This is a reproduction of a copy of The
Story of the Arkansas Mintons
Single spacing is used here to
reduce the number of pages and conserve space
The Story of the
By
Silvanus Minton, the earliest authenticated progenitor of most of the Mintons of Arkansas, grew up in a Quaker family on a farm located on Padgett’s Creek in the southern part of Union County, S.C.[1] According to his Bible record now in possession of Dennis C. Minton, his great great grandson,[2] he was born August 27, 1791, but he gives no information about his parentage, nor is there any record about his early life. He was given a good education, for his time, as indicated by the quality of handwriting in this record[3] and by other evidences that will appear later. The best that can be surmised from the records is that he was born out of wedlock, as will be shown later, to one of the daughters of Thomas and Hannah Minton,[4] (probably Rebeccah) who came to this section of South Carolina sometime before 1774 (probably not long before, as we shall see later) and bought a farm on Padgett’s Creek from Richard Kelly in that year.[5]
He married
Mary Morris on April 8, 1813, four and a half months before his twenty-second
birthday, according to his record, and three days after Mary’s twenty-fifty
birthday. She was born April 11,
1788. Although nothing is given about
where she was born or under what circumstances the courtship developed, it is
almost certain that she was a native of the same area[6] and
that the Padgett’s
The
Silvanus record shows the date of this marriage as April 8, 1813, and the date
of their first-born (Reuben) is given as May 11, 1814. Silvanus and Mary very likely stayed on the
old farm, with his mother, his grandmother, and Uncle Joseph until they sold
out and left
The best farmland was found in the valleys of the creeks and rivers but since the area was subject to heavy convectional thunderstorms in summer, these streams were subject to flash flooding. Ramsay (op.cit.) describes the settlements as located about these valleys on the slopes bordering them but adjacent to their main farms in the valleys, the flash floods notwithstanding, evidently because the floods were damaging to home buildings and livestock but usually did not last long enough to destroy a crop.
Thus Silvanus chose a farm on Millwee Creek with his cousin Thomas[16]. As stated above, “little attention was paid to boundary lines” by the early settlers. In fact, most of them chose their farms according to the quality of the soil to grow corn and not according to prior ownership. Many farmers settled on Indian lands as squatters even before treaties were signed,[17] although the Quakers were careful to abide by their tenets guided by legalization of their land occupancies. Silvanus evidently was so guided by his Quaker background.
Here on Millwee Creek, he came in contact with another Baptist church, Old Lebanon Baptist Church, located about three miles southeast of the present town of Pendleton. Although, as stated, the exact site of the farm cannot be determined,[18] he doubtless lived within a mile or two of this church. Moreover, his co-owner of the farm, Thomas Minton, probably attended it, and could have been a member.[19] At any rate, Silvanus became associated with this Church group quite early after his arrival and probably first became identified as a Baptist here. In June of 1824 he was elected clerk of this church and held this position until his ordination as a minister ten years later. In 1834 he was the clerk of this church and recorded his ordination in the Church Minutes. And he cites: “The Church received by letter David Rainwater and granted a letter of dismiss ion to Eliminah Brock.”[20] He also states that the church received into its membership “a black sister, Hannah” who had been the property of John C. Calhoun. She joined by letter. Later in this same year, Silvanus Minton was ordained to the Ministry by a presbytery consisting of Drury Hutchins, James H. Hembree and William McGee. Mr. Minton’s position as church clerk was then given to Pressley G. Cobb.
The writer of A history of the Saluda Baptist Association
states, with reference to the
In the
meantime Mary died with the birth of twins, (Silvanus Moody and Sarah Ann) in
November 1827, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the old cemetery of the
Silvanus did not wait long for his second marriage. Mary had left him with eight children ranging in age from 13 (Reuben) to infants (the twins). On February 12, 1828, he married Janie Qualls,[23] and less than a year later (January 6) she was the mother of the first of ten children (Joseph Alphred) and two years later had twins, Martha Miles and Harriet Good.
