Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The Cane Hill College Bell by Conrow R. Miller
The whole community was brought to an abrupt realization recently, that they might have to get along without the bell. It was discovered by Bryan Reed that the bell was missing from its accustomed place in the belfry where it has hung for years. Nobody knew exactly when it was taken, of course. A news sort was put in the Fayetteville daily paper that evening the county sheriff had a call saying that the bell would be found in the parking lot at the University Stadium. This proved to be true and a truck was dispatched for it at once. It is again hanging where it has been for so long.
In the early days of the college, Uncle Rankin Pyeatte, one of the board of trustees, was notified by a friend of his who was the captain of a river boat, the Grapeshot, that his boat had sunk at Van Buren and that he would give the bell to the college if they would salvage it.
No time was wasted. Mr. Pyeatte immediately took an ox team of four and a wagon, along with axes to clear a way over the mountains, and off they went to Van Buren. It was necessary to hire drivers to remove the bell from the craft and it was loaded on the wagon to make its slow trip back over the mountains to the young college.
A derrick-like belfry was erected and the bell hung. Shortly it was ringing out the hours of the school and the countryside. It was said that the sound carried as far over the hills as Cove Creek on some days. It became a part of the lives of all in the community.
When most of Cane Hill was burned after the battle of Prairie Grove, the old belfry was put to the torch and the crashed to the ground cracking so badly as a result, that it was no longer usable. As soon as the war was over, the college assisted by local contributions, sent the bell back to the Cincinnati, Ohio, foundry where it was originally cast, for re-casting.
Although the college burned again, the bell was intact and was moved to the new location of the brick structure that still stands. After some years in an open belfry the school decided it needed a better housing, and a new enclosed bell tower was erected. This has somewhat shortened the distance it can be heard, though it still is heard all over Cane Hill.
The old college chapel was the sanctuary for the local Presbyterian USA group and the bell served as a summons to Sunday School and church to toll mournfully for funerals and joyful for weddings. A custom that goes into the dim recesses of history is that of ringing out the old year and the new. It is also run on July 4th.
Many people go to look at the bell and to give it a short ring or two. Perhaps somebody will see fit to erect a more ornamental bell tower with adequate protection to prevent the entrance of vandals.
*Taken from the October 1966 issue Vol. XVI, No. 4 of the Washington County Historical Society's publication of FLASHBACK
Mark Bean of Washington County
Mark Bean was born in Bean's Station, TN, and came to Arkansas in 1820. He married Hettie Stuart in Batesville, AR and came to Franklin County. He served several terms in the Arkansas territorial legislature. He came to Washington County (Rhea's Mills) in 1834 and shortly thereafter moved to Cane Hill. His wife having died while they were living in Franklin County, he married Nancy J. Parks, the daughter of Robert W. Parks. Mark Bean died February 1862 and is buried at Parks' Corner, where the Cane Hill road turns off from US Highway 62.
Mark Bean's son, Richard H. Bean, was born 1837, served in the Arkansas State troops and in 1863 joined a Missouri regiment in Shelby's Brigade, CSA. After the war he built a steam saw and grist mill at Cane Hill, which he operated until 1879. Richard H. Bean married Mary L. Lacy, daughter of T.H. Lacy, in May 1866.
Legend credits Mark Bean with the construction of an early mill at the Bean's Spring between Cane Hill and Lincoln. This is strictly legend. Bean had been operating salt works in the Indian Territory at an early date (probably before 1826). When the Cherokee Treaty of 1828 compelled him to give up the salt business-- for which the Federal government reimbursed him handsomely -- he moved to Cane Hill -- actually three miles north of present-day Cane Hill.
Legend credits Mark Bean with the construction of an early mill at the Bean's Spring between Cane Hill and Lincoln. This is strictly legend. Bean had been operating salt works in the Indian Territory at an early date (probably before 1826). When the Cherokee Treaty of 1828 compelled him to give up the salt business-- for which the Federal government reimbursed him handsomely -- he moved to Cane Hill -- actually three miles north of present-day Cane Hill.
Below are letters written by Mark Bean and his son, "Dick", to Mr. D. C. Williams, a prominent Van Buren merchant, in regards to the turbulent times on the horizon.
Before the meeting of the Secession Convention in March of 1861, the sentiment in Washington County was pro-Union. Washington county was the most populated county in the State, and therefore sent four delegates to the Convention; T.M. Gunter, David Walker, John P.A. Parks and J. H. Stirman. At the first session of the Convention the delegates voted against secession, hoping to refer the momentous decision to a vote of the people. But events happened too rapidly and the election was never held. When the Convention reconvened in May of that same year, the Secession ordinance was passed by a vote of 65 to 5. When an effort was made to make the vote unanimous, the Washington County delegates changed their vote, Walker and Gunter being the last to change over. Both later attained the rank of Colonel in the Confederate army. Only Isaac Murphy, former school teacher in Fayetteville and Mt. Comfort, refused to change his vote.
Letter #1 From Mark Bean to D. C. Williams
Dear Friend Cane Hill Ark Jan 30th 1861
I have rec'd your letter, also one from our good friend Judge Walker and also your letter to him embracing the same subjects, and which I as fully endorse as any man in Ark. Walker spent the night with me last week. He was extremely anxious for me to run for the Convention. I told him that nothing would give me more pleasure than to stand by him when the South , with Billy Cummins at the head, contend that the basis of representation should not be upon the free white male inhabitants only, but two thirds of their negroes should be represented. I told him that it was impossible for me to run, owing to my feeble state of health. Last Saturday we nominated J. B. Russell for the Convention and recommended Walker unanimously, and Doctor Dean. Also Stirman. All eyes are turned to Judge Walker here. There is a mass meeting in Fayetteville next Saturday to nominate conventioneers. We passed a resolution or platform for our candidates, that our candidates must be strong Union men. Walker will have nothing to do with the convention in Fayetteville. The wire workers I think or Secessionists will be defeated. I hope so at least. I have and still will urge the importance as you suggest (of referring) the decision back to the people and have every candidate pledge to this effect. I hope that Gen. Thomason will run for one man in Crawford. What have we to gain in a division of our glorious Union? I see no compromising spirit by any of our members in Congress. Are they reflecting the will of Arkansas or are they sympathizing with poor South Carolina, which I cannot do. I would be glad to hear from you at any time.
Truly your friend, MARK BEAN
Letter #2 from Richard (Dick) Bean to D. C. Williams
Mr. D. C. Williams Boonsboro Washington Co. Ark FEB 21st, 1861
Dear Friend,
Mr. Saml Mitchell has a box of chattels at your house perhaps, which he wishes you to send up by the first opportunity. They were shipped from Little Rock some two or three weeks since. I will pay you for the charges on the box when I come down.
I have had your sugar tree dug some two or three days. I have failed to get any conveyance yet. Most of the wagons are hauling apples and are unwilling to take them on act. of the injury to the apples. I have the roots of them buried so there is no danger of them being injured.
The vote of the county was more than three to one. Stirman rec'd nineteen hundred votes, Walker seventeen hundred and seventy seven. Gunter seventeen hundred and eighty. Deane, Neal and Billingsley only rec'd some three hundred.
I will probably be in Van Buren Saturday night week. I think Miss Mary wants to see Mr. Brown. She will come in Mr. Wilson's carriage.
All well. My regards to your family.
Very truly, DICK BEAN
*Taken from Vol. XI, No. 2 May, 1961 publication of FLASHBACK
Driving Tour of the Battle of Cane Hill
This weekend I was honored to be present at the dedication of three interpretive markers exploring the Battle of Cane Hill. These markers are on the grounds of the Cane Hill College.
Pictured below is Alan Thompson, the museum registrar at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. He is in works with the Arkansas Historic Trails Commission to put together a driving tour of the battle that took place November 1862. In a future post I will be to attempting to embellish the hand out they provided with some pictures I took along the way to possibly put together a brochure to submit to them.
In the mean time.... enjoy these pictures I took at the event:
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| Senator Jon Woods firing the cannon. |
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| Bobby Braly, Executive Director of Historic Cane Hill |
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Reenactors with the 11th Missouri Infantry, Kansas 6th Calvary and the 1st Arkansas Light Artillery  |
Friday, November 8, 2013
Secret Society of Pin Indians Disappear Into History After Civil War by Velda Brotherton
The Civil War was to have a great impact on everyone who lived in Arkansas, and that included members of the Civilized Cherokee tribe. While Chief Ross forbade his people to take part in border warfare or to organize a band of guerrillas to help protect Arkansas, Elias Boudinot, a resident of Arkansas, encouraged Ross’s nemesis, Stand Watie, to fight for the Confederates. And so was formed a secret society of Cherokee known as Knights of the Golden Circle, finally changed to The Southern Rights party.
