The Union Soldier Who Settled at Plainview

Elizabeth Ellen and Aaron Kearns came to the Plainview area from Gallia County, Ohio. I do not know the year. My grandmother Rachel Ann Kearns Hunt, who was born in 1857 and lived to be 102, told me they came in a covered wagon. She and her brother Lanson, who was born in 1861, were the only children of Elizabeth and Aaron as far as I know. Rachel told me that along the way she and Lanson would go to houses and ask for food.  She said her mother Elizabeth was not well and sat in a chair most of the way.  She showed me the chair and the legs had worn down to about eight inches in length.  This did not seem possible to me at the time. However, after moving in a U-Haul with air-filled tires on paved highways and seeing the damage when two pieces of furniture rub together I can believe my grandmother. In some of the White County material the name is spelled Kearnes. It should be Kearns. I learned from the White County Historical Society website that Elizabeth Ellen Kearns (February 7, 1833 - December 21, l90l) is buried in Owen-Henson Cemetery.  Aaron Kearns is buried in Fredonia Cemetery.   Aaron served in the Union Army, Company C, 53rd Ohio Infantry, during the War of Northern Aggression. Lanson and Rachel Ann and many other Hunts are buried in Providence cemetery. 

Lanson's wife ran away with the rolling store man. See "A Brief Marriage" under Memories of Yesterday on the White County Historical Society Website, www.rootsweb.com/~arwhite   

Since Rachel Ann and Lanson were children when they took their chair-rubbing trip from Gallia County to White County, I would guess that they came to Arkansas around l870.          

 BURL HUNT, P.O. Box 395, University, MS 38677-0395, Navy346@aol.com

vvv