In 1835 a schism seemed to be growing in the
Silvanus
very likely did not relish involvement in such a dissension and began seeking a
means of escape. He found it in the
opening of new lands in
Reuben is
listed in 1840, along with his father and brother John, in
As was the
case in the earlier settlement in the
Regardless of the date of the Minton migration, it is certain that they lived for several years as squatters on Indian lands. Not until the Government Land Office was moved into the area is there any record of land purchases by settlers.29 As stated above, Silvanus and John bought their lands, sections 10 and 15, Township 12, Range 11, from the state after 1840. John bought section 15 in 1846 and Silvanus bought section 10 in 1848,30 and yet there is no question but that they both lived on these lands ever since they came to the state.
The sites of these farms cannot be definitely located because the deeds simply give the locations of the entire tracts.31 There are no inhabitants on these tracts today (1974) but, as shown by these Topographic Sheets, there is a railroad and a gravel road passing through the two sections following the valley of Hurricane Creek. The most likely locations are the southern part of section 10 as the home of Silvanus and the northern part of section 15 as the home of John. Neither probably had more than 20 acres of cleared land and John probably had less because he was a tanner by trade and spent much of his time in the pursuit of this occupation. No doubt his trade had much to do in the selection of his home site near a permanently flowing stream because of its requirement of an abundant supply of clear, near mineral-free, water. Reuben probably lived two or three miles to the west in the Pleasant Gap Community.
There were
other settlers living along this creek, both above and below the Mintons32 and Silvanus wasted no time in making
a survey of the possibility of the establishment of a Baptist Church. He not only found enough interest to justify
the effort but it extended beyond such effort to the formation of an
association of churches. He was the
prime mover in the organization of the
The next
hear he took part in the organization of Bethlehem Church, also in Benton
County, assisted by W. Wilson and E. Berry, “and united with the Association in
September following; their number of members was then 27: they have increased since to 91.”34
Also he took part, with Hugh Quin, in the organization of the
The Census
of 1850 shows Silvanus, John, and Reuben, all three, in
Thus it is
clear that Silvanus and his two sons, Reuben and John were in
The Census
of 1860 shows Silvanus and Reuben still in
Francis
Marion, seventh born of Silvanus and Janie, counting the twins as separate
births, is also shown in the 1860 census as head of a family and living in the
same County. He is shown as 19 and his
wife, Mary, 19, both born in
The Census
of 1860 shows four Mintons living in
It is to be
remembered that Silvanus and his sons Reuben and John lived very near the
southern border of
What led to
the trek to
Several
factors played a part in this movement.
In the first place, as stated on p. 5, the urge to find new farmlands to
replace the eroded lands of the hill countries of the older settled states was
ever present among the farmers of these sections. Naturally, the incentive was to find good
farmland at a low cost. Consequently as
new lands were opened for settlement the trek began and continued until there
was no more new land to open. The
opening of new lands acquired from the Indians in both
A second
factor was the reputation of the state, or area, given it by these first
settlers who sent glowing reports back to their friends and relatives about the
“land of milk and honey”.42 Since these early settlers were mainly
subsistence farmers and since corn was the staple subsistence crop, the
emigrants were concerned chiefly with the prospects of growing corn in the new
lands. (See p. 6)
They had learned from experience in the rolling lands of the Piedmont in
the Carolinas,
A third factor was simply the love of adventure – the Daniel Boone type of individual who loved the freedom of a pioneer and the challenge of the unconquered wilderness. Other factors included personal reasons such as escape from paying taxes, fugitive from justice or simply because of an altercation or quarrel with a neighbor or relative.
And finally
the spread of slavery in the South caused disagreements among the people on
religious or other grounds. Especially
was this true of the Quakers who bitterly opposed the institution of slavery.43
The dissension over this question brewed in the South for several years
and with the election of
Silvanus
and his family were living in
In February
1861 Burl and Martha’s first child Victoria was born at Old Austin and died
there in November 1862. She is buried at
the
Another
byline incident to the war is told by the widow of Sidney Albert Minton, the
son of Sylvanus Burl. Martha Jane, wife
of Sylvanus Burl, and her sister-in-law Emily, daughter of John Morris and
Nancy Rainwater, both continued to live at Old Austin during the war and had
their homes raided by Union bushwhackers and robbed of nearly everything they
had of value. They followed the soldiers
on foot to Union headquarters in
At the
close of the war both Sylvanus Burl and his brother Sidney Allen came back to
their home in Old Austin and made plans soon thereafter to move farther west in
Prairie County. Their Uncle Billy and
Aunt Rebeccah (Becky) Hendricks had made the move to Arkansas earlier, as cited
above, and had settled in Old Austin, evidently as squatters, or renters, as no
records have been found of their purchase of land in the area.51
Apparently, sometime before May, 1866, the whole Minton flock moved to a
new location about twenty miles southeast of
The oldest
land record of a Minton in
The next land entry of a Minton in the county records is a Deed of Trust made by Minton and Hendricks to David Gates, a known credit merchant in Des Arc, and dated July 12, 1872. The makers of this mortgage were evidently John Morris and Billy Hendricks, since they were brothers-in-law, and the location was undoubtedly in section 33 because John Morris and his son Sylvanus Burl gave a mortgage to the same merchant “on J.M.’s land” in this same section dated May 9, 1874 and again in 1875.