Another organization, made up of full bloods who called themselves Keetoowahs began to operate in the Indian Nation on the side of the Union. They were reorganized in 1859 by Evan Jones and his son John, and were claimed to be designed to perpetuate tribal traditions. It was common knowledge in the Nations that they really had been reorganized to fight slavery. This group of Cherokee became known as Pins Indians because of the insignia of crossed pins they wore on their hunting shirts and coats.
Asked to leave the Nations, the Pins reverted to their ancestors way of fighting. Though supposedly aligned with the United States against the Confederate States of America, they consistently raided their arch enemies the Knights of the Golden Circle, using guerrilla warfare at every opportunity.
It was only natural that settlers in the area just across the border in Northwest Arkansas should become unwitting targets of these hit and miss raids by this unruly band of warriors. In fact, according to records, Jones, said to be a white man with his own agenda, trained the Pins in a school in Cincinnati near Cane Hill, Arkansas.
After much political ado, Cherokee Stand Watie was made a General in the Confederate Army. When he and his men attempted to raise the Confederate flag in the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, about 150 Pins led by Chief Doublehead stopped him.
In the book, The Cherokees, by Grace Steele Woodward, the final mention of the Pins Indians is made when the factions, split by the Civil War reunited in the Indian Nation in 1867.
In the book Mankiller by Chief Wilma Mankiller and Michael Wallis, the Pins are referred to as an ultra secret society. They used secret signs to identify themselves to other members. Touching their hats in salutation would be followed by “Who are you?”, with the proper response being, “I am Keetoowah’s son.” Among the Cherokees it was also known that those who had split from the tribe and fought for the Union forces wore strips of split corn husks in their hair before they went into battle.
Chief Ross never wished to align himself with the Confederate cause and slavery, though many Cherokees did indeed own slaves. So when the Union troops entered Indian Territory in 1862 he welcomed them and left under their protective custody.
Ever a rival of Chief Ross, Stand Watie saw his chance when Ross left the Indian Nations, and declared himself the new principal chief of the Cherokees. Many members of the tribe did not back Watie, and the war within a war spilled into Arkansas to affect those already under constant attack by gangs of bushwhackers.
Pin Indians attacked, burned and killed southern sympathizers on both sides of the border. Those living in Washington County became unwilling victims in this battle between the two factions of Cherokees as well as the two factions of men fighting in the Civil War. Many of the Cherokees caught up in this guerilla warfare fled into neutral lands in Kansas. Hundreds of Indian refugees, being cared for rather poorly in Kansas by the Federal Government, died during the first year of the war.
While down in the Indian Nations and Arkansas, the two factions continued to wage a bitter war. In 1864 Stand Watie was promoted to Brigadier General in the confederacy, the highest rank to be achieved by any Native American. The confederate troops led by General Stand Watie continued to fight long after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his confederate army at Appamattox, Virginia April 9, 1865. It would be late June before Watie’s army finally laid down their arms. In all, 7,000 Cherokees lost their lives in that war. Their homes, libraries, businesses and livestock suffered devastating losses.
White settlers living along the borderland of Northwest Arkansas suffered great losses as well. The white man’s law held no power in the Indian Nation and on the Arkansas side Indians were free from tribal jurisdiction. Outlaw gangs frequenting the area could step across the border from either direction and be free from punishment for their crimes committed on the other side.
According to Conrad Russell, a native of Cane Hill and a historian who wrote many articles about the Civil War from stories he heard at his grandfather’s knee, Jones was white and his name probably wasn’t Jones at all. It was known that he hated slavery in any form and didn’t care how it might be stomped out. He taught the young men to kill, rob and otherwise destroy slave owners. Soon they didn’t much care who they raided. Russell said that soon no man, woman or child was safe from raids by the Pin Indians. The group of outlaw Indians held no loyalties to either side. It was known that they raided both Confederate and Northern sympathizers alike.
Isaac Buchanan, a prosperous farmer living near Cane Hill became a victim of the Pins. One day three of them arrived at his farm and asked for food. Buchanan led them to his cellar where he gave them some apples. When he followed them from the cellar and turned to close the door, they shot and killed him. Buchanan’s three sons had already been cut down by bushwhackers and this deed left his womenfolk defenseless. Finally tiring of the killing, a band of Confederates and local citizens in the beleaguered area gathered weapons and ammunition and set up a series of clever ambushes. Spotting a large band of Pins headed for Cane Hill, they lay in wait south of the settlement along the road they were known to travel.
A group of about 60 Pins rode through and the first contingent closed up any retreat, driving the band into the second and third group who waited in hiding. By the time the renegades made the border, there were few left. It is said they never returned to pull another raid on the citizens around Cane Hill. Thus, according to Arkansas legend, ended the reign of the Pins and they disappeared for good into Indian Territory. Cherokee writings make no more mention of the secret Pins Indians after 1867.
Stories always differ, depending on which side the storyteller is on, but the story of the Pins has been recorded in most Cherokee histories, but few whites. Conrad Russell admits the stories he heard from his grandfather are only hearsay, as is most of our folk lore. However, the written history of the Pins by Cherokee sources are more than hearsay. The mystery of who is entirely correct will probably always remain just that. A mystery.
Velda Brotherton is currently working on a history of Springdale, Arkansas, which will be published by Arcadia Publishers in their Making of America Series.
Copyright © 2001 Velda Brotherton originally published in The White River Valley News, Elkins, Arkansas
Another organization, made up of full bloods who called themselves Keetoowahs began to operate in the Indian Nation on the side of the Union. They were reorganized in 1859 by Evan Jones and his son John, and were claimed to be designed to perpetuate tribal traditions. It was common knowledge in the Nations that they really had been reorganized to fight slavery. This group of Cherokee became known as Pins Indians because of the insignia of crossed pins they wore on their hunting shirts and coats.
Asked to leave the Nations, the Pins reverted to their ancestors way of fighting. Though supposedly aligned with the United States against the Confederate States of America, they consistently raided their arch enemies the Knights of the Golden Circle, using guerrilla warfare at every opportunity.
It was only natural that settlers in the area just across the border in Northwest Arkansas should become unwitting targets of these hit and miss raids by this unruly band of warriors. In fact, according to records, Jones, said to be a white man with his own agenda, trained the Pins in a school in Cincinnati near Cane Hill, Arkansas.
After much political ado, Cherokee Stand Watie was made a General in the Confederate Army. When he and his men attempted to raise the Confederate flag in the Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, about 150 Pins led by Chief Doublehead stopped him.
In the book, The Cherokees, by Grace Steele Woodward, the final mention of the Pins Indians is made when the factions, split by the Civil War reunited in the Indian Nation in 1867.
In the book Mankiller by Chief Wilma Mankiller and Michael Wallis, the Pins are referred to as an ultra secret society. They used secret signs to identify themselves to other members. Touching their hats in salutation would be followed by “Who are you?”, with the proper response being, “I am Keetoowah’s son.” Among the Cherokees it was also known that those who had split from the tribe and fought for the Union forces wore strips of split corn husks in their hair before they went into battle.
Chief Ross never wished to align himself with the Confederate cause and slavery, though many Cherokees did indeed own slaves. So when the Union troops entered Indian Territory in 1862 he welcomed them and left under their protective custody.
Ever a rival of Chief Ross, Stand Watie saw his chance when Ross left the Indian Nations, and declared himself the new principal chief of the Cherokees. Many members of the tribe did not back Watie, and the war within a war spilled into Arkansas to affect those already under constant attack by gangs of bushwhackers.
Pin Indians attacked, burned and killed southern sympathizers on both sides of the border. Those living in Washington County became unwilling victims in this battle between the two factions of Cherokees as well as the two factions of men fighting in the Civil War. Many of the Cherokees caught up in this guerilla warfare fled into neutral lands in Kansas. Hundreds of Indian refugees, being cared for rather poorly in Kansas by the Federal Government, died during the first year of the war.
While down in the Indian Nations and Arkansas, the two factions continued to wage a bitter war. In 1864 Stand Watie was promoted to Brigadier General in the confederacy, the highest rank to be achieved by any Native American. The confederate troops led by General Stand Watie continued to fight long after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his confederate army at Appamattox, Virginia April 9, 1865. It would be late June before Watie’s army finally laid down their arms. In all, 7,000 Cherokees lost their lives in that war. Their homes, libraries, businesses and livestock suffered devastating losses.
