Shield:  Gules & Crosier or, and sword argent saltireways; on a  chief argent, a thistle vert, a bordure indented argent.

Crest:  A crosier and dagger in saltire as in the shield.

Motto:  Optium quod primun

                                 Authorities :                                                              Kirk Genalogies Scottish Heraldy American Vol 23 Burkes General Armory

                                 Description of symbols:

Crosier:  A staff carried by, or in front of a bishop or Archbishop, on a ceremonial occasion.  Sumbol of ecclesiastical office, and emblem of faith.

Sword and Dagger:   Emblem of Military honour and should indicate the bearer to be just and generous in pursuit of honor and virtue in warlike deed.  Weapon of justice, imported during the Crusades.

Saltiries:  In manner of a SALTIRE.  One of the greater  ordanies; the St. Andrew’s Cross or cross in the form of an X.  Synbol of resolution.

Chief:  First in importance, and occupies the top of the shield, the foremost position.  Symbol of dominion and authority.  Granted as a  special reward for prudence and wisdom, as well as for successful command in War.

Thistle:  The ordinary Variety of Thistle — the emblem of truth.  Was once a Scottish Order of Knighthod, sometimes called the Order of St. Andrew.

Bordue:  Represents high authoritty, Frequently adopted as the difference between relatives bearing the same Arms; also adopted as a symbol of honor.

Indented:  Usually as a varient of Bordure; symbol of Honor, and represents the form of fire.

Colors:  (red) or gold,       argent (Silver),           vert (green)

My copy of the Coat of Arms is blended with black, so can’t copy it well.  As best as I can describe it follows:

Crossed Swords (Shape of an X)  sit atop a  Chief  (Helmet & breastplate)  and shield  with the crest having crosier and dagger in Saltire ( shape of and X – Cross of St. Andrew)sitting in the center of the shield.  The top portion  of the shield has has the silver chief, a green thistle, and a silver bordure indented.

     Between 1952 and 1956 my aunt, Johnnie Haggard Hindman, received three letters from an elderly lady from Bell, California.  She was doing the family history of our branch of the Haggard Family in America. ( I am descended from John Quitman Haggard and she is descended from David Carrol Haggard, two of five brothers whose mother was Sarah Pace Haggard, daughter of Edmund Pace and wife of John William Haggard.)   She and her sister, Sarah Haggard Bullard had been working on the Haggard family since about 1924.  She also wrote a short personal history in 1951 when she was about 75 years old.  It was written in her own hand, but was typed from the original copy by Carmen Butler, who put certain of her own comments in parenthesis, except about Indians.  Later it was retyped by Kay Dawn Dortch.  The only change she made was Latter Day to Latter-day and placed in brackets.  No other changes were made, not even those of grammatical editing.

Following is Vida’s own history in her own words.

Before starting this sketch of my life I will say that I am not much on history writing, but as we are record keeping people I will try to live up to my religion.  In making this sketch I will have to write some about my father’s family.

I was born 29 December 1876 in Fearn Springs, Winston County, Mississippi.  My parents were William Adley Haggard, who ws born 8 October 1848 and married Permelia Louisiana Fain 9 October 1873.  She was born 9 May  1856 at Kellis Stoe, Kemper County, Mississippi.  They were married at her mother’s house in Noxubee County, Mississippi.

My father taught school near my Grandmother Fain’s home and my mother went to his school before they were married.  They settled in Winston County, Mississippi, where my father owned a farm of one-hundred-sixty acres.

When my father was three years old he had what we now believe is Polio, and was a cripple for the rest of his life.  However, he was a good provider for his family.  He hired a man to run the farm.  After we children go old enough we helped on the farm.

My father taught school or held county offices.  He was never idle.  He owned and operated a grocery store.  I remember the Darkies used to bring cotton and trade for groceries.

He decided to go out of business and teach again.  He got a school a few miles from our house.  Grandfather took charge of the farm and we moved to what was known as the Bateman neighborhood.

It was while we were there that the humble Mormon Missionaries came to our place.  They first stopped at Mr. Bateman’s and stayed all night.  When his children came to school the next morning they said that two strange preachers stayed at their house the night before.  My father told them when they went home that evening if the men were stiill there to tell them to come over because he wanted to talk to them.  The next day the Elders came over and I think it was my father who asked them to hold a meeting in the schoolhouse.  They were glad to do this, but the men in the neighborhood tried to get a mob to run them out.

A short time after this school was out and we moved back to our farm.  We invited the missionaries to visit us which they did.  As soon as it was known they were visiting us Satan began his work and the mobs got furious.

I remember one Sunday afternoon the missionaries were at our house.  We were sitting out on the front porch and the Elders were singing when a bunch of men rode up, I think there were more than seventeen in all.  It being a new experience for my father he hardly knew what to do.  He asked Elder Bramwell, who was the older of the two, if he did not think they had better hide out in the cornfield which came almost up to the house.  He replied that he did not think so as he thought if they did the mob would surely get them.

My father was a very brave and fearless man and everbody knew it.  He stepped in the house and put his six shooter in his pocket and went down to the gate to where the men were stopped.  They were still sitting on their horses and each man had a gun.  My father asked what they wanted and they said they wanted the Mormon Elders.  Then my father explained who they were and what they were doing, thinking the mob might go away and let them alone, but they would not.  They were going to take them dead or alive.  My father told them that they had better go home and get a wagon for they would haul someone home – That they might get him, but he would get some of them and they did not know which it would be.

We had many trials which I won’t try to tell, but will say that my father and mother, along with three of their children, and my father’s father and my mother’s brother and two of his sisters and mother were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of {Latter-day) Saints.

The Elders had orders not to come to Winston County again.  My father wrote them while they were in Alabama.  They had to come to the County after dark.  My uncle was to meet them at a certain place and show them the way.  Somehow he got off the road that he was supposed to take to their meeting place.  They also got off the road but they all met.  We always felt if they had not gotten off the road some of those wicked men might have met up with them.

On 10 October 1887 there were thirteen of us baptized at midnight.  After the baptisms were over we spread a lovely lunch the women prepared and enjoyed it.  After talking and visiting until just before time for the missionaries to get out of the County before daylight we all bid farewell to our dearly beloved Elders and they went on their way.  We went home rejoicing in knowing that we were members of the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Shortly after this my father sold his house and everything he owned and we went to Western Colorado where we could live free to live our religion among the {Latter-day} Saints.  This was a newly town where we lived from 1887 to 1889.

We could not stay long because my father contracted rheumatism and had to go to a warmer climate.  He sold our house and bought a team and wagon.  We put all our belongings in the wagon and started out not knowing where we were going.  After a journey of one-thousand-ninety-three miles through a barren and desolate county, (We passed through country where the Indians were not civilized-both man and women dressed alike.) we finally stopped in what was known then as the Creek Nation in a small town of Eufaula.  There my father put up a shoe shop where he did a good business.

We were there for about two years when  my father decided to go back to Mississippi.  We sold our wagon and went by train to our native state.  My parents were not content to be away from the Church so we bought a wagon and a yoke of oxen and started on another journey of five-hundred-forty-seven miles.  We stopped this time at Krebs, Indian Territory for a short time.  We finally settled at Coalgate, Indian Territory.

Soon after we stopped there were two missionaries came to visit and soon we had the missionaries often.  finally there was a Sunday School organized with only four families of Saints.  After that we were more contented and had missionaries often and they held conference there, too.

It was there tht I saw my first miracle performed.  My sister, Sally, was very low and our family doctor said there wwas no chance for her to live.  He had done all he could-it was up to the Lord.  Death was on her, she was cold.  It seemed she would only be with us for a few minutes longer, but our doctor still stayed with us.

I think it was about elevern o’clock at night.  We had just knelt down around her bed when in stepped two missionaries.  We did no know they were anywhere around.  then in just a few seconds it seemed to me, two more Elders came in, and before they could administer to my sister, two more elders arrived.  They administered to her and the next morning we propped her up in bed and she took a little nourishment.  She recovered and is still living.

Sally has done a wonderful lot of good in the world and is still doing all the good she can.  We give all credit to our Heavenly Father.  We know he sent those Elders to us that night in answer to a prayer.  Each pair of Elders said they were inpressed to come to the Haggard home and had come from different directions and each were many miles away.

It was here I met my husband, Samuel Benjamin Dye.  He accepted the gospel in Texas when he was eighteen years of age.  He came to Coalgate with Brother W. C. Harless who, too, was trying to locate the Saints.  This was in 1901 and we were married in 1903 on the 8th of May.

We heard of a Mormon seettlement in Marlow, Oklahoma, as the Indian Territory had become a State. The Sharon Branch was  soon organized after we moved there.  My parents, brothers, and sisters moved there, also.  We stayed for a few years and enjoyed our little branch of the Church.

In 1917 we decided to move to Thatcher, Arizona. {President Spencer W. Kimble’s hometown} We lived there for five years and then moved to Los Angeles, California.  We settled in Home Gardens.  Shortly after we moved there a Branch was organized and my husband was put in as Branch President with Benjamin N. Lincoln as First Counselor and Abinidi Porter, Second Counselor.  In 1925 the Home Gardens became a Ward and he became the first Bishop there.

I think I enjoyed myself more there than anywhere else I have ever lived.  It was where I did the most church work.  I was First Counselor in the Relief Society, also Assistant Secretary and Relief Society Visiting Teacher.  I have been a Visiting Teacher in all the Branches and Wards that I have ever lived in.