Sylvanus Burl and Sidney Allen, sons of John Morris and Nancy Rainwater, made a Deed of Trust five days later on a farm – probably a part of the same farm or on an adjoining farm, to the same merchant (Bk G p. 164). These Deeds of Trust, or Mortgages, were usually made in the spring for supplies for making the next crop. From these records it seems that all the Mintons and Hendricks came to this area before July, 1866, or at least John Morris and his sons must have done so, as stated in footnote 51a. Sylvanus Burl’s oldest son, Jesse Morris, the father of the writer, was born here on May 18, 1866.
They may have failed to buy land immediately upon their arrival or had the records of earlier purchases destroyed in the courthouse fire. More likely they rented land from the time of their arrival until their next move a few miles to the east. When they bought their lands in section 33 they either bought the lands on which they were living or other lands in the same vicinity.53 Whatever the location, they lived here until the fall of 1875 or the spring of 1876 when Sylvanus Burl bought a quarter section of land (NW 4 Sec 30 T3N R5W) four miles east and one and a half miles north of the Barrettsville site.54
Thus the
story of the movement to
In the
meantime, three half brothers of John Morris and Rebeccah Hendricks – James
Madison (Jimmy), Francis Marion (Frank), and Edward Priestly (Priest) – sons of
Silvanus and Janie Qualls, had moved from
This group,
however, was not completely estranged from their relatives in
Apparently
Hamp continued to live on this farm until his removal to
There is a
difference here in the account by Williams in his statement of the relationship
of Hamp Minton to Frank. He says: “Hamp Minton, who resides four miles west of
this city (1930) is a son of Frank.”
(this is not true, as shown above p. 26) Francis Marion and James
Madison are both listed in the 1880 Census in
David
Hampton as stated above, came to
A problem
is found in lack of records for Joseph Alphred.
His name is not found in the Census records of 1860 as a head of a
household in Cherokee County Alabama nor in Prairie or
Sarah Matilda, the last child of
Silvanus and Janie, born February 1849, came to
To recapitulate on the coming of the children of
Silvanus Minton to
The final act in the migration is attested by three corroborating testimonies. One is the article in the Hazen Newspaper by Naomi Hendricks McCuin, the granddaughter of Silvanus. This article is given here in its entirely.
The second
is the History of Center Point Baptist Church by D. B. Scott who was a member
of that church for 56 years (as of 1948), senior member of the Board of Deacons
and Church Clerk for 15 years. He
says: “The preponderance of testimony
seemed to be that it (the church) was organized by Elder William Patterson. .
.assisted by Sylvanus Minton and Dr. Gilbert of Carlisle, Arkansas. . .and as
the testimony of no two witnesses agreed in their entirety, we fix the date of
the Church’s organization at about AD 1877.”62 Finally the Census report of 1880 for
Why was he
not buried in the cemetery of this old church?