White settlers living along the borderland of Northwest Arkansas suffered great losses as well. The white man’s law held no power in the Indian Nation and on the Arkansas side Indians were free from tribal jurisdiction. Outlaw gangs frequenting the area could step across the border from either direction and be free from punishment for their crimes committed on the other side.
According to Conrad Russell, a native of Cane Hill and a historian who wrote many articles about the Civil War from stories he heard at his grandfather’s knee, Jones was white and his name probably wasn’t Jones at all. It was known that he hated slavery in any form and didn’t care how it might be stomped out. He taught the young men to kill, rob and otherwise destroy slave owners. Soon they didn’t much care who they raided. Russell said that soon no man, woman or child was safe from raids by the Pin Indians. The group of outlaw Indians held no loyalties to either side. It was known that they raided both Confederate and Northern sympathizers alike.
Isaac Buchanan, a prosperous farmer living near Cane Hill became a victim of the Pins. One day three of them arrived at his farm and asked for food. Buchanan led them to his cellar where he gave them some apples. When he followed them from the cellar and turned to close the door, they shot and killed him. Buchanan’s three sons had already been cut down by bushwhackers and this deed left his womenfolk defenseless. Finally tiring of the killing, a band of Confederates and local citizens in the beleaguered area gathered weapons and ammunition and set up a series of clever ambushes. Spotting a large band of Pins headed for Cane Hill, they lay in wait south of the settlement along the road they were known to travel.
A group of about 60 Pins rode through and the first contingent closed up any retreat, driving the band into the second and third group who waited in hiding. By the time the renegades made the border, there were few left. It is said they never returned to pull another raid on the citizens around Cane Hill. Thus, according to Arkansas legend, ended the reign of the Pins and they disappeared for good into Indian Territory. Cherokee writings make no more mention of the secret Pins Indians after 1867.
Stories always differ, depending on which side the storyteller is on, but the story of the Pins has been recorded in most Cherokee histories, but few whites. Conrad Russell admits the stories he heard from his grandfather are only hearsay, as is most of our folk lore. However, the written history of the Pins by Cherokee sources are more than hearsay. The mystery of who is entirely correct will probably always remain just that. A mystery.
Velda Brotherton is currently working on a history of Springdale, Arkansas, which will be published by Arcadia Publishers in their Making of America Series.
Copyright © 2001 Velda Brotherton originally published in The White River Valley News, Elkins, Arkansas
Pin Indians
The Civil War was a cruel sword dividing both the white and Indian nations. Stand Watie and his Indian Regiment stood staunchly for the South throughout. Indian Chief John Ross and his followers fought with the Federals but he defected to the South at one time.
A third faction, the Pin Indians, were Northern Sympathizers. The harassed citizens of the boarder area of Northwest Arkansas and Indian Territory divided their invective between "Stand Waitie's men" and the Pins, according to their sympathies.
During this period the sound of hoof beats on the rocky roads could mean the cavalry of either the Federals or Confederates -- or a private band of Pin Indians on a raid. Either one sent the residents scurrying to hide food and valuables, sometimes to take them to the woods and hide there with them until the danger was past.
History gives scant mention of these mysterious raiders. Information is gleaned mostly from Civil War records, Oklahoma Chronicles and handed-down stories from the ancestry of the present residents of the area in which they operated.
Their history is so closely woven with the Keetoowahs some have mistaken them for the same society but their is a distinction. Many Keetoowahs were Pins but not all Pins were Keetoowahs, and one historian says, "I have known of some who claimed to be Pins who were no more Pins than I am."
Many Keetoowahs enlisted in the Union Home Guard Brigade at Ft. Gibson, serving under white officers. Civil War records list Indians as serving in the Battle of Prairie Grove, involving Cane Hill, and in other area battles, in great numbers. Some of them took their squaws and children along. Some Pins were employed as scouts of the army and others ran in private bands, devoted to their own desires.
The Keetoowah Society, composed of full-blood Cherokees, was organized in 1859 in the Cherokee nation (Indian Territory), with purpose of developing higher individualism and to preserve tribal history.
They met at night in the woods (later they were called Night Hawk Keetoowahs) and had secret rituals and signs by which they could identify each other in the dark or beyond speaking distance. Their badge of identification was two crossed pins, worn on the front of their hunting shirts.
Rev. Evan Jones, Baptist missionary, who brought a party of Cherokees from Georgia in the removal of the Indians, and his son, John, were active in this organization. Jones is thought to have organized it on the basis of an old society (Keetoowahs) originating in the South. But during the war he put emphasis on creating abolitionists.
A corroboration of this is found in a wartime newspaper called "Buck & Ball" after the ammunition used by the Union troops -- three buckshot and a 72-caliber ball. The advance of the Union army in the Battle of Prairie Grove arrived at Cane Hill and found a small printing press in a log cabin. Maj. Preston B. Plumb employed some newspapermen in his company to set up the type and one issue of the paper -- 1,500 copies -- was run off, then the troops moved on.
*A footnote by the author of the paper states that the press belonged to the Jones Mission, a few miles west of Cincinnati, Arkansas.
When the war broke out, these missionaries went north, leaving their press to the Cane Hill merchants as security for their debts. As the type was about equal in English and Cherokee characters, it is probable that this was the press used by the missionaries in Indian Territory for several years. Sequoyah is alleged to have worked at this press and to have been a Pin. (Editors' note: Other area historians contend that Sequoyah was never in Northwest Arkansas.)
Relative to the Pins, the note states the Jones Mission trained the Indians to be abolitionists and when one was converted he was given a badge of identification -- two crossed pins.
The Baptist Mission church with its inscription "Old Baptist Mission Church Moved From Georgia Over The Trail of Tears in 1835", near Westville, Okla., is still in use, its logs covered with siding. It stands "a few miles west of Cincinnati", the old border town where many Pins bought their supplies, including "firewater" and ammunition. It is claimed to be the Jones Mission referred to in the annals of the Civil War, the organization of which was moved from Georgia.
Irregardless [sic] of the original principles of the society the name "Pin" became synonymous with violence throughout the Civil War period. Like the white bushwhackers, in the name of the army, private bands roved the country, pillaging, burning and murdering indiscriminately, whether their victims were Southerners or not.
The women, children and old men left at home lived in terror of a knock on the door at night or a glimpse of an Indian (or white) lurking in the woods, watching the house. When given what they wanted, they often murdered the occupants and burned the house, anyway
These depredations continued for some time after the war.
The Keetoowah Society is still in existence today, although split into factions, each with its own chief and head man. The largest and possibly the oldest is the Red Bird Smith that owns the seal of the original society and the sacred wampum belt related to the history of the tribe. In the breaking up of the Cherokee government and the allotment of tribal land, they became active politically, opposed to the closing of the government.
The term "Pin" was applied only to the full-blood Cherokee guerrilla bands in the Civil War and since has faded into obscurity.
Justice demands the admission that not all the deeds laid to them were theirs. Many times white bushwhackers painted their faces and masqueraded as Indians to do their own.
*Reprinted from Arkansas Democrat Magazine, January 4, 1970
**Taken from the Washington County Historical Society's November 1983 issue Volume 33 Number 4 publication of FLASHBACK
A third faction, the Pin Indians, were Northern Sympathizers. The harassed citizens of the boarder area of Northwest Arkansas and Indian Territory divided their invective between "Stand Waitie's men" and the Pins, according to their sympathies.
During this period the sound of hoof beats on the rocky roads could mean the cavalry of either the Federals or Confederates -- or a private band of Pin Indians on a raid. Either one sent the residents scurrying to hide food and valuables, sometimes to take them to the woods and hide there with them until the danger was past.
History gives scant mention of these mysterious raiders. Information is gleaned mostly from Civil War records, Oklahoma Chronicles and handed-down stories from the ancestry of the present residents of the area in which they operated.
Their history is so closely woven with the Keetoowahs some have mistaken them for the same society but their is a distinction. Many Keetoowahs were Pins but not all Pins were Keetoowahs, and one historian says, "I have known of some who claimed to be Pins who were no more Pins than I am."
Many Keetoowahs enlisted in the Union Home Guard Brigade at Ft. Gibson, serving under white officers. Civil War records list Indians as serving in the Battle of Prairie Grove, involving Cane Hill, and in other area battles, in great numbers. Some of them took their squaws and children along. Some Pins were employed as scouts of the army and others ran in private bands, devoted to their own desires.
The Keetoowah Society, composed of full-blood Cherokees, was organized in 1859 in the Cherokee nation (Indian Territory), with purpose of developing higher individualism and to preserve tribal history.