I have not mentioned our adopted children.  In 1904 we took a little baby boy eighteen months old.  He was a very sick child.  We nursed him back to health.  His parents deserted him.  He had not had any care and was in a very bad condition. He had been mistreated and had scars on his head where he had been knocked around.  He would not look at anyone and especially when he was eating he kept his eyes closed.  We named him Joeph Clyde Dye and called him Clyde.  We were very careful with him and as kind as we could be so it was not long until he seemed normal and as happy as other children.  He grew up to be  a stong man and was a carpenter by trade.

When Clyde was about five years old a very dear friend passed a way and left a baby girl two weeks old.  It was her dying request that I should have the baby, when she was five weeks old they gave her to us. (She was never adopted by them) Her mother was Mary Cope,  my brother’s mother-in-law.  Her father and brothers and sisters could see her whenever they wanted to.  We called her Mary after her mother.

We felt that our home was complete as we had a little boy and a little girl.  They have brought us lots of joy as well as some sorrow.  I suppose everyone has had joy and sorrow that ever raised a family.  I don’t think any girl ever loved her parents more than Mary loved us, and she has done all she could to make us happy.

We raised them up in the Church.  Our boy has not been as faithful as our girl.  She has worked in the Church ever since she was old enough to teach Primary.  She married a {Latter-day} Saint man her own age, Cyrus Marshall Tolman.  They have been married in the Temple.  He is and always has been very thoughtful of us.  They have had five children and only two of them are living.  (One was born after this history was written and is living).

I have written this sketch from memory.  If there are mistakes they are unintentional.  I am now in my severnty-fifth year.  I go to Chruch on Sunday and to Relief Society on Tuesday.  I do all my own work and help others some.  the greatest thing I possess is a testimony of the Gospel, which I hope and pray I will always have.

Written  in  1951 by Vida Haggard Dye

  When I was a little girl, my mother took me to see my great aunt in Winston County, Mississippi.  Her name was Johnnie Mae Haggard Hindman.  She was a farmer’s wife, who still lived on the same place where she was born.  She was considered to be an old maid, when a farmer from over on the  connecting Yellow Creek Road  and Bond Road  to both his family farm and hers, starting courting her.  His name was Tom Hindman, son of Frank Hindman.  I suppose their home was another place that I began to love family history. 

She taught me about many of my Haggard ancestors,  my Ashmore ancestors, introduced me to my Eaves ancestors.  Once when I was in her home, she was visited by two sisters, Maisie and Daisy Flake.  In later years I found out they were related through a connection with the Eaves family. 

Her brother, William Jesse Haggard, lived across the fields from her.  His wife was Bessie Lloyd and they had two daughters, Waldean and Elsie Merle.  Elsie Merle created quite a scandal by marrying her second cousin, Alfred Mack Eaves. 

Another sister, Nora, lived at the end of the road in the first two story house that I ever remember seeing.  At the time she was married to a Mr. Thompson.  By then she had also created a scandal by divorcing her first husband J.  L. Schoolar, then marrying a Mr. Thompson.  However this Mr. Thompson was the father of the Mr. Thompson that I knew.  Another scandal for that small community.

The other two sisters, Stella and Lizzie also lived on the Haggard farm.  Aunt Stella lived next to Aunt Johnnie and Uncle Bill in the house where her parents lived.  There was a pump built into the sink in her kitchen.  I was amazed.  Uncle Willie took my little brother  and me out to the barn and showed us the animals in his barn and took us out and let us pick cotton.  I was only six years old and my little brother, Tommie, was only four years old.  Aunt Stella fixed us a pillow case with a strap and we skipped all over that cotton patch and thought we were very much grown.  Later on, we found out that Uncle Willie either killed himself or his gun slipped while climbing through a fence next to the gate to his barn lot.

Aunt Lizzie married J. L. Schoolar’s son Milton and their place was at the top of the hill about a mile from the rest of the family.  I played on her porch which was latticed and screened in.  So  much for a little child to take in and remember, but I did and still do.

I loved these aunts and uncles, but the ones I loved the most was Aunt Johnnie and Uncle Tom.  She showed me how  to dry apricots and how she raised dahlia’s.  He showed me billy goats and cotton fields.  She showed me letters from other ancestors and they actually had a parlor where she kept the letters and all her pictures and treasures. 

Later on in my life, we moved to a small town on the Mississippi, Helena, Arkansas.  In the center of the main street, called Cherry Street, across from the courthouse was a mounment of the Doughboy.  It had built in honor  of and from the largesse of a man named Thomas Hindman, a Civil War General.

As I learned about the history of the town, I learned  about the part the city played in the Civil War.  Being on the Mississipp River, it was far up river from Vicksburg.  The Union had captured the city and built a fort, called Fort Curtis, on what is now the home of the First Baptist Church.  Across the river was a swamp called Yazoo Pass.  On the river, sat the gunboat Tyler.

Meanwhile, the war raged around Vicksburg.  It was decided that there would be a diversionary battle on the river at Helena, to pull the Union Troops away from Vicksburg.  Seven Civil War Generals lived in  Helena, Arkansas and they were going to march on Helena from Little Rock and pull the Union Troops away from the river and Fort Curtis.  Two of these Generals were Thomas C. Hindman and Patrick R. Cleburne.  Although the battle didn’t turn out as it was supposed to, it did pull some of the troops away from Vicksburg and a battle was fought in the swamps of Yazoo Pass.  The Confederate Generals lost because a minion who was supposed to wake one of the Generals at 2:00 A.M. at the Lucius Polk home so that his troops could be at a strategic point, failed to wake them until 5:00 A.M., so the Battle of Helena was lost to the Union.

Later on when I was grown and began to research the family, my Aunt Johnnie and her grandaghter gave me the following because it was about my Uncle Tom Hindman’s ancestor, General Thomas C. Hindman.  I was already aware of the descendants of General Cleberne because one of them went to school with my brothers.  As I read this document by Wison Mckinstry, I asked for a copy to add to my own family history.   It was written for the  Southern Sentinel 76 year ago.  So herein follows the story of the :

              “Captains Courageous” by Wilson McKinstry

  Traditions of the Old South hover over the “Hindman House” antebellum mansion one mile east of Ripley, Mississippi.  At one time, several years before the Civil War, this big house, painted white, with it’s front to the south, sheltered two friends, who later became Generals in the Confederate Army.

  Thomas Carmichael Hindman and Patrick R. Cleburne were two who were to leave the stately plantation home of Thomas C. Hindman, Sr. flanked by cotton fields, to return to it only in pleasant memory.  The incident that brought these two friends together under the roof of Hindman’s Mississippi home recalls a story of gratitude and the friendship of two of Dixie’s distinquished sons. 

  Hindman moved to Helena, Arkansas, as a young lawyer, a city to which he was to bring honor and fame later as a soldier and a statesman.  Soon after he opened his office for practice, another young lawyer looked out of his window one day and saw that the newcomer, his rival at the bar, was in trouble.  The uneven struggle aroused the sense of fair play tp Pat Cleburne, and disregarding personal danger, he rushed to Hindman’s aid.  Hindman came out with minor hurts, but his friend was wounded seriously.  Remembering the peaceful seclusion of his father’s plantation home in northern Mississippi, Hindman carried his wounded friend there and nursed him for weeks.

  Not far from the house enclosed by a brickand concrete wall, is the family burying ground.  On the tomb of the father of the Confederate general is this epitaph; “A faithful soldier, a law abiding citizen, and honest man.”  Born in Knoxville, in 1792, the first male child born in the now populous Tennessee city, the elder Hindman died at Ripley five years before his son joined the Confederate army.  When the Mexican War broke out, Thomas Hindman, Sr., a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, went to the front as colonel of a Mississippi regiment.  With him to Mexico went his two sons, Robert Holt Hindman and Thomas C. Hindman.  The latter, fresh from college, raised a company in Tippah County, Mississippi and entered the service as First Lieutenant in the Second Mississippi Regiment.  For gallantry in action he was promoted on the field to a captaincy.

  After the war Colonel Hindman and his two soldier sons returned to Ripley.  On July 18, 1856, the colonel was killed accidentally while inspecting a cotton gin on his plantation.  In the same Cemetery where the elder Hindman is buried lie the bodies of brothers and sisters of the Confederate leader.  On one tomb in the little enclosure is engraved the words, “ Killed at Ripley, Mississippi, by W. C. Faulkner, May 8, 1849″.  It is the tomb of Robert Holt Hindman, whose career was cut short at 27. That fatal quarrel between former friends filled a grave and divided two distinquished Southern families.  William C. Faulkner, after a brilliant career as soldier, statesman, author, and financier, met death on the public square in Ripley at the hands of a business rival, Richard Thurmond.  And a few years after the war, on the night of Septermber 27, 1868, General Hindman met a violent death.  He was shot through a open window as he sat by his fireside reading a newpaper.  It was believed he was slain by agents of the Carpetbag Government.

  Born at Knoxville, Tennessee, January 28, 1828, Thomas Hindman obtained his early education at Jacksonville, Alabama.  From Ripley he went to Lawrenceville Classical Institute, near Princeton, New Jersey, where he graduated with honors at 18.  At the close of the War with Mexico, he returned to Ripley and studied law for three years under Orlando Davis, one of the south’s noted lawyers, a leader in public affairs.  After being admitted to the bar, Hindman engaged in law practice, and in 1851 was elected to the Mississippi legislature, where  he bcame a leader in the Democratic party.  He was a friend of Jefferson Davis and as early as 1851 advocated the right of states to secede.

