Sterling Gibb Abernathy, Sr. (my great-great-grandfather) and his first wife Elizabeth Ware bore 8 children: Mary Jane, Martha, James Henry, Sarah Melvina, John Ware, Samuel Crawford, Sterling Gibb Jr., and Saletia Carolina Abernathy. Elizabeth Ware Abernathy died July 15, 1864.

Sterling then married Agnes Minerva Webb Craven, the widow of George W. Craven, with whom she had 5 children: William Jasper, Ann Elizabeth, James Columbus, Amanda C. and Mary Jane Craven.

Agnes and Sterling then had two children together: Julian Rockett Abernathy (my great-grandfather) and Agnes Dow Abernathy.

Julian Rockett Abernathy married Loula L. Martin and had 12 children: Hosea B. (my grandfather), Jessie Lee, Julian Ray, Otis Ware, Irene, Boyd Martin, Mamie Alice, Edna, Gertrude, Mary Ruth, Jackson Dean and Adeline Abernathy. They lived in Harrell, Ark. The area was known as "Billy Goat" way back then.

Sterling Abernathy, Sr., Elizabeth Ware Abernathy, Agnes Minerva Webb Craven Abernathy, George W. Craven, Jullian Rockett Abernathy and Loula L. Martin Abernathy are all laid to rest in Ricks Cemetery in Calhoun County along with others who are related.

Agnes Dow Abernathy married Joel H. Rowland and had 5 children: Nellie M., Lillian Maida, Lila E., Robert Walter and Sterling Thomas Rowland. Only one child, Robert "Walter" Rowland, lived to majority. He was a well known and loved teacher. He married Lois ?, who was also a teacher, and was his cousin, so they had no children. They were active in the Canine Baptist Church in Harrell. Their house is still there with other relatives that live there now. All are laid to rest in Dickinson Cemetery, Calhoun, County.

My grandfather, Hosea B. Abernathy married Margaret Patton who lived in Bradley County. Margaret was the daughter of William Robert Patton, who had about 80 acres at one time. The Patton house stands on a hill about 5 miles or so west of Warren on the New Edinburgh Highway. Margaret had 4 sisters and 1 brother and was the only one to have any children, my mom Sophia Louise Abernathy Walker Courtright.

I don't know much about the Patton part of my family. I know that my great aunt Vivian Lucille Patton Clubb worked for the Arkansas Gazette for 47 years before she retired back to the Patton house. She was married to Lee Clubb. I know very little about him. He was several years older than she was. I remember that he had a certificate signed by a president in a frame, but I don't know exactly what it was for. I do not know which president signed it either. It was something about his action in the military. It was sold in the estate sale. I have no idea where he is buried. I have pictures of my great aunt Vivian and him when they went up to Pikes Peak on the train and it ruptured the vessels in my aunts eye's due to the pressure from the altitude. I am not sure when he passed away. I never saw him in person.

Vivian's sister, Kate Patton, sold milk and butter to people in Warren. She named her cow "Lillie Belle;" no matter how many cows there were, they were always named Lillie Belle. She had stayed home to take care of her parents while all the rest of the children went off and had their own lives. She did upholstery and draperies in some of the lovely old homes in Warren. My brothers and I used to go in the summer and stay with her. She and I would sell her milk and go to the bait stand to buy some bait to go fishing in the cow pond on the property. We would just have a great time together. She took my brothers to the YMCA in Warren for swimming lessons.

William Robert Patton, his wife Callie D. Cowart Patton, Vivian Lucille Patton Clubb, Kate Patton, Robert N. Patton and two other sisters who died at a young age are laid to rest in the Shady Grove Cemetery between Warren and New Edinburgh. Some of Callie's family is there also.

Hosea Abernathy and Margaret Patton Abernathy are laid to rest in the First Methodist Church of Welcome Arkansas Cemetery.

Sophia Louise Abernathy Walker Courtright, her husband Brent Voy Walker Courtright, Billy Gene and Bobbie Wayne Walker are laid to rest in Springhill Cemetery, Springhill, Louisiana.

I have not been doing my heritage for very long. I have been able to trace some of the Abernathy family, which there is so very much of, but so very little on the Patton side. I remember my great-grandfather and his wife, but I know nothing of any more than the immediate family that I grew up knowing.