They met at night in the woods (later they were called Night Hawk Keetoowahs) and had secret rituals and signs by which they could identify each other in the dark or beyond speaking distance. Their badge of identification was two crossed pins, worn on the front of their hunting shirts.
Rev. Evan Jones, Baptist missionary, who brought a party of Cherokees from Georgia in the removal of the Indians, and his son, John, were active in this organization. Jones is thought to have organized it on the basis of an old society (Keetoowahs) originating in the South. But during the war he put emphasis on creating abolitionists.
A corroboration of this is found in a wartime newspaper called "Buck & Ball" after the ammunition used by the Union troops -- three buckshot and a 72-caliber ball. The advance of the Union army in the Battle of Prairie Grove arrived at Cane Hill and found a small printing press in a log cabin. Maj. Preston B. Plumb employed some newspapermen in his company to set up the type and one issue of the paper -- 1,500 copies -- was run off, then the troops moved on.
*A footnote by the author of the paper states that the press belonged to the Jones Mission, a few miles west of Cincinnati, Arkansas.
When the war broke out, these missionaries went north, leaving their press to the Cane Hill merchants as security for their debts. As the type was about equal in English and Cherokee characters, it is probable that this was the press used by the missionaries in Indian Territory for several years. Sequoyah is alleged to have worked at this press and to have been a Pin. (Editors' note: Other area historians contend that Sequoyah was never in Northwest Arkansas.)
Relative to the Pins, the note states the Jones Mission trained the Indians to be abolitionists and when one was converted he was given a badge of identification -- two crossed pins.
The Baptist Mission church with its inscription "Old Baptist Mission Church Moved From Georgia Over The Trail of Tears in 1835", near Westville, Okla., is still in use, its logs covered with siding. It stands "a few miles west of Cincinnati", the old border town where many Pins bought their supplies, including "firewater" and ammunition. It is claimed to be the Jones Mission referred to in the annals of the Civil War, the organization of which was moved from Georgia.
Irregardless [sic] of the original principles of the society the name "Pin" became synonymous with violence throughout the Civil War period. Like the white bushwhackers, in the name of the army, private bands roved the country, pillaging, burning and murdering indiscriminately, whether their victims were Southerners or not.
The women, children and old men left at home lived in terror of a knock on the door at night or a glimpse of an Indian (or white) lurking in the woods, watching the house. When given what they wanted, they often murdered the occupants and burned the house, anyway
These depredations continued for some time after the war.
The Keetoowah Society is still in existence today, although split into factions, each with its own chief and head man. The largest and possibly the oldest is the Red Bird Smith that owns the seal of the original society and the sacred wampum belt related to the history of the tribe. In the breaking up of the Cherokee government and the allotment of tribal land, they became active politically, opposed to the closing of the government.
The term "Pin" was applied only to the full-blood Cherokee guerrilla bands in the Civil War and since has faded into obscurity.
Justice demands the admission that not all the deeds laid to them were theirs. Many times white bushwhackers painted their faces and masqueraded as Indians to do their own.
*Reprinted from Arkansas Democrat Magazine, January 4, 1970
**Taken from the Washington County Historical Society's November 1983 issue Volume 33 Number 4 publication of FLASHBACK
The Story of Clyde by Conrad Russel
About 1840 a log school house was built at the lower end of the hill, near where Clyde is now. A well-known minister and educator, Rev. Samuel Newton, taught there for a number of years. The school was called Elm Grove School.
The village that grew up near the school was at first called "Newton" for the Reverend Newton. From Newton it became "New Town."
The first store was a general merchandise store built in 1834 and operated by James B. Russell. During the Civil War, General Blunt and his officers called the village "Russelville" and "Newburg." After the war, the name "New Town" was back in use.
There were two other stores in New Town: Andrew Reed operated a store, and Mrs. Bess Burns and Mrs. Dana Yoe operated a store and millinery shop.
In 1850, a school for girls was opened in a frame building believed to have been located where Highway 45 passes behind the old store building still standing in Clyde. A well-known educator, Professor Thomas G. McCollough, was at the head of this school. Soon students were coming from adjoining counties and from Indian Territory. Because it was in Cane Hill Township, the school was called "Cane Hill Female Seminary." ore building was then necessary. On December 10, 1852, the school was chartered by an act of the legislature. In 1856 a new two-story building was erected, and a library and music department were added.
To this frontier school Miss Mary Beller, who had just graduated in music in New York City, brought her Chickering grand piano and took charge of the music department in the Seminary.
A post office was established, February 10, 1887, with W. C. Russell as postmaster. Subsequent postmasters were: James R. Reed, May 26, 1890; Dana L. Yoe, May 7, 1894; Andrew B Reed, March 31, 1899; Wm. J. David, Feb. 9, 1904; Bessie Burns, Mar. 17, 1906; L. H. Yates, Aug. 11, 1910; Robert Stephens, Aug. 12, 1911; W. W. Yates, Aug. 11, 1913; and Stanley W. Yates, Nov. 7, 1924. The post office was called, "Clyde", for Clyde Irwin who lived across the road.
Some of the earliest settlers in New Town were Carter, Braly, Yates, Palmer, Carroll, Parker, Irwin, Rodgers, Trewhitt, Reed, Braly, Houston, Cox, and David. There are probably others whose names I do not know.
During the war, New Town was burned by federal soldiers and bushwackers. When the people heard that their homes, stores, and schools were to be burned, they carried out, and secreted, as much food, clothing and bedding as possible. A cave nearby was the main hiding place.
Mrs. Malinda Yates was just a young woman at the time and remembered ( and recorded) mush of the story of hardship and hunger after the burning. This and other effects of the Civil War years will be the subject for a future story.
Mrs. Yates was educated in the Female Seminary, and she taught there for a time. When times were better, and schools were in operation again Mrs. Yates was employed to teach in a building erected after the war. This building stood near the site of the old feed mill and garage, still standing west of the highway ( this article was written in 1976). Her contract required her to teach six hours per day and five days per week, at a salary of $10 per month. She was instructed to keep order in the school, without showing any partiality with the children, and not to be ill and crabbed with same. Her arithmetic text book had been hand written by Mr. Rutherford in 1811. Mrs. Benton has this book now.
Miss Malinda Russell, the daughter of George and Mary Wallis Russell, was married to James Yates in 1855. Mr. Yates was a veteran of the Mexican War, a pioneer settler, and ancestor of the Yates family of Clyde, Ark. Sometime near the turn of the century Mrs. Malinda Yates bought the Russell store. Her son, L.H. Yates, operated the store for a number of years. He also operated a cannery in the village.
In 1874, 18 members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Cane Hill, who lived in the New Town area, withdrew and organized a Cumberland Presbyterian Church there. Church and school used the same building. The Rev. Nathan Hanks, J.A. Knox and Sam Benton Reed were ministers who worked there. Also some of the ministers at Cane Hill served the Clyde church.
Clyde today is a quiet community of modern homes. The water supply comes from Braly Spring, which flows from the foot of a small hill a few hundred yards southwest of the town. It is now owned by Adron and Marie Yates Benton. In early days, this spring was the community refrigerator. A log springhouse built over the spring, with a basin through the center through which cold spring water flowed, was where families kept milk, butter, and other food.
Along the spring branch, which flowed to a hollow walnut log watering trough, was a thick growth of willow trees and brush. In this growth, the boys of the community would hide and watch Frank and Jesse James water their horses when they came to visit their sister, Mrs. Barbara Palmer. According to Mrs. Yates' records, the Palmers were good neighbors and friends.
The community centers around a white frame church, which was probably built between 1910 and 1918 to replace the old building. Mr. William Trewhitt have the lot on which the church was built. Mr. W. W. Yates was in charge of construction. some of the ladies of the church planted, cultivated, and harvested a tomato crop, and Mr. Trewhitt furnished the land and hauled the tomatoes to the village cannery. The canned tomatoes were sold and the money given to the building fund.
According to available information, the land on which Clyde stands was owned by Mr. W. G. Parker. Mr. Parker was a blacksmith and operated a shop in Clyde for many years. When he was old, his son, W. J. Parker (called Billy by his many friends), took over the shop and carried on for many more years. He was the last blacksmith in the area.
Many things which once were necessary to life in the country are gone, and soon there will be no one who remembers.
(My thanks to Mrs. Adron Benton, W. L. and J.B. Trewhitt for their help in getting information for this story. CR)
*This article is from Volume 26, Number 3 of the Washington County Historical Society's publication FLASHBACK , August 1976
McClellan of Cane Hill by Conrad Russell
The White McClellan House in Cane Hill was built about 1865, and is one of the well-preserved homes of the area. It was restored to something near its original state by Mrs. Nellie Cox in the late 1960's.