Probably for two reasons: One was
the fact that his funeral was arranged by his son John Morris and grandsons
Burl and Sidney who were members of the Mount Pleasant Primitive Baptist
Church, established in 1871, whereas the Center Point Church was established in
1877 and may not have had its cemetery under way yet as the church was probably
not fixed in its new site or had not started its cemetery.63
Moreover, the Mintons of the
Now a word
about the division of the Mintons into two religious groups, Missionary Baptists
and Primitive Baptists: When John Morris
(Minton) and his two sons, Sylvanus Burl and Sidney Allen, moved from Old
Austin to near Barrettsville they found themselves relatively near two existing
churches, both to the west of them. One
was Walter’s Chapel, a Missionary Baptist, three miles west and three miles
north of their home site in Section 33, and a
So we now
leave Silvanus to rest in peace in the
It is the
firm conviction of this writer that Silvanus was born out of wedlock to one of
Thomas Minton’s daughters; either Margaret or Rebecca, probably the
latter. This conclusion is arrived at by
the following facts: First is his Bible
record which he kept himself, still extant, and in possession of his great
grandson, Frank Minton, of
In the
second place, all the early records in which he is named show that he was a
member of the Thomas Minton family of Union District (County)
The father-son relationship is also shown by the will of Thomas Minton3 in which he names his two surviving sons, Richard and Joseph, as sharing equally in the division of land of his “plantation.” Incidentally, Richard was disowned by his father on March 25, 1786, evidently for marrying “out of unity” with the Quaker faith to which Thomas Minton, Sr. belonged.4 But Joseph remained loyal to the faith and was rewarded by being designated in the will as guardian for his mother.
In the
third place, the Census reports indicate that Silvanus grew up under the care
of Hannah the widow of Thomas Minton.
When the first census was taken (1790) it shows Thomas as the head of a
family consisting of two males over 16 (himself and his son Joseph, who was 22 at
about the time the census was taken) and seven females. The older son, Richard was married and
disowned. Since there were nine girls in
the family, three of them evidently were married, because the seven females include
Hannah, the mother of the family. Four
of the girls, Rebeccah, Elizabeth (Betty), Parthenia and Rachel were still at
home as indicated by the time they were disowned, assuming that they were
disowned shortly after their marriage (see document 1) which occurred after
1790. The three girls that were married
at this time were probably
The first
daughter Hannah, who was approaching her 28th birthday when the
first census was taken, was evidently afflicted. She is named in the will of her father as
recipient of an annual legacy of 12 ½ Pounds
The 1810 Census shows Hannah, the mother, still living in Union District as the head of a family, consisting of one male over 16 and under 26 (Silvanus was 18), one female under 45, his mother, and one female over 45, herself. Margaret was then 37. The fact that she was not married lends support to the possibility of being his mother. Other evidence, however, indicates that Rebeccah could be the mother of Silvanus. She was the next younger daughter who probably was born in 1775. Her age would fit the age bracket of the Census reports. If she be the mother she could have been disowned in February, 1792 for the act of having an illegitimate child in August, 1791. The reason for her disownment is not given whereas Margaret was not disowned. She was old enough to be his mother, as she lacked only one day of being 16 years and 7 months of age at the birth of Silvanus, or 15 years and 10 months at time of conception. The possibility of Rebecca being his mother is strengthened by the fact that Silvanus named his first daughter Rebecca.
Finally, there is a tradition among the older members of the tribe of Silvanus Minton that he was a “foundling”. The writer has heard it stated from his father, also from his aunt Bertie Minton.
Silvanus,
therefore, was a grandson of Thomas Minton, who came to
Whence did they come and why? No definite answer to this question has been found but their Quaker affiliation provides some plausible hypotheses.
Quakerism
arose in
In
This same
writer states that shipmasters were “fined 500 pounds of tobacco for bringing
in Quakers to reside and must take them out again on the next voyage.” To escape the penalty of this law the
shipmasters did not include the names of Quakers in the list of passengers, a
practice that makes it extremely difficult to trace a family lineage through
Quaker ancestors from European countries.