  When he was only 23 years old he met the learned United States Senator Foote in joint debate; and three years later, in response to a challenge from Govenor James L. Alcorn of the Whigs, said, “I will meet you anywhere and debate with you from Monday morning until Saturday night.”

  The late Dr. Charles E. Nash in his book of reminiscences of Generals Hindman and Cleburne, wrote that in 1856, the town of Helena, at that time with a population of 1500. was stricken by an outbreak of yellow fever.  As the news spread, citizens made haste to leave the stricken city.  One of the three physicians in town took the fever, and when the other two, Dr. Jacks and Dr. Grant called for volunteer nurses, only three responded:  Thomas C. Hindman, Patrick R. Cleburne and a young Methodist minister, the Reverend Mr. Rice.   These three spent their money, risked their lives and went about doing good, with no thought except relief of suffering and the care of their stricken neighbors.  “There were no battles in the war”, Dr Nash wrote, “in which the two prominent generals of Arkansas showed courage and self exposure than in  this.”

  Hindman rapidly became the leader of the Democratic Party in Eastern Arkansas.  He was to the Democrats, says one writer,”A beacon upon the mountain top, a light set on a hill.”  In the year 1858 Hindman was nominated for Congress and elected by an overwhelming majority.  He was twice elected to Congress, but refused to take his seat in the thirty-seventh Congress and entered the Confederate army.

   Commissioned a colonel at the outset of the war by his friend, President Jefferson Davis, with whom he and his father and brother served in the War with Mexico, Hindman raised and commanded the  Second Arkansas Regiment, which after the addition of cavalry and artillery, became known as “Hindman’s Legion”, an organization that was to bring fame to its officers and men on many a bloody battlefield.  On the eve of the Battle of Shiloh, General Johnston rode up to Hindman, who had already been promoted to Brigadier General, and said, “Nobly won on the field of Shiloh, Braxton Bragg.”

  Hindman’s brilliant friend from Helena pursued a career closely paralleled that of Hindman.  It was Pat Cleburne who boldly planned the capture of the United States Arsenal.  His daring and rugged fighting qualities won for him the title, “Stonewall of the West”, and his defense of Ringgold Gap brought him the thanks of the Confederate Congress.  Evidence of the romance and mysticism of the emerald Isle is found in the fact that he originated the “Order of the Southern Cross.”

  Whenever there was action Cleburne was at home, whether in defense of the under dog in a street fight, or at the head of a division of yelling, scraping rebels.  In the thick of things to the last, he fell at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 1864.

  In a letter to his mother after the fall of the Confederacy, General Hindman said that he had fought too long and too hard for the Confederacy “to remain under the flag of her conquerers.”  Like many other Southern leaders, he moved to Mexico City, taking his wife and their three children.  Hindman married Miss Mary Watkins Biscoe, daughter of Colonel Henry Lawson Biscoe of Arkansas and a niece of Dr. Robert A. Watkins, the first Secretary of State for Arkansas, and Judge George A. Watkins, who became a Chief Justice of the state in 1852.  Biscoe Hindman, retired insurance executive of Chicago is their son.

  General Hindman’s military fame had preceded him to Mexico City and he was offered a high command in the army.  He refused the offer, but consented to write two military volumes.  The money derived from this work enabled him to live until he could build up a law practice.

  He became attorney for the “American Colony of Yucatan”, and had completed the legal work necessary to the organization of the colony when the sudden fall of the emperor Maximilian caused the Southerners to abandon thier organization and return to the States.  Hindman came back to Helena, a city that had given seven Generals to the Confederate Army; Hindman, Cleburne, Dan C. Govan, Lucius E. Polk, James C. Tappan. Charles W. Adams, and Arch C. Dobbins.  It is this fact that gives the Helena Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy the name “The Seven Generals Chapter”.

  The Hindman home has changed little, except for the addition of weather boarding and paint, since Thomas C. Hindman and Patrick R. Cleburne looked out on hundreds of acres of Cotton.  It is built of logs, two enormous rooms on the ground floor, separated by a spacious hall, each large room flanked by a smaller room and each with a huge fireplace.  From the hall a stairway, its steps worn by footsteps for almost a century, leads to the second floor, where the plan of the ground floor is duplicated.  Recently an “L” has been added on the north of the house.

  The yard is enclosed by an iron fence and just outside is a sugar maple, planted 82 years ago by Mildred Hindman Doxey, the general’s sister.  Mrs. Doxie, who died in Arkansas a few years ago, had lived more years than the old house has stood.  She was the grandmother of Congressman Wall Doxey of Mississippi and Hindman Doxey, former Prosecuting Attorney of Marshall County, Mississippi.

  Letters from Mrs. Doxey to Mrs. J. A. Booker, herself a native of Arkansas, now living in the home, recall many interesting incidents connected with this historic house, and are indicative of her fine sensibilities and her regard for the traditions of her family and of the South.

  When the place came into possession of Judge Sam W. Pegram of Ripley many years ago, the house was weatherboarded and painted white, and became one of the most attractive homes of the countryside.  A little less than 25 years ago the plantation was bought by J. A. Booker.  Mr. Booker has added to his holdings until his plantation of more than 1500 acres includes the home of his father, the late Joe Booker, and the Doxey Farm, whence a young Doxey came courting to the home of Thomas Hindman many years ago.

  From his front door, Mr. Booker looks out over more than 800 acres, an outlook not unlike that of the day of Thomas Hindman, the elder.

                          Southern Sentinel, Ripley,  Mississippi

                                      June 2, 1932

My husband, Joe, is the great grandson of John Curtis Cheney, a descendant of Artemas Cheeney of Milford, Massachusetts.  Artemas’ father,  Caleb Cheeny, was a selectman in this village.  His brothers were Wales Cheeney and Alexander Cheney. Another of his family was Levi Cheeney, who with his wife Mehitable, and Aquilla Cheeny and his family.  Their two families went to Georgia.   Several of the Cheney family eventually went west with the Saints to the Salt lake Valley.  Two of those were Aaron Cheney and Elijah Cheney, also of the same family line.  Another was Nathan Cheney.

The following letter was written by Eliza A. Cheney, the wife of Nathan Cheney.  I found them on the records of the Church as one of the families who went west with the Saints.  She was the mother of Nathan Cheney and the Grandmother of Ora Lee Brooke. It is also a letter of her testimony to her family and to others in the Cheney family.  So here follows the letter:

                                               Winter Quarters                                                    January 18, 1847

Dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters,

     You see by the date of this letter, we are a hitch farther west.  We arrived in Winter Quarters about the middle of November.  We have bought a comfortable little cabin near Sister Pratt’s.    Nathan, after making the necessary arangements for us to live through the winter, went down to St. Jo to earn money to prepare us to go in the spring or as soon as may e convenient.  My health is better than common for me to have.  I can endure more than I could when I lived in Navoo.  I can go out evenings in cold weather without it affecting me as it did formerly, so I feel encouraged and in good spirits.

     The last letter I received from you was dated January 25.  The general tenor of the letter is to have us return, but I have not the most distant idea, neither has Nathan, of ever turning back.  Our cause is and must be onward.  Think of the words of the Savior: “No man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom.”  I did not embrace this work hastily; I came into it understandingly.  I weighed the subject. I counted the cost.  I knew the consequences of every step I took.  I compared the Gospel with that which the Savior and the Apostles preached.  I saw what it cost them.  I was convinced that the same doctrine must be preached at the same expense.  It never did cost anything to support error.  Men can propagate error and be popular, but the truth always costs the best blood on earth, not excepting the son of God, and if I set my standard so high as to aspire to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ, of course, I must not shrink from drinking the bitter cup.

    If I could be among the numberless throng that John saw, whose robes were washed white with the blood of the Lamb, I must, like them, come up through tribulation and instead of thinking it hard that I have these difficulties to pass through.  I count it all joy that I am counted worthy to suffer for His Name.

     The world hated the Savior before it hated us.  It is evident our enemies are not willing we should have a foothold on earth.  We have now found a place where we can rest for a while, till the Lord commands us to move again.  The twelve have been to the West and found a place in the mountains which was shown to Brother Joseph in a vision, long ago, and which they know by description that had been given them; a valley, between the two ranges of mountains, the California and the Rocky Mountains, only a narrow pass between which will be easily defended from our enemies.

     It is represented, by all who have been there and returned as being a most beautiful place, twenty miles from the Salt Lake.  The city is laid out, the temple lot selected, consecrated and dedicated to the name of the most high God, and now we are all engaged to see who will be ready to go first.  Though we do not mean to go in haste, the sooner we go, the better.  The mountains of the Lord’s house shall be established; the ensign for the nations shall be lifted up; the standard reared; and the nations of the earth will be invited to come.  Thousands of the elders will be sent from the place to hunt the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Nathan will undoubtly have to go and leave his family, but I borrow trouble with that.  I am willing to endure anything my sisters in the Church have to endure to help to build up this great and last kingdom, that the way may be prepared for the judgment of God upon the earth.  There we will have a biding place, while the indignation of the Lord passes by.  Now, things are a reality and not to be trifled with.  God has sent His hand to gather Israel and to do His last work of the earth and nothing will stay His hand.  If indeed you are looking for this work to fall, you are looking in vain.