It was built by Evan White McClellan when he returned to his home after the Civil War. He was born August 21, 1811 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and died February, 1882 at Boonsboro. On December 29, 1840, he married Sarah Jane Truesdell, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Harrington) Truesdell. She was born April 24, 1823, in Princeton, Indiana, and died December 26, 1905 in Boonsboro.
Evan White and Sarah Jane moved into their new home after it was finished. A large colonial structure boasting eight fire-places, it is said that two men were employed full time during the fall and winter months to cut wood and fire the fireplaces.
There were nine children in this family. The oldest son was John Truesdell, the subject of this story. He joined the Confederate Army and served during the conflict.
John T. was born April 15, 1842 at Boonsboro. At the outbreak of the war he joined Company H, 15th N. W. Ark. Infantry under Captain Buchanan. In 1865, he lost his sight and became totally blind.
At the close of the war, John returned to the family farm in Cane Hill to regain his health. He was determined to overcome the handicap of blindness so he attended the Law School of the University of Virginia and in 1872 he received the Bachelor of Law degree, although it had been necessary to employ someone to do his reading for him.
After his graduation he practiced law in McKinney, Texas and from one client he received a farm or parcel of land which was sold only a few years ago (keep in mind this article was written in 1977) by his heirs. After some years, he returned again to the Cane Hill Farm. After the death of his parents he came into possession of the big house and considerable acreage.
John T. was an expert horseman and always chose for his saddle horse a spirited, intelligent horse. His horses were of a special breed developed by his brother Charles on Charles' Oklahoma ranch, and called Red Wasp.
The horses John T. trained were remarkable. Trained to respond to signals of touch and movement as well as to commands, they would stand unattended, would not pass under low limbs or wire or anything low enough to strike a man in the saddle. He rode to the village almost daily, often with a basket of eggs or bucket of milk. He could go to any place he pleased in the village without any visible direction given to the horse.
The horse would move up to a gate and stand parallel to it until John found the latch and opened the gate; then the horse would pass through and repeat the action while the gate was being fastened.
John employed someone to ride with him while he was training his horse to warn him of low objects and any other things that might be dangerous to the rider. After the horse was trained, he rode alone. And he did not confine his rides to Cane Hill. His horses were trained to signal him at crossroads and he traveled the roads with a companion until he had memorized the turn he wanted to take.
He traveled long distances, making trips to Tahlequah to visit relatives, and many trips to Claremore, Oklahoma, where his sister Ada lived, and later, his brothers Charles and William. It is said he even rode to McKinney, Texas.
His most famous horse was named "Josh." On one occasion, he rode Josh to Claremore where he planned to spend some time. He decided to send Josh home, so he wrote a note saying "Let Josh pass," signed his name, tied the note to the saddle, and told Josh to go home. In due time, Josh arrived in Cane Hill.
It was thought that his horses were trained to signal him if he met someone on foot. Boys of the community often stood silently beside the road to see if he would pass them by. But it seemed that the horse would bob its head up and down a couple of times and John would say, "Hello, who is it?"
"Marmaduke" and "Maggie" were two other noted horses in John McClellan's string. "Maggie" was quite a bucker. I have seen him riding her as she bucked down the rocky hill from the barn to the pasture in front of the house.
There are many more surprising things that John T. McClellan could do. Some of them may seem unreasonable for a blind man. However, I have witnessed enough of them that I would not dispute any of them.
In order to feed and care for his horses, John Truesdell McClellan picked his way along a rocky path to the barn for many years. He would walk into a large hallway in the barn, filled with unbroken horses, talking and placing his hands on each one as he pushed his way among them. I never heard of one of them kicking him.
In the early winter of 1919, he fell from the hayloft, fracturing several ribs. Pneumonia followed and claimed his life, ending a colorful career.
*Taken from Volume 27, number 1 of the Washington County Historical Society's publication of FLASHBACK.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Cane Hill's Ancient Fort
CANE HILL
Washington Co., Arkansas
From THE MEMPHIS (TN) DAILY APPEAL, April 10, 1859
From THE MEMPHIS (TN) DAILY APPEAL, April 10, 1859
There are many beautiful places in the State of Arkansas -- many rich, rolling prairies, chequered off into fertile fields, and dotted here and there with the houses and barns of an enterprising and intelligent population.
The northwestern part of the State abounds in picturesque scenery. The Ozark mountains extend through that section, and divide the cotton region from that in which small grain and Indian corn from the staple productions. Traveling north from Van Buren, on the Arkansas River, a spur of this mountain range must be crossed. This spur is called the Boston mountain, and separates Washington from Crawford county.
Washing county lies north of Boston mountain, having the Cherokee nation immediately on the west. The land is generally fertile and no inconsiderable portion of the county is prairie. In this country there is a remarkable hill, bearing the name which stands at the head of this article. It rises amid a prairie, being about six miles long and from three to four in width. Its greatest height (sic) is one hundred and fifty feet; in some places the ascent is gradual and easy, in others it is rugged and precipitous. The summit is almost level, and the soil is black, and equal in fertility to the celebrated American bottom in Illinois, or the valley of the Nile itself. The growth of timber, on the remarkable hill, is similar to that found in the creek and river bottoms of that vicinity; it is black and white walnut, sassafras, ash, oak, sweet gum, and the largest mulberry trees I have ever seen in any country.
Cane Hill is remarkable for its abundance of clear and beautiful spring water. There are hundreds of springs in and about it. Never did more delicious water burst forth from the bosom of our common mother than these clear, cold springs of Cane Hill. The longest droughts, and the most powerful freshets seem to have no influence either upon the quantity of quality of the water.
Near the center of Cane Hill several springs arise from a gentle eminence, and flow away to different directions in bold streams, which soon unite with others and become considerable, affording never failing water power for machinery at the places of their descent. Several valuable flour mills and one or two cotton factories have been erected there, within the last year or two, and are doing well. At the point where these springs arise are the remains of an ancient fort. A portion of the stone wall still exists, but the greater part has long since been demolished. When I first visited that locality, which was in 1832, two squares of wall were standing. The work was of rough, but substantial masonry, and about a half acre, including several springs, was enclosed. Much labor had been bestowed upon the springs. Huge stone basins, curiously carved, and of shapes and dimensions, were found there, and in the vicinity, by the early settlers.
Daniel Boone, the great pioneer, accompanied by he late Governor Baggs of Missouri, were the first white men who climbed that hill. They sighted it in 1804, or 1805, and gave it the name of the "Black Hill". The Indians then residing there told them that, as far back as their traditions reached, the fort had been there, and they had no definite idea by whom or when it had been built. An oak at least four feet in diameter, standing on a part of the dilapidated wall, and evidently planted since the erection of the wall, bears indisputable evidence of the lapse of several centuries.
It is said that the wild Indians, scattered over the wide West, for ages prior to the coming of the pale face to take away their hunting grounds, were in the habit of holding a yearly council within the ruins of that fort. They resorted thither to smoke the pipe of peace, and to hold consultations relative to their general good. They regarded the old fort as a consecrated place, and thought that they heard the Great Spirit speaking to them, as the winds moaned among the boughs of the mighty trees, or the thunder echoed back its startling peals from the neighboring mountains.
In vain do we ask, 'Who built that fort? What people lived there? When did they flourish? By what means did they become extinct?' There is no voice to respond -- no record to gratify curiosity -- no history to clear away the obscurity that hangs over the whole subject. Certain it is, however, that some people, far more advanced toward civilization than the red man, once had their home here -- these crystal waters once reflected back their images and slaked their thirst, the smoke from these altars once arose amid these groves, and their songs made response to the prowl of the wild wolf. Here, at these springs, councils met and debated grave questions, involving the fate of tribes and nations, and decided whether war or peace should prevail. Here, once lived a race that, like ours, and all others of the varied family of man, were sometimes oppressed with fear, as others, transported with joy; sometimes mourned in adversity, at others rejoiced in prosperity. But they are all gone!
The scene is now changed. The Anglo-Saxon is there, transforming everything by his wondrous touch into images of art and science. Agriculture and commerce now hold undisputed sway, and peace crowns the sylvan shade.
*This article is from Volume 39 Number 3 of the Washington County Historical Societies publication of FLASHBACK 1989 and was supplied by Robert Myers who at that time was working on the Newspaper Project at the University of Arkansas.
The northwestern part of the State abounds in picturesque scenery. The Ozark mountains extend through that section, and divide the cotton region from that in which small grain and Indian corn from the staple productions. Traveling north from Van Buren, on the Arkansas River, a spur of this mountain range must be crossed. This spur is called the Boston mountain, and separates Washington from Crawford county.