It may be noted that the penalties assessed against them were largely
directed at individual violators in
The Atlas
of the Historical Geography of the United States shows the location of 310
Friends Churches in 1773-1776, thirty in North Carolina, (seven in the region
north of Albemarle Sound and east of the Chowan River), eight in South Carolina
(two in the coastal area near Charleston, two on the North Carolina border and
three in the upper Piedmont), three in Georgia near the South Carolina border
between Atlanta and Greenville, thirty-four in Virginia (twelve along the Upper
Potomac, the rest in the Shenandoah Valley and the southeast counties near the
North Carolina line). The rest of the
310 churches are scattered in all states to southern
Hinshaw
states in Vol. I that the first Quaker centers in
In a book
by Rufus M. Jones, The Quakers in the American Colonies, is a map at the
end of the book which shows Quaker localities in
Again,
referring to Hinshaw Vol. VI, prior to 1771 there were 41 names of Quakers in
In a Compendium
of American Genealogy Vol. VI, First Families of
In
Another
possibility is that they came directly from
The
One of the attractions to South Carolina for the Quakers was the fact that a complaint had been made in 1663 by Sir John Carleton to the Lords Proprietors in the Colony stating: “Settlers would not come (to Carolina) without an assurance of liberty of conscience.” This request soon brought a response from the proprietors and religious freedom was granted to all settlers.16
Another
attraction of the colony to the Quakers was the more or less special favor
given them in the latter part of the seventeenth century. By 1690 there were quite a few Quakers in the
colony and one of them, John Archdale, was appointed governor of the colony in
1694 and served for two years. He was
liberal with the Quakers and actually encouraged their coming. By 1706 the number of Quakers and
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had grown to the point of offering strong opposition
to the action of the controlling political group – the members of the Church of
England – in the passage of an act making the Church of England the Established
Religion of the Colony. This opposition
was strengthened by a rebellion of frontier settlers against the failure of the
state leaders to provide protection to them from the Indians. The result was that the ruling group of
proprietors was overthrown and the colony brought under direct royal
control. James Moore, a leader in the
rebellion, was elected the first governor of the royal colony. As a royal colony, however, the political
rise of the Quakers was soon ended. The
British Parliament passed an act requiring all persons holding public office to
take an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne.
The Quakers being opposed to the taking of an oath in any form were soon
thrown out of office.17 But by 1725 the liberal treatment of Quakers
was returned to the Colony, which led to the coming of still larger numbers,
and for the next fifty years “there was a constant flow of Quakers from
Nearly all of these early settlers were farmers, though some of them called themselves craftsmen. However, there was little opportunity for them to ply their trades until towns and villages came into being.19 As farmers, therefore, these settlers were concerned primarily with conditions affecting the success of farming. Particularly were they concerned with the type of soil (see p. 5) As stated on page 15, corn was the main subsistence crop in the entire area. The reason for this was the fact that corn was the near ideal crop for the subsistence farmer. It was not equal to wheat as breadstuff because it was lower in vitamins and protein but when supplemented with pork, potatoes and field peas, which were common to practically all the early farmers of the South, it provided a near-balanced diet. Moreover, corn was well adapted to a variety of soils, especially forested soils, and could be grown with a minimum of cultivation. It was the universal crop on “new ground” because its rapid growth enabled it to compete with weeds and bushes for the first two or three years of cultivation. And it could be given an early start because of its ability to stand the spells of cold weather, which frequent the springtime.
Another advantage of the crop was its versatility in the way it could be prepared for the table. It could be eaten as “roasting ears”20 as soon as the grains were near maturity and when the grain became too hard for roasting; it could be grated on a homemade grater to make grits. After it was fully matured and dried it could be ground into meal on a gristmill from which “corn pone” and “hush Puppies” were made. By soaking the dried grain in lye-water, made from wood ashes, the husks were removed to make hominy. Finally it often yielded more food than could be consumed by the family which surplus could be converted to whiskey (squeezins) in homemade stills and carried out in bottles or earthenware jugs.
It is very likely that Richard Minton and his son Thomas had heard of the advantages of the Piedmont region for subsistence farming and its disadvantages for plantation agriculture, which was largely dependent on slave labor. Because of these advantages many farmers were attracted to this region as soon as it was opened up for settlement.
This area
in
The
dividing line between the
In J. P.
Brown’s Old Frontiers, he states:
“by treaty with the Cherokees in October, 1768 at Hard Labour South
Assuming
that Thomas and his father, Richard, came to
This leaves
the third source as the most likely region from which they came directly to
All other
Virginia Mintons, of which we have records, are listed as living in the
southeastern part of the state. Mills
Minton listed in
In
We have no
information as to whether any of these Mintons were Quakers. Hinshaw does not list them with any Quaker
meeting in
The name
Thomas Minton in
The treaty
between the Cherokee Indians and the state of
As noted above, these non-slaveholding settlers were attracted to the new lands not only by the treaty, but by the quality of the soil for growing corn and by the low cost of ownership.31 However, in spite of the low cost of obtaining land, many of these early settlers were squatters and were little concerned with legal titles to the land. They were the real pioneers who were ever pushing the frontier farther westward and who were chiefly responsible for the conflicts with the Indians. They were also responsible for the pressure placed upon the territorial government for their protection against these Indians.
