HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY
BY H.B. CROWLEY in 1906
Samuel Crowley, the second son of Benjamin Crowley, and father of B.H. Crowley, was born February 28, 1798. He married Sarah Hutchins and left an only son, the B.H. Crowley above mentioned. His widow was married to Robert H. Halley, a young man who came to the county from Colliersville, Tennessee, as a clerk in a store on the ridge. This store was situated on the old Crowley homestead, where Walcott is now. William Strong had the first store on the Crowley's Ridge, it being located at the crossing of the St. Francis river, by the old military road leading from Memphis to Little Rock, in what is now Cross county. By the union of of Robert H. Halley and Sarah Hutchins Crowley, there was raised quite a family of children, the oldest being Francis Paskel Halley, who married Lucy Caviness of Scott county, Arkansas, but was killed at Franklin, Tennessee. The second child by this union was Ardenia Elizabeth Halley, who was married to Captain Granville A. Torbett, of the rebel army. She was the mother of G.P. Torbett and Will Torbett, of Waco, Texas, and Drusia Torbett, of Martin High School, Texas. She died in Texas several years ago. The third child was Victoria Halley who died at the home of B.H. Crowley, in the city of Paragould, her half brother, without ever being married. The fourth child was Sarah Jane Halley, who married R.C. Gramling, who was killed several years ago by breaking of a barn-loft in which he had a large amount of corn stored, the loft giving away while he was standing beneath it, and fell upon him breaking his neck. The fifth child in this family Robert H. Halley, Jr., who died at Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1876, while he was attending the state university. The youngest child was John Mathias Halley, whi is now living in Cache township, at this county.
John Crowley, the third son of Ben Crowley, was born February 29th in the year 1880, but he died early in life, being unmarried and without issue.
Wiley Crowley, the fourth son , was born March 27th, 1803, and was married to Lucy Capps. To them were born five children: John Thomas Crowley, who was lost in the Civil War he being a member of the 5th Arkansas regiment, and was captured in Tennessee, and died with small pox while being held a prisoner of war, at Rock Island. William Crowley, who died here in the county in 1859. Cynthia died in childhood. Elizabeth Jane died in the county in 1880. Samuel Jefferson Crowley was the father of William T. and J.L. Crowley, and Lucy J. Gramling and Sarah Jane Turpin, all of this county. William T. Crowley has been assessor of Greene County twice within recent years. Jefferson Crowley married Nancy Jane Suftin, but they are both dead. Dolby Crowley, was born in April 5th 1805. But she is dead leaving two daughters, the oldest being the wife of Joseph Austin, she and her children being all dead. The oldest Polly, married Jasper McDaniel, and to them was born John T. McDaniel, Jasper McDaniel, Sherman McDaniel, and Bettie McDaniel, the latter being dead.
Benjamin Crowley, Jr., who was born November 1st, 1807, and died while at work on the military road runnimg from Little Rock to Memphis, at a point in the Mississippi bottom, just east of the St. Francis river. He was never married. Peggy Crowley was born May 15th, 1810. She was married to Charley Robinson, above referred to as being the second sheriff of the county. By this marriage she had several children, among them being Benjamin Robinson, who has been dead a long time, but left a son Charles Robinson, who lived on the St. Francis river in the east end of Craighead county. Sallie Robinson who was married to John Nixon, and left a number of children, among them being Mary Hendriz and Charles Nixon and Menerva Gower, wife of R.F. Gower, Esq., and Annie Schug wife of Andy Shug, a well to do planter of the St. Francis bottom. Polly Robinson married Joseph I, Nixon and has been dead a long time. Minerva Robinson married Thomas Tramel, and was the mother of Mrs. Calhoun Norton, a respected citizen and thrifty farmer ofliving near the Charley Robinson home place in the southern part of the county.
It will thus be seen that the Crowley family was the first to settle in this portion of the state and give name to the great highland that trend north and south across the country, and was the parent tree from which has grown many of the substantial families of the county. This will be sufficient apology for the space given to Benjamin Crowley and his descendants.