Washing county lies north of Boston mountain, having the Cherokee nation immediately on the west. The land is generally fertile and no inconsiderable portion of the county is prairie. In this country there is a remarkable hill, bearing the name which stands at the head of this article. It rises amid a prairie, being about six miles long and from three to four in width. Its greatest height (sic) is one hundred and fifty feet; in some places the ascent is gradual and easy, in others it is rugged and precipitous. The summit is almost level, and the soil is black, and equal in fertility to the celebrated American bottom in Illinois, or the valley of the Nile itself. The growth of timber, on the remarkable hill, is similar to that found in the creek and river bottoms of that vicinity; it is black and white walnut, sassafras, ash, oak, sweet gum, and the largest mulberry trees I have ever seen in any country.
Cane Hill is remarkable for its abundance of clear and beautiful spring water. There are hundreds of springs in and about it. Never did more delicious water burst forth from the bosom of our common mother than these clear, cold springs of Cane Hill. The longest droughts, and the most powerful freshets seem to have no influence either upon the quantity of quality of the water.
Near the center of Cane Hill several springs arise from a gentle eminence, and flow away to different directions in bold streams, which soon unite with others and become considerable, affording never failing water power for machinery at the places of their descent. Several valuable flour mills and one or two cotton factories have been erected there, within the last year or two, and are doing well. At the point where these springs arise are the remains of an ancient fort. A portion of the stone wall still exists, but the greater part has long since been demolished. When I first visited that locality, which was in 1832, two squares of wall were standing. The work was of rough, but substantial masonry, and about a half acre, including several springs, was enclosed. Much labor had been bestowed upon the springs. Huge stone basins, curiously carved, and of shapes and dimensions, were found there, and in the vicinity, by the early settlers.
Daniel Boone, the great pioneer, accompanied by he late Governor Baggs of Missouri, were the first white men who climbed that hill. They sighted it in 1804, or 1805, and gave it the name of the "Black Hill". The Indians then residing there told them that, as far back as their traditions reached, the fort had been there, and they had no definite idea by whom or when it had been built. An oak at least four feet in diameter, standing on a part of the dilapidated wall, and evidently planted since the erection of the wall, bears indisputable evidence of the lapse of several centuries.
It is said that the wild Indians, scattered over the wide West, for ages prior to the coming of the pale face to take away their hunting grounds, were in the habit of holding a yearly council within the ruins of that fort. They resorted thither to smoke the pipe of peace, and to hold consultations relative to their general good. They regarded the old fort as a consecrated place, and thought that they heard the Great Spirit speaking to them, as the winds moaned among the boughs of the mighty trees, or the thunder echoed back its startling peals from the neighboring mountains.
In vain do we ask, 'Who built that fort? What people lived there? When did they flourish? By what means did they become extinct?' There is no voice to respond -- no record to gratify curiosity -- no history to clear away the obscurity that hangs over the whole subject. Certain it is, however, that some people, far more advanced toward civilization than the red man, once had their home here -- these crystal waters once reflected back their images and slaked their thirst, the smoke from these altars once arose amid these groves, and their songs made response to the prowl of the wild wolf. Here, at these springs, councils met and debated grave questions, involving the fate of tribes and nations, and decided whether war or peace should prevail. Here, once lived a race that, like ours, and all others of the varied family of man, were sometimes oppressed with fear, as others, transported with joy; sometimes mourned in adversity, at others rejoiced in prosperity. But they are all gone!
The scene is now changed. The Anglo-Saxon is there, transforming everything by his wondrous touch into images of art and science. Agriculture and commerce now hold undisputed sway, and peace crowns the sylvan shade.
*This article is from Volume 39 Number 3 of the Washington County Historical Societies publication of FLASHBACK 1989 and was supplied by Robert Myers who at that time was working on the Newspaper Project at the University of Arkansas.
The Experience of the T.A. Reynolds Family During the Civil War by Forrest Dutton Poorman
What path does a man take in a civil war when he is 37 years old, married with five children, having served as an officer in the Mexican War of 1846-47 and had lived in the Cane Hill area for the last ten years? His father-in-law, Tandy Kidd, and neighbors had slaves. Yet he had none and harbored strong feelings against fighting so others could keep theirs. Thus Thomas A. Reynolds elected to be loyal to the Union cause.
According to the Act of Congress of March 3, 1871, those citizens loyal to the Union could apply for compensation for any damage and loss they had suffered during the Civil War. To that end in 1873, Thomas Reynolds began securing depositions describing names, places, events and losses that occurred during the war years. These also attempted to establish the fact that Thomas was and had remained loyal to the Union. It is possible this requirement might have had some influence on the various testimonies. However, the depositions by T.A. Reynolds, his wife, Ophelia Ann, his employee, Elizah Bell, employee's wife, Sarah, employee's daughter, Mary Bell, and David Maberry were not sufficient to establish loyalty. In 1877 he submitted additional depositions from Adam J. Reed, Bryant Wallace, and William G. Aikens.
Thomas testified that before 1862 he had been against the secession of Arkansas and had used his influence when he could. He voted against the secession and refused to join the Confederate Army. This political stand caused him to be arrested by Col. Shelby's men and held under guard for 3-4 days. When Federals appeared in Boonsboro (an early name for the Cane Hill area), the Rebels left and Thomas was freed. He stated that he was abused at other times and was told either join the Rebs, leave the country or be killed.
Bryant Wallace was a 62 year old friend. Although their friendship was casual, he had been in the Reynolds's home often. He reported only one war talk with T.A. That took place in the fall, after the August 1861 Wilson Creek battle. During the discussion, Reynolds said, "He had no niggers to be fighting or fussing over. All he had was his place and stock to save. He reckoned the nigger was what they were fighting over and he had no need to be out fighting to save other people's niggers."
In the Spring of 1862, Thomas moved with his wife and children to their 160 acre farm located 6.5 miles northwest of Boonsboro. The Reynolds's farm had 60-80 acres under cultivation by their employee, Elizah Bell, and some hired help. Numerous references were made to the fine quality and quantity of products produced on the farm.
Besides the two-story house, the farm had a smoke house, stable, a second house and a barn. These structures were mentioned in the various depositions. Mrs. Reynolds managed the farm, with the help of Mr. and Mrs. Bell and their daughter, Mary. The three women and the Reynolds' children -- Jerome, 9; Eugene, 7; Nancy, 4; Thomas, 3; and Johanna, 2 -- remained on the farm for some time. A daughter, Lucella, was born in 1864.
Thomas stayed in Boonsboro to take care of his confectionery establishment and he also clerked in his father-in-law's (Tandy Kidd) store until December 1861. When General Blunt brought his Army of the Frontier to Rhea's Mill in November, 1862, Thomas made many trips to the various camps, often staying several days at a time. It is indicated he helped the Unionist with the geography of the area only.
In his deposition, Thomas reported, "A good deal of confectionery and picture stock was taken and destroyed by the Rebels, some $400-$500 worth. I never got a cent for anything taken from me by the Rebels." He had the reputation of being a fine daguerreian artist.
He indicated he did have a brother-in-law, Mortimer Kidd, in the Confederate army. However, he swore that he never talked to him nor ever helped him in any way.
General Blunt had issued property protection papers for Thomas and for the Kidd Estate. Thomas admitted he made copies of the Kidd papers and distributed them to the persons in charge of the widely scattered pieces of property contained in the Estate. For this, General Blunt had him arrested. Thomas went to the General and explained his motive was to see that all concerned employees would have a copy. The General reproved him and he was freed. This gave some indication that Tandy Kidd, although a slave owner, was a union sympathizer.
Adam J. Reed related an incident when two rebels, Gatewood and Parks, came to the Kidd Store where Reynolds was employed. They wanted to buy a harness with Confederate money. Reynolds told Kidd not to take the Confederate money for "it was not worth a damn." The harness was not sold and a fuss grew out of it. The harness was finally taken by force and Reed believed that Kidd's refusal to take the Confederate money was the cause of Kidd's death later at the hands of Perry Parks.
In his deposition, David Maberry said it was common knowledge that the claimant's father-in-law, Tandy Kidd, was branded as a Union man and threatened with the rope. He added the claimant was but a step behind his father-in-law though there wasn't as much said about him.