It will be noted from the map p. , that there are many streams crossing this area from northwest to southeast. These streams have an average gradient of about five feet per mile, which, with a rainfall of about fifty inches per year with the maximum in summer has resulted in heavy erosion of the entire area. Moreover, the soils are composed of sand and clay loams with a heavy red clay subsoil (forested pedalfers), which are easily eroded. Thus the streams have cut rather deep valleys across the land but have built up flats in many parts of their courses, which provide some of the best farmland of the region. Some of these “bottom-lands” were so high in clay content that they were swampy and could not be used for crops without artificial drainage. Moreover the streams were subject to frequent overflows, which often destroyed crops and necessitated the farmsteads to be built on bordering uplands (See p. 5). Many early settlers chose their farmlands so as to have access to both uplands and bottomlands for crops, especially along the smaller streams where poor drainage and overflows were less of a problem. This relationship is clearly shown by the road pattern on the early maps of the time. The roads tended to stay on the higher ground of the interfluves, as much as possible, paralleling the stream courses to the narrowest or otherwise most suitable crossing places on the streams where they then turned straight across the valley.32
Thus the
opportunities for subsistence farming in this Piedmont region were
exceptionally good. Moreover, these
rolling uplands with their many narrow interfluves practically shut out
plantation agriculture with its attendant institution of slavery. For instance,
It thus seems most likely from the available evidence that Thomas Minton and his father, Richard, came to Union County, either directly from England or Ireland, by way of Barbados, or from northeast North Carolina or southeast Virginia where it is known that a number of Quakers lived for many years prior to their appearance in South Carolina and where it is known that a number of Mintons lived at the time.
Thus endeth this story of the Mintons. Perhaps it may stimulate further research into the origin of this tribe. For the sake of the interest that progeny may have in a more complete genealogy of the family, let us hope it will do so.
[1] See Maps #1 and 2 and documents 7 and 8. The exact site has not been located.
[2]
[3] Document #1
[4]
Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol. I p. 1022, gives the
members of the Thos Minton family in the Bush River Monthly Meeting of Friends,
[5] See document #8
[6]
Claude E. Sparks lives in the same area at this time (1974) and has done
extensive research on the history of the county. He says in a letter to the writer dated
October 9, 1973, “There are still some members of the Morris families living in
[7] Picture #1. The writer has visited this church and the large adjoining cemetery three times and has searched for the names Minton and Morris on grave markers. None was found for either name. Claude Sparks has written a history of this church and has compiled extensive lists of members, but he does not show a Minton or a Morris as a member.
[8]
See Figure 7, copied from the
[9] Picture of the marker on the site of the old cemetery.
[10] Richard Minton, one of the two sons of Thomas Minton family in which Silvanus grew up, had already moved to this area. His marriage, doubtless, occurred shortly before he was disowned and the move was made sometime thereafter as we have record of the sale of forty acres by him in Pendleton District dated July 4,1803 (Doc 5). Richard died probably in 1810 or 1811 as shown by the sale of “that tract of land situate in Union District on the waters of Padgetts Creek” by his heirs dated November 22,1811 (Doc 10). This tract is a part of the original Thomas Minton “plantation” which Richard inherited from his father and evidently continued to hold until his death. He probably settled on a farm in the vicinity of Millwee Creek when he first came to Pendleton District, and may have been a renter or a squatter, as no record has been found of his purchase of land in the area.
[11] See Document 11.
[12] This Thomas was undoubtedly the son of Richard, who was the older son of Thomas Sr. and was disowned for marrying out of unity. Circumstantial evidence indicates that Thomas was the first son of Richard born ca 1787 and named for his grandfather. He was therefore about four years older than Silvanus, his first cousin.
[13] Apparently there were two treaties covering this area in the northwest part of the state. One was signed with the Cherokees in 1768, the other in 1786 or ’87.