     It is as it is described in scripture – a marvelous work and a wonder.  It is not, nor will it be, understood by all, no more than the great work in the redemption of the world was.  I bless and praise God that I have been aquainted with the light and been willing to work in it.

     I feel the great interest for you all. My heart’s desire and prayer to God is that you may be willing to receive our testimony concerning these things.  We declare it to you, before God and before angels, that these things that we embrace are truths from Heaven.  Now, this once more, after all we have said, we testify unto you that we know the power of Priesthood that God has revealed unto man on for the gathering of His people to prepare them for what is coming of earth.  And those who have tried to hinder the work of the Lord by stigmatizing those to whom authority was committed ere long be ashamed and confounded. I know the virtues of this people.  If there is true, genuine virtue on earth, it is among this people.  No people were ever more blessed.  There is not a principal taught and understood that the most chaste and virtuous mind could disapprove, but those who have not the spirit of God do not understand them; neither is it given them to know.  “No man knoweth the things of God , but th spirit of God”.  Let the ignorant beware how the judge decides things.

     I have written two letters, while we lived in Bentensport, and sent you, in which I mentioned the death of my little girl, likewise Alexander Cheney’s death.  His widow is married to a young man named Harris.  She has done well and she is very anxious to hear something of her affairs there and whether anything has been collected.  Wishes Simon to write.  She needs it.

     Father and Mother, I have thought since we have the second time broken up, that I would ask you to send me some means to help us to go to the valley.  If you feel willing to do it, I should be very thanful for it and I know you would be belssed in doing it.  I do not ask you because I expect to suffer if you should not help me, but you know going to an entirely new country and so far away from settlements we ought to be well supplied, if we mean to be comfortable until we can make cloth there.

     Mr. Cheney thought it best to go to St. Jo because many of the brethren were going and he would have company and beside business is good and money is plenty.  We did not feel contented in Bentensport, though we lived well, but we felt uneasy because the Church was gone.  it is just as natural for Mormons to run together as it is for drops of water.  If I were to return to you, I should never be contented. Though I might swim in wealth and though not one spark of affection has diminished for you, yet I know I could not be happy there.

     My faith is to gather with the people of God to do a great work for the salvation of my dead friends, even all my progenitors, that they may be brought forth in the first resurrection.  If you understood the principles of the Gospel, you would never urge me to return back.  It would strictly against your own interest.  If you knew what I know, you would encourage me to go forward, to do my work, that all things may be prepared when Christ comes to wake the dead.

     I want you to believe what I tell you and help me with willing hearts and you shall have forever have my prayers and blessings.  And I will do a work for you that you will never be ashamed of, but you shall rejoice over me through the endless ages of eternity that you had a child firm enough to remain unshken nothwithstanding your entreaties.

     “Think not though the judgments of God linger that they will not come”  reads the parable.  “God is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish.”  The elders are now preparing many of them to go out into the nations to gather up the scattered brethren and hasten them out as soon as possible.  We see everything moving on in fulfillment of prophecy.  And blessed are they who are children of the light and when that day will take us unawares.

     If you feel disposed to help me  and can do it without injury to yourselves, you can write me and I will send some trusty person, as there will be many going forth next spring and I will send someone that I know can be trusted.  Tell Charles if he has not found a wife yet, he had better come out here and get a Mormon girl.  If he wants a smart one, come now and make us a visit before we go.  If Charles is not disposed to come, you come, Darius.  We have first rate times here.  You might enjoy yourself; the best time you ever did in your life.  Everything is lively and cheerful here; no long faces at all.  We have good meetings and good music and we are all busy as larks.

     We are not afraid of hardships – we have peace in view and the idea of getting out of reach of mobs keeps up our spirits.

     Oh, if you would only come and go with us and be as cheerful and willing to suffer a little as I do, how great would be my joy.  But I mean to be faithful and continue to pray that you may sometime come to the knowledge of these things which you must know for yourselves or you could not stand.  “My kindred come, come go with me, all friends of truth where ere you may be.”  Direct your letters to  Missouri Co., Huntsucker Ferry, Austine Post Office, to be forwarded to the Camps of the Saints near Council Bluffs.

     Remember me affectionately to all my brothers and sisters and brother Simon Cheney and his wife.  Helen and Jane send their love.  They go to school.  Nathan is a bright, smart boy.  Now I must bid you farewell, asking God, my Heavenly Father, to bless you and if you will pray for the poor saints in this exile, you shall be blessed and I say it in the name of the Lord.  I am as ever, your affectioante daughter and sister,

                                                    Eliza A. Cheney

This for Maw Maw Davis’s family.  I started searching for Joe’s family in 1966 when we were still in West Helena, while we were at the store on 7th Street.  I didn’t know very much about what I was doing, but the first two people that I actually researched were Arhannah Jane Earnhardt and John Curtis Cheney.  Of course at the time, I didn’t know his middle name was Curtis.  That  came many years later.  Once when Mrs. Davis and  Joe and I were making a trip somewhere, I don’t remember  where,  we passed a barn outside Morrelton, AR and  written across the roof of the barn in big letters was”Chaney’s Barn”.  She said in passing, “You know one time a Cheney married a Chaney.”  I didn’t think any more about that for years until I found out that John Curtis Chaney actually married Rhoda Arminta Chaney.  But!! As usual, in this case that wasn’t the whole story.  They both were perhaps married before.  I’ve never found that John Curtis had another wife, but I found out that Rhoda or Rhody Mindy as she was called, had been married before to a Samuel Webb.  They had one child named Nathan before Samuel went off to join the Confederacy.  After the war we don’t know whether he was killed, but the story goes that he got on his horse and rode into the west.  He then was supposed to have married and had a family leaving Rhoda to raise little Nathan.  Before the end of the war, John and his brother, Artemas, after hearing some unsettling news regarding Rhoda and her sister, got on their horses and rode towards Itawamba County, Mississippi.  They left Mark Tree, Arkansas, crossed the Mississippi and went to get Rhoda and her sister, Polly, who was supposed to have been part Native American.  Why that part was relevant, I don’t know, but it was part of the story.  Anyway, that’s not the story here because John Curtis was PawPaw Davis family not Daisy’s.  This is another story from Rowan County, North Carolina about the Earnhardt family.

Daisy Ruth Barnhardt was the daughter of Henry Joseph Barnhardt and Arhannah Jane Earnhardt.  Many spell her name Aranna and the Census Takers spelled it that way, but Mrs. Davis said that her mother’s name was spelled Arhannah and her sister’s name was spelled Peninnah.  Many have spelled her name Penina. Arhannah’s name was spelled on her Marriage Bond as Rana or Rina and one Census record show her as Anna, another something entirely different.  So I hope this is by the way of correcting that.

Arhannah’s parents were Robert or Robard Earnhardt, which was the way it was spelled in 1850, and Eunice Bunn.  Eunice’s name was spelled many different ways by different people.  I found her on the 1850  Census record as Unice.  On the North Carolina Marriage Bonds I found her listed as Tonney and Youney, even Yourney in another place.  But, her name was Eunice.

 Robert Earnhardt was the son of George Earnhardt and Leah Culp.  He was born 19 Jun 1839 in Gold Hill, Rowan, North Carolina and died 20 March 1919 in Kannapolis, Cabbarus, North Carolina and is buried in Center Grove Lutheran Cemetery across the street from where he lived.   He married Eunice Bunn 03 Aug  in Gold Hill, RowanCounty, North Carolina.  Eunice was born abt 1837 in Franklin County, North Carolina and died abt 1892 in Gold Hill, North Carolina of Appendicitis and buried in an unmarked graved near one of her sisters who has a grave marker, either Clara Rose or Augusta,  Her mother, Lucinda, is buried in an unmarked grave as well.  They are buried in Gold Hill Methodist Cemetery. 

 Eunice was the daughter of Henry Littleberry Bunn.  Jacksie Bunn Parker, the historian for the Bunn family, told me that he spelled his name as Burne  on his marriage license and had L. Berry Burne burned into his lether wallet.    Stories have it that he was murdered in Wake County  for his wallet.  Mrs. Parker wrote “that unsubstantiated evidence said that he was killed in a hunting accident.”  His father, Benjamin Bunn, owned 3,115 1/2 in Wake and Franklin counties.  Littleberry was about 14 yrs old when his father died and his father left him land in a will.  After Littleberry’s  death the court made a one year allowance for his widow, Lucinda Stickland Bunn, and children for a comfortable support.  Women were not allowed to own land, so the government took her land away from her and the children.  More about Lucinda later.

Eunice was married at 15 to John Alexander Sandy” Fisher according to North Carolina Marriage Bonds,  on 29 Sept 1852 in Rowan County She was apparentley called Youney at the time and the extractors for the North Carolina Marriage Bonds spelled it differently for both her marriages.  On one she was called Youney and the other she was called Tonney.  So researchers need to be “Very Careful” about what they eventually call her.  She signed Arhannah’s Marriage Bond as Eunice.   

JohnA. Fisher was the son of Jacob and Barbara Lyerly Fisher.  He was born on 22 Feb 1823 in Stanley County, North Carolina and died in Stanley County on 29 Aug 1858.  He and his brother were appointed guardians of Lucinda’s children when she moved to Gold Hill to work near the Gold mines. So that tells the story of how John and Eunice met..