Dr. Melton came back after serving in the army in Mexico, and engaged in the practice of his profession. He was a very skillful surgeon and established a reputation as such that extended from Missouri to Cross county. He was always in demand where difficult surgical operations were required. He married the widow of Wiley Crowley, and was known far and near as an unique character, being a great wag and player of pranks. On one occasion while he was making a professional call at the home of Nick Harris and had to remain over until next day, he perpetrated a joke on James Ratchford that came near resulting seriously especially to the latteer. Ratchford was also an odd genius, lived by himself, kept batch in a cabin surrounded by his dogs and, by the way, was at one time treasurer of the county, and a very wealthy man. One of his idiosyncrasies was never to drink water until he had boiled it, saying that was necessary to purify the water and render it fit to drink. On that night at old man Harris' he went intothe cook room and filled a kettle with water and hung it on the pot-rack to boil. While he was out of the room for an instant, Doctor Melton stepped into the kitchen and was told by the ladies what Ratchford was doing with the kettle on the fire. The doctor slipped a plug of tobacco into the boiling water and returned to the family room. Ratchford came in, got his water and after it had sufficiently cooled, drank all of it, and was pretty soon in need of a doctor. Docotr Melton told him he had undoubtedly swallowed a spider or tarantula, and that it would require heroic treatment to save his life. The doctor gave him grease and sweet-milk calling it something scientific name, and soon brought his patient around all right. Ratchford never could understand why the doctor relieved him of such a critical condition and would not charge him a cent for his services.
At another time he and Jerry Gage and William Hutchins made an appointment for a certain man from Missouri by the name of Jonathan Dayton to make a speech at old man Jones' shop, now on the W.P. Blackwood's place. The speaking was to take place at night, and Melton and Dayton started to the meeting on foot. The Doctor assured the visiting orator that the appointment had been well advertised and that there would be a large crowd present to hear him, as he was regarded as a great speaker in these parts. The crowd consisted of the gentlemen named above, and the place of meeting was in the Poplar Creek bottom just north of Sam Clement's, where a dense forest then stood. While Melton and his Missouri charge were passing through the thickest of this forest, and the doctor was entertaining the speaker with stories of the ugly sights and awlful sounds heard there of nights and of the many disappearances that had occured in that solitary place, and of their liability to be attacked by lonely highwaymen and murdered for their money or for pure love of blood. When they were about the middle of the most dismal part of the story and silent forest and just after they passed a great mud hole or slough in the dimly-marked room, they heard what appeared to be the snapping of flint-lock guns, but what were really knives and flints and flashes of fire and snap, snap broke the stillness of the night, from out the dark and mysterious depths of the jungle by the road-side. While the two night-prowlers were riveted to the spot by the unmistakable evidences of an attack by highwaymen, a mighty shot rang out on the deathlike stillness of the night, and Melton fell flat on the ground, and after a few groans and kicks apparently passed away, mutteriing murder, assassins-brigrands.
Jonathon Dayton broke to run, and knowing but one way out, he split the afore-mentioned mudhole, and panting for breathe and gasping "murderers" and with his clothes besmattered with swamp mud, arrived at Jack Cochran's and after recovering his wind, told of the murderous assault, and vowed that Doctor Melton was dead, as he saw him fall and struggle in the agonies an awlful death. Early next morning the disciple of Demosthenese from Missouri hit the road back to his native hearth, and it is doubted if he ever tried to fill another appointment to speak, especially in robber-infested Arkansas.