Ophelia Reynolds experienced one of the first incidents involving the Union Army's activities. She had been riding her mare, when she returned home, removed the saddle and sent the horse to pasture with their other cold. About, sundown, a group of Indian Scouts of Col Phillip's Cherokees rode into the yard. She and Mrs. Sarah Bell ran out and could only watch as the Indians rounded up the two horses, led them to the barn, fed them and rode off. The Reynolds never saw their horses again. Ophelia reported the Indians were all painted and looked very frightful to her. She could not sleep well after that. She rented the farm to Elizah Bell and moved to Boonsboro to live with her widowed stepmother, Nancy E. Kidd.
Later she went to Rhea's Mill, where the Union army had made camp since November 1862, and lodged a complaint with General Blunt. He gave her a receipt for some hay and corn, but she never cashed it and later cold not recall why not. It and all her other papers were lost when the Kidd hom was burned by Jennison's men in 1864.
Soon after the November arrival of Blunt's army at Rhea's Mill, just 1.5 miles east of Reynolds' farm, foraging parties began stripping all the local farms of their food stocks.
Thomas Reynolds admitted he had never done any farm work. Consequently he could not judge the quantity nor quality of his farm's produce and had to rely on his employee, Elizah Bell, to accurately report their losses.
Mr. Bell supported the Union cause and therefore had some threatening enemies. After a year of farming for Thomas, he made the decision to go to Texas for his own safety. His depositions were very descriptive about the foraging activities of the Federal army. Four government wagons arrived at the Reynolds' farm soon after the Union army made camp and were loaded with shucked corn. The next time they came with six or eight wagons each time they took shucked corn. He estimated over three hundred bushels were taken, suing his own wagon capacity as a measure. The hay was stored in a house and it was taken along with some of the first loads of corn. He said the hay filled a six-mule wagon.
Elizah was positive the soldiers took one thousand bundles of fodder. "An Ohio regiment got that. They came to me like gentlemen. I went and helped them load it. There were two stacks of five hundred bundles each." Their officer asked Elizah to save the corn for him, that he would be back with a receipt for both the fodder and the corn. When Bell got back to the house, there was a train of four wagons from a Kansas regiment. They insisted on having the promised corn. When Elizah objected, the officer drew his sword and threatened to kill him if he didn't open the gate. After the four wagons were loaded, Elizah got up on a wagon, trying to see the officer and get a receipt. He was hauled off and the officer said they didn't give receipts to his sort. After that he never tried to stop any soldiers. They just take what they wanted.
Many of the events were described as before or after "the Battle" meaning the December 7, 1862 Battle of Prairie Grove. It was before the battle that a Federal train arrived to take all the hogs on the farm. Nineteen head of pork hogs, being fed in a pen for Mr. Reynolds, were killed. They were at least two years old and ran from two to three hundred pounds when dressed. The soldiers also took or killed nineteen stock hogs that weighed between sixty and eighty pounds each. They killed the sow, leaving her to waste and took all her two-month old piglets. Mrs. Reynolds, Sarah, and Elizabeth had to stand by and watch the slaughter as live and dead hogs were hauled off in the forage wagons.
A few days after the battle, Col. Richardson's Missouri regiment camped sixty to seventy yards from the Reynolds' house for almost a week. The soldiers discovered a barrel and a half of molasses in the smoke house. They ate most of the nineteen young hogs and gorged themselves on the half barrel of molasses. They made themselves very sick. The full barrel and what was left of the other were loaded on the forage wagon and taken to Gen. Blunt's camp.
At the same time, they came for wheat and took it to Rhea's Mill to be ground. Elizah's estimate was four sugar hogsheads full (each held twenty bushels). They poured the wheat loose into the wagons.
"The potatoes were taken by the 6th Kansas Calvary before the Battle. The men carried the potatoes off in their blankets, probably twenty bushels. The potatoes were hilled up in the garden and they took all of them."
When Mr. Bell left the farm in the fall of 1863, he left a crop of twenty acres of #1 wheat, estimating a yield of twenty bushels an acre. He also left ten acres of corn, an exceptional stand, yielding about twenty-five bushels an acre. The Federals drove one of their wagons into the field and took all the corn. Mrs. Bell had taken one bushel upstairs. That was all that was saved.
Wagon trains also came from Fayetteville, for Rhea's Mill was on the road to that town and some came from Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.
Adam Reed had been a close friend of Thomas for over twenty-four years. He had joined Co. Be, 1st Arkansas Calvary and was stationed in Fayetteville. Early in 1862, because of his Union support, he had to "take to the mountains and went up to my mother's, twelve miles from here, where I remained until I went into the Federal Army in October, 1862."
Many of the men in Reed's post were old friends of Thomas Reynolds having been neighbors in Cane Hill. Reed suggested that if Reynolds needed additional verification of his loyalty, he was sure Samuel K. Reed, John R. Reed, several of the Larrimores and Kings would be only too happy to testify.
Fearing for his life, foe he had received such threats, Reynolds visited Reed one day in the Spring of 1863. His old friend and neighbor, Wesley King, Joined Adam Reed in advising him not to go home, but to try to get employment on the post in Fayetteville. When he was not successful in that plan, he decided to go to Van Buren.
Some of Thomas' problems were solved when he obtained a clerking job with the Dixon-Callahan Store in Van Buren. This store was located across the street from the Federal Military Post. He made friends with William G. Aikens, a soldier in Co. G., 1st Arkansas Cavalry. In his deposition, Aikens vouched for Reynolds' loyalty to the Union. He said he saw him often at his job and as a civilian at the Military Post.
In May, 1864, Thomas was able to get a Federal train to move his family to Van Buren and they stayed with him there until they felt it safe to return to Washington County.
The depositions obtained from former soldiers in 1877 were sufficient to satisfy the Commission of Claims that Thomas Reynolds had remained a loyal citizen of the Union and could submit his claims. his itemized losses were: 75 bushels of what $75.00, 300 bushels of corn $150.00, 500 binds of fodder $10.00, 1000 pounds hay $10.00, 30 gallons molasses $30.00, 4845 pounds of pork $290.70, 1 bay mare eight years old $100.00, one young horse $50.00, ten bushels Irish potatoes $10.00, 425 bushels of wheat $425.00, 250 bushels corn $250.00 and 400 pounds of pork $2400. Reynolds submitted a claim of losses amounting to $1,424.70. The Commission ruled some articles were over charged and that others were placed on the list on account of pillage and depreciation. After these deductions, Thomas Reynolds was awarded $560.00 by A.A. Aides, J.B.B. Howell and O. Ferries, Commission of Claims on December 5, 1877.
*Taken from Volume 44, Number 2 of the Washington County Historical Society's publication Flashback. May 1994.
According to the Act of Congress of March 3, 1871, those citizens loyal to the Union could apply for compensation for any damage and loss they had suffered during the Civil War. To that end in 1873, Thomas Reynolds began securing depositions describing names, places, events and losses that occurred during the war years. These also attempted to establish the fact that Thomas was and had remained loyal to the Union. It is possible this requirement might have had some influence on the various testimonies. However, the depositions by T.A. Reynolds, his wife, Ophelia Ann, his employee, Elizah Bell, employee's wife, Sarah, employee's daughter, Mary Bell, and David Maberry were not sufficient to establish loyalty. In 1877 he submitted additional depositions from Adam J. Reed, Bryant Wallace, and William G. Aikens.
Thomas testified that before 1862 he had been against the secession of Arkansas and had used his influence when he could. He voted against the secession and refused to join the Confederate Army. This political stand caused him to be arrested by Col. Shelby's men and held under guard for 3-4 days. When Federals appeared in Boonsboro (an early name for the Cane Hill area), the Rebels left and Thomas was freed. He stated that he was abused at other times and was told either join the Rebs, leave the country or be killed.
Bryant Wallace was a 62 year old friend. Although their friendship was casual, he had been in the Reynolds's home often. He reported only one war talk with T.A. That took place in the fall, after the August 1861 Wilson Creek battle. During the discussion, Reynolds said, "He had no niggers to be fighting or fussing over. All he had was his place and stock to save. He reckoned the nigger was what they were fighting over and he had no need to be out fighting to save other people's niggers."
In the Spring of 1862, Thomas moved with his wife and children to their 160 acre farm located 6.5 miles northwest of Boonsboro. The Reynolds's farm had 60-80 acres under cultivation by their employee, Elizah Bell, and some hired help. Numerous references were made to the fine quality and quantity of products produced on the farm.
Besides the two-story house, the farm had a smoke house, stable, a second house and a barn. These structures were mentioned in the various depositions. Mrs. Reynolds managed the farm, with the help of Mr. and Mrs. Bell and their daughter, Mary. The three women and the Reynolds' children -- Jerome, 9; Eugene, 7; Nancy, 4; Thomas, 3; and Johanna, 2 -- remained on the farm for some time. A daughter, Lucella, was born in 1864.