Eunice and John  had two sons.  They were James Anderson “Ad” Fisher born 10 July 1853 in Rowan County  died 05 Feb 1938  and is buried in Center Grove Lutheran Cemetery in Kanapolis . James stayed in North Carolina and never married.  He made a trip to Arkansas to see Arhannah and returned to Kanapolis where he lived until he died.  

The second was John W. Fisher born 1856 in Rowan County – death date unknown.  He was rumored to have taken his family to Texas.  He had one daughter Euna Fisher who marrie Henry Wilbert Langbein.

Eunice and Robert had five children.  Two I’ve already mentioned, but here they are in order: (1) Christopher Columbus Earnhardt born abt 1862 in Gold Hill, North Carolina, died in 1939, married Annie Maurice in 1886 in Gaston County, NC.  Their children were: (1) Lille Mae Earnhardt b 1887 d 1912 m Lee Jenkins   (2) Nellie Francis Earnhardt b 05 Jan 1889 d 03 Apr 1979 in Charlotte, NC m W. B. Long  (3) Georgia Estella Earnhardt b 1891 d 1892           (4) Joseph Maurice Earnhardt b 1894 d 1959 never married(5) Eunice Catherine Earnhardt b 1897 d 1978 m W.T.Helms(6) Robert Lee Earnhardt b 08 Sep 1906 d 15 May 1968  Oteen, NC  m  Ruth Smith   (7)  Cecil C. Earnhardt                      08 Aug  1906  d Charlotte, NC  m Laura Frances Stubbs

(2) Arhannah Jane Earnhardt b 25 Jan 1866 d23 Feb 1937 in  Haynes, Lee, AR, buried in LaGrange Cemetery, LaGrange, Phillips, AR.  m Henry Joseph Barnhardt                13 Jan 1888   in Cabbarrus County, NC.  Children were:        (1) James Edward Barnhardt b 04 Aug 1888 Cabbarrus, NC d 02 Apr 1935 buried in LaGrange Cememtery, Phillips, AR      m Jane L. one child Reba Barnhardt                                               (2) Lotty Ally Barnhardt b 17 May 1890 Haynes,Lee, AR          d  24 Aug 1925 in Haynes, Lee,AR                                              (3) Bessie Lula Barnhardt b 30 Jan 1893 d Oct 1906 in Haynes, Lee, AR                                                                              (4) Robert Asa Barnhardt b 10 Apr1895 in Haynes,Lee,AR  d  Apr1970 Helena, Phillips, AR buried Odd Fellows Cemetery in between Helena and West Helena, AR  m Emma Cremeen Children were Edward, Anne, Nolan and Irene Barnhardt    (5) Verna Eunice Barnhardt b 20 Sep 1897 Haynes, Lee, AR d 11 Sep 1901 Haynes, Lee, AR                                                    (6)   Daisy Ruth Barnhardt b 03 Apr 1901 Haynes, Lee, AR     d 20 Dec 1974 Helena,Phillips,AR b Sunset Cemetery in Barton, Phillips, AR  m Joe Adolphus Davis 26 Jan 1919 in Haynes, Lee, AR. Children were (1) Ruby Beatrice, Dorothy Lee, Maxine Mozell, Virginia Helen, Frankie Odean, Eugene Clayton, Joe Dolphus, Betty ann, Mary Ruth, Sarah Alice, Alinda Jane, Billie Sue.                                                  (7)   Joseph Columbus Barnhardt b 03 Aug 1904 Haynes,Lee,AR  d06 Dec 1961 Helena, Phillips, AR                   m Lydia(Lyddie)Hardin in Haynes, Lee, AR abt 1930 Children were Wanda, JoAnn, Floyd, Eva, and Brenda.                          (8) Freddie Franklin Barnhardt b 22 Jan 1906 d 24 Nov 1906  (9) Willie Cornelious Barnhardt  02 Jan 1908 d03 Aug 1930  Both these children were born in Haynes.  Freddie is buried in Haynes, Willie in LaGrange Cemetery.  He died of a seizure.

(3) Agusta O. Barnhardt b 28 Dec 1868 Rowan Co.,NC              d 20Apr1938 Cabbarrus Co., NC                                                   m Albert Leslie Moose  b 07 Jul 1864 d 16 Aug 1947  Children were (1) Fred L. Moose b 30 Apr 1890-must have died before 1900 because he wasn’t on the 1900 nor 1910 Census (2) Ralph Moose b 31 may 1900 (3)Marvin Cecil Moose b 02 Jan 1902  All in Cooks Crossing, Cabbarus,NC  

 (4) Clara Rose Earnhardt b 27 Jul 1870 RowanCo., NC    d 31 Mar 1948 Cabbarus County, NC  m Edmund McDonald Cook b 7 Aug 1986 d 27 Aug 1926 Buried Center Grove Lutheran Cemetery  in Kanapolis, NC  M abt Jan 1898  Children were  (1) Ollie Anne Cook b 1888 d 1962 m Henry Solomon Herrin  (2) Robert Monroe Cook b 24 Jun 1893 d 04 May 1963          m Cynthi Ann Zenobia Cole  (3) Horace Edwar Cook b 1894  no Death Date m Geneva Lee Walthrope (4) Marvin W. Cook b 28 Sep 1897 d 03 Jul 1927 m Ethel Neal (5) Charlie Bethel Cook b 08 Oct 1898 d 16 Oct 1961 m Martha Cook Wingard  (6) Henry Greydon Cook b 09 Jan 1901 d 10 Nov 1954          m Blanche Melvina Swink (7) Frank McDonald Cook b 02 Feb 1903 d 21 Dec 1942 in a flight over the Atlantic  Ocean           m Mary Castor (8) James Howard Cook b 22 Apr 1905           d 07 Jul 1961 m 1st Agnes Waters 2nd Dovie Bost                 (9) Helen Virgina Cook b 01 Jan 1908 d 09 Sep 1994               m Raymond Herrin (10) Marnie Eunice Cook b 1911

(5)Eliza Peninnah Earnhardt 06 Dec 1873 d 22 Mar1977 at 104 yrs old  in Kanapolis, Cabbarus, North Carolina                 m Charles Henry Castor  bef 1896 b 01 Jun 1874 d 06 Dec 1953.  Children were (1) Meta Mozelle Castor b abt 1896 in      Cabbarrus County, NC (2) Charles Brown Castor b 03 Sep 1900 d 16 Nov 1941 m Alma Rose Kincaid (3) Joe R Castor b abt 1903 (4) Rahama Castor b abt 1906 (5)Ross Alexander Castor b 25 Apr 1909 died 1983 (6)Robert Young Castor b abt 1914.

Rober’s second marriage was to Eve Kesler 13 Sep 1894.  They had two sons: (1) Robert Earnhardt (2) Ralph Earnhardt .

This is the end of Robert and Eunice descendancy and a few of thier ancestors.  I’ll write their Ancestors on another day.

Let me see if I can put this down in some sort of intelligent way  for my spouse and his family.  It has been a pleasure of mine for many years to search for our families.  For years I didn’t know exactly how to fit the Barnhardt’s that I had found into Joe’s life.

However, after hit and miss on Barnhardt’s, who are like Joneses in Cabbarrus, Rowan and Stanley counties, I finally got them together.  So, here  goes!!

Joe Davis>Daisy Ruth Barnhardt> Henry Joseph Barnhardt> John F. Barnhardt>John Barnhardt>Charles Bernhardt> Henrich Berenhardt >.Johann Mathais Berenhardt  >       Georg Johann Berenhardt>Nicholas Berenhardt>Emmerich Berenhardt. The  line is from generation to generation  from 1933 in Lee County, AR, to  1575 in  Baden, Germany.

Recently I started filling in blanks on Daisy Barnhardt Davis’s family and I still have one big qestion in the  history.  How and why did Henry Joseph Barnhardt move his family from North Carolina?  I still don’t know, but move he did to Crittenden and Lee County, Arkansas.  His family never moved very far down the road from where they started.  I found them in Richfield or Rich Community near Haynes, AR. At some time they lived near the St Francis County line and the Crittenden County line because John Cheney’s family was on the same Census records along with a Harden family.  The Cheney’s were J. D. Davis’s family.  J. D. was Daisy’s husband.  and Lydia Harden married Joe Barnhardt. Grandpa Barnhardt was living  in Lee county when he died.  I used to think the picture of Henry and Arhannah was taken in front of Mrs. Davis House, but it wasn’t.  Arhannah was dressed in an early 1900’s dress and Henry in a black suit which dated the picture, so It must have been in Lee County near Marianna.

It has also been said that the Barnhardts were a very hard people and very harsh and very strict with the discipline.  I don’t know that, but many of our ancestors came from to America for a better life and brought with them all the customs and problems they had at home to an even harder life for a while in a growing country of immigrants.

Henry Joseph Barnhardt came from such a family and what follows is his lineage and my grandchilden’s heritage.

 Henry Joseph Barnhardt b 19 Feb 1866 Cabbarrus,NC  m Arahannah Jane Earnhardt b 24 Jan 1866 Rowan,NC on 13 Jan 1888 in Cabbarrus County with his parents, Asa  Barnhardt & Lucrissa Suther Barnhardt and her parents, Robert (Robard) and Eunice Bunn  Fisher Earnhardt signing the marriage bond with permission and  as witnesses .