[14]
Slavery was far more prevalent in the “low country,” the coastal plain, than in
the
[15]
Ramsay, David. History of
[16] The exact site is not definitely located. Millwee Creek is shown on the map to be about four miles long and empties into Twenty Three Mile Creek. Naturally the largest acreage of good farmland is found in the lower part of the valley near its confluence, but observation of the writer reveals a considerable area of farmland being used today some two miles from the confluence. This area could be the site of the Minton farm.
[17] This accounts for the absence of deed-records for the early years.
[18]
The writer tried to get the location from a plot book in the Archives in
[19]
The church is still operating but at a site some four miles east. According to a History of the Lebanon
Baptist Church by Richardson, Breazeale, McMurtrey, and Williams, it was
organized in 1815 but was abandoned in 1860 for the new site. In 1861 the building “was sold and the
proceeds earmarked for maintenance of the old cemetery”. 1969 Directory of
[20]
T. H. Garrett, A History of
[21]
Ibid
[22] The writer has visited this old cemetery three times and has made a thorough check of the grave markers there, many of which are badly broken, and has failed to find a marker for Mary. See picture.
[23] Op cit.
[24] According to the history cited in footnote 21, a minority of church members refused to go along with the majority group to a new site and continued to meet in the old church for several years, but the break made it impossible for the old group to have a regular pastor and the membership gradually declined until all further church services had to be given up.
[25] Cherokee County History by Mrs. Frank Ross Stewart, Vol. 1, p. 51 states: “After 1830 settlers flocked to the new wild Cherokee Country.”
[26] Ibid. p. 43
[27]
By the Treaty the Cherokees relinquished their claim to all lands east of the
28a It is
hard to reconcile this date with that given above about his relationship with
the
28b Stewart op cit. p. 181
28c personal interview
29 Mrs.
Stewart states that the Land Office was moved in April 1842 from Mardisville to
30 Ibid. p. 139
31 See document 12.
32 Personal
interview with Frank Minton,
33 From a
copy of the Record of the Tallassehatchie Baptist Association Meetings
in possession of
Frank Minton of
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 According to the Association record, there were 18 preachers who were called upon to give the sermon at the annual meeting during this period. Silvanus was the first and was again called upon to give the sermon in 1857 at which time he was elected to serve as moderator for the following year. His last sermon to the Association was given in 1867. S. Witt gave the Association sermon six times and W.M. Wilson gave it four times. Both also served as moderators during the period.
37 We are
assuming that they all moved to Alabama at about the same time and it could be
that they made the move before his ordination and that he went back to his home
church for the service, since there was no church convenient to his location in
Alabama to which he could even move his membership. He helped to found the
38 James was most likely a nephew, but we don’t know as there is no record to indicate his parentage. The name suggests his being a grandson of Silvanus and Janie.
39
40 Minnie’s age could be given as 65. The writing of the Census record is dim and hard to read – of course they could be man and wife at the ages given, possibly second marriage for both.
41
42 Fred
Allsop, in his book, Folklore of
43 As has been stated, Silvanus grew up in a Quaker family and, although he never became a member of the faith, it was inevitable that he was impressed by many of the tenets of the faith.
44 This period is exhaustively covered by Dallas T. Herndon in his three-volume Centennial History of Arkansas, copies of which are found almost universally in the libraries of the state and in the libraries of universities throughout the nation.
45 The date
of their arrival in
45a Because
46 The
method by which he came cannot be determined because of the lack of records but
most likely came by train to
47 This was
before the coming of the Missouri Pacific Railroad which missed old
47a
48 The 1860
Census shows Silvanus and Reuben as living in
49 This area
is in the foothills of the
50 As told in an interview with Mrs. Bertie Minton, widow of Sidney A. Minton and daughter-in-law of Sylvanus Burl. She is an aunt of the writer.
51 The
marriage date of William (Billy) Hendricks and Rebeccah Minton cannot be
found. The census of 1860 shows them
living in
51a Jesse Morris, son of Sylvanus Burl, and father of the writer, was born in this new location 5-18-’66.
52 The
county seat of
53 The mortgage does not give the location of the Barrettsville land other than the section (33) and the date is given as July 17, 1872. Nor is there any record to be found of the sale of these lands.
