by Henry Carl Hickman
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1 This was the writer's maternal grandfather, Madric Washington Merritt (1839-1898). The writer's maternal grandmother was Mary Jane McCauley Merritt (1841-1916).
2 The Big Road was established by William McCauley (1801-1880), first settler of Marsden. McCauley was his great-grandfather of Henry Carl Hickman. McCauley is buried in the Marsden Cemetery.
3 Marginal notes on the handwritten manuscript of this memoir list the following families as early settlers: Hickman, Hairston, Callaway, Morgan, Drummond, McCauley, Sloan, Merritt, Whittington, Johnson, Garrett, Pipken, Hargroves, and McClain.
4 Penelope Blanche Hickman (1889-1902) was called Neppie She died of a childhood disease before her thirteenth birthday.
5 The headstone for Horace Franklin Hickman (1889-1990) was acquired and placed in the Marsden Cemetery by Henry Carl Hickman.
6 Elmyra Hickman Hairston (1853-1942), daughter of William Jasper Hickman (1830-1912) and Jane Wardlaw Hickman (1833-1904), was the wife of John Louis Hairston. William and Jane were the writer's paternal grandparents.
7 The farmer was John Fletcher Johnson (1847-1932). He and his second wife, Sarah Larkin (Sallie) Callaway Johnson (1858-1929) were the parents of eight children, the youngest of which was Mattie Wells Johnson (1899-1995). She wed John Roscoe Hickman (1897-1961), and bore him four sons: John Olna (1919-1996), James Ray (1921), Gerald Joyce, (1931) and Merrill Keith, Sr. (1935).
8 Shortly after becoming Marsden's first settler, William McCauley established a gristmill on its steadily flowing waters. Hence, the stream became known as Mill Creek.
9 Arnold Merritt Hickman (1894-1977) was a schoolteacher, Navy veteran of World War I, and for many years much loved rural mail carrier serving Marsden and other parts of Bradley County.
10 William Clay Hickman (1903-1986) died childless in Truman, Arkansas after retiring from the Singer sewing machine company there. Washington Ray (1903-1915), by all accounts an exceptionally bright child, died of a childhood disease.
11 At the time covered in the memoir, Marsden showed promise of becoming more than a community of scattered farms. It boasted a store, a post office, and a cotton gin. However, by the year 2000, Marsden was again largely forest. Only about a half-dozen families still lived there.
12 Francis Marion Hickman, Sr. (1855-1930) was the namesake of his uncle, who had died while a young man. His son, Francis Marion Hickman, Jr. (1895-1972) was the third generation of Hickman boys to bear the name of the illustrious Carolina general.
13 Nancy Hickman (1859-prior to 1938, when her husband died). She was the wife of H.L. (Dick) Callaway. When she assisted in the birth of John Roscoe Hickman, Nancy was 38 years old.
14 Ash was one of the great variety of hardwood trees that then flourished in the Bradley County forests. Today, commercial planting of timber by huge lumber companies has killed off most of the hardwoods in favor of much faster-growing pines.
15 Nettie Lee Hickman McClain (1871-1916) was the daughter of Louisa E.J. Hickman (1845-1895).
| Introduction |
Edited by: Gerald J. Hickman