They both died in Lee County, AR, Henry on 23 Mar 1938, Arahannah on 23 feb 1937.  Both are buried at LaGrange Cemetery, LaGrange, Phillips, AR.

Their children were: (1) James Edward b 04 Aug 1888,   (2)Lottie Allie b 17 May 1890 (3) Bessie Lula b 30 Jan 1893 (4) Robert Asa b 10  Mar 1895 (6)Verna Eunice b 20 Sept 1897 (7) Daisy Ruth   b 03 Apr 1901 (8) Joseph Columbus b 03 Aug 1904 (9) Freddie Franklin b 22 Jan 1906 (10) Willie Cornelious (died from Epilepsy) b 02 feb 1908.  Willie, Uncle Joe and Aunt Lydia are  buried at LaGrange along with a child, Joan or Joanna.  Uncle Asa and his wife Emma Cremeen Barnhardt are buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Helena, Phillips, AR and Joe D. and Daisy Ruth Barnhardt Davis and buried in Sunset Cemetery in Barton, Phillips, AR.  James Edward was buried at Forrest City, St. Francis, AR.  None of the girls seemed to have survived except Daisy Ruth Barnhardt Davis.  According to Mrs. Davis, there is a tombstone somewhere between Haynes and Forrest City that says “Here Lies Little Lottie on the Hill.)  I can’t find the grave nor the stone.

 Henry was from Cabbarrus County, NC.  His father was Asa Barnhardt.  Asa married Lucrissa Suther, descendant  of Samuel Suther, born in 1722 in Switzerland.  Samuel and his family came to American  on a ship to join William Byrd’s colony along the Roanoke River.His family left Rotterdam in 1738 on a little ship called “The Oliver”.  The year 1738 was unusual in that there were 13 successive storms at sea and finally arrive in January of 1839.  While anchored at Cape Charles, VA,  another storm came up causing  the ship to lose anchor and run on a sandbar staving her hull and “launching 225 souls into eternity.  Samuel was his family’s sole survivor,When he was 27 he settled in Philadelphia as a aschoolmaster and married Elizabeth Heyllman, daughter of Heyllman and Maria Elizabeth Grimm who came to the America from Switzerland in 1736.  Soon he settled outside Concord in Cabbarus county and became a German Reformed Minister and established a church.  The church is still there in Cabbarrus County and there is a whole cemetery of Suther’s sits across the road from the church. 

 Asa Barnhardt b abt 1835 Concord, Cabbarrus, NC,  and was m to  Lucrissa  Suther b abt 1840 in Cabbarrus Couny, NC.  to parents Joseph Suther b 10 May 1808 d 17 Feb 1855 m 10 Apr 1829 Elizabeth Probst b 23 May 1812 d 13 Sep 1880 .  Both are buried in Colwater Lutherna Church Cemetry just outside Concord, Cabbarus , NC. 

Lucrissa was called Lou or Lu and is listed in some family records as Louisa, but her marriage certificate says Lucrissa and she had a child named Crisssa.  Asa was sometimes called Acey and some children were later named Acey.  In fact Mrs. Davis’s brother, Robert Asa, worked for a while on a WPS project in Lee county, AR, called Bear Creek Lake.  His companions called him Acey and when I found the history of Bear creek Lake, sure enough, there was Uncle Asa listed there as Acey Barnhardt.

Children of Asa and Lucirssa are:  (1) William L. Barnhardt  b abt 1864 (2)  Henry Joseph Barnhardt b 19 Feb 1866, and Jennie Barnhardt , the baby was b 1878.  I didn’t find out about her until a few years ago from Aunt Lydia Harden Barnhardt, Uncle Joe Barnhardt’s wife.

William L  Barnhardt m Betty Fisher 03 Aug 1882 in Cabbarrus County.  Her Parents were (I could hardly read the name on the Marriage License) D. W. & Mattie Fisher

Another family member descended from Asa recently sent me inforamtion that Asa and William owned a Flour and Corn Mill in Concord, Cabbarus, NC.  Then I found a Barnhardt’s Mill in Rowan County with another William.  Idon’t know whether it was Asa’s mill or not, but it was an added demension to Asa’s history.

I  don’t have Jennie’s family yet, but I am still searching.

Some others of note are Robert Earnhardt, father of Arahannah Jane Earnhardt Barnhardt, but he was also father of Ralph Lee Earnhardt, father of Ralph Earnhardt, father of Dale Earnhardt, father of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  Robert was married to Eve Kessler and she is Ralph’s mother.  Also buried there is Eunice Bunn Fisher Earnhardt’s son by her first husband,  John  Fisher.    His name was James A Fisher, b 10 Jul 1853 d 02 Feb 1938.  All are buried in the same Center Grove Cemetery except Dale.  It is not supposed to be known where he is buried according to the media, however, I’ve been told that he is buried in the same cemetery as his family in Kannapolis.

 Asa’s  father was John F. Barnhardt, who was married three times.  He was listed in the North Carolina Marriage Bonds as having been married to one Eliza Petrie.   He married her in the Lutheran Church in Concord,NC.  She was born in 1810, daughter of :

Henry Nathan Petrea and Catherine Murr, who  m 22 Mar 1808.  Their children were:  (1) Matthew (2) Reanna (3) Henry Wilson (4) Buron (5) Augustus (6) Laban (7) Anna Elizabeth- ( On the church rolls she is listed as Anna Elizabeth Petrie, but she is recorded elsewhere as Anna Eliza or Anna Elizabeth Petrea. ) (8) William (9) George, wh died in Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg (9) Amzi- The name Petrea has also been spelled Petree, Petry, Petrie.

John F. Barnhardt b 02/26/1809  Cabbarrus County, NC. and d 02/23/1883 and buried in Center Grove Lutheran Cemetery in Kannapolis, NC.

m 25 Feb 1833 in Cabbarrus Couny , NC

Anna Elizabeth Petrie b 10 Mar1810 &  d 25 Apr 1845 She is buried at at  St John’s Lutheran Church Cemetery in Concord.

Theira children are:      (1) Rachel b  5 Dec 1833 (2)Asa Barnhardt b 1835 (3) William H. Barnhardt  b 10 Dec 1836  (4) Crissa Barnhardt b 1838 (5) Lachas  b abt 1840 (6) Richard abt 1843.  Many of these dates came from the Census records in 1850 and lists Sophia Blackwelder as the mother, but she wasn’t, she was the second wife. He married her in 1846 in Cabbarrus County.  Her father was Jacob Balckwelder and the name was originally Schwartzwolder.  Mary A. (Barnhardt) was  the third,  the wife of his old age. I don’t know what her name was before she married him.  She was named Executrix of his will in 1883.  Only four of his children are mentioned, William H., Asa, Crissa, and Rachel.  Lachas died in the Civil War as far as I recall and Richard died.  Asa served from North Carolina and was a prisoner of War in a prison camp in Maryland.  Crissa married, but Rachel was still living with her father, well into her 30’s acording to Census records.

     Where to begin?  We have an immigrating ancestor of John Goeorge Biller on Bo’s father’s family–thought to be a Hessian in Rev war but stayed–the Biller’s don’t all agree re that though.  Bo was born Robert Ellsworth Biller III, name change with adoption by step father who is now divorced from Bo’s mom.  [He wwent along with the adoption idea because of his sister and did not really want to change his name but did.  It's something that really hurts deeply when he thinks of it--Stuart might have been IV had he not changed his name.]  Bob, Bo’s dad, lives in Attica, Ohio (on his grandparents farm–the original barn was built in the late 1800’s-slate roof with date-but had to be torn down) with his second wife Cindy (Cindy’s maiden name was Featheringill, spelled wrong maybe)–their sons are Chris Biller and Andy Biller (just younger than Whitney is).  Bo’s only sister is Jenise Marie Beckham Brand (also adopted and formerly Biller)–her husband is Daniel D. Brand and their children–Celia Grace and Jacob Daniel.  Bo’s mom is Joyce Lynn Dunlap Beckham–lives in Heber Springs w/ her parents Forrest Jackson Dunlap and Irene Jenise Hugueley (they have extensive genealogy as well).  Grandaddy Dunlap grew up in Monroe and Grammy grew up in Hughes.  Bo has Pinkertons in his history and a distant cousin through Grandaddy is John Grisham–noted author–still have not met him–there are still Grisham family reunions at the Monroe firehouse–next door to Grandaddy’s cousin’s home.  We have about 12 generations of data on Biller family.  Bo has been told that he is going to get all of the genealogy from Grammy and Grandaddy as he is the only one who has expressed interest in the files–which include immigrating ancestors.

On Mother’s grandparents–I don’t have a great amount in my computer.
John Lee Gardner was the son of Robert Lee Gardner and Minnie Louise Schoeck (died Minnie L. Herrinton Smith)–her father was Vincent Edwarrd Schoeck (when my Grannie last knew, Uncle Vince–Vincent Edward Schoeck, Jr. was still living in Maryland).  Marjorie Lou Oxner was the daughter of John Henry Oxner and Suxie Voila McGrew–daughter of Henry Harrison McGrew and Lou Vinnia Suit.  Mama and Papa Oxner are buried in the Marianna Cemetery and Grandpa and Grandma McGrew were buried at Oak Forrest Cemetery (community outside Marianna that no longer exists but the cemetary does.)

