Kinfolks
by Evelyn Flood

Once upon a time in Newton County, Arkansas during Civil War Time
(1860-1867) there lived a family who married in Tennessee and came to
the beautiful country of Newton County, Arkansas to farm and raise
their family. Here the family had a bright future.

The father was born in Meiggs County, Tennessee. He met and fell in
love with a pretty lady living nearby Franklin, Tennessee.
His heart was full of the dream of owning his own land "out west" and
they talked of their plans to marry and have land in the place they
had heard about from their neighbors.

The neighbors had kinfolks that sent back letters about the hills
and land in the Big Creek Valley of Arkansas. The land was so fertile,
that corn was flourishing in the rich bottom lands.The White and the
Buffalo Rivers could be traveled by boat and canoe at the right time
of the year.
The trip would be long by ox team from Tennessee, crossing the great
Mississippi by boat and then up the Arkansas River to Clarksville in
Johnson County. And so they made their plans.

They were married at Harrison, Hamilton County, Tennessee on the
17 September 1852 by their neighbor Moses Blackburn who was a Justice
of Peace.
And so their life began and their journey would take them to the
beautiful Newton County, Arkansas. They traveled in a wagon train
consisting of families from their area who were also looking for that
promised land of Arkansas.
A sweet baby girl child was born to them in 1854 in Tennessee before
they left on their long awaited trip.

The land was heavily forested where they chose to clear the land
and the father, with the help of neighbors and his wife, built a nice
log cabin and barn with smokehouse and cribs. They worked hard for
close to ten years to clear their land and plant their crops and
trees. Wild berries grew abundantly near the creeks.
Wild turkeys, wild pigs, fish from the ponds and deer in the woods
supplied them with more than enough meat for their smoke house.
They planted their gardens and preserved the crops. They dried their
fruits from the trees which they had planted when they first arrived.
The apple trees were raised from sprouts her mother had given her when
they left Tennessee, and she carefully wrapped them in damp cloth to
preserve the small roots.
These seedlings were her babies; these tiny apple seedlings. She was
so proud of these little trees. She tended to them along with her
first born girl child.

A beautiful baby girl was born to them in Arkansas in 1856; and then
two years later they were blessed with twin girls in 1858 (one little
girl later died in her infancy from the croup). The mortality rate for
children was very high and a mother was lucky to raise even half of her
children.
Three years later another little girl was born in 1861 and lastly a handsome
little man child was born to this family in 1863.

But all was not well at home. The clouds of war were drifting over
their land. Many men were conscripted into the Confederate Army.
Men fled to the limestone caves near their homes hoping to ride out
during the one year war (it lasted 5 years). Wives and children often
took them food, hoping to not be discovered carrying this precious
food to their fathers and sons who were hiding. The caves usually had
springs of water near them, so water did not have to be carried to the
hiding men. Crops were being planted by women and harvested by old
men, boys, women and small children.

When their son was only a few months old his father had to leave his
family and fight in the Civil War. He did not want to be conscripted
into the Confederate Army.He was a Union man and so chose to join
the Union Cavalry. He knew horses well and his family back in his
home state of Tennessee had been perfecting horses that had a special
gait. Today we call these horses "Tennessee Walkers".

And so the father saddled his best mare and traveled in the darkness
to Lewisburg to join the Union Army. When he arrived at the
Lewisburg Post, he was told he would be paid extra for the use of
his horse. This pleased him greatly, because he could now send more
of his army pay home to his family.

The Civil War left mostly old men and women and boys to carry on the
farm work. Scalawags and bushwhackers and "no account" men preyed on
the families left behind, taking their food suplies, cattle, hogs,
chickens and anything else they desired. Bushwhackers plundered and
burned and stole. Anarchy prevailed. These ruthless men would kill
anyone they so desired....just ride up to a home, call the man out and
shoot him down in cold blood, leaving the family to bury their loved
one as best they could. Many soldiers who came home from the Army to
visit their families were killed in this ruthless way.

And the father who had dreamed of the promised land and the riches
in store there, lost his life in that promised land, far from his
wife and children. He was with his cavalry regiment and because of
rebel fire, became lost from his company. It was February and very
cold. The father found a small tree which grew in a dense clump of
oak trees. He thought he would build a small fire up against the
tree to keep warm.......out of sight of any patroling enemy soldier.
He was exhausted from riding and hiding from the rebel soldiers.
He was so tired and sleepy.........and he fell asleep dreaming of
his family back on the farm near Jasper.
He dreamed of his son........and teaching him how to ride.....and
how take care of the animals on the farm..................... He was
so tired..........and he drifted into a deep sleep........, but
while he was sleeping, the tree fire burned up under the roots
and the tree fell on the sleeping father, killing him while he slept
on this cold February day in 1865 at Lewisburg, Arkansas.
The War would be over in just a few months.