Dr. Melton was afterward appointed Swamp Land Agent for the Helena District, and had the locating of the swamp lands of this section of the country. After he had completed his labors in this position, in which he had become familiar with the value of the lands, he formed a partnership with Col. P.K. Lester, a prominent lawyer of the county at that time, and they engaged in an extensive real estate business, locating premetions and proving the same. He and Lester took several large contracts from the state for levying and ditching in the Cache and Black Rivers bottoms. In the spring of 1861 he drew the sum of $20,000 and a large amount of Swamp Land scrip, on these contracts. The writer recieved from him the sum of $2,700 in gold and $300 in scrip for doing similar work for the state. During the year of 1861, the firm of Melton & Lester werethe owners of fifty thousand acres of land northeast Arkansas, and they were considered the wealthiest men in this section of the county. Dr. Melton raised a company for the confederate service and joined the 7th Arkansas Regiment called later the "Bloody 7th." Melton took sick in the Tennessee army and was brought back home, and died at the house of John S. Anderson, near Herdon, and was buried on the old Crowley Homestead at Walcott. He was a step-father-in-law to the writer and was a broad-guage, big-hearted, liberal-minded man, who was loved and honored by a large circle of friends.
Daniel Gray was one of the poineer citizens of Greene County, who setled nack in the Cache bottom while that country was an uninhibited wilderness. He was a soldier away back in some of the Indian wars, and always lived easy, and let the growth of his stock and the natural increase from the same make him living, and some extra money. He owned some valuable land in the Cache bottom and some in Baxter county, and some in Texas. He was a great hunter, and in his early life he claimed to have killed as many as one hundred coons on one hunting trip. It was claimed for him that he could dress a coon hidde better than any other man in the county, and so it would bring a better price on the market. He had a brake erected in his yard for the purpose of dressing coon skins, and he made some money out of the fur he took on the chase. His oldest son John Gray, killed Ivey Welch in 1860, and left the counry. It was reported he joined the 1st Arkansas Regiment, under General Fagan, and was killed inon of the greatest battles in Virginia. Daniel Gray lived to be 81 years old and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John Welch.
Sevier Friar settled in the county some time in the fifties, together with his brother, Joseph Frair. Sevier was a lover of horses, and for a long time he bore the reputation of keeping the best horses in this section of the country. He was the champion horse racer in the whole country. He would not travel and race for profit, but whenever a racer came into this section Frair's horse was pitted against him, and usually won first honors. On one occassion when he had a valuable racer he called "Wolf" he was challenged to a race by Carter Williams, of Jackson County, a professional horse racer, after the terms were arranged and the stakes put up, William brought his horse over to the race track at the Atchison race course, At Greensboro, which is now at Finch, and after examining the horse of Frair, backed out and let Frair keep the$200 forfiet, saying that he had never seen a finer horse in all his experience as a racer, and that Frair could get his own price for the animal. Frair got the horse from a neighbor for a nominal price, and the neighbor had traded for him from a stranger passing through the country. Frair afterward sold the horse for $1000, as he could get no more races out of anybody in the whole country and he did not wish to travel and enter the horse as a regular racer. Wolf was taken to Kentucky and became a famous racer and made his owner many thousands of dollars. Frair never engaged in any form of gambling any worse than horse racing and he did not follow that for profit, but only to gratify his pride in finding stocks. He lived and died ohn his farm in the county, where Sally Green now livesand owns a homestead. He loved fine stock as long as he lived, and always had some valuable horses about him and he kept them in good order.
There were several of the Breckenridge's who settled in the county in the early yeas of the county. David I. E. Breckenridge located where Beech Grove now is, Andrew settled above that place, and was for a long time a justice of the peace, and held his court at Gainesville, James Breckenridge was the father of Blant, Abe, Eli, Tom, John and Ess. Thomas was lately clerk of the county and circuit clerk, and all of the Breckenridge's are good citizens and staunch members of the Methodist Church, they having erected a good church building at Beech Grove, and the family is now one of the strongest and largest of the county.
The Lovelady family living near Beech Grove is also a strong and worthy family of people and have assisted in making the county what it is in a material and substantial manner. Dr. Lovelady left the county and went to Texas, and afterwards went up into the Indian Territory, where he now resides, and all the members of the family are and ever have been good and useful citizens, who have been worth a great deal to the upbuilding of the county.
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