Before we left AR and moved to NM we recieved somethings from Steve McGrew who lives in Oklahoma–descended from Henry H. McGrew and his first wife.  Ironically, he sent me back a copy of a photograph that he recieved from Grannie; it hung in the Oxner farm for years, but now I inherited the original as well of the photo of Mama and Papa and the photo of his mother–Mary Ward Hughey.

I got choked up the other day.  We have been cleaning out Grannie’s house, and I brought back the floral arrangement cards from Mama Herrington’s funeral.  In flipping through I found a card from John and Hester Kirk–in her handwriting if I am not mistaken.

Love you,

Heather

PS–I sent you an attachment of self portrait done in 2004–you could add it as my image on the blog if you want. 

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Back Row-Howard, Johnnie,Tommie-Front Row:-Tom, Hester&Willie Mae

Grown Up-Rudolph,Hester,Tommie,Howard,Johnnie at Howard’s&Jewels

This is the personal history of Hester Henrietta Lowery born Sept. 27, 1919 in Brooksville, near Macon, Miss. in Noxubee County) who married Johnnie Rie Kirk, born April 2, 1918, also a native of Winston County.My mother was Willie Mae Haggard, a native of Winston County and married to Thomas Andrew Lowery, a native of Alabama.  My mother passed away at 42 of a cerebral hemorrhage when I was only 5 years old.  I have very few memories of my mother, but I remember being in the window holding her skirt and crying because I had lost my baby calf.  I remember her sewing while I stood by her sewing machine and she would me scraps with a needle and thread to help “make” baby clothes for my doll.  My Mother was also a hat maker (milner).  We had a maid at that time that brought her little girl to work with her.  One of my earliest memories is dancing on the sidewalk and learning the Charleston with her.  She could snap both fingers, and to this day, I can only snap with one hand.We lived on a big white house in Brooksville, Ms.  My father was a blacksmith who owned a huge blacksmith shop.  He shoed horses, made plows, sharpened and repaired tools, as well as anything else that needed sharpening.  Also, he had a gristmill and ground corn into meal.  He owned a farm, as well.  I remember riding in his Ford Model A to a friend’s house.  We got caught in the rain with the top down.  We had to get underneath a bridge to keep from getting wet.  His next car was a model T Ford which he was the first in town to get.My brother, Howard, taught me to whistle and Daddy though it was awful for a little girl to whistle.  He said little girls were no more supposed to whistle that a hen was supposed to crow.   They had bought me a pair of red boots and I was so proud of them.  We also had a dairy barn not very far from town.  So Howard would walk with me to town sometimes in my pair of red boots, whistling like a crowing hen.  I was a spoiled child because I was the only girl with blond curls and teenage brothers.Two weeks into September of 1925,before my mother passed away, my father and my three brothers Johnny, Howard, and Tommy Lee were pitching hay on the farm.  My baby brother Rudolph and I were with my mother digging sweet potatoes, when she fell over and passed out.  Everyone came running! That was her first that she had any trouble.  She had a terrible headache that wouldn’t go away.My worst memory was on a Sunday when everyone was at church, a tent revival, and even I was there.  We were called to come home.  When we got to the house, cars were parked up and down the street.  She was lying on the floor in the hallway of the house with blood coming from her nose, ears, and mouth.  She died 2 or 3 days later at home from a cerebral hemorrhage. One of the things that I remember was that she kept asking to see her babies and finally someone took Rudolph and me into see her in the bedroom.  I don’t remember much else except it was a week or so before my 6^th birthday and I wondered if I was going to be able to have a party.  I didn’t really understand that she was gone and not coming back. I just remember sitting by her grave in my father’s lap.Two months later, in November of 1925, he married Annie B. Vandevender.  He had me at 5 years old and my baby brother, Rudolph, who was only two years old and just couldn’t cope with two little ones to care for. She was my mother’s best friend even though she was much younger and my father truly loved her. She only lived one year or so after they married and died from complications of childbirth.  She had a baby girl which she named Katherine.  I remember sitting on the end of the table while Annie B. cooked, but that’s about all.I knew that I had a new baby sister, and my older brother Howard and his young wife, Jewel, took care of the three of us after Annie died and while my father worked.  Katherine’s grandmother came to the funeral and Jewel gave her the baby at the grave site and we didn’t see each other for many years.The first time Katherine and I met was at Howard’s and Jewel’s Fiftieth anniversary after all those years.  We were both grown women with children and families of our own.  My nephew, Elmer Lowrey located her in Jackson, MS, and I went to see her and she came to see me.  Not many years later, she had heart surgery, and the next time I got to see her was at Howard’s and Jewel’s anniversary. She had her surgery just 6 weeks before and I didn’t recognize – her hair was gray.  We barely got to speak to her.  She died shortly after that.  The ironic part was that my husband and I had married, and his mother and daddy lived just about a mile down the road from a friend of Katherine’s.  All those years she had been visiting just right down the road, and we never knew…When Annie died, my father moved all the furniture out on the porch and sold everything.  He auctioned it off for about $2600.00 which was a lot of money in those days. We went in his Model T and traveled to Florida to a little small town just outside Tampa, FL.  On the way, we stopped at my Grandfather Lowrey’s house in Waynesboro, MS where he had been a Baptist minister for 35 years and a carpenter.  My oldest brother Johnny met my grandfather’s stepdaughter Ora May.  They knew each other only 24 hours, and my grandfather married them.  We left there in the Model T with Johnny, Ora May, my brother Tommy Lee, and Rudolph and I.  Rudolph was just 3 and I was 6. It was 1926. I don’t remember a lot about the trip, but I do remember stopping in Mobile, AL and visiting with my Aunt Mary Jane and her husband, John Hodges.  There never had any children, but they ran a big boarding house.  We crossed Mobile Bay on a ferry because there was no bridge at the time.  I remember getting scolded because I was up on the rails.  I don’t remember where exactly we landed, but we ended up in Florida, all in one piece in that T-model Ford.My father got a job taking care of orange groves.  He took Rudolph with him to work and rode with the top down on the Model T, and Rudolph couldn’t talk very plainly.  He would get very angry and throw a fit because no one could understand him.  My father kept telling him he was going to fall out the back of the car one day if he didn’t sit down.  Sure enough, one day my father was riding along the back and Rudolph had fallen out.  He wasn’t hurt.Another time according to Tommy lee, they were making white lightening and they were going through the orange groves and ran out of gas.  My father told him to slide out on the running board, open the top of the gas tank on top of the car where the radiator usually is and pour in a gallon of the white lightening.  Much to his surprise or maybe not, it worked.We were living in a little town called Puerto Rica.  I had just started to school.  We walked to school, like most kids did then, but we usually stopped at a little store.  The glass was broken over the candy case.  I have no idea where the proprietor was, but all the kids were reaching in for a handful of candy.  I decided that I’d get one and take one to my teacher, too.  That’s where I made my big mistake.  I was the only one that got caught, because I got sick that afternoon and was lying down.  The teacher came in and told me I was being punished for taking that bar of candy.  Never again in my whole life did I ever take anything that didn’t belong to me! I tried to be the little lady of the house and tried cooking and washing.  Once when I washed, I put all the clothes in the tube together to wash.  Everything turned red.  And my cooking was worse because I didn’t know how to cook, so it was either not done or burnedIt was also while we were living there that the first Christmas rolled around and my father’s sister, my aunt Ida knew I was looking forward to Santa Claus, so whether out of meaness or concern, she decided to tell me that there was no Santa Claus and spoiled my Christmas, while I was still just a child of about seven years old.In 1929, we were still in Florida when the stock market crashed and everyone lost everything.  Daddy would go to a bar or saloon and drink and gamble and he would take Rudolph with him.  On one occasion he lost all of what he had left of the $2600.00 and so……. So back to my brother and sister-in-law’s we went. Over the years, I spent time going back and forth between my brother’s and my father’s place and my aunts’ homes in Winston County.  They were my mothers sisters, Johnnie, Lizzie, None, and Stella.  They made me clothes even made my first bra.  They would send me packages of clothing when we weren’t living in Winston County.  By that time, Howard and Jewel had two sons, James Earl and Aaron, who became two more brothers to me and a little girl named Willie.  Once after she got to be about 14 years old, she told me one day, “You know, Aunt Hester, that I’m the flower of my family and I said no that I didn’t know that.  ‘Yes, she said, “ I am a blooming idiot.’  In realty she was like her mother, she was a nice, genteel, southern lady, who liked a little glass of  wine every day and managed to run quite a real estate business.Rudolph and I also had a child’s portion of my mother’s land on Haggard Road in Winston County, when she died.  Because of my father’s situation, the family sold our portions for our upbringing.My father left Florida and settled for awhile around Laurel, MS. We lived in a rooming house, Daddy, Rudolph and me. The first night we were there, Rudolph and I slept on a pallet on the floor.  I felt something on my little finger that hurt.  I thought Rudolph had hit me, so I told him to stop that!  He said, “I didn’t do anything!”  My father called us into the living room and examined my finger.  Turns out, I had been bitten by a mouse.  Fortunately, there were no problems from it. Across the hall from us was a woman with two daughters, Willie Mae and Ruth.  The woman’s name was Edda or Eddie Girault, a  divorcee.  They had several children together.  They had Jack, Cecil, Robert Earl, and Amy Lou.  They are all gone on now.Eddy was not a very kind loving mother and her kids as well as Rudolph and I had our share of problems after we grew up.Once when we were still just kids, Daddy and Eddy were farming.  They raised vegetables for sale as well as other crops.  