Thomas stayed in Boonsboro to take care of his confectionery establishment and he also clerked in his father-in-law's (Tandy Kidd) store until December 1861. When General Blunt brought his Army of the Frontier to Rhea's Mill in November, 1862, Thomas made many trips to the various camps, often staying several days at a time. It is indicated he helped the Unionist with the geography of the area only.
In his deposition, Thomas reported, "A good deal of confectionery and picture stock was taken and destroyed by the Rebels, some $400-$500 worth. I never got a cent for anything taken from me by the Rebels." He had the reputation of being a fine daguerreian artist.
He indicated he did have a brother-in-law, Mortimer Kidd, in the Confederate army. However, he swore that he never talked to him nor ever helped him in any way.
General Blunt had issued property protection papers for Thomas and for the Kidd Estate. Thomas admitted he made copies of the Kidd papers and distributed them to the persons in charge of the widely scattered pieces of property contained in the Estate. For this, General Blunt had him arrested. Thomas went to the General and explained his motive was to see that all concerned employees would have a copy. The General reproved him and he was freed. This gave some indication that Tandy Kidd, although a slave owner, was a union sympathizer.
Adam J. Reed related an incident when two rebels, Gatewood and Parks, came to the Kidd Store where Reynolds was employed. They wanted to buy a harness with Confederate money. Reynolds told Kidd not to take the Confederate money for "it was not worth a damn." The harness was not sold and a fuss grew out of it. The harness was finally taken by force and Reed believed that Kidd's refusal to take the Confederate money was the cause of Kidd's death later at the hands of Perry Parks.
In his deposition, David Maberry said it was common knowledge that the claimant's father-in-law, Tandy Kidd, was branded as a Union man and threatened with the rope. He added the claimant was but a step behind his father-in-law though there wasn't as much said about him.
Ophelia Reynolds experienced one of the first incidents involving the Union Army's activities. She had been riding her mare, when she returned home, removed the saddle and sent the horse to pasture with their other cold. About, sundown, a group of Indian Scouts of Col Phillip's Cherokees rode into the yard. She and Mrs. Sarah Bell ran out and could only watch as the Indians rounded up the two horses, led them to the barn, fed them and rode off. The Reynolds never saw their horses again. Ophelia reported the Indians were all painted and looked very frightful to her. She could not sleep well after that. She rented the farm to Elizah Bell and moved to Boonsboro to live with her widowed stepmother, Nancy E. Kidd.
Later she went to Rhea's Mill, where the Union army had made camp since November 1862, and lodged a complaint with General Blunt. He gave her a receipt for some hay and corn, but she never cashed it and later cold not recall why not. It and all her other papers were lost when the Kidd hom was burned by Jennison's men in 1864.
Soon after the November arrival of Blunt's army at Rhea's Mill, just 1.5 miles east of Reynolds' farm, foraging parties began stripping all the local farms of their food stocks.
Thomas Reynolds admitted he had never done any farm work. Consequently he could not judge the quantity nor quality of his farm's produce and had to rely on his employee, Elizah Bell, to accurately report their losses.
Mr. Bell supported the Union cause and therefore had some threatening enemies. After a year of farming for Thomas, he made the decision to go to Texas for his own safety. His depositions were very descriptive about the foraging activities of the Federal army. Four government wagons arrived at the Reynolds' farm soon after the Union army made camp and were loaded with shucked corn. The next time they came with six or eight wagons each time they took shucked corn. He estimated over three hundred bushels were taken, suing his own wagon capacity as a measure. The hay was stored in a house and it was taken along with some of the first loads of corn. He said the hay filled a six-mule wagon.
Elizah was positive the soldiers took one thousand bundles of fodder. "An Ohio regiment got that. They came to me like gentlemen. I went and helped them load it. There were two stacks of five hundred bundles each." Their officer asked Elizah to save the corn for him, that he would be back with a receipt for both the fodder and the corn. When Bell got back to the house, there was a train of four wagons from a Kansas regiment. They insisted on having the promised corn. When Elizah objected, the officer drew his sword and threatened to kill him if he didn't open the gate. After the four wagons were loaded, Elizah got up on a wagon, trying to see the officer and get a receipt. He was hauled off and the officer said they didn't give receipts to his sort. After that he never tried to stop any soldiers. They just take what they wanted.
Many of the events were described as before or after "the Battle" meaning the December 7, 1862 Battle of Prairie Grove. It was before the battle that a Federal train arrived to take all the hogs on the farm. Nineteen head of pork hogs, being fed in a pen for Mr. Reynolds, were killed. They were at least two years old and ran from two to three hundred pounds when dressed. The soldiers also took or killed nineteen stock hogs that weighed between sixty and eighty pounds each. They killed the sow, leaving her to waste and took all her two-month old piglets. Mrs. Reynolds, Sarah, and Elizabeth had to stand by and watch the slaughter as live and dead hogs were hauled off in the forage wagons.
A few days after the battle, Col. Richardson's Missouri regiment camped sixty to seventy yards from the Reynolds' house for almost a week. The soldiers discovered a barrel and a half of molasses in the smoke house. They ate most of the nineteen young hogs and gorged themselves on the half barrel of molasses. They made themselves very sick. The full barrel and what was left of the other were loaded on the forage wagon and taken to Gen. Blunt's camp.
At the same time, they came for wheat and took it to Rhea's Mill to be ground. Elizah's estimate was four sugar hogsheads full (each held twenty bushels). They poured the wheat loose into the wagons.
"The potatoes were taken by the 6th Kansas Calvary before the Battle. The men carried the potatoes off in their blankets, probably twenty bushels. The potatoes were hilled up in the garden and they took all of them."
When Mr. Bell left the farm in the fall of 1863, he left a crop of twenty acres of #1 wheat, estimating a yield of twenty bushels an acre. He also left ten acres of corn, an exceptional stand, yielding about twenty-five bushels an acre. The Federals drove one of their wagons into the field and took all the corn. Mrs. Bell had taken one bushel upstairs. That was all that was saved.
Wagon trains also came from Fayetteville, for Rhea's Mill was on the road to that town and some came from Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.
Adam Reed had been a close friend of Thomas for over twenty-four years. He had joined Co. Be, 1st Arkansas Calvary and was stationed in Fayetteville. Early in 1862, because of his Union support, he had to "take to the mountains and went up to my mother's, twelve miles from here, where I remained until I went into the Federal Army in October, 1862."
Many of the men in Reed's post were old friends of Thomas Reynolds having been neighbors in Cane Hill. Reed suggested that if Reynolds needed additional verification of his loyalty, he was sure Samuel K. Reed, John R. Reed, several of the Larrimores and Kings would be only too happy to testify.
Fearing for his life, foe he had received such threats, Reynolds visited Reed one day in the Spring of 1863. His old friend and neighbor, Wesley King, Joined Adam Reed in advising him not to go home, but to try to get employment on the post in Fayetteville. When he was not successful in that plan, he decided to go to Van Buren.
Some of Thomas' problems were solved when he obtained a clerking job with the Dixon-Callahan Store in Van Buren. This store was located across the street from the Federal Military Post. He made friends with William G. Aikens, a soldier in Co. G., 1st Arkansas Cavalry. In his deposition, Aikens vouched for Reynolds' loyalty to the Union. He said he saw him often at his job and as a civilian at the Military Post.
In May, 1864, Thomas was able to get a Federal train to move his family to Van Buren and they stayed with him there until they felt it safe to return to Washington County.
The depositions obtained from former soldiers in 1877 were sufficient to satisfy the Commission of Claims that Thomas Reynolds had remained a loyal citizen of the Union and could submit his claims. his itemized losses were: 75 bushels of what $75.00, 300 bushels of corn $150.00, 500 binds of fodder $10.00, 1000 pounds hay $10.00, 30 gallons molasses $30.00, 4845 pounds of pork $290.70, 1 bay mare eight years old $100.00, one young horse $50.00, ten bushels Irish potatoes $10.00, 425 bushels of wheat $425.00, 250 bushels corn $250.00 and 400 pounds of pork $2400. Reynolds submitted a claim of losses amounting to $1,424.70. The Commission ruled some articles were over charged and that others were placed on the list on account of pillage and depreciation. After these deductions, Thomas Reynolds was awarded $560.00 by A.A. Aides, J.B.B. Howell and O. Ferries, Commission of Claims on December 5, 1877.
*Taken from Volume 44, Number 2 of the Washington County Historical Society's publication Flashback. May 1994.
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