His detachment of Union soldiers returned to their post. One was
missing. For days they waited for the return of this one soldier.
Several of his company men rode back into the vicinity where they had
last seen their one soldier. They found the burned tree and also the
body of their missing comrade.
And so this Tennessee father was buried on that hillside, and his
grave marker is the burned tree stump.......the tree where he had
stayed for warmth and shelter on that cold February day.

This widow who had waited back near Jasper, heard the news of her
dead husband and how he died. She survived somehow, with the help
of her kind neighbors. Her eldest girl was now 11 years old.
The youngest child...the son....was two years old now.

Someone told her that she could file for her dead husband's Union Army
pension.
Congress had approved a Pension for widows of Civil War Union Soldiers
on July 14, 1862. So she set about to get ahold of the "writin' man",
the Justice of the Peace in that area who wrote things for people. He
would help her get her pension.

The "writin' man" filled out many pension papers for the widows and
Civil War veterans. He signed the papers, making the statement that
he had no interest in the claim. But he did have an interest. He was
charging the folks 10 percent of their first check received. This was
in direct violation of the Law. One Civil War veteran refused to pay
him the 10 percent when he saw what the amount of the check was.
When investigation was done, the Government found out about the
"writin' man" and his fees. One Government official was afraid
the statue of limitations was running out on some of these claims
and I do not know if the "writin' man" was prosecuted.

Now something happened to this widow from Tennessee. She became ,
" in the family way"(pregnant with child). A widow pregnant after
her husband had been dead for over a year? An almost unpardonable sin.

Now, you the reader can choose one of these scenarios because I do
not know what happened:
(1) She married in secret and after she became pregnant with child,
he left her.

(2)A kindly male neighbor brought her a sack of corn meal and possibly
other food for her starving children and he took advantage of her.
May have promised her food in exchange for her body.
If you had some starving children, what would you do to save them?

(3)She was raped by an unknown or known person.

(4) Her children were starving...should she give them away? Every
other family was in about the same predicament. They had no way to feed
an extra youngin'.

(5)Should she send them back to her people in Tennessee? Where would
she get the money? Maybe she did not have any kinfolks left?

(5)She could take her own life and the lives of her children.

(6)You choose the scenario.

Which scenario did you choose? Come on now, what would you have done if
it happened to you? Don't turn your nose up and stop reading.

Well, this widow stayed on in Newton County, raised her son right along
with his brother and sisters, and withstood whatever was gossiped
about her, those narrow-minded gossips who had nothing else to do but
run the poor woman down.
There were probably Christian neighbors who forgave her and helped her
with food and clothing. There was no welfare then. No grocery store
at the corner. You raised your own food. Chopped your own wood.
It was hard going for this mother of six.

I don't know why she waited so long to file for her Civil War Widow's
pension. She was eligible in 1865 but did not file until 1873. Wonder
if she thought she did not deserve the pension? When she filed she did
not list the youngest boy. The pension was approved in 1875 (two years
later). The Government was as efficient then as they are nowadays.
Then the "writin man" told her she could file for "Arrears of Widows
Pension". Can you imagine receiving $8.00 a month arrears of pension
for 10 years (I wonder if the government paid her interest?)? That
was $8.00 a month for the widow and $2.00 a month per each child until
that child reached the age of 16.

There were figures on one sheet of the Civil War Pension papers which
amounted to $l,848.46. What a huge amount for that day and age. The
Government did not pay the children for the year 1865 to 1866 (they
usually would take a bite here and there if they could.).

Can you imagine what this woman went through during the bleak days
after the Civil War? This is only one of many, many true Civil War
stories from Arkansas. Many people starved to death during those
awful years. It happened in America.
I have this father's Civil War Pension record.
It really happened in Arkansas. Her descendants still live in
Newton County. Other descendants are scattered to the four corners
of the United States. One of her daughters married into kinfolks.

This lady outlived her Tennessee husband by 32 years.
This lady sleeps her eternal sleep in one of the Newton County, Arkansas
cemeteries. This lady was a kinfolk.

Why do some of us point our scrawny fingers at some who has misfortune
in their lives? Why don't we love, nurture, lend a helping hand when
needed and be good to each other? GOD is LOVE. But for the Grace of
GOD, there go I.

First wrote this story for the Newton County, Arkansas Times
Newspaper in my 'Kinfolks Column'on 23 October 1997.
This story appeared on page 5 of the Times.

Evelyn Flood
Rkinfolks@aol.com
Copyright(c)1997
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