Goodspeed's History of ... Carroll County, Arkansas
Settlement and Development, p. 333.
Indian Occupation
-- At the time when this county was first visited by settlers the
Indian population was sparse. There was an Indian village at the site
of Bellefonte, Boone County; the Delawares had a number of tepees on
Long Creek, in Carroll County and their principal town was on the James
River, in Stone County, Mo. The Cherokees, from Georgia, began their
migration about 1832, and the bands were wont to proceed leisurely, and
pause for awhile upon the borders of their western home. Several bands,
numbering 300 or more, are mentioned by early settlers. They had with
them large herds of cattle, horses, etc., and lived comfortably in
their camps, one of which, in July, 1833, was situated north of
Berryville several miles. A visitor to this camp says they were very
hospitable; he was almost obliged to eat with them. "May be sometime I
get hungry and eat with you," was the logic of his host. There were no
resident Indians in this locality after 1835. Hunting parties from the
"Nation" returned frequently during the winters until game became too
scarce, but their relations with the white settlers were always
friendly. No outrages by either party are known to have been
perpetrated within the limits of the county.
Emigration
to that part of Arkansas within the bend of White River, and about its
head-waters, followed two distinct routes, the courses of which are best
indicated by reference to previous settlements in the State, which
naturally followed the valleys of the Arkansas and White Rivers. Fort
Smith was the terminus of a military road which naturally invited
settlement in that direction; but it was also upon the western boundary
of the State, and emigrants thither turned to the north for permanent
locations. The extreme northwestern part of the State was also
accessible from St. Louis by a direct road; and thus it happened that
many of the first settlers of Carroll County came thither after a
temporary sojourn in Madison or Washington.
Batesville was
for a long time the limit of emigration up the White River valley. The
level country to the east seems to have been considered preferable to
the mountainous region at its source, which received but little
attention except from the hunter and trapper. It was by this route that
the first white inhabitants of what is now Carroll County entered its
borders.
Early Settlers. -- William
Sneed and his son, Charles Sneed, originally from Kentucky, removed
from White River, near the mouth of Bear Creek, to Osage Township, in
the spring of 1830. They located a claim embracing several thousand
acres of the best land on Osage River. Here they had planted several
acres of corn the previous spring, and were thus provided with food.
They cut what was known as the old Dubuque road from Dubuque Landing,
on White River, near Lead Hill; it passed through Carrollton, and
thence followed an Indian trail southeast. John Boyd, one of the
teamsters, is commonly given the honor of having driven the first team
into Carroll County.
Louis Russell went from North Carolina
to Illinois, and thence to Arkansas; he is said to have settled on
Yocum Creek, Section 20, Township 20, Range 23, in the present township
of Hickory, in 1822. If such is the case, he must have been the
earliest settler in the county. He was of English and Cherokee descent.
In 1836 he made a journey on horseback to his former home in Illinois.
He was nineteen days returning, and brought with him as many apple
trees as he could carry. Notwithstanding the length of time they were
out of the ground, many of the trees grew, and sprouts from their roots
are still bearing. This seems to have been the first effort at orchard
planting. Russell assisted in the building of Fort Smith. He died in
this county in 1869.
David Williams, the first white
inhabitant of the central part of the county, and therefore of its
western and northern portions, came from Tennessee about 1831. He lived
on Osage, about a mile and a half from Berryville, in a pole cabin,
with his wife and three sons. They cleared several acres of land, but
never made any permanent improvements. One of the sons married a
Cherokee woman. Williams removed to Buffalo Valley in 1838. His hunting
grounds had become too narrow.
John, Alexander and Bruce
Boyd, and Elijah Hulsey, brother-in-law to the two last named, removed
from Crowley's Ridge, near Helena, Ark., in 1832, and settled on Long
Creek below Carrollton. There were then living in the vicinity of
Carrollton, Martin Standridge, his father, "Shot-gun" Jerry Meeks and
his brother, "Blue" Jacob Meeks, "Black" Squire Blevins, Richard
Blevins, Sam Blevins, and others of Cherokee and English descent, whose
society was not appreciated by their neighbors, as subsequent
developments will show. They were from Georgia, and had not been living
in this country many years prior to 1832. George Stone, from Yellville,
then known as Shawnee-town, joined this community about the same time.