Willie Mae, Ruth, and I had been sick with the flu  and Eddy had fixed us a hot toddy out of corn whiskey and lemon and sugar.  WE felt pretty good, so Daddy and Eddy decided to go into town for some reason and left us to go the field and pick the tomatoes.  Well, we decided that we still didn’t feel so good, so we fixed another toddy.  We had enough toddies that by the time our folks got home, we were tipsy, happy, and throwing tomatoes everywhere.On any given day, I could be found sitting in a tree reading a book. I loved to read and  I didn’t want to learn housework, so I talked Daddy into teaching me to plow. I started plowing a mule when I was about nine and kept it up until I married.  Once when the preacher came by our house he was outraged that a little girl was plowing until he talked to my father. Anyway, the neighbors knew that’s where I could be found, up in a tree reading, especially if it was Sunday.  There were scuppernong and muscadine vines growing over in peoples pastures in the very tops of saplings and trees.  They would come and ask my father if I could come and swing over and get the grapes.  Well I would go over, pull down a sapling and fly over to the vines, pick them and back l’d go.  When Rudolph was a little older, he still had a little speech impediment.  If you ever asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he’d say, “ He’o”, his way of saying hero.  He grew out of the speech problem and did become a hero.  He served his country during WWII as a tail gunner on a B12 bomber.  He put in 35 missions over Germany and volunteered to go back for 35 more.  He received the Distinguished Flying Cross medal and served his full-time in the service of his country when he began to develop rheumatoid arthritis. The army doctor’s told him he’d end up in a wheelchair, and he told them no, he wouldn’t. He was married three times; once to a girl he met in Bossier City, while stationed there and came back from the War and married her.  We didn’t have much to do with each other and don’t know why, but they were divorced. Next he married Sylvia Hurt, a woman from Winston County.  And they had a son that Rudolph claimed wasn’t his, but from all reports, he looked just like him.Then he met a little country girl from North Carolina.  They got married and had five children while he was still serving in the military.  After his death, I gave his medal to his daughter, Sandra. He and his wife Dot moved to Phoenix, AZ with their family where he became the head auditor for Ramada Inns.  When I visited during the 70’s, we were able to stay at the Ramada Inns for free, thanks to Rudolph.  He drove even after his fingers began to bend and pull inward.  He continued to work at another company and raise a small garden even after retiring from Ramada Inn until he began bedridden from the arthritis.  At the time he enlisted in the service, my family and I were living in Bossier City, LA.  He sent his war medals home to me.  When my husband decided he wanted to go back to Arkansas to farm again, I had all his medals, our marriage certificates, and other important things in a little sack that we put behind the seat in the truck when we headed toward Phillips County, Ark.  I don’t know how it happened but the sack disappeared.It was a shame that he never talked about the war until he got older.  When he did tell his children about some of these things, they would say, “There goes Daddy lying again.”  They never realized what a hero he really had been!Back to my story and the time, I was with Howard and Jewel when I started to McCloud School, a very small, small school.  My future husband was also attending there.  He was already much bigger than everyone else, so I thought he was much older.  We all used to play kick-the-can on the playground since we didn’t have a football to play with.  In the meantime, I had gone back to my father’s until I was 13.  When I returned to Howard and Jewel’s again, my brother Howard cut Johnny’s hair and his brother Duel’s hair on Sunday mornings.Johnnie’s Uncle Collins and my cousin, Nowell Haggard, drove the school buses, which were basically pickup trucks with beds and benches on them.  I rode Nowell’s bus to school with a little boy named Willie Doggett.  I had such a crush on him that I couldn’t stand it.  I got teased about it and one day, I wrote and tried to pass a note to him.  One of my friends told the teacher that I was passing notes and she made me come to the front of the room and read the note.  It said “ Willie Doggett, I love you so much I could just squeeze you.”  Needless to say after, I read that note, I didn’t have a crush anymore because I was so mortified.  We rode in the back of the wagons almost all summer going to the Pentecostal revivals under a brush arbor.  A brush arbor is where they put up poles around to form a large square, then throw a tarp-like covering over it and cover the tarp with brush.  They built an altar in the front and had wooden seats down the center.  I had gone to church with Howard and Jewel that night and was sitting on a bench when Johnny and his brother sat behind me, whispering where I could hear about which one was going to get to walk me home.  Johnny happened to be on the end of the pew and asked me could he walk me home.  I was only 13 and looked at him and said, “Brother Howard won’t let me.”  I didn’t see him again until I was 16 and at Howard’s again.  Johnny just came by every Sunday to see me.  I couldn’t go one night, and I heard him through the window as I passed by.  He had walked a friend of mine home.  I didn’t say anything about it, so he thought I was angry.  When I went to services down at the brush arbor again, a friend of his asked him, “Aren’t you going to walk Hester home?”  Johnny said, “I guess not.”  His friend said, “If you’re not, then I am,” so he walked me home.  I just made a date with him for the next Sunday.  Johnny never called, he just came by.  On Sunday, they both showed up, so I walked with the friend since we had the date.  The minister and his wife had had dinner with us and were getting a big kick out of this, wondering which one I was going to walk with.  Johnny picked his guitar, and he always picked for the group at the church.  He walked behind my date and I, between us and Howard’s family and friends.  The minister got quite a big kick out of it!  Johnny took out his guitar and played and sang “She’s My Curly-Headed Baby” right behind me and my date.  My date and I sat together during church.  When we went outside, he asked if I wanted Johnny to walk me home, and I said, “Yes, I guess so.”  I was only 16 at that time.  When he kissed me goodnight, he had to put me on  a stump because he was 6’ 7” Tall and I was 5’ 4 ½” tall.Our courtship was spent at church, walking to and from church, and Sunday afternoons, playing the piano and guitar and singing with a group of young people who gathered at Jewel’s mother’s home.  He name was Ora Culpepper and she had a piano and a big parlor.  At the time Howard and Jewel lived on what is now the Halfacre farm, just up the hill from Johnnie’s brother , William and down the hill from his parents.  We would see each other when I was plowing.  I remember once that William told Howard that I didn’t need to be plowing a mule and Howard responded with the fact that I  had been plowing since I was nine.  Anyway, Jewel’s sister, Vesta, was my best friend at he time and everyone thought we were twins or at the least sisters.  So Mrs. Culpepper would let us have her parlor on Sunday Afternoon.  Johnnie had trained with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet in Jackson and was very good on the guitar and could sing both bass and tenor.  In later years  when our children were growing up, we would sit outside late in the evenings and harmonize.  I would switch of to Alto and he would sing Tenor, or I would sing the melody and he would harmonize in either Tenor or bass.  They seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.  We sang songs like Precious memories, Whispering Hope, the old Rugged Cross, Power in the Blood,  Shall We Gather at the River, but one of their favorites was “The Orphan Child’s Song’.  It was a sad, sad, lament traveling on an Orphan’s train and the orphan child died, but the kids loved the singing and that song.  We did get to go to the fair once on a school bus driven by Johnnie’s Uncle Collins and we went to the movies.  Johnnie’s favorite actor was Fred McMurray and his favorite actress was Marie McDonald.  My favorites were Clark Gable and Carol Lombard.   I just liked the movies and after we moved to the farm in Arkansas, I had seen a movie with Fred McMurray and Claudette Colbert called “The Egg and I”.  That movie helped me survive that year because I had a major surgery and was back in the field in six weeks, because our circumstances were rather bleak.              We had planned to be married in the church on Valentine’s day, which was on a Sunday, with dress and flowers, and everything.  However, I had not been feeling well and was running a fever.  We had gone to Louisville to get our marriage license that morning and Earline, Johnnie’s sister, and his mother talked us into getting married by the Justice of the peace on February 13, 1937.  It was raining and since I didn’t feel well, they said that something might happen to prevent the wedding.  So we got married and I went home to Ma Carrie’s and spent my wedding night in the room next to hers.  The next morning I woke up with the mumps.  I got pregnant during the first two weeks of marriage and during that 9 ½ months, I had an appendectomy, pneumonia, and a new baby girl born on Thanksgiving day.  The following years, we made many moves and had five more children.  One of them, a little girl, was born dead, but the others all grew up to be smart, successful people.  Their father and I were married 55 years when he died.  We   had many good times and maybe more hard times, but I loved him more the day he died than I did when I married him.  I also outlived all my brothers and sisters, except on half brother in Texas.His name was Robert and I never knew him because he was born after I married and moved away, but I loved all my brothers and my sisters .            As we grew older, Johnnie and I raised truck patches and the grandchildren all helped at times.  The extra money helped, but I loved to go the garden and enjoyed the contacts that I made while selling  the vegetables.  I love to cook and have spent many hours putting up, peas, butter beans, corn, and making fruit into jellies and jams.  I love to make apple butter and as I get older, it’s one of the few things that I am still able to do.  I love to enjoy hearing people say they enjoy it and hear them brag on my cornbread and biscuit.            I have moved back to Helena and I am enjoying old friends and cooking and having my own place where my family can come and see me.             Note:  Mother died on October 21, 2006, in Helena, AR and is buried in Sunset Cemetery in Phillips county, next to Daddy.  She wanted to be buried in Murphy Creek next to her family and have Daddy moved as well, but funds wouldn’t permit it.  Maybe, God willing, one day her remains will rest in the place tht she loved most, Winston County, Mississippi.