special Collections has records of some of the local canning companies that I’ve never looked at. I’m wondering if the David and Barbara Pryor Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas contains any collections that would be informative to us about this topic. There are two Hiwasse history books that I hear would be beneficial to my research. Shiloh Museum has records that are not included in their online exhibit that I’d still like to see even if none specifically mention Hiwasse. Also, a visit to the Benton County Clerk’s office to look at land records would help shed light on which companies owned land in Hiwasse and when. There is so much research to do and I won’t live long enough to do it. Feel free to help me!

Not Breaking, But Succeeding- Lum’s Apple Orchard

Come, Let us Watch and Walk

I’ve talked before about my 2^nd great grandpa, George Columbus BATES, but not in much detail. George went by “Lum”, just like my grandfather Troy Columbus BATES did.

Photo of Lum and Mary Seely Bates with their 3 youngest children Charlie, Herman, and Vesta.
Lum had an apple orchard when he filed his homestead land entry paperwork. David COOPER and William T. LUCAS- a couple of his neighbors- were witnesses for Lum saying that Lum’s land was “rough timber land”.

Photo of David and Nancy COOPER. David COOPER was a farmer and ran a mill near Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas. He also had a supply store on the bank of the river there. He later became Superintendent of Schools for the Hiwasse/Dug Hill area.

The witnesses stated Lum settled on his acreage “in the latter part of September or first of October 1896” (Mr. COOPER) and “on or about October 1^st 1896” (Mr. LUCAS). They testified that Lum had resided continuously on the land since he first got it and that he had not been absent from the property since he first made homestead. When the men were asked how much of the homestead Lum had cultivated and for how many seasons Lum had raised crops on the land, Mr. COOPER said, “It would average about 8 or 9 acres for 7 years” and Mr. LUCAS said, “He has cultivated 7 acres for 7 seasons”. Mr. COOPER gave details about the improvements Lum had made to the property saying, “1 box house, 3 rooms. 1 log house, 1 smoke house, 1 cistern, small orchard, perhaps 100 trees- $300”. Mr. LUCAS gave the following details about improvements Lum made, “1 3-room box dwelling, 1 smoke house, 1 log house, about 13 acres in cultivation, small orchard, 1 cistern, 1 chicken house- $300.”

Example of a corn crib from Homesteader Wannabe blog.

Example of a late 1800’s smoke house from Smoking Meat Forums.

Example of a circa 1900 log house from Discovering Russellville Arkansas blog. I imagine the “3-room box dwelling” looked very similar to this building.

Example of a large cistern under construction from Wisconsin Historical Society blog.

Example of a circa 1900 chicken house (with modern updates) from Leelanau Conservancy blog.
Mr. Cooper said the land was more valuable for “agriculture” and Mr. Lucas added it was more valuable for “orchard”. Both men testified that Lum had not mortgaged, sold, or contracted to sell any portion of the homestead land. Both men testified that they were not personally interested in Lum’s claim and that they believed Lum had acted in good faith in perfecting the homestead land entry requirements. There were additional witnesses- H. N. WILLIAMS and J. E. FERRELL, both of Hiwasse, Arkansas. Their testimony was not included in the file I received.

We Had Long Collected, Saved, and Harbored Old Memories

In Lum’s testimony he stated he was 46 years old and lived in Hiwasse, Arkansas. He stated he was born in the state of Georgia.

Lum’s birth certificate.
He stated he was the same George C. BATES who had made homestead entry #22919 at the Harrison, Arkansas land office on 17 September 1896 and a true description of his land was “NE quarter of the NE quarter of Section 32, Township 21N, Range 31W”. He stated he built a house on the land and established residence there about 1 October 1896 and had built a 3-room box house with 1 room being 15×16 and 1 room being 14×15 and the third room being 12×14. He stated he had built a log house sized 16×16, 1 smoke house, 1 crib, and 1 cistern. He had 13 acres in cultivation, 100 apple trees set, and an estimated value of $250 for his improvements. I must say, I’d love to have all these improvements for $250!!
Lum listed his family members living on the property as himself, his wife, and 3 children. His wife was Mary Ann SEELY BATES.

Marriage record for Lum and Mary BATES.
On 28 August 1903, the children that would have been living at home would have been the 3 youngest children- Charles Leroy, Herman Luther, and Vesta Josephine. The oldest child (my great-grandfather), Albert Lewis, had gotten married and moved out the previous year.

Another Season’s Hundred Days of Toil

Prior to completing the application process, Lum had to run a notice about the homestead claim in the Benton County Democrat weekly newspaper for 6 consecutive weeks.

Newspaper ad photo.

By Not Breaking, But Succeeding

And so, for the sum of $6 (plus a $1 “testimony fee” for his required testimony- gotta love the government, right?!) he completed his homestead application process for 40 acres in Benton County, Arkansas on 28 August 1903. The homestead was finally approved on 16 June 1904 and patented on 26 August 1904 and just like that Lum was the proud owner of 40 acres in Benton County, Arkansas.

Photo of certificate
On a day when I have more bandwidth or faster internet I will post a photo of where his land was in Benton County, Arkansas.

Silently Growing to Bear Fruit

About the time Lum started his apple orchard, the Arkansas Black apple was being cultivated. So in mine and my husband’s orchard, we planted an Arkansas Black in memory of Lum. It’s producing apples this year and we’re excited to be able to taste them. Maybe I’ll make an apple pie in honor of Lum and Mary and all they did and all they sacrificed to give me the life I have today.
By the way, I’ve been making plans to visit a distant cousin from the BATES family. I’m meeting with her soon and she says she has a photo of Lum standing in front of a wagon full of apples. I’m so hoping she can find it and bring it so I can have a copy. What a treasure! I think I’ll frame it and hang it in my kitchen. I sure am looking forward to apple season…
Until then though, take care of yourself and remember- an apple a day keeps the doctor away!
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

2017 Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas

I just sent in my syllabus, class description, etc. for the workshop I’m presenting at the 2017 Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas. You all should definitely register for the conference. 2017 schedule and registration is live now. You can register at this link: Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas Registration. You get to choose which classes you want to go to but if you change your mind at the last minute you aren’t locked in to the class you chose. I love this conference for it’s flexibility! AND DID I MENTION IT’S FREE???
Here is the schedule of classes. You choose one class per time segment.

Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas conference schedule 2017. — Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas conference schedule, 2017.

You can go see the schedule for yourself at Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas Class Schedule 2017. I hope to see you all there. Don’t feel obligated to come to my presentation (although I’d love to see you there). This is a great opportunity to learn new information and new skills at a local conference.

Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Category: Benton County Arkansas