54 The last mortgage on land in Section 33 by S.B. and S.A. Minton is dated February 22, 1875, and the next one is dated August 24, 1876, given on the new site of Sec. 30, TeN R5W.
55 Andrew J. (9) b 1851, Benjamin F. (7) b. 1853, Rebeccah (5) b. 1855, Naomi, or Naoma, (5/12) b. 1860.
56 Arkansas
Pension records in the Archives of the Arkansas History Commission in
57 Harry Lee
Williams published A History of Craighead County in 1930. On p.
495 he says “Frank Minton (Francis Marion) and brother, Reverend E.P.
(Edward Priestly) came to
58 The 1870
Census lists him as 36, his wife Susan as 30, their children as Sarah 12, John
10, William 5, and Albert 2. The last is
given as born in
59 According
to the 1870 Census, William and Rebeccah Hendrix were in
Leo Rogers,
the youngest son of Tom and Rebecca (Hendricks)
60 A Joseph
Minton, doubtless Joseph Alphred, 31, and wife Ann are listed in the 1860
Census in
61 The
Census for
62 The Organization and Subsequent History of the Center Point Baptist Church, Hazen, Prairie County, Arkansas, by Dalton B. Scott.
63 Scott says: “it was organized in a log school house on the southeast corner of what was then known as the R. N. Sparks place”. He doesn’t say anything about when it was moved to its present site, but it must have been a few years later.
64 A tornado swept across the cemetery in 1927 and blew over many of the markers. Some of them were broken. In replacing the markers some of them were misplaced.
64a More
likely, Janie went back to
65 These
churches were located in what is now
66 Primitive Baptists, along with a few other sects, refer to their preachers as Elders, never as Reverend, or Parson. There are many passages of Scripture which they cite as authority for use of the term, particularly Acts 20 and Titus 1.
67 Obituary
of Sylvanus Burl in the Primitive Baptist publication Signs of the Times,
Oct. issue 1918, printed in
1 See document 8.
2 See document 6.
3 See document 2.
4 See document 1. The grounds on which a member of a Quaker family is disowned, as stated in The Rules of Discipline of the yearly Meeting of Friends, 1825, p. 41 states: “It is the sense of this meeting that if any member do join in marriage with such as are not in membership with us, or in any other way than with the consent and approbation of the monthly meeting, they should be dealt with agreeably to our discipline, and if not brought to the sense of their error, disowned.” Thus, Rebecca, the mother of Silvanus could have been disowned under this rule. She was disowned less than sex months after Silvanus was born.
5 See document 3. On this deed appear the names of Nathan Cooper, Sarah Cooper and Rebeccah Minton. Sarah is evidently the wife of Nathan Cooper and the sister of Rebeccah and Richard, the grantee. Yet there is no Sarah listed by Hinshaw as a daughter of Thomas and Hannah. This could be the second Hannah who was 19 when this deed was signed.
6 Document 6.
6a Hinshaw does not give the year of her birth but lists her between Margaret b Dec. 28, 1772 and Betty b Oct. 13, 1777.
7 Documents 4 and 6.
8 Document 4
9 See photo.
10 The
history of Quakerism in
11 See holder, Charles F., The Quakers in Great Britain and America, pp. 341-396.
12
13 Kershaw,
Newberry and
14 Encyclopedia Britannica, 13th Ed.
15 Ibid
16 C. F.
Holder. The Quakers in
17 Jones, R.M. The Quakers in the Colonies, p. 351.
18 Holder, C. F. op cit. p. 542
19 See
Merrens, Colonial
20 The origin of the term is believed to be traced to Indian custom
21 This date
marks the time of a treaty signed by Governor Glen of
22 The old
fort of Ninety Six was located at the site of the present town of
23 Holeman, op. cit.
24 Ibid
25
26 Jones, The Quakers in the American Colonies, p. 307.
27 Hinshaw,
Vol. I. The boundary line between
28
29 Hinshaw, Vol. I.
30 Ramsey,
David, History of
31 See p. 4
32 These crossings were by fords or ferries form any years during this period. Bridges did not come until many years later when the passage of road laws by the states for the construction and maintenance of roads became a reality.
33 Wallace,
The History of