Robert
Dawson came to Arkansas in 1832, having previously resided in Missouri
and Tennessee. He owned four farms on Osage, in Prairie Township, upon
one of which he lived forty-nine years, dying in 1886.
William
Tabor, of Macoupin County, Ill., became a resident on Dry Creek, in
Hickory Township, in 1834. He made the journey out in six weeks with
three yoke of oxen. Jonathan Norris was also an early settler in that
township.
January 3, 1833, John Baker, with his sons, Aaron
and Jonathan, arrived at the present residence of Aaron Baker, in
Prairie Township, having left their former home, four miles from Marble
Hill, on Crooked Creek, in Cape Girardeau, now Bollinger County, Mo.,
October 11, 1832. They passed through Springfield and Fayetteville, and
crossed King's River on New Year's day. John Baker died in Osage Valley
in 1862. Aaron Baker, who had then a wife and four children, is still
living, the oldest resident of Carroll County.
In the spring
of 1833 Jesse White and William Walker, brothers-in-law, removed from
Washington County. The former settled at the mouth of Osage, the latter
on King's River, near the crossing of the upper road to Eureka. They
lived alternately in Washington County four years. Wesley Walker, John
Walker, and several others of the name, came from Tennessee somewhat
later.
Thomas Hall built the fourth house in Prairie
Township, in 1835. He had previously lived in Wilkes County, N.C., and
near Chattanooga, Tenn., from whence he removed to War Eagle, Madison
County.
John Yocum, from whom Yocum Creek derives its name,
settled near Green Forest about 1833. He built a mill there at an early
period in the history of the county.
Jesse S. O'Niell, the first constable of Hickory Township, was
an early settler on Yocum Creek.
William
Wood, a native of Kentucky, removed to Morgan County, Ill., about 1834,
and thence to the vicinity of Berryville, where he took up land yet
owned by his descendants.
Jacob A. Meek came from Henry
County, Tenn., about 1837, and settled on Dry Creek. He was a member of
the Methodist Church. His father, Jeremiah, and brothers, William,
Joseph and Samuel, followed him.
The Chaney family, William
Chaney, Sr., Joseph Chaney and William H. Wilson, his brother-in-law,
settled on Osage, in Liberty Township, in 1834. They were from Overton
County, Tenn.
George Suggs, Isaiah Watkins and Britain Smith settled on Dry Fork prior to 1837. They were the pioneers of Dry Fork Township.
John
Musick, from Huntsville, removed to Osage prior to 1840, taking with
him 200 cattle, seventy-five horses, and a large flock of sheep. This
was the first introduction of sheep.
Keel Williams, from whom
Keel's Creek is named, was a brother to David Williams, previously
mentioned. Daniel Bromley, of Miller County, Mo., bought his land, and
was among the first prominent settlers in that part of the county.
Charles
Whiteley, a Baptist preacher, from Madison County, settled in the
locality that bears his name, Whiteley's Prairie, in 1837 or 1838. He
was a man of public spirit, fair ability as a speaker, and character
worthy of his calling. He was especially active in his support of free
schools. He left the county for Texas at the opening of the Civil War.
Stephen
Holmesley, of Cape Girardeau County, Mo., removed to Hindsville,
Washington Co., Ark., and thence to Yocum Creek, upon which he built
one of the first mills. His wife was a daughter to Samuel Vaughn, from
whom the celebrated Vaughn's Valley, Madison County, is named.
William and Joel Plumlee, who emigrated from Tennessee about
1836, were the first settlers upon the site of Berryville.
Absalom
Cornelius, a Missourian, settled on Dry Creek, on the farm now owned by
Henry Reeves. He was among the first settlers there.
Jeremiah Hale, from whom the Hale barrens are named located
there in 1845. Wilson Butler was one of his first neighbors.
James Fancher, Thomas Sisco and James M. Kenner were the
earliest settlers upon the head-waters of Osage.
Thomson
Ramsay, of Rule Postoffice, and Samuel Meek, of Prairie Township, have
been residents of the county since 1835. Hon. Bradley Bunch came in
1838. William Scott, an early settler in the western part of the
county, died in 1887, at the age of one hundred and nine. This
enumeration might be multiplied indefinitely, but it is believed that
the earliest of the first inhabitants of the county have been mentioned.